La Fete 2014

La Fete, Bangkok's annual French arts festival, opened on 4th June, and will close tomorrow. Unlike previous years (including 2013, 2012, and 2011), there are no film screenings at this year's festival, though the highlight this year is Galleries' Night, with many galleries staying open until midnight tonight.

The Jim Thompson Art Center will be taking part in Galleries' Night, and will show Araya Rasdjarmreansook's triptych video installation Chant For Female Corpse. Araya's other video works include Reading For Female Corpse (shown in From Message To Media), Conversation (shown in The Suspended Moment), and The Class I-III (shown in Dialogues).

Spiritual America 2014

After the Metropolitan Police Service removed Richard Prince's photograph Spiritual America from Tate Modern's Pop Life exhibition and catalogue in 2009, Xenofon Kavvadias made Freedom of Information requests to read correspondence between the Tate and the Met. This material, some of which was redacted before it was published, forms part of his Masters of Fine Arts degree show.

Kavvadias will also exhibit a copy of Prince's photograph (which is included in Controverses), retitled Spiritual America 2014. The degree show exhibition, at Goldsmiths College in London, runs from 10th to 14th July.

The 1st Silent Film Festival in Thailand

Next month, Thailand’s first Silent Film Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์เงียบ ประเทศไทย ครั้งที่ ๑) will be held in Bangkok. The event, organised by the British Council with restored prints supplied by the BFI, begins on 7th August. Most screenings will take place at Lido, though the final screening will be at Scala.

Three silent films by Alfred Hitchcock will be shown: The Pleasure Garden (his directorial debut; 7th and 10th August), The Ring (an atypical Hitchcock production, and his only solo screenwriting credit; 8th and 10th August), and The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (13th August, at Scala). All film screenings will be accompanied by a live pianist, to recreate the original silent cinema atmosphere. (Composer Somtow Sucharitkul will be the pianist for The Lodger; previously, the BFI commissioned an orchestral score for the film by Nitin Sawhney.)

The Lodger, an Expressionist thriller based on the Jack the Ripper case, is certainly Hitchcock’s greatest silent movie, and arguably one of his masterpieces. It’s the first truly Hitchcockian film, and the Silent Film Festival provides a rare opportunity to see it on the big screen. (The title character’s arrival at a boarding house influenced a similarly suspenseful moment in The Ladykillers.)

House 10th

This year marks the tenth anniversary of House Rama, Bangkok’s only independent cinema. To celebrate, the cinema has organised a season of films, House 10th (10 ปีมีหนเดียว), which starts tomorrow and runs until the end of the month. Highlights include City of God (Cidade de Deus), by Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles, screening on 16th July.

Relics

The largest ever retrospective of Damien Hirst's work was held last year, though not in London or New York but in Doha. Relics, curated by Francesco Bonami, was Hirst's first solo exhibition in the Middle East, and was accompanied by a 300-page catalogue published by Skira.

The catalogue begins with an extended essay by curator Francesco Bonami, who discusses Hirst's place in art history: "He is reversing the Picasso paradigm. Everybody knows Picasso, but fewer know his art. Now everybody knows the vitrine with the shark, the butterfly paintings, the Spot paintings, the diamond skulls, the sliced cow and the rotting cow's head, but fewer know their author." There is also a brief essay by Michael Craig-Martin (famous for his conceptual installation An Oak Tree) on Hirst's career prior to the Sensation exhibition, and a Hirst interview by Nicholas Serota (director of the Tate), though these are both reprints from a 2012 Tate catalogue.

Bonami's essay and Serota's interview both emphasise the significance of Hirst's installation A Thousand Years (a self-contained ecosystem, with a cow's head surrounded by flies that hatch and die). Bonami argues: "The paradox is that this work, centered on death and decomposition, is maybe the one that has granted Damien Hirst a slice of immortality in art history." (Arguably, though, the piece is about the life cycle of the flies more than the death of the cow.) In the Serota interview, Hirst says that A Thousand Years is important yet impermanent: "the fly piece was the most exciting thing - still is, possibly - the most exciting piece I made. [But] the fly piece is always something that will need my involvement, need my upkeep - it's high-maintenance."

Relics features many of the signature pieces from Hirst's Natural History series, such as A Thousand Years, Mother & Child (Divided) (a cow and calf, each bisected in vitrines), and Away From The Flock (a sheep preserved in formaldehyde). His iconic diamond-encrusted skull (For The Love Of God) is also included. Arguably Hirst's most famous work, The Physical Impossibility Of Death In The Mind Of Someone Living (his shark in a tank) is missing, though there are three other preserved sharks: The Kingdom, The Immortal, and Leviathan.

