| SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY (2006) : A.Weerasethakul : 6/10 |
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 Appropriately enough for a film which is structured in terms of repetition and duality, it took me two viewings to really "get" Syndromes and a Century. First time round - at an early-morning screening in Rotterdam last January - I struggled to stay awake, and resorted to dyspeptic note-taking ("it's structural clever-dickery: sloooooow, pretentious stuff, paceless. If in doubt, stick in a tracking shot around statues") as a way of keeping my eyelids open. In retrospect, I blame my reaction partly on Festival Fatigue, partly on over-heightened expectations. Because, long before Rotterdam, Syndromes had been the subject of rave reviews from many sensible critics - and had popped up at or near the head of numerous year-end top ten lists. I'd thus entered the screening expecting to be blown away by the force of an irresistible masterpiece: but Weerasethakul's approach is actually a disarmingly quiet one. The film begins as it will continue, in a mood of shimmering delicacy - a kind of trembling, self-effacing hesitancy, saved from preciousness by the streak of absurd humour that's present in nearly every scene. And while Syndromes is much more about moods and atmospheres than plot, there are narrative strands here: the film is divided into two consecutive halves, the events of one echoing the other to varying degrees. Both sections are set in hospitals - the first in the countryside, the second in the city - and begin with (female) Dr Toey (Nantarat Sawaddikul) interviewing a new recruit, (male) Dr Nohng (Jaruchai Iamaram). In each half, Toey is the object of persistent wooing by the besotted Toa, a.k.a. Chucheep (Nu Nimsomboon). The two halves of the film, however, then explore different narrative subplots. The rural section features the beginnings of a friendship - possibly a romance? - between Ple (Arkanae Cherkam), a dentist who aspires to become a professional singer, and one of his patients, Sakda (Sakda Kaewbuadee), a Buddhist monk with long-dormant DJ-ing ambitions. In the urban section, the focus gradually moves downstairs to the "military" department of the hospital, where artificial limbs are fitted, jolly doctors clandestinely sip whisky, and various methods are used to treat a young man, Off (Putthitorn Kammak), who's been the victim of carbon-monoxide poisoning. Following these strands is rather hard work thanks to writer/director Weerasethakul's fondness for extended takes, dialogue-free sequences, poetic digressions and a (commendable) desire to find new ways to tell a cinematic story. You either go with Weerasethakul's flow or you don't: and many critics have clearly been transported to ecstatic heights after surrendering themselves to Syndromes' elusive mysteries. And second time around, knowing what was in store, I found myself much more tolerant of Weerasethakul's idiosyncracies: not everything he does comes off, but at certain moments the film comes together into what seems like an entire symphony of grace-notes. At its best, the picture is a quizzically detached examination and celebration of the ineffably odd things humans do, create and inhabit - and as many film-makers have realised in the past, there's nothing quite like a hospital if you're looking for bizarre/mundane interiors and off-kilter behaviour. That said, I still prefer the two shorter works by Weerasethakul that I've seen: the giddily effervescent 40-minute video-piece Worldly Desires (2005) and the short Luminous People, from the compendium O Estado do Mundo (2007). As a film-maker, he seems in perpetual search of diaphanous epiphanies - and in both Worldly Desires and Luminous People he achieves them with a little less of the laboriousness and self-consciousness that sometimes weighs down Syndromes and a Century. Weerasethakul seems to have enjoyed something approaching creative carte blanche on this particular project ("thanks to the generosity of my producers, who never objected, I had the freedom to build it bit by but, day by day," he told Sight and Sound) and the result is filled with references to his own personal and family mythology, a pattern which only the director himself is likely to see or comprehend. And, with the prominence of the Buddhist monks and the copious talk of reincarnation, it seems likely that there's a lot about this film which will make sense only to viewers fully conversant with Thai culture (sadly ironic, then, that the national government's ham-fisted attempts at censorship led to the film being effectively banned in the country. For the rest of us, Syndromes and a Century is an intriguing enigma - alluring in its structure and the way it unfolds, even if it never quite manages to come into proper focus. Neil Young 6.Jan.08 -------------------------------------------------------------------- แสงศตวรรษ Sang sattawat saeng satawăːt ("Light of the Century") Thailand/Fr/Aut 106m (BBFC timing) director : Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Tropical Malady, Blissfully Yours, Mysterious Object At Noon) editor : Lee Chatametikool (Midnight My Love, Shutter, Tropical Malady, etc) seen 5.Jan.08 Gateshead (Tyneside Cinema : £6.50) also 2.Jan.07 Rotterdam (Rotterdam Film Festival) - rated 3?/10 --- original festival report --- --- review for Tribune --- |
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