The Barnes Foundation is continuing its work of being a local bastion of the arts by bringing people together. The institution recently tied cinema and fine arts together with their ongoing Henri Rousseau Film series. Rousseau himself was a surrealist painter, and his work carries a distinctive, whimsical allure across his work.
This selection of screenings for the series have been carefully curated by Blackstar Film Festival Founder, Maori Karmel Holmes. Some of the movies featured so far have been Luis Buñuel’s “Un Chien andalou” and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Sakda (Rousseau)”.
On Dec. 13th, the film series presented Weerasethakul’s “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall Past Lives” in its pursuit of exploring how Rousseau’s work intersects with and has expanded global cinema. The movie depicts a surrealistic Thailand countryside full of spirits where Farmer Boonmee rests on his deathbed in the care of his long-lost son and the ghost of his wife.
From that premise, the film rolls at a steady pace that invites the audience to further sit with each moment of stillness and reflection as opposed to narrative urgency. This style is immediately telling from the film’s opening, where an ominous red-eyed “monkey spirit” mulls about with the wildlife and leaves viewers to wonder about its ominous nature. Later moments such as the sudden appearance of Boonmee’s wife as a ghost at a quaint dinner or the seemingly detached folktale-like sequence of a princess meeting a catfish spirit are further instances of this approach. In the aforementioned dinner, viewers are also introduced to Boonme’s son who fell in love with and mysteriously turned into a monkey spirit.
Shot entirely in film, as opposed to digital, the movie beautifully sets the scene to explore themes of reincarnation, guilt, desire, and memory as the film follows Boonmee, his family, and the countryside in his last moments. By the end, Boonmee is taken to a cave that he believes is the birthplace of his first life where he dies peacefully, and viewers have to sit with the same longing grief the family experiences over the next few days.
Weerasethakul’s landscapes and unreal scenery are at the core of the similarities to Rousseau’s paintings. Figures emerge from foliage, spirits coexist with wildlife, and the environment itself. Many of Rousseau’s paintings feel calm and innocent at first glance, though they often depict a subtle threat, capturing both the innocence and menace of a deep jungle.
Despite never visiting a jungle, Rousseau’s forest depictions are what he is known for; his work treats the natural world with a deep allure, fear, and dreamy quality. It is with this film that Rousseau’s paintings and other surrealist works of art where questions about what the world might contain can be represented with such awe.