The first Hirst retrospective was organised by Charles Saatchi in 2003 (with a catalogue titled Pictures From The Saatchi Gallery), though it was curated without Hirst's approval; one of Hirst's greatest solo exhibitions, Romance In The Age Of Uncertainty, was also held that year. I Want To Spend The Rest Of My Life With Everyone, One To One, Always, Forever, Now (published in 1997) remains the definitive Hirst monograph, though Relics is useful for its updated chronology and bibliography.

Hack Attack

Nick Davies, an investigative journalist for The Guardian, was the first reporter to reveal that News Of The World reporters had hacked the voicemails of hundreds of public figures. The scandal led to the closure of the News Of The World, the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics, and the Old Bailey trials of former News Of The World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson. (Brooks was cleared of all charges, though Coulson was found guilty of phone-hacking.)

Hack Attack: How The Truth Caught Up With Rupert Murdoch is Davies's comprehensive account of his investigation into the phone-hacking scandal. Davies was motivated by his distaste for the criminality of Murdoch's tabloids, as he makes clear: "inside the walls of Murdoch's castle, there was something like a mass grave full of several decades of buried secrets, so big and so stinking that once you started to dig, there really was no doubt at all about what was down there."

In addition to his chronological narrative of the hacking investigation, Davies examines the recent history of British press crimes and misdemeanours, particularly the tabloid excesses of the 1980s and early 1990s. He also summarises Murdoch's influence on British politics (such as Margaret Thatcher not referring the Times takeover to the Monopolies & Mergers Commission, Gordon Brown's "five tests" preventing Britain joining the Euro, and David Cameron socialising with Rebekah Brooks) and the abortive bid for complete ownership of BSkyB.

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger discussed Davies's uncovering of the hacking story in his memoir Play It Again. Davies also wrote the excellent Flat Earth News. Michael Wolff's The Man Who Owns The News is the definitive Murdoch biography.

ေအာင္ရင္ၿငိမ္း

An erotic novel, ေအာင္ရင္ၿငိမ္း by Aung Ying Nyein, has been banned in Burma. The novel, set in a world of 'romanbots' (romance robots), was withdrawn from sale by its publisher, Pinlae Thit, after pressure from the government. The author is now facing obscenity charges.

Film Noir: 100 All-Time Favorites

Film Noir: 100 All-Time Favorites, published by Taschen, is an illustrated guide to 100 classic noir films. At almost 700 pages, it's one of the most substantial Noir film guides, though it's more of a visual celebration of the genre than a work of reference. It has hundreds of large, glossy stills, making it a perfect coffee-table book for cinephiles, though there's no bibliography.

Film Noir was edited by Paul Duncan and Jurgen Muller. Duncan has previously written monographs on Stanley Kubrick (Visual Poet) and Alfred Hitchcock (Architect Of Anxiety), and has edited many other Taschen books, including Horror Cinema, Art Cinema, and Cinema Now. Muller edited Taschen's 100 All-Time Favorite Movies, whose format Film Noir has adopted. Fourteen films are included in both books, with the reviews and illustrations from 100 All-Time Favorite Movies reproduced exactly in Film Noir. (Even the mistakes are replicated, such as the bizarre phrase "smirking toilet seat" in the Psycho chapter.)

The films were selected based on a fairly broad definition of film noir. The Expressionist masterpiece Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari, for instance, is not usually regarded as a noir film. (Noir was partly inspired by German Expressionism, though Caligari influenced the horror genre more than film noir.) Similarly, Vertigo, Psycho, and Taxi Driver are all-time classics, though I wouldn't necessarily describe them as noir films. Nevertheless, the lavish illustrations (particularly for Caligari) are ample justification for their inclusion.

Milestones from the original noir cycle such as The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Out Of The Past, and Touch Of Evil are all included. The contemporary neo-noir movement is represented by films such as Chinatown, Blade Runner, Pulp Fiction, Memento, and The Dark Knight. There are a few surprising omissions: the B-movie Stranger On The Third Floor, the experimental Lady In The Lake, and Citizen Kane (not film noir per se, but an important stylistic influence on the genre).

There are a few misquotes and factual errors. In Double Indemnity, Walter says "I killed him for money, and for a woman. I didn't get the money, and I didn't get the woman", though the book lazily paraphrases this to "I killed him for the money and the woman, and I didn't get either". In Notorious, the wine cellar was not "an opportune venue" for the famous extended kiss, which didn't take place there. Some mistakes may be due to poor translations from the original German text: Walter's confession in Double Indemnity was made after he was shot, not "at gunpoint"; in Pulp Fiction, the 'Gold Watch' sequence (not "The Golden Watch") happened in a regular family house, not "a children's home", and Vincent revived Mia instead of bringing her "back to life".

Panorama Du Film Noir Americain, by Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton, is the founding text of film noir. Twenty years later, Paul Schrader's essay Notes On Film Noir provided a summary of the genre for American audiences. Schrader's essay is included in Film Noir: 100 All-Time Favorites as an introduction, though it's already been widely anthologised; another introductory chapter, an extended visual analysis of The Lady From Shanghai ("seldom in the studio era has there been a movie with such innovative visual language") co-written by Jurgen Muller, is much more interesting.

