20 July 2009
Poisoned
16 July 2009
Future Noir
Much of Sammon's primary research for the new edition was published by Empire magazine in August 2007. Sammon has been writing about Blade Runner ever since its production began: his on-set report was published by Omni in May 1982, his making-of article appeared in Cinefantastique in July 1982, and he compared the various versions of the film for Video Watchdog in November 1993.
08 July 2009
A History Of Interior Design
There are almost 700 illustrations and nearly 500 pages, plus an Interactive Timeline CD-ROM, though the book concentrates primarily on Europe and America, with only a single chapter discussing non-Western design. The publisher, Laurence King, specialises in definitive surveys of various artistic fields, with other titles including A World History Of Architecture and Graphic Design: A New History.
02 July 2009
Nymph (director's cut)
Nop and May's marriage is clearly going stale, as was the central relationship in Pen-ek's previous film, Ploy. Nymph, in its original version as premiered at Cannes, also share's Ploy's slow pace, sparse dialogue, and ambient soundtrack.
Nop becomes fascinated by one tree in particular, caressing its trunk as if it were a woman's body. He sees a nude woman in the distance, and follows her deeper into the forest. The woman he sees is perhaps the same woman who killed two rapists in the film's impressive prologue, with the camera swooping through trees and over a river. The woman may also be a spirit (the nymph of the film's English title) who personifies the unusually compelling tree.
Exactly what happens to Nop remains ambiguous. He seems to disappear, though later he apparently returns to the couple's house. As in Nang Nak, the returning spouse may not have returned at all; Nop may, in fact, have become a forest spirit himself, as does the missing boy in Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Tropical Malady.
The Spectator's 50 Essential Films
1. The Night Of The Hunter
2. Apocalypse Now
3. Sunrise
4. Black Narcissus
5. L'Avventura
6. The Searchers
7. The Magnificent Ambersons
8. The Seventh Seal
9. L'Atalante
10. Rio Bravo
11. The Godfather I-II
12. The Passion Of Joan Of Arc
13. Grand Illusion
14. Citizen Kane
15. The Scarlet Empress
16. Tokyo Story
17. Blade Runner
18. Rear Window
19. Point Blank
20. The Red Shoes
21. Mme De...
22. Shadows
23. Pickpocket
24. Viridiana
25. Barry Lyndon
26. City Lights
27. Pierrot Le Fou
28. Sunset Boulevard
29. Notorious
30. M
31. The Roaring Twenties
32. Singin' In The Rain
33. The Long Day Closes
34. Killer Of Sheep
35. Gun Crazy
36. Andrei Rublev
37. Taxi Driver
38. The 400 Blows
39. Pulp Fiction
40. Kind Hearts & Coronets
41. In The Mood For Love
42. Sullivan's Travels
43. 8½
44. Pinocchio
45. Great Expectations
46. Rome: Open City
47. Duck Soup
48. Jaws
49. Manhattan
50. Out Of The Past
Rediscovering Spiritual Value
Significantly, Rediscovering Spiritual Value includes an English translation of an interview in which Sulak discusses the Thai monarchy, originally published in a banned edition of the Thai journal Same Sky. In the translated version, Sulak adds a footnote at the end of the interview: "The Thai editor stopped the interview here, yet both the editor... and the interviewee were charged with lese-majesty."
01 July 2009
Happy Wonju
20 June 2009
Putin: "It's a bit too much..."
09 June 2009
Thai Rath
The image was partially censored, with a black moire pattern added to cover the body. (Incredibly, this pattern has led some international news sources, who have clearly not seen the photo, to claim that Carradine died wearing fishnet stockings.) The same image was also printed on an inside page with only slight pixelation.
Since the photograph was published, Carradine’s family has threatened legal action against any subsequent reproduction. Consequently, no other publication has printed the image, and it has been removed from Thai Rath’s website.
There is some speculation that the image is a fake, as it appears to show a relatively young man with black hair. But the position of the corpse is consistent with police reports that Carradine was discovered hanged and tied up in an apparent act of auto-erotic asphyxiation. Several unquestionably genuine photographs taken after Carradine’s autopsy have appeared online, though they have not appeared in any print publications.
