2nd Bangkok Triennale

Anupong Chantorn, famous for his painting representing monks as crows, is currently exhibiting a similar drawing at the 2nd Bangkok Triennale International Print & Drawing Exhibition. Anupong's earlier painting won first prize at the 53rd National Exhibition and inspired a butoh dance performance, San-Dan-Ka. His new drawing, Hope In The Dark, has won the Triennale Prize, and is showing at Bangkok Art & Cultural Centre from 14th May until 14th June.

The 67 Most Influential Films Ever Made

The current issue of Total Film magazine features an unordered list titled The 67 Most Influential Films Ever Made, as follows:

• Jaws
  
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
  
• Night Of The Living Dead
  
• The Man With The Golden Arm
  
• All Quiet On The Western Front
  
• Nanook Of The North
  
• The Abyss
  
• Enter The Dragon
  
• Blood Feast
  
• Heaven's Gate
  
• Easy Rider
  
• Star Wars IV: A New Hope
  
• The Graduate
  
• Tron
  
• Becky Sharp
  
• Carrie
  
• Reservoir Dogs
  
• Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs
  
• Gertie The Dinosaur
  
• The Adventures Of Prince Achmed
  
• Metropolis
  
• Battleship Potemkin
  
• Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
  
• The Evil Dead
  
• Flashdance
  
• Blade Runner
  
• Workers Leaving The Factory
  
• A Streetcar Named Desire
  
• Breathless
  
• Meet Me In St Louis
  
• Blazing Saddles
  
• Stagecoach
  
• Nashville
  
• The Last Laugh
  
• Deep Throat
  
• Room At The Top
  
• The Battle Of Algiers
  
• Sex Lies & Videotape
  
• The Cable Guy
  
• The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari
  
• Shadows
  
• Rashomon
  
• Do The Right Thing
  
• Blackboard Jungle
  
• Psycho
  
• The Birth Of A Nation
  
• The Wild Bunch
  
• Mean Streets
  
• Batman
  
• Halloween
  
• The Jazz Singer
  
• Toy Story
  
• Terminator II: Judgment Day
  
• Pink Flamingos
  
• Twister
  
• Citizen Kane
  
• The Thief Of Bagdad
  
• The Matrix
  
• The Robe
  
• It Happened One Night
  
• Bwana Devil
  
• L'Assassinat Du Duc de Guise
  
• Cabiria
  
• Le Roman d'Un Tricheur
  
• Un Chien Andalou
  
• Victim
  
• The Blair Witch Project

It's great to see so many silent films included, though there's no film noir, no Neorealism, and (most surprisingly) nothing by Francis Ford Coppola. Twister, the only entry I take exception to, was included simply because it was the first film released on DVD in the UK. Note that Carrie is the 1976 Brian de Palma horror film, not the 1952 William Wyler romantic drama. Total Film previously published lists of 100 films in 2005 and 2006.

Choc

A French judge yesterday ordered that the current issue of Choc magazine must be withdrawn from sale. The magazine's cover features a photograph of kidnap victim Ilan Halimi taken by his kidnappers.

Bangkok Bananas

The Bangkok Bananas arts festival ended today (having started on 30th April). It featured Cine-Bananas, a series of outdoor film screenings including the silent documentary Chang (accompanied by a live orchestra), filmed in Thailand by the directors of King Kong (Merian C Cooper and Ernest B Schoedsack).

The festival's finale this evening, Spooky Night, featured a collection of horror films, including Vampire, a short film by Apichatpong Weerasethakul commissioned for the Travelling series by Louis Vuitton. Vampire is a cryptozoological faux-documentary about a vampire bird, filmed in the same style as The Blair Witch Project.

Quote of the day...

“Another core leader, Phipob Thongchai, said earlier that under “new politics” there would be land reform so that every Thai citizen would own a piece of land and be able to make a living. He cited the case of North Korea, saying that although the country is poor and its people are starving, the North Koreans can pride themselves in owning a small piece of land.”
— Bangkok Post

Phipob Thongchai, one of the leaders of the People’s Alliance for Democracy, gave a glimpse of the movement’s social policies, citing the dictatorship of North Korea as a model to aspire towards (quoted by Veera Prateepchaikul in today’s Bangkok Post). Previous quotes of the day: the Information and Communication Technology Minister openly admitted to violating the Computer Crime Act, and a Ministry of Culture official dismissed Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s entire œvre at a single stroke.