Showing 1 - 10 of 18
The way I see it...
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 25/03/2022
» Ahead of the Academy Awards on Monday, our film critic shares his thoughts on the big runners.
Look ahead after a grand farewell
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/10/2017
» The yarn of history has spun its fine threads. History is the majestic pageantry that took place on Thursday, the likes of which we'll never see again. It is the centuries-old chariots dripping with gold, the festooned processions and severe steps of solemn marchers, the sorrowful magnificence of the royal crematorium. History is the elegiac trumpet salute to the beloved King, the fabulous cosmology of heaven recreated on Earth, the stunning synchronicity of the masked dance performers, and finally, history is the invisible fire and the grey smoke in the night sky, signalling that everything must return to ashes.
Guests of honour
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/08/2017
» Last night when the clock struck 12, India turned 70. The birth of India or the rebirth after a century of colonial rule, is an ecstatic occasion that also has a darker edge in the partition of Pakistan, carved out of the former British Raj in a brutal bloodshed between Hindus and Muslims that killed hundreds of thousands and uprooted millions (Pakistan Independence Day was celebrated yesterday).
A fitting aperitif
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/05/2017
» At 70 years of age, the Cannes Film Festival opened on Wednesday with a touch of its glorious past and a heavy dose of present uncertainty. Inside the Palais des Festivals, the bustling headquarters, a decoration motif lays out the key moments of the festival's history, and special events marking the occasion are planned for the days to come. Meanwhile, for the first time, metal detectors have been installed at the entrance of the Palais and some of the cinemas, stacking up long queues. Flowers pots have reportedly been deployed as part of the strategy to prevent any unexpected intrusions.
Our best films of the year
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 22/12/2016
» As usual we have two lists, for titles released in local cinemas and the wider universe of world films shown elsewhere (and hopefully coming to our screens soon).
King still with us, in photos and memories
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 22/10/2016
» On the screen we see the King in his Land Rover sluicing through mud in rough terrain. Again on the screen, he is a wiry young man in dark sunglasses and saffron robe, walking barefoot in a royal temple. Next, His Majesty King Bhumibol in dinner jacket -- the footage slightly scratchy -- is deep in a jam session with Western musicians sometime in the last century. Then we see the monarch in full regalia, captured on a Kodak motion picture film, as he proceeds down the street in the opulent pomp of Coronation Day in 1950.
Memories of my mother
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 07/10/2016
» Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Psycho, a subject of cinephilic and scholastic scrutiny for 40 years, is showing this Sunday at Scala. When the film was first released in the US, Hitchcock strictly instructed that latecomers would not be admitted into the screening, because it is "required that you see Psycho from the very beginning!". The Bangkok showing will follow that rule (strictly or not we can't be certain), and it's always nice and wise to be on time.
Cinema under the stars
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 23/02/2016
» When was the last time you attended an outdoor cinema? To be more precise, do you remember seeing a movie under the sky at Lumpini Park?
Journey of the guitar king
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 11/12/2015
» A small documentary film opens in limited cinemas this week. Revisiting a chapter in the Thai music history that many people may have forgotten, The Guitar King tells the story of Lam Morrison, a Thai rock musician and the country's first guitar star in the late 1960s. A long-haired man in his 70s now, Lam honed his guitar skills playing in GI camps in Udon Thani during the Vietnam War, before playing at bars in Bangkok and even toured Germany and Norway.
The Shrine's history: more than four faces
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/08/2015
» Unperturbed, the four-faced Brahma statue still stares out at the Ratchaprasong intersection, the scene of Bangkok's worst bomb attack in recent memory. One of the most popular tourist spots in the capital has become a site of terror and tragedy and as the dust begins to settle, it's worth taking a look at the long and sometimes tortuous history of the shrine. This history is influenced as much by the city's modernisation and superstition as it is by its politics and moments of insanity.