Bangkok Post: Opinion

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Berlin and the Bolsheviks

By Kong Rithdee

Berlin, Feb 10Overthrown kingdoms mark the first two highlights of the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival, commonly known as the Berlinale. On Feb 9 the festival, taking place amidst the temperature so cruel to tropical creatures that I'd venture to nickname the event the Brrrrrrlinale, opened ...

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• 11 September 2011

  "Faust" won Golden Lion in Venice

  By Kong Rithdee

  It rang like a false alarm: despite pre-screening expectations, hardly could you detect Thomas Mann's "Doctor Faustus" in the new re-reading of "Faust". I raise this particular point since it could've been a perfect night at the 68th Venice International Film Festival when ...

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• 09 September 2011

  Youth angst in Venice

  By Kong Rithdee

  Sept 8 Venice hosts the world’s oldest movie festival, but what has throbbed and bubbled in the past few days is young angst. It’s a grim world for youths, from the Greek meltdown in ‘Alps’ to the post-tsunami moral anarchy in ‘Himizu’, and the radical romance of the latest adaption of ...

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• 05 September 2011

  In Venice, Mr. Neaw and Mr. Fassbender

  By Kong Rithdee

  Venice, Sept 4Briefly here. Yesterday Rirkrit Tiravanija, emiment visual artist and maestro of live museum curry-cooking, premiered 'Lung Neaw Visits His Neighbours' in the Orrizonti section. The 149-minute film -- which presents nothing more than the uncle of the title walking, talking, farming, ...

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• 03 September 2011

  In Venice, Jung, Freud, and Glory of Prostitutes

  By Kong Rithdee

   Venice, Sept 2A wounded physician is the best physician, said Carl Jung. And thus a madwoman makes a perfect psychiatrist -- someone who's gone over the threshold and come back, clutching the precious knowledge of which those who remain safely on this side would never know. Or so it is sugested in ...

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• 02 September 2011

  In Venice, Madonna and her movie

  By Kong Rithdee

   Venice, September 1 The sun, as expected, is fierce. The movies, so far, have been lukewarm. The 68th Venice International Film Festival opened on Aug 31 with George Clooney's The Ides of March, in which Ryan Goslin plays a press secretay to Clooney's presidential candidate. And in the past two ...

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• 23 May 2011

  Day 12: The winners

  By Kong Rithdee

  Let's keep it simple here: The 64th Cannes Film Festival winnersPalme d'Or: "The Tree of Life" by Terrence Malick.Grand Prix (secon prize): "The Kid With a Bike" by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, and "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia" by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.Best Director: ...

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• 22 May 2011

  Day 11: Palme Dog

  By Kong Rithdee

  Day 11, May 21It's almost over! The Bangkok tin mine is waiting for me! The Palme d'Or will be announced Sunday night around 8pm (1am in Thailand). The Palme Dog, however, was already announced -- yes, there's a prize for best canine performance in film, a kind of adorable spoof that should please ...

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• 21 May 2011

  Day 10: Of Lars and other demons

  By Kong Rithdee

  Day 10,A stupid joke stole the headlines the last two days in Cannes, and in the absense of a dazzling movie that might have shifted the discussion elsewhere, the bewildering swirl of the latest Lars antics remains a saucy topic as we queued up in lines. Freedom of expression? Didn't France ban ...

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• 20 May 2011

  Day 9: Drive, Ryan, Drive!

  By Kong Rithdee

  May 19, Day 9I was wrong. I thought he would come and go peacefully. But Lars Von Trier managed to get himself into a bewildering scandal, again. This afternoon, Cannes officially "condemned" the Danish filmmaker for his Nazi-related remarks and declared him a "Persona Non ...

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• 19 May 2011

  Day 8: Love! Honour! Revenge! In 3D!

  By Kong Rithdee

  May 18, Day 8Cosmic calamity is the in thing. While Terrence Malick sees astrophysics as a Biblical wonder, Lars Von Trier, never one to let himself be outdone, has literally thrown a planet into his characters. LVT's new film, "Melancholia", consists of one long wedding scene (Kirsten ...

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• 18 May 2011

  Day 7: Aki

  By Kong Rithdee

  May 17, Day 7Report from a spurned viewer said he was shut out from the reprise screening of "The Artist", Michel Hazanavicius' silent, black-and-white confection that has become the most-loved film of the festival. He queued up 40 minutes before showtime, and there were over 100 people in ...

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• 17 May 2011

  Day 6: That mysterious tree

  By Kong Rithdee

   May 16, Day 6The boos came almost with pre-meditated atrocity. Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life", a metaphysical rumination on Life and God and Natural History, among other things, has divided the critics and sent the Croisette abuzz. Apparently, the boos began even before the ...

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