Sightlines · reception

How Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives was received

2010 · Apichatpong Weerasethakul · Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives on Sightlines

The arc

One of the most divisive Palme d'Or wins ever — Cannes 2010 saw baffled shrugs and 'what were they thinking' takes alongside rapture, with Tim Burton's jury defending it as a beautiful strange dream. A decade-plus later the argument is over: it routinely lands on best-of-the-century lists and is the consensus entry point to Apichatpong's canon.

What’s debated

It's the ultimate slow-cinema litmus test: transcendent waking dream or two hours of nothing — and 'did it really deserve the Palme?' still gets relitigated in the comments.

Its footprint

The red-eyed Monkey Ghost calmly joining the dinner table is one of modern cinema's most iconic images — a Film Twitter avatar, poster staple, and instant shorthand for arthouse cinema's capacity for the uncanny. Even the director's name became a cinephile shibboleth: if you can spell Apichatpong Weerasethakul (or just call him 'Joe', as he invites), you're in the club.

Where it stands

A locked-in 21st-century canon piece and a Letterboxd rite of passage — the 'you must have seen this' title of 2010s world cinema and the gateway drug to slow cinema.

Did you know? It was the first Thai film ever to win the Palme d'Or, taking the top prize at Cannes 2010 from a jury presided over by Tim Burton.

A Deleuzian reading of Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives →