10 Movies To Challenge Even The Most Hardcore Film Buff

9. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul had already clearly established his arthouse credentials back in 2004 with the release of Tropical Malady, a beautifully shot, measured exploration of burgeoning homosexuality amidst the sweltering tropical heat. Hi Palme d'Or winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives takes the languorous pacing of his earlier movies to new levels. Given that one of the central themes Weerasethakul aimed to consider with Uncle Boonmee was the possible extinction of the cinematic form itself, it's perhaps unsurprising that watching the movie leads the audience to radically question the manner in which the content is presented. Conventional narrative having been thrown out the window, we're presented with a series of stylistically different vignettes which operate on the level of the parable. Recollection, death and reincarnation are staged with a degree of mystification anticipating the broader spiritual symbolism which comes to dominate. Weerasethakul's film is often slow and frequently as meditative as the monk from whom he drew inspiration, staged in a way which sometimes recalls the otherworldly set ups in Kon Ichikawa's An Actor's Revenge. Sukhdev Sandhu described it as "barely a film, more a floating world", a summary which captures its transcendent power.