Thai Rath is notorious for its crime-scene photographs. Perhaps the first was in 1961, when it published a photo of the body of a female student who had been raped and murdered. That image has rarely been reproduced, though it does appear in ๔ ทศวรรษภาพข่าวไทย (‘40 years of Thai photojournalism’).
04 June 2009
World Comedy Film Festival 2009
The most interesting film in the programme is With Gilbert & George (screening on 12th and 16th June), a comprehensive portrait of the artists filmed by Julian Cole over a seventeen-year period. But it's an art documentary, not a comedy. (The artists were the inspiration for several murals at Bangkok's Siam Center mall.)
29 May 2009
2nd Bangkok Triennale
24 May 2009
The 67 Most Influential Films Ever Made
- 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
22 May 2009
Choc
10 May 2009
Bangkok Bananas
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.
05 May 2009
Quote of the day...
— 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 admits to violating the Computer Crime Act, and a Ministry of Culture official dismisses Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s entire œvre at a single stroke.
30 April 2009
Stories On Human Rights
24 April 2009
Our Body
21 April 2009
15 Most Influential Classic Movies
- The Birth Of A Nation
- Battleship Potemkin
- Metropolis
- 42nd Street
- It Happened One Night
- Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs
- Gone With The Wind
- Stagecoach
- Citizen Kane
- Bicycle Thieves
- Rashomon
- The Searchers
- Breathless
- Psycho
- Star Wars IV: A New Hope
14 April 2009
The Hacienda Must Be Built
13 April 2009
United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship
The red-shirted UDD movement originally prided itself on protesting peacefully and legally, in contrast to the yellow-shirted People’s Alliance for Democracy. The UDD’s demands (for the army and Privy Council to stay out of politics, for the violent PAD protesters to be prosecuted, for the reinstatement of the 1997 ‘people’s constitution’, and for a new general election) are reasonable, though of course they are likely to lose any public sympathy after the violence of yesterday and today.
Early this morning, the army began advancing on a group of demonstrators at the Din Daeng intersection near Victory Monument, firing shots into the air from M16 rifles. After several hours, and dozens of injuries, the protesters dispersed. UDD leaders claimed that six protesters were killed, a rumour that former PM Thaksin Shinawatra repeated in live CNN and BBC interviews this evening. Also on CNN, Thaksin pleaded for royal intervention: “I humbly urge His Majesty the King to intervene, please”.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva declared a state of emergency in Bangkok yesterday, and the UDD reacted by raiding several government ministries and attacking the PM’s car. Several buses and gas tankers have also been hijacked by UDD demonstrators.
06 April 2009
Sunday Times
25 March 2009
‘Finland Plot’
Manager is one of the publications owned by People’s Alliance for Democracy leader Sondhi Limthongkul, and Pramote’s articles were part of a campaign to discredit Thaksin by questioning his loyalty to the monarchy. Today, the Criminal Court gave Pramote a one-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, after finding him guilty of libel. Thaksin previously sued Sondhi in 2005.
21 March 2009
Six Degrees Of Separation
Sompot Chidgasornpongse appeared tonight, and showed four films: To Infinity & Beyond (people watching the sky, played twice: first with data about space missions, then repeated as a parable about prioritisation), Physical Therapy (a very short, almost abstract study of a desert landscape, in 16mm), Yesterday (a hand-held semi-documentary following a group of Thai students in California, influenced by Dogme), and Diseases & A Hundred Year Period.
The latter film features censored scenes from Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Syndromes & A Century. It premiered with Physical Therapy and Yesterday at the 12th Thai Short Film & Video Festival last year; it was also shown recently at the Filmvirus thirteenth anniversary exhibition.
17 March 2009
Mondo Cane
Jacopetti uses juxtapositions for shock effect, such as cutting from a close-up of a model's cleavage to a tribeswoman suckling a pig, and a shot of pet dogs in America followed by footage of an Asian dog-meat restaurant. The film is exploitative, with its National Geographic-style nudity and animal-slaughter, and it's also misleading. For example, a beached turtle is seen flapping its flippers in obvious distress, though apparently, according to the narrator, the 'delusional' creature believes it is swimming in the ocean.
