Democracy Restoration Group

The Democracy Restoration Group, which held a seminar last year to mark the third anniversary of the 2014 coup, today organised a pro-democracy protest in Bangkok on the coup’s fourth anniversary. Several hundred protesters gathered this morning at Thammasat University’s football field, from where they intended to march to Government House, though they were blocked by police barricades. In the early afternoon, a group of around 100 people broke through the barriers and marched as far as Democracy Monument, though the protest leaders were arrested and the demonstration ended before 4pm.

During the past four years of military rule, there have been repeated assurances from the junta that democracy is just around the corner. On 28th June 2014, coup leader Prayut Chan-o-cha pledged to hold an election by October 2015. Then, during a visit to Tokyo on 9th February 2015, he announced that an election would instead take place by February 2016. When that deadline passed, he announced on 9th August 2016 that an election would be held by November 2017. Then, on 10th October 2017, he pushed the election timetable back to November 2018. Most recently, on 27th February this year, he said that an election will happen by February 2019.

लिंगम् Project 2018

लिंगम् Project 2018 is a collaboration between three Thai artists - Kornkrit Jianpinidnan, Santiphap Inkong-ngam, and Thunska Pansittivorakul - who have each made a short video and produced a book of photographs. The artists took part in a Q&A at Asian Culture Station in Chiang Mai on 18th May.

Kornkrit's monochrome, square images, titled join #dark and resembling Robert Mapplethorpe's Polaroids, are printed on a series of unbound white cards. Santiphap directed a music video, Mountain Wind; Whispering to a Wall (ลมภูเขา; กระซิบกับผนังปูน), with stills by Apichat Yimyong. Thunska's video, A Season in Hell (ฤดูกาลในนรก), includes footage from his upcoming feature film Santikhiri Sonata (สันติคีรี โซนาตา).

लिंगम्, or 'linga', is the Sanskrit term for a phallic symbol (representing the Hindu god Shiva), and Thunska takes this literally in his book Quasi una fantasia (อัศจรรย์), which includes some hardcore imagery. There are also stills from his films Supernatural (เหนือธรรมชาติ), The Terrorists (ผู้ก่อการร้าย), and The Altar (หมู่บูชา).

The three artists' books - join #dark, Mountain Wind, and Quasi una fantasia - are available in a signed and numbered set. (My copy is number 10.) The package costs ฿800, which is remarkable given that the edition is limited to only thirty copies.

ครูสมศรี

There will be a free screening of Chatrichalerm Yukol's ครูสมศรี at the Thai Film Archive tomorrow. The film, like the director's earlier His Name Is Karn (เขาชื่อกานต์), focuses on an eponymous central character fighting against corruption and bureaucracy. Chatrichalerm made several other equally groundbreaking socially conscious films, dealing with topics including prostitution (Angel/เทพธิดาโรงแรม), teenage drug addiction (Daughter/เสียดาย), and drug trafficking (Powder Road/ฮโรอีน).

Later, he switched gears and directed lavish royalist-nationalist epics such as The Legend of Suriyothai (สุริโยไท) and the Kingdom of War (ตำนานสมเด็จพระนเรศวรมหาราช) series about King Naresuan. His career trajectory is similar to that of Chinese director Zhang Yimou, who made the banned Raise the Red Lantern (大红灯笼高高挂) though whose later films such as Hero (英雄) were effectively state propaganda.

จะ4ปีแล้วนะ

Members of the punk/grindcore band Blood Soaked Street of Social Decay were arrested on Saturday after they burnt posters of Prayut Chan-o-cha at จะ4ปีแล้วนะ, an event marking the four-year anniversary of the 2014 coup. Thrash metal band Killing Fields also performed at the free concert, which took place at the 14 October '73 Memorial in Bangkok. (The event's full title includes the insult ไอ้สัตว์, though this was self-censored on the poster.) The show's organisers were also arrested, though no-one was charged.

Cinema Winehouse

Bangkok’s Cinema Winehouse continues its weekly screenings of movie classics. This week’s highlights include Reservoir Dogs on 16th May, followed by Once Upon a Time in the West (C'era una volta il west) and All About Eve on 17th May. (Once Upon a Time in the West was previously shown at the Italian Film Festival 2012.)

