Showing 1 - 6 of 6
Dame Maggie Smith (1934–2024)
Life, Tatat Bunnag, Published on 04/10/2024
» Maggie Smith, the legendary British actress whose career spanned over seven decades, passed away last week at the age of 89.
Sometimes transcendental, always relevant
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 25/05/2018
» The American films were on short supply this year at Cannes -- which in turn deprived the assembly line of red carpet material -- but nobody seemed to mind that except, well, some American media and fashion bloggers. That superfluous caveat aside, the recently wrapped 71st Cannes Film Festival was nearly unanimously praised as one of the best editions in recent memory, with a string of good, sometimes very good, titles playing night after night -- and even the bad films weren't so offensively bad, as was often the case. In the midst of soul-searching following the question of relevance (the world wants Avengers), the rise of streaming (the world watches films on phones), the decline of arthouse popularity, Cannes insists on the sacredness of cinema, on the future of the art, and this year it paid off solidly.
Judging the judges at Cannes
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/02/2017
» There was a chorus of surprise when the 69th Cannes Film Festival last Sunday awarded its top prize to Ken Loach's welfare drama I, Daniel Blake -- because the film was largely absent from the critical radar during the 12-day festival. A bigger surprise (not to say disappointment) was when the second prize went to Xavier Dolan's melodrama It's Only The End Of The World, because the film was nearly unanimously disliked for its histrionics and theatrical conceits. When the jury, led by Mad Max director George Miller, gave the prize to Dolan's film, a joke sprang up and quickly caught on, inspired by the film's title: yes, for this film to be honoured by Cannes it is the end of the world, or the end of cinema. Apocalypse now!
Loach film on shame of poverty in Britain moves Cannes to tears
AFP, Published on 13/05/2016
» CANNES - Director Ken Loach denounced the British government's "conscious cruelty" towards the poor Friday after his film about the poverty and humiliation inflicted upon them by welfare cuts had critics at the Cannes film festival in tears.
Rogue agent
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 04/03/2013
» If crime thriller novelists are to be believed, CIA agents rival politicians and lawyers as the least trustworthy professions. Intelligence salaries and pensions are so low that they accept bribes from America's enemies to turn a blind eye to their heinous activities. Some, such as Aldrich Ames, are caught. How many are not?
A Roman bladewielder
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 06/08/2012
» There are anomalies about the ancient world that defy explanation. Such as why Mussolini's efforts in the 20th century to revive the glory that was Rome two millennia before failed. Excuses about poor modern-day equipment don't cut it. Clearly they lacked the requisite vital ingredient of their ancestors. They needed poison gas to subdue the backward Ethiopians.