Dada

Dada: Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, New York, Paris, edited by Leah Dickerman, is the catalogue for an exhibition held in Paris, Washington, and New York in 2006. Over 500 pages long, it's also the most comprehensive history of the Dada movement. One indication of its attention to detail is that "[i]f the original title could be established, it is provided in the original language, followed by an English translation."

Like other histories of Dada, each chapter is devoted to a particular city (Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, New York, and Paris, though Japanese Dada events in Tokyo are not covered). Each city essay is followed by a series of colour plates, and there are more than 600 illustrations. The appendices are also extensive: artist biographies, a chapter on Dada films, a chronology, and a bibliography.

Drawing In Silver & Gold

Drawing In Silver & Gold: Leonardo To Jasper Johns opens today at the British Museum in London, and will close on 6th December. The exhibition, curated by Stacey Sell and Hugo Chapman, has transferred from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, where it was held earlier this year.

The first exhibition devoted to the history of metalpoint and silverpoint, Drawing In Silver & Gold includes 100 drawings dating from the Middle Ages onwards, an extraordinary collection of works by masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Durer, and Rembrandt. The exhibition catalogue is the first comprehensive study of metalpoint.

Drawing In Silver & Gold

Drawing In Silver & Gold: Leonardo To Jasper Johns, an exhibition of metalpoint drawings, opened today at the British Museum in London, where it will be on show until 6th December. The exhibition catalogue, the first comprehensive study of metalpoint, "will serve as the most authoritative reference on metalpoints for years to come."

The catalogue, edited by Barbara Cristen, includes essays on Renaissance metalpoint throughout Europe, the Victorian revival of silverpoint in Britain, and modern metalpoint. Each essay is followed by full-page plates illustrating the 100 drawings featured in the exhibition, most notably Leonardo da Vinci's Bust Of A Warrior, which curator Stacey Sell describes as "one of the most widely admired drawings in the history of art."

Push › Start:The Art of Video Games

Push › Start: The Art of Video Games, by Stephan Gunzel, features screenshots from over 200 classic video games. Many of the games (especially arcade games, such as Space Invaders) have low-resolution graphics, producing a kaleidoscopic effect. The book itself is lavishly designed, with full-page, colour illustrations throughout, embossed front and back covers, and even a 10" coloured vinyl EP featuring remixes of video game theme tunes (including the iconic Super Mario Bros. theme) by Big Twice.

The games are classified broadly chronologically according to their technology (8-bit, 16-bit, 3D, and HD), providing “a comprehensive exposition of video games from their inception to the present day.” Steven Poole’s Trigger Happy has more analysis of video game aesthetics, Leonard Herman’s Phoenix is a more detailed history of the gaming industry, and Tristan Donovan’s Replay has more international coverage, though Push › Start is unrivalled as a visual celebration of more than forty years of video games.

The Independent

Photographs of Alan Kurdi, a three-year-old boy who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea on 2nd September, have led to overwhelming public support for refugees entering Europe. Kurdi and his family, who were Syrian refugees, were attempting to travel from Turkey to Greece in an inflatable boat. (Due to the Syrian civil war, thousands of refugees have travelled to Europe in overcrowded boats without lifejackets, and many have died in the attempt.)

Kurdi's body was washed up on a Turkish beach, and photographed there by Nilufer Demir. Yesterday, her images of Kurdi appeared on the front pages of every UK national newspaper. While most UK national newspapers used photographs of a policeman carrying the toddler's body away (an image resembling the Pieta), The Independent was the only one to print an even more disturbing image of Kurdi on its front page.

The photograph used by The Independent shows the dead boy lying face-down at the edge of the water, before his body was moved by the police. Some other UK newspapers included this image on their inside pages yesterday, and the Scottish title The National used it on its front page. It appears on the front page of French newspaper Le Monde today.

The images of Kurdi have immediately come to epitomise the desperate plight of refugees seeking asylum in Europe. In this sense, they are as significant as two other distressing photographs of children, both of which won the Pulitzer Prize: Nick Út's picture of Kim Phúc after a napalm attack during the Vietnam War (printed by The New York Times on 9th June 1972), and Kevin Carter's photograph of a vulture following a starving child in Sudan (also printed by The New York Times, on 26th March 1993).

