From the Mysterious “Memoria” to the Tilda-Whirl Series, Tilda Swinton Is Dominating Portland Cinemas

Availability is a baked-in expectation of modern movies. Google any new film and you’ll find a slew of SEO-manufactured clickbaits entitled “Is [x movie] on Netflix?” as if written for legions of automatons about to angrily throw the remote.

So it’s surprising that a 2022 movie would prioritize scarcity. But that’s the release strategy for Memoria, a new film directed by Thai luminary Apichatpong Weerasethakul and starring Tilda Swinton.

Touring the country gradually like the 70 mm epics of the 1960s, Memoria’s roadshow-style release means that it will appear in only a few cities at a time. It stays for a quick engagement and moves on, with distributor Neon presently claiming it will never stream or reach home video.

When Memoria plays Cinema 21 from April 22 to 28 and Whitsell Auditorium on May 27, you won’t find it in Portland anywhere else or at any time in between.

Cinema 21 owner Tom Ranieri says his theater hasn’t hosted a proper roadshow screening since Steven Soderbergh visited with Che in 2009, and manager Erik McClanahan believes Memoria’s unique release method is potentially a draw in and of itself.

“That’s what’s got people even knowing what this strange, capital-A arthouse movie is,” he says.

The director of films like Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) and Tropical Malady (2004), Weerasethakul is widely regarded as a master of “slow cinema,” poetic meditations on nature, discovery and metaphysics that temporarily rewire the viewer’s nervous system.

McClanahan compares the director’s films to dreams, best experienced in a pitch-dark theater where they can spellbind an audience without distraction. Intense focus isn’t required, but the movie’s idea of action is a man taking a dramatic nap in the grass.

“[Memoria] is such a big-screen movie, but in a completely opposite way to how most people think about it,” says McClanahan, comparing the benefits of seeing Weerasethakul movies in theaters to those of Tarkovsky films or 2001: A Space Odyssey.

While narrative isn’t the emphasis, Memoria does have a compelling plot. Swinton plays Jessica, an orchid farmer living in Medellin, Colombia. She suffers from insomnia, punctuated by a resonant banging sound heard only by her.

What follows is a quest of sorts to identify the noise’s source, and viewers are likely to become swept up in the film’s immersive sound design—cicada chirps, rippling rivers, car-alarm symphonies and, of course, the mysterious boom.

For her part, Swinton excels in Weerasetakuhl’s first (partially) English-language film. She plays Jessica as shy, searching and spent—a character so hollowed by her weariness that there’s nothing left but a dazed curiosity.

For Portlanders, now is the time to savor Swinton’s eclectic 40-year career, with its gallery of wildly disparate characters and collaborations with iconic filmmakers.

PAM CUT (the recently renamed NW Film Center) is celebrating her with its “Tilda-Whirl” series, which will feature her maniacal performance in Bong Joon-Ho’s Okja (2017) on April 9 and a far more sensual role in Luca Guadagnino’s I Am Love (2009) on April 8 and 9.

“When you see [Swinton] is in a movie, you know you’re in for something interesting,” says PAM CUT’s associate director of creative programs Jon Richardson. “That’s what we feel passionate about—getting people excited about cinema.”

While Memoria’s exclusivity might be a draw, both Cinema 21 and PAM CUT are eyeing more Swinton. Richardson hopes this spring will be only the first spin of the “Tilda-Whirl,” and McClanahan speculates Memoria could float around the country and through Portland theaters for years, cultivating an arthouse audience hoping to have this particular dream again.

“I’m not naive enough to think everyone will think it’s incredible,” he says. “Some people probably will walk out, but I contend that if people go in with an open mind…that sound is going to lull people into a trance.”

SEE IT: Memoria plays at Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave., 503-223-4515, cinema21.com. 3:45 and 7 pm Friday-Thursday and 12:30 pm Saturday-Sunday, April 22-28. $9-$11.