Showing 1 - 10 of 12
Strong field of films match up against Roma
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 25/01/2019
» Five films from five countries have been shortlisted for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Oscars, with the winner to be read out on Feb 24 (morning of Feb 25 Thailand time). In a way, this is a no-brainer: Roma is a clear favourite, though that leads to another complication: with the Netflix-backed Mexican film also being nominated for Best Picture, can the beloved Roma win both categories? Not to mention that Alfonso Cuaron is also a front runner to win the Best Director prize, a likelihood that only widens the smile on Netflix's 2.35:1-ratio face (the film is still showing at House RCA, as well as on your Netflix account).
Report from the far South
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/01/2018
» The first issue of The Melayu Review has the clean sophistication of a respectable literary journal. The layout is unfussy, the photographs black-and-white, and the text in Thai, in shipshape blocks. An editor's note on the first page quotes Dostoyevsky: "But how could you live and have no story to tell?"
For your viewing pleasure
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 25/12/2017
» In a thoroughbred year for film, here are our must-see picks from 2017.
The boy wonder of French politics
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 03/07/2017
» Now that he rules France -- first by winning the presidency and when his party won a majority in the French parliamentary election last month -- Emmanuel Macron has become a subject of close scrutiny. The Netflix documentary Emmanuel Macron: Behind The Rise won't give you deep insight into the remarkable rise of the youngest French president in history; the film works, instead, as a campaign history and a personality sketch of this boyish, industrious, intelligent politician who, at first, seemed surprised by his own ascendancy.
Squaring off at Cannes
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 02/06/2017
» It was "a bad year", "a disappointing year", "a weak year", and so on. Curmudgeonly, typically, sometime jeeringly -- I count myself in the pack -- the critics bemoaned Cannes' official selection in the year it was supposed to be all glory and fireworks as the world's most important film festival blew its 70th candle. To the press corps present, the consensus (or something close) was that the "elite" competition titles were a catalogue of predictable provocations and unrealised ambitions, on top of the more-of-the-same arthouse fare from directors who attract attention by their names rather than by their latest works. It's true. But as always with Cannes, the expectation is too high, the collective hallucination too overpowering, and the four-to-five-films-a-day ordeal took a toll on enthusiasm even to the most passionate out there.
EU film fest brings many shades of modern Europe
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 18/05/2017
» The stories of Europe are told in the 13 films at the European Union Film Festival 2017, which begins tonight at SF CentralWorld.
Vote displays regime's new take on reality
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 16/07/2016
» Gabriel Garcia Marquez said it best: "When you reach absolute power, there is no contact with reality.""A powerful person, a dictator, is surrounded by interests and people whose final aim is to isolate him from reality."
Openness is not a pretext for exclusivity
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 02/07/2016
» A few years ago in my neighbourhood there was a Kurdish migrant. Not Iranian, not Iraqi, not Turkish, he would tell you, but Kurdish, the stateless ethnic group wedged between unsympathetic nations. His name was Abbas.
EU Film Festival offers a rich mix
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 22/06/2016
» June has been a very busy month for film festival enthusiasts. We've so far had the LBGT Film Festival, the Bangkok Silent Film Festival (ending today at Scala), the Singapore Film Festival, and the Human Rights Film Festival -- all in the past two weeks. Now, the last cine-fest of the month arrives today at SF CentralWorld: the annual European Union Film Festival 2016 (EUFF).
Poles Apart
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 16/05/2013
» The spirit of rebirth is almost palpable as you walk the streets and hear the stories of Warsaw. Wiped off the map in the 19th century, reduced to ashes by German planes and panzers in 1939 and consigned to suspended animation during the four decades of repressive Stalinist rule that followed, this metropolis _ and the country of which it is capital _ has endured a succession of traumatic misfortunes that it has somehow survived, integrity intact, to reassert its proud identity in the 21st century.