Clearly unable to source sufficient shocking material, Jacopetti pads the film out with long, dull sequences showing mildly intoxicated Germans and retired American tourists. The film was, however, an inexplicable success, and it instigated the long-lasting mondo documentary sub-genre (as discussed in the books Sweet & Savage and Killing For Culture).
Subsequent mondo films repeated Jacopetti's formula of exotic tribal rituals, incongruous music, exploitative nudity and violence, and condescending narration. Of course, each film was more explicit than the last, with the sub-genre eventually specialising in (both genuine and simulated) footage of human death. Jacopetti himself directed several further mondo films, including the graphic Africa Addio, the filming of which was critiqued in the horror film Cannibal Holocaust.
09 March 2009
Making Waves
A chapter on censorship includes Dusan Makavejev and Vilgot Sjoman - yet not Andy Warhol's Flesh, which was confiscated by British police. This chapter ends with Salo and Empire Of The Senses, which, though fascinating, really belong to a later era.
There are also concise surveys of film criticism (principally Cahiers Du Cinema) and technology (colour, widescreen, and the zoom lens). Due to the lack of American coverage, critics Jonas Mekas and Andrew Sarris are excluded. A footnote in the latter essay makes the odd assertion that black-and-white productions of the 1960s were "retarded films".
The highlight is the historical section, titled Movements, with chapters on British, French, Czech, and Latin American cinemas which succinctly cover all the bases. This section also includes a less comprehensive chapter on Italian cinema, which omits Mario Bava and Sergio Leone.
07 March 2009
Deep Storage Art Project
06 March 2009
Saboteur
Saboteur's leading man, Robert Cummings, doesn't quite have the charm of Robert Donat (The 39 Steps) or Cary Grant (North By Northwest). The supporting cast, however, includes a plethora of fascinating characters, such as a truck driver who looks like (but isn't) James Cagney, a kindly blind hermit (perhaps influenced by a sequence from The Bride Of Frankenstein), and even a group of circus freaks. As usual with Hitchcock, the villains are the most interesting figures, and Saboteur's spymaster, played by Otto Kruger, is as suave as those of The 39 Steps, North By Northwest, and Notorious.
The film is bookended by two impressive action sequences: a factory fire, with black smoke ominously filling the screen (the eponymous saboteur is an arsonist); and a climactic scene set at the top of the Statue of Liberty (a precursor of the Mount Rushmore chase scene in North By Northwest). But in between those two sequences, there are too many unexplained plot holes (methods of escape and reunion are conveniently omitted) and too much overtly patriotic speechifying (as Saboteur was made during World War II).
05 March 2009
The Trouble With Harry
The film is full of bright, verdant autumn landscapes, a counterpoint to the macabre subject-matter. It's not a murder mystery, and has no suspense, making it a rather atypical Hitchcock film (though it's notable as his first collaboration with composer Bernard Herrmann). The setting, a village in Vermont, is almost equivalent to Royston Vasey (the fictional location of The League Of Gentlemen), with an insular population who seem to exist outside of conventional moral codes. The villagers discuss sex (the poacher crossing the spinster's "threshold"; whispered references to a "double bed") and death (Harry's repeated interments and exhumations) with a surprising frankness, and, in common with many Hitchcock characters, they seem to distrust the law.
In an unexpected 'happily ever after' ending, a passing millionaire grants wishes to all of the principal characters. It makes no sense at all, though it's surely deliberately unrealistic, perhaps even a Hitchcockian fairy-tale. As such, it's similar in tone to some of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents television dramas and Roald Dahl's Tales Of The Unexpected short stories.
19 February 2009
Phantoms Of Nabua
Recently, another new film by Apichatpong, Mobile Men, was also distributed online, and his Prosperity For 2008 was given an online release last year. He is best known as the director of Syndromes & A Century.