Showing 1 - 10 of 17
Breaking the sound barrier
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 12/08/2014
» The sound of a sole piano has echoed through the chamber of the Lido 2 cinema since last Thursday. At the first "Silent Film Festival in Thailand", which ends tomorrow, two musical experts in live accompaniment have enriched the soundless images projected on-screen with melodic phrasing, jazzy streaks — even avant-garde romps. Maud Nelissen and Mie Yanashita have taken turns playing along with Hitchcock's romantic dramas and German proto-expressionism, as well as Japanese and Chinese silent films showing at the festival. Their improvisatory deftness and sonic interpretations of visuals recreate the cinematic experience of an era when movies were soundless.
Sensational silent cinema
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 05/06/2015
» Buster Keaton, Douglas Fairbanks and Dr Caligari are among the highlights at the 2nd Silent Film Festival in Thailand. They will be joined by Alfred Hitchcock, Anna May Wong and an early Russian masterpiece at the movie event that runs from Wednesday to June 17 at Lido and Scala.
Doc lovers rejoice!
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 18/03/2016
» It is high time for audiences who appreciate the rough-edged reality of documentary films. Of the five nominees of the Oscar for best documentary feature, three had a regular release in Bangkok cinemas (Amy, Cartel Land, The Look of Silence), something unthinkable a few years ago when no distributor wanted to risk showing non-fiction films in cinemas. Now there is almost always at least one documentary film at SF CentralWorld, with the initiation of the independent outfit Documentary Club (in the programme now is The Hunting Ground, about rape crimes in American universities).
Scala doc to open film festival
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 25/03/2016
» Our cinematic monument of majesty, the last palatial cinema house in town, the Scala on Siam Square stands alone in defiance and melancholy as a remnant of a different era. As its fate -- the spectre of eventual demolition -- keeps popping up in the news every few years, the movie house is now the subject of a documentary film. The Scala, directed by Aditya Assarat, is part of a pan-Asia ensemble called The Power Of Asian Cinema that will screen as the opener of the 6th Salaya International tomorrow.
Superficiality takes aim at Scala
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/06/2016
» There is a mix of rage, gloom and longing as, once again, the fate of the Scala theatre in Siam Square is questioned. To wreck is easy, to save is hard. The jackhammer screeches louder than nostalgia. Will the Scala, that quaint majesty stuck in a prime retail area, that solemn granddaddy in the flashy, messy, heavily commercialised quarter, be next to fall?
Breaking into song on the big vote day
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 06/08/2016
» Tomorrow is the day. Are you ready? Really, are you ready?Keep calm, get dressed, put on your Sunday smile, and head out to … No, not the referendum booth, or maybe later. First you really must go to the Scala Theatre in Siam Square, where for the first time in Thailand in decades, The Sound of Music will play on the big cinema screen with its historic overflowing of saccharine -- and with one of the strangest anti-dictatorship sentiments ever shown on film.
Alternative screenings this weekend
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 02/09/2016
» As the multiplexes are dominated by the big Thai film Fanday, two screenings this weekend should provide alternatives for Bangkok moviegoers. First, David Lean's Doctor Zhivago will play at the Scala on Sunday at noon, then a set of nine short films addressing the issue of legal reform will be screened at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre at 3pm.
Projecting a cinematic institution
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 13/09/2016
» Ideally, a documentary film about the last stand-alone cinema in Bangkok should be shown on the big screen of that cinema. But while that hasn't happened, The Scala, a one hour film by Aditya Assarat about Scala Theatre, will be showing on True Thai Film channel on True Visions on Friday at 9pm.
A trip to the other world
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 18/11/2016
» A quick lowdown on Thai love motels: trashy lighting, soap-smelling beds, bad pillows, cheap porn on the TV and a trove of hush-hush secrets guarded by naked walls. Outside, the thick tarp curtains separate the public from the personal, the exposed from the invisible, the respectable from the randy. Inside, it is another world, a fantasy world, an alien world.
Two epic showings
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 02/12/2016
» Stanley Kubrick and David Lean will illuminate the big screen of Scala this long weekend, a fitting culmination to the programme of classics screened in celebration of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Since July, the Thai Film Archive has been showing vintage films that His Majesty watched in cinemas when they first opened in Bangkok half-a-century ago, and this week the project concludes with two majestic titles, Kubrick's Spartacus (screening Sunday at noon) and Lean's Lawrence Of Arabia (Monday at noon).