Showing 111 - 120 of 130
Take good care of Mr Bean's right to insult
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 03/11/2012
» Without a wink, Mr Bean is asking for the right to insult. At Westminster, the King of Caustic Put-Downs and (sometimes, like at the Olympics) the Grand Duke of Fart Jokes, launched a campaign to object to a section of the Public Order Act that, he says, has fostered intolerance and advanced "the creeping culture of censoriousness" by outlawing insults. Startling - for Mr Bean operates in England, the fertile hotbed of sardonic wit, televised mockery and creative foul-mouthedness. Try Southeast Asia, my Duke, my Blackadder, my Johnny English - and you'll choke and churn, roil and run riot. Do less than what you've been doing, and here you'd meet a fate much worse than an Elizabethan dungeon in the Tower of London.
The reel deal
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/10/2012
» From the first Indian movie to Satyajit Ray and a recent corporate thriller, the many faces of Indian cinema are to be splashed on Bangkok screens _ with Thai subtitles and free of charge.
Pride of place
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 05/10/2012
» Twenty-five Thai films were yesterday listed as National Cinematographic Heritage under a Thai Film Archive project, now in its second year, that seeks to recognise and preserve films of historical and cultural importance. The objective is to raise awareness about the need for conservation of the country's audio-visual treasures in a world increasingly ruled by fleetingness and evanescence.
Storming oscar's language barrier
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/09/2012
» The end of September is when countries submit their representatives for the Oscar's Best Foreign Language Film, the only category the rest of the world can take part in for Hollywood's mostly self-celebratory awards show.
Epic Leap
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/09/2012
» The man is 52, and yet retains his youthful vibe. His dark-framed glasses, besides his bright face, are what help us recognise him. He shows up slightly late, as to be expected from a founder, top executive, chief brain and nerve centre of one of the country's most powerful showbiz companies. On his desk is a dish of egg tarts, his choice sweet. He smiles and invites us to join him. Outside the office window of Workpoint Entertainment stretches out the vast, dry, flat, skyscraper-less expanse of Pathum Thani.
Globally Thai
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 29/08/2012
» Because the path of art isn't a straight line, the idea of art history as a linear progression _ from traditional to contemporary, from painting to video, chronologically from the 1950s to the 2010s _ sometimes leaves certain roads untravelled, certain stones unturned, and certain views unexplored.
Enlisting agony
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/08/2012
» Two weeks ago, Alfred Hitchcock got a little help from bleary-eyed, worldwide critics to stare down Orson Welles. "King Kane dethroned," this page headlined the news that Vertigo finally unseated Citizen Kane, the champion of the past 50 years, to take the top spot in a once-every-10-year poll to find the Greatest Films of All Time. Such cinephilic pursuit, done by sedentary experts, is not remotely as stimulating as Bolt's or Phelps's photo-finish performances of recent memories, but greatness, like election, has to be justified at an appropriate interval, for public benefit. The canon needs to be reinforced, and here we're lulled into the land of the list.
Sex by the book
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 03/08/2012
» Juliette Binoche is fashionably frazzled, her hair unkempt, her fingers tapping the keyboard and her eyes tired by journalistic dedication.
Love is blind, but only when hate has a say
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 21/07/2012
» Love, as any Romeo knows, is blind. Fondness is scary when it turns into folly, admiration when it turns into obsession, and when being a fan crosses the line into fanaticism. Just like romance, which is tender, and romanticism, which is cloying. Amour is all rosy and nice, but amour fou is dark and dangerous; the world's original recipe for poison.
Finding Freedom
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 22/06/2012
» Eighty years ago, on June 24, 1932, the People's Party seized power and transformed Siam from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional democracy. A film crew recorded the historic revolution of that day on 35mm film, and the "movie" went on tour around Bangkok cinemas.