The 5th Silent Film Festival in Thailand

The 5th Silent Film Festival in Thailand will take place later this month. As in previous years (2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017), there will be a week of screenings at the Lido and Scala cinemas in Bangkok. This year's event opens on 24th May with a gala screening of Carl Dreyer's masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc (La passion de Jeanne d'Arc) at Scala. (It will also be shown at Lido, on 30th May.) The other films will all be screened at Lido, and in fact this will be Lido's swan song, as the cinema will close down permanently on the last day of the Festival, 31st May.

"I'm not gonna try tosound like Winston Churchill..."

The latest episode of The Kubrick Series podcast is an interview Stanley Kubrick gave on 10th June 1987 to Tim Cahill, a magazine journalist. Cahill supplied his two-hour Dictaphone recording of the interview, and it was uploaded yesterday. The interview was first published in the 27th August 1987 issue of Rolling Stone. In the article, Cahill described Kubrick as "entirely unpretentious. He was wearing running shoes and an old corduroy jacket. There was an ink stain just below the pocket where some ball point pen had bled to death."

Comparing the tape and the published transcript, it becomes clear how much Kubrick's answers were compressed and paraphrased in the printed version. The article also includes several quotes that are not on the tape, such as "truth is too multifaceted to be contained in a five-line summary." These bon mots were clearly written later, and at one point on the tape Kubrick asks for some time to review a draft of the transcript: "Give me at least a day to have a crack at it... I'm not gonna try to sound like Winston Churchill, but I'd like to just tidy it up." He even specifies that he'd like a triple-spaced manuscript: "I've gotta have room to write, to change the words." (The Kubrick Archive has dozens of pages of interview transcripts similarly revised by Kubrick.)

This is the third posthumously-released Kubrick interview recording. Alison Castle's book The Stanley Kubrick Archives included a CD of Jeremy Bernstein's interview with Kubrick, recorded in 1966. The French radio series A voix nue broadcast Michel Ciment's Kubrick interviews from 1975, 1980, and 1987. (The archive of film critic Alexander Walker, at La Cineteca del Friuli in Italy, has two recordings of Walker's interviews with Kubrick, from 1980 and 1987.)

Cinema Winehouse

From 8th–12th May, Bangkok’s Cinema Winehouse will be screening a classic film every evening. Tomorrow, it’s Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, followed by Gone With the Wind on 10th May, Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (七人の侍) on 11th May, and The Exorcist on 12th May.

Space Odyssey

Michael Benson's Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece provides a new production history of 2001: A Space Odyssey, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the film's release. Benson's previous book was the excellent Cosmigraphics, and Space Odyssey benefits from his dual interests in cosmology and visual art.

There are, of course, many books on the making of 2001, including 2001: Filming The Future, The Making of Kubrick's 2001, The Making of 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2001 Memories, Moonwatcher's Memoir, Are We Alone?, 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2001: The Lost Science, The 2001 File, and The Making Of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. At 500 pages, Space Odyssey is the most exhaustive account of the making of the film.

Through a Different Lens

Donald Albrecht (co-editor of Only in New York) and Sean Corcoran curated Through a Different Lens: Stanley Kubrick Photographs, an exhibition opening today at the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY). They also edited the exhibition's lavish and comprehensive catalogue, published in folio format by Taschen.

Stanley Kubrick became a staff photographer for Look magazine in 1945, straight out of high school. Five years later, he quit in order to become a director. I have compiled a complete list of Kubrick's published photographs, which is included in the Stanley Kubrick Archive and was reprinted in Fotografie 1945-1950.

The images in Through a Different Lens are drawn from the MCNY's collection of thousands of Kubrick's photos. (Stanley Kubrick at Look Magazine is also based on the MCNY's collection.) The photographs are almost exclusively black-and-white, though there is a colour portrait of the clown Lou Jacobs. In their introduction, the editors argue that Kubrick's photography "honed his skills as both a storyteller and an image maker, albeit through a different lens."