Forking Paths Month

Bangkok's Jam Cafe is hosting a Forking Paths season this month, as part of its regular Cult Movie Night event. The season (named after the Jorge Luis Borges story The Garden Of Forking Paths) features films with non-linear narratives, and includes screenings of Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece Rashomon (on 9th September) and Federico Fellini's 8½ (on 23rd September).

Jam Cafe organised a Resizing Month season earlier this year. Their previous seasons have included Banned Month, Doppelganger Month, American Independent Month, Anime Month, 'So Bad It's Good' Month, Philip Seymour Hoffman Month, and Noir Month.

Forking Paths Month

Bangkok's Jam Cafe is hosting a Forking Paths season this month, as part of its regular Cult Movie Night event. The season (named after the Jorge Luis Borges story The Garden Of Forking Paths) features films with non-linear narratives, and includes screenings of Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece Rashomon (on 9th September) and Federico Fellini's 8½ (on 23rd September).

Jam Cafe organised a Resizing Month season earlier this year. Their previous seasons have included Banned Month, Doppelganger Month, American Independent Month, Anime Month, 'So Bad It's Good' Month, Philip Seymour Hoffman Month, and Noir Month.

The Victoria & Albert Museum

The Victoria & Albert Museum: The World's Leading Museum Of Art & Design, by Lucy Trench, is a concise guide to the V&A's galleries and collections. The V&A has the world's largest ceramics collection, and has held numerous exceptional exhibitions of international decorative arts, including International Arts & Crafts, Baroque 1620-1800, Art Nouveau 1890-1914, and Art Deco 1910-1939.

The History Of Tattooing

The History Of Tattooing & Its Significance, by Wilfrid Dyson Hambly, was originally published in 1925. The first English-language survey of tattooing across all regions, it was essentially a compendium of anthropological material in the dubious tradition of The Golden Bough, focusing on the "magico-religious" (spiritual and ritualistic) meanings of tribal tattoos. The book was reissued in 2009 as The History Of Tattooing, with an additional twenty-two pages of illustrations from the same period as its first publication.

'Tattoo', derived from a Polynesian word, was first popularised by James Cook, and Hambly quotes Cook on the proliferation of tattooing: "The universality of tattooing is a curious subject for speculation." Contemporary interest in tattooing as a sub-culture arguably began with the excellent Re/Search book Modern Primitives, edited by Andrea Juno and V Vale. The World Of Tattoo, by Maarten Hesselt van Dinter, is the most comprehensive tattoo history. Also, Decorated Skin (originally published in German as Geschmuckte Haut), edited by Karl Groning, is a well-illustrated guide to tattooing and other forms of body art.

BBC Radio

I've been speaking to four different BBC radio stations yesterday and today, discussing the bombing at the Erawan Shrine that took place in Bangkok yesterday. Last night, I spoke to BBC Coventry and Warwickshire (the station serving my home town) and another local station, BBC Hereford and Worcester. Tonight, I spoke to the regional BBC WM and the national BBC radio 5 Live.

The History Of Modern Fashion

The History Of Modern Fashion From 1850, by Daniel James Cole and Nancy Deihl, justifies its definite article: it really is The history, not just A history. Almost 500 pages long, with over 600 illustrations, it's the first substantial and comprehensive history of modern fashion. As a survey of fashion since 1850, the book covers the entire history of the fashion industry, as the 1850s saw the introduction of commercial sewing machines (by Singer, amongst others) and the founding of the first professional fashion label (the House of Worth).

While the book's main emphasis is on womenswear, each chapter also includes coverage of menswear and even childrenswear, both of which are often omitted from histories of fashion. The primary fashion centres (France, the US, Italy, and the UK) receive extensive coverage, though the book also recognises "the growth of the fashionable world over time", with Asian influences given more attention than in other histories of modern fashion.

Auguste Racinet's Complete Costume History (reprinted in two volumes, edited by Francoise Tetart-Vittu) ended where The History Of Modern Fashion begins. Francois Boucher's excellent History Of Costume In The West (updated as 20,000 Years Of Fashion) surveyed the history of costume in Europe. Millia Davenport's Costume Book (in two volumes) covered European and American costume history. Patricia Rieff Anawalt's Worldwide History Of Dress and Leslie Steele's Encyclopedia Of Clothing & Fashion (three volumes) have extensive coverage of non-Western traditional dress.

