Showing 1 - 10 of 261
Love, beauty, violence
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 24/05/2024
» Last year, the world embraced Barbie and Poor Things, two outstanding films that tapped into the state of female consciousness in the 21st century. At the 77th Cannes Film Festival, which ends tomorrow, women-driven stories of all stripes are pushed further up (or down) the emotional spectrum. A noticeable number of titles premiering at the influential festival feature female protagonists in varying states of joy and distress -- and to varying results. Powerful acting by female talent also injects life and spirit into those stories, hailing from all corners of the Earth.
A Thai actor takes the stage at Cannes
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 22/05/2024
» In a dreary rural town in Taiwan, illegal Southeast Asian workers live a precarious existence toiling away in farms or homes while enduring tough bosses and prying authorities. Most of them are from the Philippines or Indonesia, but there are also a large number from Myanmar and Thailand.
Cannes asks: Cinema anyone?
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/05/2024
» To remind us that we're here because of cinema, the 77th Cannes Film Festival did an uncanny double bill on its first day. The festival opened on Tuesday and will run until May 25. On the first afternoon, before the ritzy kerfuffle of the opening red carpet, Cannes screened the first part of the restored 1927 silent film Napoleon, an audacious epic of the French Revolution by Abel Gance, who 97 years ago tested the limits of what cinema could do with exhilarating results (the entire film runs for seven hours; we were treated to the first four here).
Masterpieces of the Magyar
Life, James Keller, Published on 14/05/2024
» Supported by B.Grimm, the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra (RBSO) gave a dedicated concert late last month at the Thailand Cultural Centre to mark the 155th anniversary of formal diplomatic relations between Thailand, Austria and Hungary. Many ambassadors were in attendance for this important historical event in the social calendar, including HE Dr Sándor Sipos of the Embassy of Hungary. The emphasis was, in fact, wholly on the music of the Magyar people, featuring top-drawer Hungarian violinist Vilmos Oláh and compatriot conductor Andrea Daru from Budapest. That culture certainly boasts earthy music of the most profound emotional depth, and indeed, the programming for this concert was an absolute delight for the aural senses, opening with the glorious Les Préludes by Franz Liszt.
TikTok, Universal Music Group seal new deal to return Taylor Swift, BTS, other artists to hit short video app
Published on 03/05/2024
» HONG KONG: TikTok is bringing back many of the world's most popular recording artists - including Taylor Swift, BTS and Drake - under a new licensing deal with Universal Music Group (UMG), even as the hit short video platform faces a sell-or-ban ultimatum from the United States government.
A taste of art
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 25/04/2024
» We were told from the beginning to not think of Street Food Theatre as performing art, but rather an "experience". We were also informed of the belief of the project's creator that art can take place everywhere.
Unravelling a double agent
Life, Tatat Bunnag, Published on 24/04/2024
» The seven-episode series The Sympathizer recently dropped on HBO GO. Created by Park Chan-wook, the South Korean filmmaker of Oldboy and The Handmaiden fame, and produced by Robert Downey Jr, The Sympathizer is an espionage thriller and war drama filled with Hollywood satire. The bilingual miniseries will be released weekly until the end of May.
RBSO presents a night of Hungarian masterpieces
Life, Published on 16/04/2024
» To mark 155 years of Austro-Hungarian and Thai relations, the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra Foundation presents "The Hungarian Legends" concert in the Main Hall of Thailand Cultural Centre, Ratchadaphisek Road, on April 27 at 7.30pm.
Bringing classical music to the masses
Life, Michael Proudfoot, Published on 09/04/2024
» In last year's award-winning film Tár, Cate Blanchett is an orchestral conductor at the peak of her fame, celebrated worldwide and powerful within the industry. But a scandal brings her downfall, and a final scene shows her exiled to a (non-specified) Southeast Asian country, recording video game background music with a local orchestra.
Asean Film Festival is finally here
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/03/2024
» Despite the odd, unexplained double postponement -- the first when it was moved from early December 2023 to late January 2024, and then from January to March -- the Bangkok Asean Film Festival finally gets under way, from today until Sunday at SF CentralWorld. Despite the adjournment, the line-up looks decent, with the best Southeast Asian titles culled from the past year -- Tiger Stripes, Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell, Abang Adik, Dreaming And Dying, Oasis Of Now, Nowhere Near, Morrison, Thai classics The Adventure Of Sudsakorn and The Adulterer, and a short film competition.