There have been several previous catalogues of Kubrick's photographs: Ladro di sguardi, Still Moving Pictures, Drama and Shadows, Fotografie 1945-1950, Visioni e finzioni. A limited selection also appears in Art by Film Directors. To a greater or lesser extent, these surveys all have similar limitations: they decontextualise the images (presenting them out of sequence, either retitled or untitled), and they recycle a limited selection of photographs.

Through a Different Lens is the first book on Kubrick's photography to avoid these shortcomings. It includes more than 300 photographs, making it the most extensive collection in print. The arrangement is chronological, and Look publication details are also included.

Cinema Winehouse

Bangkok’s Cinema Winehouse will be showing a trio of classic films this week. The Godfather is screening on 2nd May, followed the next day by The Third Man and The Wizard of Oz.

สุดยอดภาพยนตร์ไทยในสมัยรัชกาลที่ ๙

Over the next four days, Bangkok's Scala cinema will be screening ten classic Thai films, chosen from a poll of the seventy greatest films from the reign of King Rama IX. The short season, สุดยอดภาพยนตร์ไทยในสมัยรัชกาลที่ ๙, begins this evening with Dang Bireley's and Young Gangsters (2499 อันธพาลครองเมือง), one of the films that launched the Thai New Wave and revived the national film industry. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (ลุงบุญมีระลึกชาติ) is showing on Thursday, along with Mae Nak Phra Khanong (แม่นาคพระโขนง), the first colour version of the popular Mae Nak ghost story. All screenings are free.

Cinema Winehouse

There are five classic films showing this week at Bangkok’s Cinema Winehouse. Inception is screening tonight, followed tomorrow by two masterpieces: Citizen Kane and Some Like It Hot. On 27th April, it’s the cult thriller Oldboy (올드보이), with Toy Story on the next day.

The History of Cinema

The History of Cinema: A Very Short Introduction is, as its subtitle suggests, a brief guide to film history. In only a hundred pages, it provides concise summaries of cinema technology, the studio system, and international film movements. Author Geoffrey Nowell-Smith previously wrote Making Waves, and edited The Oxford History of World Cinema, a definitive text which remains the gold standard for film-history books. The History of Cinema is a slim volume in comparison, though it has a useful annotated bibliography.

Cinema Winehouse

After the Songkran holiday, Bangkok’s Cinema Winehouse is showing more classics this week. David Lean’s epic Lawrence of Arabia is screening tonight. (It was previously shown in 2015.) Tomorrow, it’s Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (用心棒), previously shown as part of the Kurosawa retrospective at CentralWorld. On Saturday, it’s Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (last shown during the Cinema Scarehouse season).

About Heroes

Cinema Oasis, the arthouse cinema that opened last month in Bangkok, will begin a season of political documentaries this month, after the Songkran holiday. The About Heroes season features Bangkok Joyride (บางกอกจอยไรด์), a documentary directed by Ing K. The film, divided into two chapters, is a record of the PDRC's protests in 2013 and 2014 against former prime ministers Yingluck and Thaksin Shinawatra.

Chapter one, How We Became Superheroes (เมื่อเราเป็นยอดมนุษย์), covers the first stage of the protest, when Suthep Thaugsuban campaigned against a proposed amnesty bill. The amnesty was a blatant attempt to exonerate Thaksin of his corruption charges, and was unanimously rejected by the Senate. The film also features extended clips of a parliamentary no-confidence debate against Yingluck. Emboldened after defeating the amnesty bill, Suthep called for the dissolution of parliament and the establishment of an appointed government.

Chapter two of the documentary, Shutdown Bangkok (ชัตดาวน์ประเทศไทย), covers the escalation of the PDRC's protests. Following the playbook of the PAD, the PDRC shut down major roads in central Bangkok and occupied government buildings, yet were unopposed by the police. The anti-democratic nature of the protest was revealed when the PDRC sabotaged the 2014 general election, which may be included in the forthcoming third episode, Singing at Funerals (เพลงแห่ศพ).

Ing has also directed the banned films Shakespeare Must Die (เชคสเปียร์ต้องตาย) and My Teacher Eats Biscuits (คนกราบหมา). Her documentary Censor Must Die (เซ็นเซอร์ต้องตาย) was not banned as, according to section 27(1) of the Film and Video Act, "films of news events" are exempt from classification.

When I interviewed Ing in 2016, she said: "this ruling has set a marvellous legal precedent for all documentary films. I'm going to use this ruling to exempt my next film (another cinéma vérité documentary, called Bangkok Joyride) from the censorship process. Then it's a matter of finding a cinema." She solved that problem by building Cinema Oasis.

Citing the "news events" exemption, she didn't submit Bangkok Joyride to the censors, which explains why she was able to include a protester saying "Long live the King" in chapter one and a snippet of the royal anthem in chapter two. Boundary (ฟ้าตํ่าแผ่นดินสูง) was muted to remove a chant of "Long live the King", which was regarded as politicisation of the monarchy, and the royal anthem was cut from Soi Cowboy (ซอยคาวบอย) for commercialisation of the monarchy.

100 MoviesYou Must See Before You Die

DOIY, a Spanish design company, created a poster in 2016 featuring a hundred classic films. The poster (100 Movies You Must See Before You Die) resembles an Advent calendar, as each film title has a flap that can be opened to reveal a stylised image from the film. Two scratchable posters, Skratkz's 100 and One Must See Movies! and Gift Republic's 100 Movies Bucket List, have a similar concept.

A Century of Thai CinemaExhibition's Handbook

A Century of Thai Cinema Exhibition's Handbook [sic] (คู่มือนิทรรศการหนึ่งศตวรรษภาพยนตร์ ไทย 2440-2540) was published by the Thai Film Archive in 2013. It provides a concise history of Thai cinema, and includes photographs of souvenir programmes and other film memorabilia. The book also serves as a catalogue for the Archive's permanent exhibition on Thai filmmaking, for which guided tours are available. ("Visitors aren't allowed to wander around by themselves," the foreword explains, rather ominously.)

Author Dome Sukwong, who founded the Archive, is the foremost authority on Thai film history. His other English-language book is the folio-sized A Century of Thai Cinema. The only other books on Thai film history in English are Thai Cinema (Le cinéma thaïlandais; edited by Bastian Meiresonne) and the forthcoming Thai Cinema: The Complete Guide (edited by Mary J. Ainslie and Katarzyna Ancuta).

Making Medieval Manuscripts

Making Medieval Manuscripts, by Christopher de Hamel, was published late last year. The book is a revised version of Scribes and Illuminators, and explains how manuscripts were written, illustrated, and bound. It includes glossy, full-page reproductions of manuscript pages, and a limited bibliography (which, perhaps out of misplaced modesty, omits de Hamel's previous books A History of Illuminated Manuscripts and Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts).

Archive on Four

Yesterday's episode of the BBC Radio 4 series Archive on Four was a documentary marking the fiftieth anniversary of 2001: A Space Odyssey, "the most influential science-fiction movie ever made, and a film whose deeper meaning is still being actively debated." The programme was presented by Christopher Frayling (author of The 2001 File), who visited the Stanley Kubrick Archive and interviewed Pier Bizony (author of The Making of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey). There have been two previous BBC radio documentaries on 2001: Landmarks and The Film Programme have both broadcast episodes about the making of the film.

The Trump White House

The Trump White House: Changing the Rules of the Game, Ronald Kessler's hagiographic response to Michael Wolff's warts-and-all Fire and Fury, was published today. Kessler writes that "Wolff's book is riddled with false claims," and he lavishes such praise on Trump that it feels like advertising copy: "the Trump brand came to stand for quality, prestige, and success."

Kessler needlessly attacks Hillary Clinton, claiming that she "pretends to be a compassionate woman" and that she "is so nasty to her Secret Service agents" (an allegation that he repeats word for word later in the book). He also recycles Fox News talking points, dismissing any evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia: "the entire Russia collusion story is bogus".

The book's only real interest comes from Kessler's repeated criticisms of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. He argues that they "have been responsible for Trump's most disastrous decisions" and that President Trump would prefer them to leave the White House, though this was revealed by The New York Times a month ago.

In the absence of any real scoops, the book is padded out with presidential trivia: Air Force One, for example, "has a range of 7,825 miles and a maximum cruising altitude of 45,100 feet." It also includes a brief interview with Trump ("the only interview for a book Trump said he has given or will give as president") conducted last year at Mar-a-Lago.

Cinema Winehouse

There are three classic movies screening on consecutive days this week at Bangkok’s Cinema Winehouse. Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park is showing on 4th April, followed the next day by F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, and John Woo’s The Killer (喋血双雄) on 6th April. A Hollywood blockbuster for all the family, a silent classic, and a cult ‘heroic bloodshed’ thriller: it’s hard to imagine a more diverse selection than that.

Cinema: Stanley Kubrick

On Tuesday, an extensive collection of Stanley Kubrick memorabilia was auctioned in Torino, Italy, raising a total of €90,000. In its sale catalogue, the auction house describes the fifty-five lots as "the most important collection of material relating to the life and work of Stanley Kubrick ever offered at auction."

The auction included notes and other documents signed by Kubrick (such as an autographed Christmas card, similar to one I bought in 2006) and props from his later films. All items were given by Kubrick to Emilio D'Alessandro, his personal assistant, whose memoirs have been published in both Italian (Stanley Kubrick e me) and English (Stanley Kubrick and Me).

Bangkok Screening Room

Bangkok Screening Room’s outstanding programme of classics and Thai indie films continues in April and May, with Battleship Potemkin (Бронено́сец «Потёмкин»), Grand Hotel, His Girl Friday, and Insects in the Backyard (อินเซค อินเดอะ แบ็คยาร์ด). Bangkok’s repertory cinema scene is going from strength to strength, with Bangkok Screening Room, Cinema Winehouse, Jam Ciné Club, and the Friese-Greene Club joined by the new Cinema Oasis.

Sergei Eisenstein’s silent masterpiece Battleship Potemkin will be shown with a soundtrack composed by the Pet Shop Boys on 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 29th April; and 1st, 3rd, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and 15th May. (It has previously been screened with a Thai score, at the Thai Film Archive.)

The previously banned Insects in the Backyard will be screened on 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 25th, 27th, 28th, and 29th April; and 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 6th May. Director Tanwarin Sukkhapisit will take part in a Q&A on 28th April. When I interviewed her about the ban last year, she said that the censors “regarded this film as immoral, and hazardous to national security.” (It has also been shown at the World Film Festival of Bangkok, House Rama, the Eat Play Love Film Festival, Indie in Salaya, and Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University.)

Grand Hotel, in which the iconic Greta Garbo delivers her immortal line “I want to be alone”, is showing on 9th, 10th, 12th, 13th, 15th, 16th, 19th, 20th, 22nd, 23rd, 26th, and 27th May. Howard Hawks’ His Girl Friday, the definitive ‘screwball’ comedy, will be screened on 17th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 24th, 26th, 28th, 29th April; and 2nd and 3rd May.

Cinema Winehouse

This week, Cinema Winehouse in Bangkok will be showing two of the greatest horror films ever made. Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece Psycho will be screened on 29th March, followed by George Romero’s zombie classic Night of the Living Dead on 31st March.

Jam Ciné Club

Jam Ciné Club will be showing two classics of world cinema in May: Carl Dreyer's silent masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc (La passion de Jeanne d'Arc) on 16th May, and Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället) on 23rd May. The Passion of Joan of Arc will also be shown at the 5th Silent Film Festival in Thailand, which runs from 24th to 30th May.

I Am You

I Am You (ฉันคือเธอ), featuring artworks spanning Vasan Sitthiket's entire career, opened yesterday at BACC in Bangkok. The retrospective includes paintings, woodcut prints, large-scale installations, and a handful of videos (including There Must Be Something Happen). Some of his sketchbooks are also on show, and they include preparatory sketches for Blue October (ตุลาลัย) from 1978.

In Thailand, discussion of sensitive subjects is usually camouflaged by innuendo, and criticisms are made indirectly, to save face. Vasan, however, pulls no punches. Unusually for an established Thai artist, he is refreshingly blunt in his treatment of politics, sex, and religion. Hypocrisy and Ten Evil Scenes of Thai Politic [sic], for example, portray politicians as corrupt figures succumbing to the sins of lust and greed. In his frequent self-portraits (such as The Human Clay) he is not only nude but also tumescent. Vasan's depiction of monks has also caused controversy: Buddha Returns to Bangkok (พระพุทธเจ้าเสด็จกรุงเทพ 2535) depicted a monk raping a woman, and Obsessive Compulsive included paintings of monks having sex.

I Am You is a major retrospective, with more than 100 artworks, including Death for Democracy 1992 (ตายเพื่อประชาธิปไตย 2535), though Vasan's more controversial pieces are notable by their absence. The bilingual exhibition catalogue, which includes an essay by Iola Lenzi, is accompanied by The Literature Collection of Vasan Sitthiket (รวมวรรณกรรมคัดสรร), a book of Vasan's writings. The exhibition closes on 27th May.

Thai Film Archive

The Thai Film Archive in Salaya will show a double bill of 1950s French masterpieces on 25th March. François Truffaut’s New Wave classic The 400 Blows (Les quatre cents coups) will be followed by Henri-Georges Clouzot’s suspense thriller The Wages of Fear (Le salaire de la peur).

Tonight Thailand

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission has ordered the digital television channel Voice TV to suspend broadcasting Tonight Thailand for fifteen days. The NBTC ruled that the programme had violated a ban on criticising the military junta, as it made a comparison to the French Revolution and dwelt on footage of anti-Prayut Chan-o-cha protesters wearing Pinocchio masks. The episode in question was broadcast on 1st March.

The regulator also issued warnings over another Tonight Thailand episode, broadcast on Boxing Day; and a different show, Wake Up Thailand, broadcast on 5th March, in which Piyabutr Saengkanokkul argued that Thais should not accept the country's repeated military takeovers. Voice TV is owned by Panthongthae Shinawatra, son of Thaksin Shinawatra. (Both Thaksin and his sister, Yingluck, were deposed by military coups.)

Another Voice TV programme, The Daily Dose, was suspended last year. A similar channel, Peace TV, was temporarily shut down earlier this year, in 2017, and 2016; its licence was revoked in 2015, though that ruling was later overturned on appeal. When Prayut (unconstitutionally) declared martial law in 2014, the military closed down ten satellite television stations.

Cinema Winehouse

Cinema Winehouse in Bangkok (now under new management) will show three classic films this week. Metropolis and Casablanca will be screened on 22nd March, followed the next day by City of God (Cidade de Deus).

Fariña

Sales of Fariña have been suspended throughout Spain after a judge in Madrid granted an injunction on behalf of José Alfredo Bea Gondar, a former town mayor. Fariña was published in 2015, and had been the country's best-selling book before the ban was announced last month. The book, by Nacho Carretero, includes evidence that the mayor was involved in the importation of cocaine, a crime he was charged with in 1991. (He was later convicted of drug smuggling, though the verdict was overturned on a technicality.)

The DocumentaryFilm Makers Handbook

The Documentary Film Makers Handbook, by Genevieve Jolliffe and Andrew Zinnes, was first published in 2006. It includes interviews with more than a hundred documentary directors, including Thunska Pansittivorakul. Thunska discusses film censorship in Thailand: "We operate everything under a moral frame. This means anything that doesn't fit within our culture, would not be accepted by society."

Insects in the Backyard

Tanwarin Sukkhapisit's Insects in the Backyard (อินเซค อินเดอะ แบ็คยาร์ด) will be shown on 16th March at Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University in Bangkok. The film premiered at the World Film Festival of Bangkok in 2010, and was promptly banned. It was eventually released, with a single cut, late last year, and was shown last month at two events: the Eat Play Love Film Festival and Indie in Salaya.