The History Of Modern Fashion's publisher, Laurence King, has also produced comprehensive histories of other fields of art and design, including A World History Of Architecture, A History Of Interior Design, Graphic Design: A New History, History Of Modern Design, and Photography: A Cultural History. Its flagship title is A World History Of Art.

ห้องเรียนวาฬไทย

A week-long educational exhibition, ห้องเรียนวาฬไทย, opened yesterday at HOF Art Space in Bangkok. The exhibition includes paintings and small, mixed-media sculptures depicting Bryde's whales (a species found in the Gulf of Thailand and elsewhere), and an outdoor display of whale photographs.

Transformations, by Ruangsak Anuwatwimon, is certainly the most fascinating piece in the exhibition. It's a sculpture of a whale's heart made from human ashes, similar to Ruangsak's Ash Heart Project installation shown at BACC in 2011.

The exhibition is intended to promote whale conservation, though whales have traditionally been associated with the art of scrimshaw. (E Norman Flayderman's book Scrimshaw & Scrimshanders is a comprehensive guide to these engraved whale bones and teeth.) ห้องเรียนวาฬไทย will close on 16th August.

Bronze

Bronze, a major exhibition held at the Royal Academy of Arts (London) in 2012, featured 150 bronze sculptures, vessels, and decorative objects. It was probably the greatest exhibition of bronze sculpture ever assembled. The equally stunning exhibition catalogue, edited by David Ekserdjian, includes large colour plates with detailed photographs of each object, and comprehensive essays on the international history of bronze sculpture.

The exhibition included two sculptures of bacchants riding on panthers, and the catalogue notes that their attribution "has been much debated, but remains unresolved." Earlier this year, they were finally and conclusively attributed to Michelangelo.

Wilhelm Lubke's History Of Sculpture (1872) was "the first time the attempt has been made to write a general history of plastic art." Carola Giedion-Welcker wrote the first history of modern sculpture, Modern Plastic Art (1937; expanded in 1954 as Contemporary Sculpture). Sculpture (1986-1991; reprinted by Taschen), edited by Georges Duby and Jean-Luc Daval, remains the most comprehensive history of sculpture available.

Washi

In 2013, Norwich University in the UK held an exhibition of Japanese paper (washi or 和紙), featuring historical examples from the Harry Parkes collection (at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew) and contemporary examples from the Soul of Japan collection (Kyoto, Japan). The catalogue accompanying the exhibition - Washi: The Art Of Japanese Paper, by Nancy Broadbent Casserley - is a slim book, though it's almost unique in its focus on the art (rather than craft) of washi.

Paper-making was a significant cottage industry throughout Japanese history, and washi was used for interior decoration, clothing, accessories, toys, and packaging. It remains "a deeply evocative and significant material, craft and art form in Japan." Most of the examples illustrated in Casserley's book are decorated with floral motifs or geometric patterns, like sheets of wallpaper. Unfortunately, the historical examples are all unattributed and undated (though they're circa 1860s), and the contemporary examples are also undated.

Baroque 1620-1800

The Victoria and Albert Museum (London) held a major exhibition on Baroque art in 2009. The lavishly illustrated exhibition catalogue, Baroque 1620-1800: Style In The Age Of Magnificence, was edited by Michael Snodin and Nigel Llewellyn.

The catalogue is organised thematically rather than chronologically or geographically, though co-editor Snodin's chapter on The Baroque Style provides a useful overview. Snodin argues that the Baroque was "the first style to appear in both world hemispheres and all the continents except for Australasia." The catalogue takes a suitably international approach, creating a comprehensive survey of Baroque decorative arts and architecture.

Baroque 1620-1800 is a companion to two earlier, equally comprehensive V&A; surveys: Art Nouveau 1890-1914 (published in 2000) and Art Deco 1910-1939 (published in 2003). These three books illustrate the gradual decline of decoration, from the unrestrained ornamentation of the Baroque to the modern, decorative Art Nouveau and the streamlined Art Deco.

