Thinking images: Filmic thought and the viewer’s perception in the films of Apicahtpong Weerasethakul

Abstract

This thesis explores the concept of the ‘filmind’, film as a thinking entity, through Daniel Frampton’s book Filmosophy and the film phenomenological work of Vivian Sobchack. Highlighting the embodied viewer in the film experience of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s films the aim asks: In what way can Apichatpong Weerasethakul's films be understood as independent ‘thinking’ entities, and how does this affect the viewer experience? A dialogue emerges by bringing Frampton’s notion of the filmic thought and Sobchak’s theory of the film into conversation. The combination of these two theories allows us to push the traditional phenomenology further by addressing the film’s thinking and the viewer as the receiving subject. The analysis focuses on Weerasethakul’s films: Tropical Malady, Hotel Mekong, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and Cemetery of Splendour, in a phenomenological close reading to explore filmic action and viewer immersion. The analysis finds that Weerasethakul’s films demonstrate a form of thinking in the non-linear temporality and uncertainty of the film’s own ‘being’. The filmind and the viewer meet in the mood of the film, which mediates a suspension where the filmind and viewer both participate in the same shared space of being unknowing. The viewer is drawn to the film in a search for meaning, rather than the actions of the narrative.