I know better than to get swept up in vanity awards, but it was a good day in Cannes today, where Apichatpong “Joe” Weerasethakul was awarded the Palme d’Or for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. I’ve only seen the short film (A Letter to Uncle Boonmee) that ties in with the feature, but I have no doubt the award was justified. Weerasethakul’s Syndromes and a Century is one of the most beautiful and engrossing movies I’ve ever seen — a film I fell in love with on the spot, a true love — and Tropical Malady and Blissfully Yours are very close behind it, in my books. But never mind my books. Joe’s been the talk of the past decade, one of the great new talents (along with Jia Zhang-ke and Lucrecia Martel) who earned ink at Film Comment and racked up awards everywhere he screened. This was a great win not just for Joe (whose status as a household name is a few years overdue), but for film and film-lovers, too. We’re celebrating over at InRo today. – Ranylt Richildis