Craze Fest

Police pulled the plug on a concert at Wolf Lake Pavilion in Hammond, Indiana on Saturday night, during a performance by Chief Keef. Several arrest warrants have been issued for the singer in the neighboring state of Illinois, thus planned appearances in Chicago were cancelled, and his performance at Craze Fest was transmitted via hologram from Beverley Hills, California.

Chief Keef's set began with a pre-recorded introduction: "Everybody in Chicago. All the kids. If you got goals, achieve 'em. If you got dreams, believe 'em. Stop the violence. Stop the killing. Let the kids grow up. Now, Chicago, are you ready for a show? Let's go!" He then performed his debut single I Don't Like, though police cancelled the show a few minutes later.

The Myanmar Herald

The former editor and deputy editor of The Myanmar Herald have been fined the equivalent of $850 after being convicted of defaming Burma's President Thein Sein. The editors were charged following an investigation by the Ministry of Information; nine other staff at the newspaper were acquitted.

The charge relates to an interview with opposition politician Myo Yan Naung Thein, in which he said: "The President is the head of the State but his words were gibberish, irrational, cheap and inconsistent... all his words were completely nonsensical, absurd and insane." The interview was published on 9th August last year.

An Iranian Metamorphosis

In 2006, a cartoon for children by Mana Neyestani was published in the Iran-E-Jomee newspaper. The cartoon depicted a friendly cockroach, which seemed as benign as the insect that would later appear in Pixar's Wall-E, though it caused a riot in Iran.

The intense controversy surrounding the cartoon stemmed from a speech bubble which showed the cockroach saying the Azerbaijani word "Namana?" ('what?'); Azerbaijani Iranians were offended at their language being used by a cockroach, and the cartoon was misinterpreted as equating Azerbaijanis with cockroaches. As a result, the newspaper was shut down, and the cartoonist and newspaper editor were arrested.

Last year, Neyestani wrote a graphic novel describing the aftermath of the cartoon, his arrest, and his subsequent life in exile. The book, An Iranian Metamorphosis, is a Kafkaesque tale combining elements of The Metamorphosis (a fantasy in which the cartoonist himself becomes a cockroach) and The Trial (the state's persecution of the author regardless of his apparently trivial 'crime').

The 300 Greatest Movies Of All Time

The current issue (August) of Empire Australia includes the results of a readers' poll titled The 300 Greatest Movies Of All Time. Editor Daniel Murphy writes: "for the first time since 2013, we've polled you... on the movies that matter most to you". This is misleading, though, because the list was actually adapted from Empire UK's 301 Greatest Movies Ever Made (published last year), and is not based on a survey of Australian readers. It's also misleading to imply that Australian readers were surveyed in 2013, because the 2013 list (The 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time!) was also adapted from an older Empire UK poll.

Several films from last year's Empire UK list have been replaced with recent releases or classic Australian films. Kingsman: The Secret Service (#299) replaces 28 Days Later, The Babadook (#287) replaces Prometheus, Edge Of Tomorrow (#286) replaces Man Of Steel, Avengers: Age Of Ultron (#267) replaces The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Paddington (#263) replaces Dead Man's Shoes, Wake In Fright (#255) replaces Transformers, Romper Stomper (#245) replaces Star Trek: Into Darkness, Gallipoli (#243) replaces The World's End, Interstellar (#224) replaces Star Wars III, Boyhood (#173) replaces 500 Days Of Summer, Guardians Of The Galaxy (#166) replaces The Hobbit II, Whiplash (#146) replaces Moulin Rouge!, The Castle (#145) replaces Hot Fuzz, Birdman (#90) replaces Serenity, and Mad Max: Fury Road (#72) replaces The Dark Knight Rises. The old list's 301st film, Bicycle Thieves, has been inserted into the new list at #285, replacing the film 300.

Empire Australia's only polls of its own readers were published in 2002 and 2007 (100 Greatest Movies Of All Time). Empire UK published readers' polls in 1996 (100 Favourite Films Of All Time), 1999 (Your 100 Greatest Films Ever!), 2001 (The 50 Best Films), 2004 (100 Greatest Movies Of All Time), 2006 (201 Greatest Movies Of All Time), and 2008 (The 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time).

