Cemetery of Splendor is the first time that I have seen a movie made in Thailand, which may have influenced my reception of it. I enjoy foreign films and films with strange premises. This film primarily focuses on a volunteer at a makeshift hospital who cares for patients struck down by a mysterious sleeping illness. Because of the historical and personal significance of the site, the volunteer and one of her patients become extremely close, and the entire experience completely leaves the volunteer speechless in her own limbo state of the past and the present, the prosaic and the supernatural.
Cemetery of Splendor is shot in a very naturalistic way. Only the lighting, which reminded me of James Turrell’s work on a smaller scale, and the premise are surreal. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the director, prefers medium and long shots showing people as part of their environment, and usually the camera is static so when the camera does pan or move in for a close up, it feels distinct, and as viewers, it feels like a shocking, emotionally potent moment. These scenes occur during the denouement of the film so despite my general dissatisfaction with the film, I can solidly affirm that the final shot is so haunting that it is still with me and leaves me with a nascent appreciation that the fault may lie with me more than the film.
If Cemetery of Splendor is subversive, it is that the main character is an older, disabled, ordinary, and still sexually available woman. While sexual interactions are mostly implied, not shown, there is no question that the main character has no problem pulling in dudes regardless of age, nationality or cultural differences, and she currently has a husband. The sexual situations that are implied and shown are disturbing because while there is no physical harm, people’s bodies are used without the person being aware of it or without consent to how the body is eventually used. It is a problematic dynamic that is played off as an amusing moment or a culmination of desire without any qualms within the story, but left me feeling troubled by the lack of consideration.
Cemetery of Splendor is purposely playing with supernatural genres to challenge emotional dramatic narratives while nothing much is transpiring within the present story. The closest American story is probably Jacob’s Ladder, Ghost or Sleeping Beauties, the book written by Stephen and Owen King, but these movies are violent and chaotic whereas this film is bucolic and friendly. It is emotionally turbulent for the main character, but even that is not immediately apparent given all her preceding interactions with other characters.
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
The make shift hospital is located at a school, which the main character attended when she was younger. There is construction going on constantly outside-a lot of digging in preparation to lay down fiber optic wires. This digging is significant because it makes her dig up the past literally. As Cemetery of Splendor unfolds, it becomes obvious that the location is also where the supernatural world, which we do not see, but the actors convince us that it is there, still plays out past conflicts of dead kingdoms and people. This thin boundary between the supernatural, ghost world and the one that we see onscreen causes the sleeping sickness, which only seems to affect men, specifically soldiers. Goddesses make appearances in the form of ordinary women. The soldiers are not always sleep, but they only have brief, unpredictable moments of waking. One of the volunteers is a medium that can communicate with the afflicted while they are asleep and acts as a bridge between the sleeping men and those who want to talk to them.
Weerasethakul is conscious that this is usually the premise for a horror film, and at one point, the volunteer and one of her patients goes to the theaters to watch a more traditional horror film. I’m actually really disappointed that Cemetery of Splendor fails to interpret the dialogue of the movie within the film. Usually directors choose to feature clips from movies that have some special significance to them personally or to the story. In this case, he distinguishes his film from cheesy horror to change the viewers’ expectations of how this story should play out.
Unfortunately a couple of moments really took me out of this strange narrative. There is a strong commercialism throughout Cemetery of Splendor that probably should have made the premise feel credible that this is our world, but it just made me feel like I was being sold Pepsi or face cream. Then at the hospital, medical techniques and the medium are validated when characters reference their relationship to the US, which destroyed any suspension of disbelief for me, but probably works if you are a viewer unfamiliar with the US. Also the deliberate pacing made it really difficult for me to stay focused on the film.
Cemetery of Splendor clearly presents a normal world in which people’s behavior is inexplicably influenced by a spiritual world inhabited by men in comas, ghosts and gods, but not in ways that we expect. It could be the choice of bench during a lunch break. When the volunteer and the patient’s spirit take a walk down memory lane, hers and the spiritual world, it is the first time that we see the volunteer in less than a cheery mood. The sense of mournfulness is a reawakening of past pain and also her inability to permanently bridge the gap between her and the patient. The final scene is disturbing because you get the sense that she is permanently awakened to this other world and her past and will never experience peace again. Her unblinking, quiet wide eyed stare at nothing suggests something more spiritually disquieting than anything that traditional horror can provide and is in stark contrast with all her previous appearances in the film. She is forever changed, and not for the better. Cemetery of Splendor makes us lower our guard then leaves us haunted and concerned when we least expect it with no sense of comfort.