Recent noir scholarship has been dominated by Alain Silver and James Ursini, who co-wrote Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference To The American Style (updated as Film Noir: The Encyclopedia), the Film Noir Reader series, and The Noir Style. Silver and Ursini also wrote Film Noir for Taschen, edited by Paul Duncan, and they are among the contributors to Film Noir: 100 All-Time Favorites.

501 Must-See Movies

The fourth edition of 501 Must-See Movies, edited by Emma Hill, contains only minor changes compared to the third edition. Four films (Troy, Crank, United 93, and The Reader) have been deleted from the list of 501, and four new films (The King's Speech, The Artist, Skyfall, and The Avengers) have been added.

เสาร์... สะดวก

Thammasat University's Tha Prachan campus in Bangkok hosts regular film screenings on Saturdays (เสาร์... สะดวก), and the schedule for the remainder of this year includes several classics. The season begins tomorrow with two of the greatest noir thrillers, The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep.

Next month there will be a screening of Kenji Mizoguchi's Sansho Dayu (on 5th July). Clint Eastwood's Western Unforgiven screens on 16th August. Ingmar Bergman's Person will be shown on 13th September, and The Purple Rose Of Cairo (27th September) is one of several Woody Allen films to be shown in the same month. Merian C Cooper and Ernest B Schoedsack's King Kong (and Peter Jackson's remake) will be screened on 11th October; two Stanley Kubrick films, The Killing and A Clockwork Orange, will be shown later that month (25th October).

A History Of The Internet& The Digital Future

A History Of The Internet & The Digital Future, by Johnny Ryan, is the first attempt to condense the entire history of the internet into a single book. The 200 pages of body text (supplemented by extensive notes) are divided almost exactly in half: the first 100 pages cover the net's Cold War origins (the US military's ARPA Network), and the second half begins with the development of the world wide web.

While the origins of computers and the internet have been documented elsewhere (for instance, in The Information and A Social History Of The Media), Ryan's book is the first to provide a comprehensive history of the web. He describes "the emergence of the Web and the folly of the dot-com boom and bust", including milestones from the 1990s that now seem like ancient history: nascent pre-Google search engines such as AltaVista, Napster and the birth of file-sharing, Amazon and the rise of e-commerce; Microsoft's 'browser war' and anti-trust case is the only major omission.

As in The New Digital Age, Ryan demonstrates how "the defining characteristics of the Internet are now transforming culture, commerce and politics". Like Tim Wu (in The Master Switch), he concludes with the issue of corporate control, differentiating Google's open-source model from the more restrictive policies of "Facebook, Apple, Nokia, Microsoft and Nintendo". It's a sign of how quickly the internet is evolving that two of those corporations (Nokia and Nintendo) have subsequently declined sharply in online influence, while a new player (Twitter) has emerged.

Art Of The Digital Age

Art Of The Digital Age, published by Thames & Hudson, traces the history of digital art and features a survey of key works in various related fields, including digital imaging, computer animation, virtual reality, and internet art. Michael Rush's New Media In Art, from the same publisher, also examined the intersection between art and computer technology, though Art Of The Digital Age is more up-to-date and has a larger format. The title is a reference to Frank Popper's Art Of The Electronic Age. HW Franke's Computer Graphics, Computer Art was the first survey of computer art, published over forty years ago.

Author Bruce Wands defines digital art broadly as "the end result of the creative process in which an artist uses the computer as their primary tool". As he points out, the digital age is transforming art, especially for the 'digital native' generation: "many of the perceived differences between digital art and contemporary art become blurred. We are in a period of transition: artists of the future... are unlikely to distinguish between art created with technology and other types of contemporary art."

คืนความสุข ให้คนในชาติ

Following last month's coup, the military has begun a PR campaign to promote reconciliation. Army chief Prayut Chan-o-cha is hosting a weekly television address called คืนความสุข ให้คนในชาติ, broadcast on all channels each Friday evening. (He has even written a propaganda song, titled คืนความสุขให้ประเทศไทย, in which he pledges to "bring happiness back to Thailand".)

In his first programme, broadcast last Friday, Prayut devoted most of his speech to a justification of martial law and its various restrictions: "The invocation of martial law, the highest security law, was necessary... We have to strictly enforce the curfew... It was necessary for us to request that certain officials 'report' to the officials... Regarding the prevention of political gatherings of more than five people, this is also necessary... There are reasons why some of the media have to be temporarily suspended." He also outlined his three-step plan for the country's political future: reconciliation, a new constitution (with no mention of a referendum, unlike 2007), and finally an election to be held after a year or more.

In the second programme, broadcast yesterday, Prayut began with a remarkable piece of Orwellian doublethink: "There were many reasons why it was necessary for the NCPO to take control of national administration. The most important is because we respect democracy." Later, however, he reverted to the standard rhetoric of the anti-Thaksin movement: "We understand that we are living in a democratic world, but is Thailand ready? Are Thai people ready?"

Demonstrations against the coup were initially tolerated, though soldiers are now being deployed at likely venues to pre-empt any further protests. Critics of the coup are now using symbolic, less overt tactics, such as a three-finger salute (adopted from The Hunger Games), reading George Orwell's novel 1984, or eating sandwiches, though even these innocuous acts have resulted in arrests. Meanwhile, the military's summonses are continuing, and over 300 people have now reported for questioning and possible detention for up to seven days.

Quote of the day...

Since the coup, Prayut Chan-o-cha has delivered a weekly address each Friday evening, titled คืนความสุข ให้คนในชาติ (‘returning happiness to the Thai people’) and broadcast on all channels. Tonight, he began with a remarkable piece of Orwellian doublethink, claiming that he orchestrated the coup because “we respect democracy.”

In another memorable quote, last year Prayut dismissed criticism surrounding the GT200. Previous quotes of the day: an Election Commissioner agued against an election, hypocrisy from Suthep Thaugsuban, a yellow-shirt leader said that Thailand should be more like North Korea, the Information and Communication Technology Minister openly admitted to violating the Computer Crime Act, and a Ministry of Culture official patronised Thai filmgoers.

Anime Month

Jam in Bangkok is hosting an Anime season this month, as part of its regular Cult Movie Night event. (Previous Cult Movie Night seasons have included 'So Bad It's Good' Month, Philip Seymour Hoffman Month, and Noir Month.)

Tonight's Anime Month screening is Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbour Totoro, one of Miyazaki's most beloved films. His later works - such as Ponyo, Princess Mononoke, and particularly Spirited Away - have achieved international recognition, though in Japan Miyazaki is still best known for the magical innocence of My Neighbour Totoro.

The 301 Greatest Movies Of All Time

Empire magazine has released the results of its latest readers' poll, The 301 Greatest Films Of All Time. The list of 301 films will be published on Thursday in Empire's 301st issue. The #1 film is Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back.

This is Empire's tenth greatest-films list. The previous ones are: 100 Favourite Films Of All Time (1996), Your 100 Greatest Films Ever! (1999), The 50 Best Films (2001), 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time (2002; Australian edition), 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time (2004), 201 Greatest Movies Of All Time (2006), 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time (2007; Australian edition), The 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time (2008), and The 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time! (2013; Australian edition).

The 301 Greatest Films Of All Time are as follows:

301. Bicycle Thieves
300. Andrei Rublev
299. 28 Days Later
298. Captain Phillips
297. A Nightmare On Elm Street
296. Love Actually
295. West Side Story
294. Back To The Future II
293. Local Hero
292. King Kong
291. Conan The Barbarian
290. Come & See
289. Battle Royale
288. Batman
287. Prometheus
286. Man Of Steel
285. 300
284. The Bridge On The River Kwai
283. In The Mood For Love
282. The Grand Budapest Hotel
281. Persona
280. How To Train Your Dragon
279. Fantasia
278. BeetleJuice
277. Sideways
276. The Wicker Man
275. The Lost Boys
274. Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
273. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
272. The Little Mermaid
271. Network
270. Blue Velvet
269. M
268. Dirty Harry
267. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
266. The English Patient
265. Rio Bravo
264. Labyrinth
263. Dead Man's Shoes
262. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
261. Mad Max II: The Road Warrior
260. Blazing Saddles
259. Atonement
258. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
257. South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut
256. Eyes Wide Shut
255. Transformers
254. The Wild Bunch
253. The Hunger Games
252. Scream
251. Metropolis
250. Home Alone
249. District Nine
248. The Red Shoes
247. The Graduate
246. The Warriors
245. Star Trek: Into Darkness
244. Dumb & Dumber
243. The World's End
242. Iron Man III
241. The Crow
240. JFK
239. Iron Man
238. Moonrise Kingdom
237. The Rules Of The Game
236. Akira
235. Casino
234. All About Eve
233. Before Sunrise
232. Zodiac
231. Tokyo Story
230. The Untouchables
229. Grosse Point Blank
228. Finding Nemo
227. The Tree Of Life
226. Dances With Wolves
225. Black Swan
224. Star Wars III: Revenge Of The Sith
223. Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone
222. Brokeback Mountain
221. Goldfinger
220. The Maltese Falcon
219. The Sting
218. The Incredibles
217. On The Waterfront
216. My Neighbour Totoro
215. Suspiria
214. The Seventh Seal
213. Full Metal Jacket
212. Cool Hand Luke
211. Rushmore
210. Miller's Crossing
209. Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas
208. Moon
207. Life Is Beautiful
206. Planet Of The Apes
205. Let The Right One In
204. Les Miserables
203. Princess Mononoke
202. Little Miss Sunshine
201. Platoon
200. Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ
199. The Lives Of Others
198. The Fountain
197. Synecdoche, New York
196. An American Werewolf In London
195. 8½
194. The Sound Of Music
193. Point Break
192. Grease
191. Field Of Dreams
190. Kick-Ass
189. Sunset Boulevard
188. Star Trek
187. City Lights
186. Top Gun
185. The Fifth Element
184. Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl
183. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
182. Sin City
181. The Great Escape
180. Silver Linings Playbook
179. Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom
178. Dazed & Confused
177. Downfall
176. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
175. Dr Strangelove
174. Braveheart
173. 500 Days Of Summer
172. The Searchers
171. The Raid
170. Edward Scissorhands
169. Clerks
168. The Last Of The Mohicans
167. Monty Python & The Holy Grail
166. The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug
165. The Deer Hunter
164. The Thin Red Line
163. Her
162. Shaun Of The Dead
161. A Matter Of Life & Death
160. Casino Royale
159. Frozen
158. The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
157. Beauty & The Beast
156. American Psycho
155. Airplane!
154. American History X
153. Watchmen
152. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows II
151. When Harry Met Sally
150. Unforgiven
149. Cinema Paradiso
148. The Social Network
147. Toy Story III
146. Moulin Rouge!
145. Hot Fuzz
144. Children Of Men
143. Dawn Of The Dead
142. Zulu
141. The Goonies
140. Scarface
139. Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
138. Batman Begins
137. Amadeus
136. The Exorcist
135. The Royal Tenenbaums
134. Wall-E
133. Halloween
132. To Kill A Mockingbird
131. Boogie Nights
130. In Bruges
129. Monty Python's Life Of Brian
128. Dirty Dancing
127. Breathless
126. Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy
125. Annie Hall
124. Robocop
123. The Wizard Of Oz
122. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
121. Superman: The Movie
120. Star Wars VI: Return Of The Jedi
119. Twelve Years A Slave
118. Chinatown
117. Good Will Hunting
116. Requiem For A Dream
115. The Princess Bride
114. Groundhog Day
113. The French Connection
112. Evil Dead II
111. Up
110. Avatar
109. The Green Mile
108. Predator
107. The Terminator
106. Brazil
105. The Master
104. The Apartment
103. The Truman Show
102. Once Upon A Time In America
101. Mulholland Drive
100. Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade
99. The Blues Brothers
98. No Country For Old Men
97. Almost Famous
96. Singin' In The Rain
95. Rocky
94. Kill Bill I
93. Fargo
92. Withnail & I
91. True Romance
90. Serenity
89. Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan
88. City Of God
87. The 400 Blows
86. Django Unchained
85. The Wolf Of Wall Street
84. Donnie Darko
83. North By Northwest
82. Spirited Away
81. Inglourious Basterds
80. Some Like It Hot
79. LA Confidential
78. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
77. The Third Man
76. Saving Private Ryan
75. Reservoir Dogs
74. Stand By Me
73. Lost In Translation
72. The Dark Knight Rises
71. Rear Window
70. Psycho
69. Raging Bull
68. Amelie
67. The Silence Of The Lambs
66. The Lion King
65. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
64. The Thing
63. Ghostbusters
62. Titanic
61. OldBoy
60. Trainspotting
59. Memento
58. Toy Story
57. Seven Samurai
56. Leon
55. The Departed
54. A Clockwork Orange
53. The Shining
52. Gone With The Wind
51. Twelve Angry Men
50. Pan's Labyrinth
49. Drive
48. Magnolia
47. The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
46. The Lord Of The Rings II: The Two Towers
45. Skyfall
44. Taxi Driver
43. Vertigo
42. Once Upon A Time In The West
41. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
40. It's A Wonderful Life
39. Die Hard
38. The Breakfast Club
37. Seven
36. Heat
35. Gravity
34. Forrest Gump
33. Citizen Kane
32. The Usual Suspects
31. Lawrence Of Arabia
30. American Beauty
29. There Will Be Blood
28. Terminator II: Judgment Day
27. Gladiator
26. Casablanca
25. Schindler's List
24. The Big Lebowski
23. The Matrix
22. 2001: A Space Odyssey
21. Alien
20. Apocalypse Now
19. Aliens
18. Jurassic Park
17. Back To The Future
16. The Avengers
15. The Godfather II
14. Fight Club
13. GoodFellas
12. The Lord Of The Rings III: The Return Of The King
11. Blade Runner
10. Inception
9. Raiders Of The Lost Ark
8. Jaws
7. The Lord Of The Rings I: The Fellowship Of The Ring
6. Star Wars: IV: A New Hope
5. Pulp Fiction
4. The Shawshank Redemption
3. The Dark Knight
2. The Godfather
1. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back

[Some films in the list share the same titles as other films or remakes. Note that Some Like It Hot is the Billy Wilder classic, Psycho is the original version, Titanic is the James Cameron version, Beauty & The Beast is the Disney version, Casino Royale is the Martin Campbell version, Scarface is the Brian de Palma version, Ben-Hur is the William Wyler version, The Avengers is the Joss Whedon version, Les Miserables is the Tom Hooper version, and The Maltese Falcon is the John Huston version.]

Chaturon Chaisaeng:“I’m ready to be arrested...”

Chaturon Chaisaeng, who was a member of the caretaker cabinet before last week’s coup, gave a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Bangkok today. Chaturon was ordered to report to the Royal Thai Army HQ, along with the rest of the cabinet, though he is one of the few who did not comply. At today’s press conference, he affirmed his opposition to martial law and the coup, and stated: “I’m ready to be arrested.” Sure enough, soldiers arrived and took him away.

Over the past few days, the coup leaders have issued orders to more than 200 politicians, journalists, and academics, threatening them with arrest if they do not report to the military. Many who did report have since been detained for up to a week at undisclosed military installations for so-called ‘attitude adjustment’, though some of the most high-profile detainees have now been released.

Former PM Yingluck Shinawatra is no longer under military detention, and Suthep Thaugsuban has also been freed. Suthep was immediately taken to the Office of the Attourney General to answer charges related to his street protests, then taken to the Criminal Court and indicted for murder in relation to the 2010 military massacre. He was granted bail in both cases. He had previously refused to answer the murder charges on four separate occasions.

Coup leader Prayut Chan-o-cha has announced that anyone charged with offences relating to national security or lèse-majesté will now face a court martial rather than a regular trial with due process. After Chaturon’s arrest, it was revealed that he will be subject to a court martial. Prayut held a press conference yesterday to confirm that his National Council for Peace and Order had received royal endorsement; unlike previous coups, the decree was issued ex post facto.

National Council for Peace and Order

Two days after the most recent Thai coup, more details have emerged about the moments before the coup took place. On Friday afternoon, during the negotiations organised following the declaration of martial law, army chief Prayut Chan-o-cha repeatedly asked representatives of the caretaker cabinet if they would be prepared to resign. When they refused to do so, Prayut suspended the meeting and declared the coup.

More than 100 politicians, journalists, and academics have been ordered to report to the military or face arrest. Also, the official name of the group of coup leaders has been changed: they are now known as the National Council for Peace and Order (instead of the National Peace and Order Maintaining Council).

Opposition to the coup has been more noticeable than in 2006, and some token arrests have been made. Demonstrations at Victory Monument in Bangkok attracted several hundred protesters yesterday and today, in defiance of the military’s ban on gatherings of five or more people.

Bangkok Open Air Cinema Club

Bangkok Open Air Cinema Club will host its inaugural film screening later this month. The club, located on the roof of The Hive in Bangkok, will show Star Wars IV: A New Hope on 31st May. (Thailand is currently subject to a night-time curfew, which will affect the film screening if it’s not lifted before the end of the month.)

coup d’état

At 4pm today, the Thai military launched another coup. Army chief Prayut Chan-o-cha, head of the military junta, confirmed the coup in a live television announcement broadcast on all channels, and all civilian broadcasting has been suspended. A night-time curfew has been imposed. The constitution (itself drafted by the military following their previous coup) has been abrogated. Including today’s takeover, there have been a dozen successful coups since Thailand’s first constitution in 1932.

Since their unconstitutional declaration of martial law on Tuesday, the military had been acting as a mediator between the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, the People’s Democratic Reform Committee, the Election Commission, Pheu Thai, and the Democrats, with representatives from each group meeting for negotiations at the Army Club in Bangkok. Prime Minister Niwatthumrong Boonsongpaisan did not attend the meeting, though Niwatthumrong, the cabinet, and former prime ministers Yingluck Shinawatra and Somchai Wongsawat have been ordered to report to army HQ.

This afternoon, Suthep Thaugsuban, Jatuporn Prompan, and other protest leaders were arrested during the Army Club negotiations. Former PM Abhisit Vejjajiva has also been detained. It’s not yet clear if the army launched the coup because the negotiations were not progressing, or—much more likely—that the coup was premeditated and the negotiations were a pretext to detain the protest leaders. The UDD and PDRC protests have now been dissolved.

“The invocation of martial law is not a coup d’etat...”

The Thai military has declared a state of martial law, effective from 3am this morning. Army chief Prayut Chan-o-cha made a televised statement announcing that the military has taken over control of national security. In a message broadcast by Channel 5, a station owned by the military, he sought to reassure the public: “We urge people not to panic. Please carry on your daily activities as usual. The invocation of martial law is not a coup d’etat.”

The declaration does have some of the hallmarks of a coup, and the military apparently acted without government authorisation. Martial law gives the military wide-ranging powers to suspend civil rights and impose media censorship. Already, ten television stations have been ordered to stop broadcasting, and Prayut has issued warnings against political protest and criticism. (Last week, the People’s Democratic Reform Committee vacated its Lumpini Park base and returned to Democracy Monument. United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship protesters are currently occupying Aksa Road on the outskirts of Bangkok.)

According to the constitution, the military has the power to declare martial law only “in a certain locality as a matter of urgency” (article 188). In other circumstances, “[t]he King has the prerogative to declare and lift the martial law”. Today, the military declared martial law throughout the country, not “in a certain locality”, and a royal decree has not been issued, thus the declaration is unconstitutional.

The imposition of martial law represents a further undermining of the government’s authority, though Prime Minister Niwatthumrong is still nominally in charge. The election, previously scheduled for 20th July, has been postponed indefinitely. As in 2006, it seems that the army does not have the patience to wait for an election, and prefers its own direct intervention.

“The Prime Minister’s status has ended...”

Today, the Constitutional Court announced that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra must resign from her post, along with nine members of her cabinet. Chalermpol Ekuru, President of the court, declared: “The Prime Minister’s status has ended. Yingluck can no longer stay in her position”. Yingluck, Thaksin Shinawatra’s sister, won the 2011 election; a new election has been scheduled for 20th July.

Niwatthumrong Boonsongpaisan, a former Shin Corp. executive, has been appointed caretaker Prime Minister to replace Yingluck. Niwatthumrong was also the head of the government’s controversial rice subsidy scheme, and today the National Anti-Corruption Commission recommended that Yingluck should be impeached by the Senate for her role in the policy. Impeachment would result in a five-year ban on political activity, though as she has already been forced to resign, it’s not clear how she can be dismissed again.

The Constitutional Court’s case against Yingluck relates to her demotion of Thawil Pliensri in 2011. Thawil was head of the Council for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (which launched the military massacre in 2010); Yingluck replaced him with the chief of police, then appointed Thaksin’s brother-in-law Priewpan Damapong as the new police chief. The court deemed this an act of nepotism in violation of article 266 of the constitution, which prohibits “the recruitment, appointment, reshuffle, transfer... of a Government official” if such action is performed “for personal benefits or for the benefits of others or of a political party”.

Yingluck’s dismissal is the third occasion on which the Constitutional Court has ordered the resignations of prime ministers associated with Thaksin. The court dismissed Samak Sundaravej in 2008 for hosting a TV cookery show. It ruled against Somchai Wongsawat, Samak’s successor, later that year, in an attempt to placate yellow-shirt protesters.

Today’s verdict seems to echo the Somchai case, another intervention to appease anti-Thaksin protesters. Just as the People’s Alliance for Democracy blockaded Government House and Suvarnabhumi airport, People’s Democratic Reform Committee protesters have blocked intersections in Bangkok and disrupted the election. The courts have sided with the protesters against the government, nullifying the 2nd February election and preventing the dispersal of the PDRC.

Neither the Constitutional Court nor the NACC accused Yingluck of actually breaking the law. The court ruled that Yingluck was legally authorised to transfer Thawil, though the transfer was not “in accordance with moral principles”. (The ruling was in response to a petition from twenty-seven senators.) Likewise, NACC spokesman Vicha Mahakun confirmed that corruption had not been proven: “the evidence is not clear that the accused took part in corruption, or whether she allowed corruption or not”.

Perempuan Nan Bercinta(‘a woman in love’)

Faisal Tehrani’s novel Perempuan Nan Bercinta (‘a woman in love’) has been banned by the Malaysian government. The book was endorsed by Malaysia’s Prime Minister when it was published in 2012, though last week the Ministry of Home Affairs accused it of being “prejudicial to public order”.

“Yingluck should make the sacrifice...”

Last week, the Election Commission announced that a new election will take place on 20th July. An election was held on 2nd February, though it was subsequently nullified by the Constitutional Court. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra dissolved parliament last December as a concession to the People’s Democratic Reform Committee protesters who have blocked intersections in Bangkok and disrupted the election. PDRC leader Suthep Thaugsuban has also threatened to disrupt the next election, which would probably result in another annulment by the court.

For the past week, Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva has pledged to reveal his plan to end the country’s political limbo. Yesterday, he finally unveiled his proposals, calling for Yingluck to resign: “Yingluck should make the sacrifice of withdrawing from power”. Curiously, he specified that she should quit before the Constitutional Court announces its verdict in the Thawil Pliensri case, pre-empting the widely expected guilty verdict.

Abhisit also proposed that the Senate should appoint an interim government, which would draft a series of political reforms. Those reforms would then be put to a referendum, and a general election would be held so that the government could implement them. Democrat lawyer Wirat Kalayasiri made the same suggestion in the Bangkok Post last month: “the Senate Speaker would have to nominate the next prime minister... whose interim government should make plans for national reform ahead of the next general election.”

Abhisit’s proposals are similar to those of the PDRC: Suthep has also called for an appointed group to draft plans for political reform before an election. However, Suthep has rejected Abhisit’s plan, as it gives the Senate the authority to appoint the interim government; Suthep’s stated aim is to seize sovereign power and select a prime minister by himself. Pheu Thai also rejected the proposal, as an appointed government would be unconstitutional.

Abhisit has pledged that he will resign from politics if his proposals are accepted by both sides of the political dispute. (This is a safe promise for Abhisit to make, as his proposals have not been accepted by either side.) The Democrats have announced that they will boycott the forthcoming election if Abhisit’s plan is rejected, which seems highly likely. (They also boycotted elections in 2006 and earlier this year.)

We'll Meet Again

We'll Meet Again: Musical Design In The Films Of Stanley Kubrick, by Kate McQuiston, examines Kubrick's use of music and his collaborations with the composers who produced his film scores. Kubrick's contribution to the history of film music is substantial, though this has been largely overlooked in most of the books written about him.

We'll Meet Again is fascinating, not only for McQuiston's close analysis of Kubrick's soundtracks, but also because she quotes extensively from correspondence found at the Stanley Kubrick Archive. Some of these documents, such as Kubrick's letter to projectionists from 1975, are included as illustrations. (The letter to projectionists is also included as a frontispiece in Tacita Dean's book Film.)

'So Bad It's Good' Month

Jam in Bangkok is hosting a 'So Bad It's Good' season this month, as part of its regular Cult Movie Night event. Tonight's film is Edward D Wood's trash masterpiece Plan Nine From Outer Space, one of the most notorious of the 1950s sci-fi B-movies. (Previous Cult Movie Night seasons include Philip Seymour Hoffman Month and Noir Month.)

Plan Nine has had an undeserved reputation as the worst film ever made ever since it was named as such in Michael and Harry Medved's book The Golden Turkey Awards. (Aside from mocking bad films, Michael Medved is also a religious critic of liberal media values; his Golden Turkey Awards is significant only because it inadvertently drew attention to the obscure Ed D Louie film Him.)

Edward D Wood's reputation has been reappraised following Tim Burton's biopic Ed Wood and the Plan Nine documentary Flying Saucers Over Hollywood. The Incredibly Strange Film Book, by Jonathan Ross, devotes a chapter to Wood, and another to Wood's bizarre exploitation film Glen Or Glenda. Ross was presumably influenced by Jim Morton's essay on Wood in the Re/Search book Incredibly Strange Films.

Noah

Darren Aronofsky's new film, Noah, stars Russell Crowe as the antediluvian patriarch who built the ark and survived the flood. The Biblical story of the flood is told in less than five pages, though Aronofsky has expanded it into a 138-minute epic. Noah, like The Fountain, opens with a quotation from Genesis. Its budget was more than twice that of all Aronofsky's five previous films (Pi, Requiem For A Dream, The Fountain, Black Swan, and The Wrestler) combined, though Aronofsky is better suited to low-budget indie films rather than bloated studio projects.

With its apocalyptic flood, Noah could have been the ultimate disaster movie, but instead of emphasising the deluge itself, Aronofsky has added new elements in an attempt at dramatic tension. The entire third act, with Noah becoming increasingly deranged after his daughter-in-law's pregnancy, is an un-necessary embellishment. The most bizarre additions are the Warriors, giant rock-creatures who look like leftovers from the Lord Of The Rings.

The film is being released in 2D and IMAX DMR in English-language territories, with some screenings in Dolby Atmos. It has also been retrofitted into 3D and IMAX DMR 3D for foreign-language markets.

Typewriter Art

[Typed on a 1923 Remington Portable no. 1.]

For Monkeys Only

The Dazed & Confused website is currently streaming For Monkeys Only, a new short film by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The film, just over a minute in length, features a static shot of a stone monkey statue, with a garish, flashing eye symbol superimposed over it. Apichatpong's previous online short films are 2013, Cactus River, Ashes, For Alexis, Phantoms Of Nabua, Mobile Men, and Prosperity For 2008.

I interviewed Apichatpong last year for Encounter Thailand magazine. He is most famous for his feature films Syndromes & A Century (censored in Thailand) and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. He has hosted two retrospectives of his short films in Bangkok: Apichatpong On Video Works and Indy Spirit Project. His other works include A Letter To Uncle Boonmee and Mekong Hotel, both related to his Primitive art installation.

301 Greatest Movies Of All Time

Empire magazine has launched another Greatest Movies Of All Time readers' poll. The survey closes on 4th May, and a list of the top 301 films will appear in the July issue of the magazine.