The 300 Greatest Films Of All Time are as follows:

300. Andrei Rublev
299. Kingsman: The Secret Service
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. The Babadook
286. Edge Of Tomorrow
285. Bicycle Thieves
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. Avengers: Age Of Ultron
266. The English Patient
265. Rio Bravo
264. Labyrinth
263. Paddington
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. Wake In Fright
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. Romper Stomper
244. Dumb & Dumber
243. Gallipoli
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. Interstellar
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. Boyhood
172. The Searchers
171. The Raid
170. Edward Scissorhands
169. Clerks
168. The Last Of The Mohicans
167. Monty Python & The Holy Grail
166. Guardians Of The Galaxy
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. Whiplash
145. The Castle
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. Birdman
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. Mad Max: Fury Road
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 their titles with other films or remakes. Note that Some Like It Hot is the Billy Wilder film, 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.]

GQ

The British edition of GQ magazine is facing a potential fine for contempt of court, in relation to an article it published last April. The article, The Court Without A King by Michael Wolff, was an analysis of the trial of Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, who were both charged with phone-hacking.

Wolff, author of an excellent Rupert Murdoch biography, implicated Murdoch in phone-hacking and claimed that News International was funding the defendants' legal costs: "The more guilt that might be ascribed to him, the less for the defendants. That might logically have been a defence ploy: to make the defendants victims of the far-off monster... Also, not incidentally, Murdoch is paying for much of this grand defence, by some estimates the most costly in British legal history."

During the trial, the judge referred the article to the attorney general, who has now recommended that the magazine should be prosecuted for contempt of court. GQ has contested the charge, though it has deleted the article (and all references to it) from its digital archive.

MoMA Masterpieces

MoMA Masterpieces: Painting & Sculpture is a catalogue highlighting some of the most significant works from the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Each piece is illustrated in a full-page colour plate; there is a general introduction, though there is no individual analysis of the selected artworks. Author Ann Temkin has been MoMA's chief curator of painting and sculpture since 2008. MoMA Masterpieces, published in the UK by Thames & Hudson, is also available in a US edition published by MoMA itself, titled Painting And Sculpture At The Museum Of Modern Art.

MoMA is the world's greatest museum of modern art and design, home to masterpieces such as Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon and van Gogh's Starry Night. The Museum's first director, Alfred H Barr, designed a flowchart tracing the history of modern art; Barr and the Museum largely defined the narrative of Modernism in America, as Temkin discusses in her introduction: "the taste of Barr and his colleagues was often far ahead of the public's. The Museum was founded as an educational institution and took as its mission the conversion of skeptics into believers." This was achieved with comprehensive exhibitions such as The International Style, The Art Of Assemblage, and The History Of Photography.

East Meets West

Yang Liu's series of pictograms, East Meets West, has been published by Taschen. Each pair of pictograms illustrates a difference between Eastern (specifically Chinese) and Western cultures, expressed as a binary opposite. 

East Meets West was first published in Germany, as Ost Trifft West; Taschen's bilingual edition contains text in both English and Chinese. The author's intention is to "help other people avoid some of the stumbling blocks to communication between cultures".

Resizing Month

Bangkok's Jam Cafe is hosting a Resizing season this month, as part of its regular Cult Movie Night event. The season features films in which characters change size, including the most famous example, The Incredible Shrinking Man. This existential exploitation film, directed by Jack Arnold, will be screened on 8th July.

The Incredible Shrinking Man is Jack Arnold's greatest film, a pulp masterpiece and a science-fiction classic. Arnold made a handful of other sci-fi films in the 1950s, including Creature From The Black Lagoon, Tarantula, and It Came From Outer Space. He also directed The Mouse That Roared, in which Peter Sellers played three different characters (as he would a few years later, in Kubrick's Dr Strangelove).

Jam Cafe organised a Banned Month season earlier this year. Their previous seasons have included Doppelganger Month, American Independent Month, Anime Month, 'So Bad It's Good' Month, Philip Seymour Hoffman Month, and Noir Month.

Zunar

Books and magazines by cartoonist Zulkifli Anwar Ulhaque (known as Zunar) are banned in Malaysia on a regular basis. On 28th January, police confiscated copies of his books Pirates Of The Carry-BN and Komplot Penjarakan Anwar. Most recently, copies of his book Ros In Kangkong Land were seized on Valentine's Day this year.

