Cemetery of Splendor (2016)
79%RT Audience Score: 60%
Awards & Nominations: NA
Cemetery of Splendor gracefully eludes efforts to pin down its meaning while offering patient viewers another gently hypnotic wonder from writer/director Apichatpong Weerasethakul
If you’re looking for a movie that will make you feel like you’re in a dream, Cemetery of Splendor is the one for you. Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul creates a world that’s both familiar and otherworldly, with a meditative pace that draws you in. You might not understand everything that’s happening, but that’s part of the charm. It’s like being in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language, but you’re still able to appreciate the beauty around you. Plus, there’s a sequence with lights that’s just mesmerizing. Don’t miss out on this hypnotic film.
Production Company(ies)
Distributor
Strand Releasing
Release Type
Filming Location(s)
Khon Khaen, Thailand
MPAA / Certificate
Unrated
Year of Release
2015
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby Surround 7.1
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:2h 2m
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Language(s):Thai, English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Mar 4, 2016 Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 28, 2016
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
Cemetery of Splendor, drama, Thai, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Charles de Meaux, Simon Field, Hans W Geissendörfer, Keith Griffiths, Jenjira Pongpas, Banlop Lomnoi, Jarinpattra Rueangram, Petcharat Chaiburi, Sakda Kaewbuadee, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, written by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Strand Releasing, $51.8K box office, MPAA rating, reviewed by Nigel Andrews, Kate Muir, Tony Rayns, Ryan Gilbey, Vadim Rizov, Scott Marks, Jason Adams, Alonso Díaz de la Vega, Dustin Chang, CJ Sheu, Michael Blum, CEMETERY OF SPLENDOR VIDEOS, CEMETERY OF SPLENDOR PHOTOS, Jenjira, Itt, Keng, Nurse Tet, Teng, Drama, Thai, 2h 2m
Worldwide gross: $98,932
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $123,494
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 3,005
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 13,467
US/Canada gross: $51,950
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $64,848
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,724
US/Canada opening weekend: $7,780
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $9,712
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,709
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Banlop Lomnoi – Itt
Jarinpattra Rueangram – Keng
Petcharat Chaiburi – Nurse Tet
Sakda Kaewbuadee – Teng
Apichatpong Weerasethakul – Director
Director(s)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Writer(s)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Producer(s)
Charles de Meaux, Simon Field, Hans W. Geissendörfer, Keith Griffiths
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
NA
Academy Awards
All Critics (85) | Top Critics (29) | Fresh (82) | Rotten (3)
What other filmmaker could create a tissue of metaphor, almost musical, from the hum of rotary objects?
December 27, 2016 | Rating: 3/5
Nigel Andrews
Financial Times
TOP CRITIC
From the Thai arthouse director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, whose Uncle Boonmee won the Palme d’Or at Cannes a few years ago, comes another strange swooning dream, Cemetery of Splendour.
October 10, 2016 | Rating: 4/5
Kate Muir
Times (UK)
TOP CRITIC
Apichatpong’s singular method is by now familiar: he looks at present-day realities through a prism of personal and collective memories, refusing to distinguish between the everyday, dream-states and dark fantasies
June 17, 2016
Tony Rayns
Sight & Sound
TOP CRITIC
What Weerasethakul creates on-screen could be described as a meditative space: he is using film not to dictate his ideas but to stimulate ours.
June 16, 2016
Ryan Gilbey
New Statesman
TOP CRITIC
A vital addition to a cogent body of work.
June 14, 2016 | Rating: 4/5
Vadim Rizov
Little White Lies
TOP CRITIC
Given the cultural boundaries, there is much in the film that we may never fully grasp, but the less we’re told, the more were sucked in by the film’s hypnotic, ever-expanding aura of mystery.
April 7, 2016 | Rating: 5/5
Scott Marks
San Diego Reader
TOP CRITIC
What a lovely journey though – a series of small escalating emotional catharses that moves through like clouds
July 6, 2021
Jason Adams
The Film Experience
There’s no other filmography more essential than Weerasethakul’s. [Full review in Spanish]
March 31, 2021
Alonso Díaz de la Vega
El Universal
‘Life is but a waking dream’ is much more pronounced in this film than any other weerasethakul films. But he also acknowledges a certain melancholy in resisting to let go earthly desires.
February 14, 2021
Dustin Chang
Floating World
[T]he best thing I can say about it is that it renewed my sense of the life force both within and surrounding me, motivating me from a within that’s outside of me, as it were.
June 30, 2020
CJ Sheu
Critics at Large
Cemetery at once feels like a confident step forward and a pared-down return to origins. The film hits upon the range of Weerasethakul’s familiar themes, but with a renewed and different force.
February 1, 2020
Michael Blum
Hyperallergic
There’s a boundless imagination to the film, and through its hypnotic visuals (a sequence with a group of lights can easily function as its own brilliant installation piece) it’s easy to get swept up by its beauty.
May 31, 2019
C.J. Prince
Way Too Indie…
Plot
A lonely middle-aged housewife tends to a soldier with sleeping sickness in Cemetery of Splendor.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Nothing to add here about Cemetery of Splendor.
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