Showing 131 - 140 of 192
Of Grace and Timbuktu
Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/01/2015
» The bomb dropped pretty early: Grace of Monaco opened the 67th Cannes Film Festival on May 14 to a collective howl of international critics.
Cinematic gems in competition
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/01/2015
» The deadline is Oct 1, but more than 40 countries have already submitted their entries for the foreign-language film category at next year’s Academy Awards. Earlier this week, Thailand announced that its representative at the 2015 Oscars would be hit romantic comedy Kid Tueng Wittaya (Teacher’s Diary). The film, which focuses on two teachers and the indirect courtship they conduct via messages written in a diary hidden on a houseboat, was released earlier this year to a mixed critical reception but local box-office success. Life wishes its director, Nitiwat Tharatorn, the best of luck.
A glittering showcase of film
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/01/2015
» Cannes Film Festival opens today with Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, and for the next 12 days the Mediterranean resort town on the French Riviera plays host to the 66th edition of the world's most respected, most influential and most circus-like cine-jamboree. Stars, filmmakers, industry bigwigs and journalists congregate for the annual pilgrimage that celebrates, sanctifies and commercialises cinema to an extent that's both astounding and puzzling.
Cannes and misdemeanours
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/01/2015
» At the 66th Cannes film Festival, off-screen drama attempts to steal the limelight from on-screen offerings. Last Friday, the news of a diamond robbery at a hotel room from which a burglar made off with US$1 million (about 30 million baht) worth of Chopard jewellery astonished (and amused) festival-goers; the crime took pace hours after the screening of Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring, about brazen heists of celebrity homes.
The iron grip will tighten, so the stars say
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 27/12/2014
» Dear Leader, born March 21, 1954. A Pisces, our Dear Leader was born in the Year of the Snake, and zodiacally destined for valour, patriotism, decisiveness, songwriting talent, unconstitutional dignity, offbeat humour, banana-throwing antics (to the cheers of reporters) and occasional outbursts of temper when those same reporters don't ask him glorifying questions.
Autocratic filmmaking is our forte
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 20/12/2014
» In the week Sony censored itself and shelved the Christmas Day release of The Interview, a comedy about the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, I'm reminded of this slim book on my desk which I sometimes flip to random pages. One has this: "In the capitalist system of filmmaking the director is called 'director' but, in fact, the right of supervision and control over film production is entirely in the hands of the tycoons of the filmmaking industry who have the money, whereas the directors are nothing but their agents."
Apex drops 'Mockingjay'
Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/11/2014
» The management of the Lido and Scala theatres has decided not to show the movie <i>The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1</i> for fear of a political backlash.
It's really best when you say nothing at all
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 20/09/2014
» Dear diary, it is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt, as Mark Twain said. How charming my mouth has been in the past week. If it had been Yingluck Shinawatra saying those things, I'm sure a riot would've broken out and the sound of a million whistles would've shattered your eardrums. But it's me, so it's different. It's not the action but the man. How could those pettifogging critics interpret my speech as avuncular nonsense, when in fact they're pieces of wisdom worthy of being chronicled in the national archives and inscribed onto monuments?
All we can do is learn from Gaza's grief
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/07/2014
» ‘This twilight war involved two entire communities, two peoples, two tribes, two nations, fighting each other without a frontline, neither one really made any distinction between civilians and soldiers… Relations between Israelis and Palestinians became so thoroughly politicised that after a while, there was no such thing as a crime between them, and there was no such thing as an accident between them — there were only acts of war.”
No monkeying around
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 11/07/2014
» The problem is humans. More precisely, human instinct. Even more precisely, human habit mistaken as human instinct. Evolution, either natural or genetically enhanced, comes in a messy package: as the brain develops and the mind expands, so does the inclination for savagery, and so does the capacity for violence in the struggle for survival.