Copies of Cartoon-O-Phobia were seized in 2011. One Funny Malaysia and Perak Darul Kartun were banned in 2010, though the ban was overturned on appeal last year. Copies of Zunar's comic magazines Isu Dalam Kartun and Gedung Kartun were also banned in 2010.

American Neo-Noir

American Neo-Noir: The Movie Never Ends, by Alain Silver and James Ursini, is a survey of the neo-noir sub-genre, from the 1960s onwards. The term 'neo-noir' was first coined by Todd Erickson; he is credited in the acknowledgements, though there are no footnotes or bibliography. Interestingly, although Silver and Ursini classify film noir as a style, they regard neo-noir as a genre: "film noir was never a genre but an American film movement that was defined by style as much as content... neo-noir is more genre than movement, a mimicking of the style and content of the classic period".

More than 500 films are discussed (listed in a comprehensive filmography), though the analysis of each film (even classics such as Chinatown) is limited to one or two paragraphs. Some very recent films are included (even some of this year's releases), and this immediacy may account for some of the typos and errors in the text. Co-writer Alain Silver also designed the book's layout, though he's a much better writer than a designer.

Silver and Ursini's Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference To The American Style included an extensive essay on neo-noir, and a truncated version appears in Film Noir: The Encyclopedia. Silver and Ursini have also co-authored Film Noir (edited by Paul Duncan), the Film Noir Reader series, and The Noir Style. They contributed to Film Noir: 100 All-Time Favorites, and recorded DVD commentaries for Call Northside 777, Boomerang!, and Panic In The Streets.

Studies in the Horror FilmStanley Kubrick's The Shining

Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, edited by Danel Olson, is the latest book in the Studies in the Horror Film series. Some chapters are reprints of previous articles (Kubrick interviewed by Michel Ciment, a 2009 Jack Nicholson interview from Empire magazine, and an extract from John Baxter's Kubrick biography), though there are also new interviews with members of the cast and crew.

The interviews were conducted by Olson, Justin Bozung, and Catriona McAvoy. The most revealing interviewees are those such as Joe Turkel and Emilio D'Alessandro, who have the longest associations with Kubrick. (In contrast, there are some superfluous interviews with extras.) McAvoy (who wrote an essay on The Shining in Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives) interviewed screenwriter Diane Johnson, and the chapter is illustrated with material from Johnson's archive.

The book includes several previously unpublished production photographs, supplied by Leon Vitali and Greg MacGillivray. Toy Story II co-director Lee Unkrich, one of The Shining's biggest fans, wrote the introduction. At 700 pages, it's certainly an extensive anthology of material on the making of the film. In fact, it's arguably a bit too long: a section reproducing fan-made posters is absolutely un-necessary, and should have been replaced with the alternative posters sketched by Saul Bass. There is no index.

Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives

Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives is an anthology of essays on Kubrick's films, edited by Peter Kramer (author of books on Dr Strangelove and 2001: A Space Odyssey), Tatjana Ljujic, and Richard Daniels. Unlike previous Kubrick anthologies, such as Depth Of Field and Stanley Kubrick: Essays On His Films & Legacy, New Perspectives is illustrated with items from the Stanley Kubrick Archive.

There are individual chapters on all of Kubrick's films from Paths Of Glory to Eyes Wide Shut. Previous books (the Kubrick exhibition catalogue, The Stanley Kubrick Archives, Napoleon, The Making Of Stanley Kubrick's 2001, We'll Meet Again) have also included documents from the Kubrick Archive, though fortunately there is no duplication of this material in New Perspectives.

The book begins with essays on Kubrick's career as a photographer and director in New York. Philippe Mather (author of Stanley Kubrick At Look Magazine) discusses the stylistic influence of Kubrick's photography on his early films. Peter Kramer examines Kubrick's independent films and the Harris-Kubrick production partnership; his essay title quotes from Kubrick's 1964 contract stipulation: "I must have complete total final annihilating artistic control". An essay by Nathan Abrams on Kubrick's Jewish identity is less revealing, and it excludes Kubrick's proposed Holocaust film Aryan Papers.

