REVIEWS


Mekong Hotel Reviewed by Fionnuala Halligan


Apichatpong Weerasethakul returns to Cannes after the triumph of Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall Past Lives with Mekong Hotel, a typically enigmatic and mysterious rumination. Lasting only 60 min- utes (a good sixth of which is an entrancing long- shot of the engorged Mekong River at dusk), Mekong Hotel was commissioned for the ARTE France programming strand La Lucerne while Weerasethakul apparently prepares another, larger project in the same area. Economically weaving around the terrace and


bedroom of a hotel perched on the river looking over into Laos, Mekong Hotel starts with rehearsals for a project Weerasethakul wrote several years ago called ‘Ecstasy Garden’, but context quickly becomes irrelevant as the film ebbs and flows between reality, fiction and the supernatural. Last year’s floods in Thailand become part of the illusion as the mighty Mekong rises and falls as a backdrop and eventual principal player in the piece. Some elements are reassuringly familiar for the


director’s fans: Weerasethakul continues his rela- tionship with Syndromes And A Century and Uncle Boonmee actress Jenjira Pongpas, who plays herself — and relates her own memories of armed conflict in the region as Communist Laos shut itself down in the 1960s and ’70s. She is also the (self-loathing) vampire-like mother of a young girl, who gorges on entrails and inhabits other bodies (a Pob ghost, we


[•REC³] Genesis Reviewed by KimNewman


Co-directed by Paco Plaza and Jaume Balaguero, [•REC] in 2007 was an early entry in the docu-look ‘found footage’ horror cycle and introduced a dis- tinctive breed of demon-possessed zombie who rank as Spain’s most significant horror franchise creation since Amando de Ossorio’s Blind Dead series of the 1970s. In addition to the US remake Quarantine and its direct-to-DVD sequel Quaran- tine 2: Terminal, [•REC] has been followed by Plaza and Balaguero’s [•REC]² and now a third entry directed solely by Plaza. In [•REC]³ Genesis, a long pre-credits sequence


returns to the found-footage style of the earlier entries, as two cameramen set out to document the elaborate wedding of an attractive young couple, Clara (Dolera) and Koldo (Martin), whose com- bined extended families move from the church to a large estate for a luxurious reception. Taking place concurrently with the events of the


first two films, the demonic infection is brought to this social gathering by Uncle Victor (Mencheta), a veterinarian bitten by the dog from the first film, whose puckish smile persists even after it becomes apparent he is not drunk but homicidally possessed. On the assumption the found-footage cycle is


exhausted, there is a ‘scenes we’d like to see’ moment as Koldo takes away and smashes the camera of an idiot who is filming the disaster, and the frame expands to a more conventional, objec- tive approach. Zombie apocalypses have not been thin on the


n 44 Screen International at Cannes May 19, 2012


SPECIALSCREENING


Thai. 2012. 60mins Director/producer/ screenplay/ cinematography Apichatpong Weerasethakul Production companies Illuminations Films, Kick The Machine Films Executive producers Simon Field, Keith Griffiths International sales The Match Factory, www. the-match-factory.com Music Chai Bhatana Main cast Jenjira Pongpas, Maiyatan Techaparn, Sakda Kaewbuadee, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Chai Bhatana, Chatchai Suban


are told). Characters move with ease between the spiritual world and their ‘real’ selves throughout. Markedly different this time, however, is the lull-


ing guitar music from Weerasethakul’s old schoolfriend Chai Bhatana, who also appears on screen. His strings mix and meld with the ambient sound of the motorbikes and tuk-tuks outside the hotel. The burnt ochres of the river and the lush greens of the jungle, coupled with the increasingly insistent repetition of Bhatana’s chords, produce a reverie, an almost meditative effect in the viewer. “Nobody questions the existence of the spirit,”


intones the narrator, and this is indeed a highly spiritual piece. With Weerasethakul taking almost all credits


(apart from sound and music) on this self- described ‘essay’, Mekong Hotel seems ultimately destined for sidebars and retrospectives, installa- tions and devotees. Its running time may make it more digestible


than some of Weerasethakul’s more ambitious pieces, though it straddles the line between full fea- ture and his short films and experimental work quite beautifully.


MARKET


Sp. 2012. 80mins Director Paco Plaza Production companies Canal+Espana, Filmax, Ono, Rec Genesis AIE, Televisio de Catalunya, TelevisionEspanola International sales Filmax International, www. filmaxinternational.com Producers Jaume Balaguero, Carlos Fernandez Executive producers Carlos Fernandez, Julio Fernandez, Alberto Marini Screenplay Paco Plaza, Luiso Berdejo Cinematography Pablo Rosso Editor David Gallart Music Mikel Salas Main cast Leticia Dolera, Diego Martin, Mireia Ros, CarlaNieto, Claire Baschet,Emilio Mencheta, Javier Botet


ground lately, either, and this takes an amiable, gruesome, jokey tack that aligns with the Evil Dead series or early Peter Jackson (and even the similarly farcical Spanish killer babe vs zombies epic Sexy- killer). The plot spine is the just-marrieds’ love for each


other in extremis and determination to get back together after they have been separated in the cri- sis, with Koldo taking medieval armour from a shrine along with the sword used to cut the wed- ding cake to become a knightly champion. Clara, meanwhile, shreds her bridal dress with a handy chainsaw (exposing a red garter) and cuts through her former friends and relations, insistent this is still her special day. There are good joke characters


— a children’s entertainer who calls himself John Sponge so as not to break copyright, a spy from the music licensing agency who has crashed the wed- ding to collect royalties — and some newish wrin- kles, such as the way the zombies’ demon-selves are seen in mirrors and their susceptibility to the word of the Lord. It is mostly familiar stuff, and finds the series


turning in on itself, going for jokes rather than sus- pense — but it is a more successful new direction than the murky [•REC]². The stunning Leticia Dolera, lately in the UK TV serial Mad Dogs, has great presence as the perfect bride and bedraggled zombie-fighter. [•REC] Apocalypse is in develop- ment.


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