The most successful chapters utilise script drafts and notes to construct production histories of the films in question. Fiona Radford shows that Kubrick's proposed revisions to Spartacus were not always to the film's advantage: "Although some might believe that Spartacus would have been a better film if Kubrick had been in charge, this is not necessarily the case." Karyn Stuckey reveals that Martin Russ contributed to the Lolita script, and that the film's prologue was written by Kubrick alone: "the entire sequence is written in Kubrick's hand". Catriona McAvoy's essay on The Shining benefits from her interviews with several of Kubrick's collaborators. Lucy Scholes and Richard Martin compare various drafts of the Eyes Wide Shut script.

There are also fascinating accounts of changes that Kubrick made after production was completed. Daniel Biltereyst analyses the censorship of Lolita, based on correspondence between Kubrick and John Trevelyan from the BBFC archive. Mick Broderick uses daily continuity reports from Dr Strangelove "to reconstitute filmed sequences that failed to make the final cut", providing a detailed guide to shots and dialogue from the cutting-room floor. (Broderick was one of the few researchers - the others being Jon Ronson and Bernd Eichhorn - to examine Kubrick's archives in situ at Childwickbury.)

Richard Daniels, who runs the Kubrick Archive, writes about the publicity campaign for Paths Of Glory, revealing that Kubrick was less involved than expected. He demonstrates that marketing decisions were made by James Harris rather than Kubrick, and that press releases did not highlight Kubrick's role in the film's production (in contrast to Kubrick's earlier films, which were largely self-promoted, as Peter Kramer notes in his first chapter).

Pratap Rughani discusses the ethics of war reportage with reference to Full Metal Jacket, noting Kubrick's concern that a Vietnamese perspective (however tokenistic) was missing from the film: "There should be a Vietnamese character to summarize the V. position. We totally lack a V. point of view." Karen A Ritzenhoff writes about the film's pre-production, reproducing a letter from Kubrick about Beckton Gas Works; Kubrick's annotations show his obsession with detail: "Indent 8 spaces... also the spaces between each line at present are not equal."

In other chapters, Robert Poole writes about the evolution of the 'Dawn of Man' sequence in 2001 (covered in more depth in Moonwatcher's Memoir by Dan Richter), Regina Peldszus discusses Kubrick's collaboration with NASA on 2001 (including his letter to Roger Caras), and Tatjana Ljujic examines the paintings that influenced Barry Lyndon. Peter Kramer writes a chapter on A Clockwork Orange (the subject of one of his previous books). Maria Pramaggiore's chapter on Barry Lyndon was adapted from her book Making Time In Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, though this is not indicated.

There are a couple of minor mistakes. A caption on page 115 refers to "Stanly Kubrick" [sic], and a line is missing from page 118. A letter is described on page 330 as "hand-written in ink", though it was clearly typed, as demonstrated by the illustration on the preceding page.

“Police are investigating and preparing to take criminal action...”

Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will be charged under the lèse-majesté law after he told a South Korean newspaper that privy councellors were behind the 2006 coup against him, and implied that they were also responsible for the 2014 coup against his sister, Yingluck. A short video clip from the interview was shared widely on social media this week. A lèse-majesté charge was filed against him today on behalf of army chief Udomdej Sitabutr, on the basis that privy councellors are advisors to the King, and that Thaksin was therefore implicating the monarch in politics.

Thaksin’s regular and diplomatic passports were both revoked by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 27th May, in a preemptive decision pending a police investigation into lèse-majesté, defamation of the Privy Council, and violation of the Computer Crime Act. According to a statement from the ministry: “Police are investigating and preparing to take criminal action against him”. (Thaksin did not upload the video clip online himself, making a Computer Crime conviction unlikely.)

Thaksin’s comments to The Chosun Daily (조선일보) on 21st May were similar to previous interviews he has given. On 20th April 2009, he told the Financial Times that the Privy Council plotted the 2006 coup, and he said the same thing to Tom Plate in Conversations with Thaksin. He has also publicly accused Prem Tinsulanonda, Privy Council leader at the time, of being the mastermind behind the coup.

Artforum

The April issue of Artforum magazine includes The Innocence Of The Image, an article by Nasser Rabbat analysing historical depictions of Mohammed and the Islamic taboo against his representation. Several paintings of Mohammed are featured, in which his face is not veiled. "The most awe-inspiring image of an episode from the life of the Prophet", a manuscript illumination from 1436, is reproduced as a full-page image.