GreenCine Daily (Free subscription) | 07/18/2008
"An affectionate love story that apes the studied art-drone minimalism of Tsai Ming-Liang and the haunted lushness of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the ironically titled Wonderful Town rewards more in its social-realist backdrop than its minor foreground drama," writes Aaron Hillis...
Limitless Cinema (Free subscription) | 07/18/2008
My poll 26 ended with nine votes. Thank you very much for everyone who participated in it. Here is the result: THESE GREAT FILMS/PLAY MAY BE SELF-REFLEXIVE OR STORYTELLING-CONCERNED. WHICH ONES DO YOU LIKE? 1.HAUNTED HOUSES (2001, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand) It got 3 votes, or 33 %. 2.BACHELORETTE (Michel Gondry, a music video of Bjork) +CLOSE-UP (1989, Abbas Kiarostami, Iran) +CONTEMPT (1963,...
Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal (Free subscription) | 07/17/2008
Apichatpong Weerasethakul showed his short film Vampire last week at the Alliance Francaise in Bangkok as part of the proceedings for his being awarded the Chevalier l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government. The film was made for Louis Vuitton and is part of LV's Travelling show until August 31 at the Louis Vuitton Space. Other shorts are by Belgian director Jean-Philippe Toussaint,...
Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal (Free subscription) | 07/10/2008
DVD Times has reviewed the British Film Institute's release of Apichatpong Weerasethakul 's Syndromes and a Century . They report that the English subtitles are removable, which makes the BFI release preferable to the bare-bones Strand Releasing offering from earlier this year, which has intrusive burned-in subs that must be for the vision impaired . The "pleasingly rich" extras on the BFI disc include...
DVD Times (Free subscription) | 07/09/2008
DVD Video Review: Released by the BFI last week, Anthony Nield looks at their Region 2 handling of the latest from Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal (Free subscription) | 07/09/2008
Thai indie filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul will tomorrow receive the prestigious Chevalier des Arts et Lettres from French Ambassador to Thailand Laurent Bili on behalf of the French government. The filmmaker will accept the beribboned medal at an invitation-only ceremony at the Alliance Francaise in Bangkok. The "Chevalier" (knight) medal is the third-tier honor in the Arts et Lettres, following...
Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal (Free subscription) | 07/06/2008
San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts has a program of Apichatpong Weerasethakul's short films, the second part of which screens today. The YBCA had planned to show the shorts a week ago, but some were delayed in shipping, so they screened Syndromes and a Century for free . An enthusiast for Joei's films, Hell on Frisco Bay 's Brian, was deeply disappointed that he would not be able to view...
Hell on Frisco Bay (Free subscription) | 07/06/2008
When I watch a film, I usually struggle to resist evaluating it as a discrete object that succeeds or fails on its own merits. I prefer to think of each film or other artwork as a segment of a continuum of creation -- usually the context of an artist's body of work, though there are other continuums I'm interested in as well. When I watch a film by Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, it's no...
Big Screen Little Screen (Free subscription) | 07/04/2008
I’ve learned my lesson about getting too excited by films after watching Mister Lonely in Cannes last year. My high hopes had never been dashed so severely. However, I’m finding it hard not to be excited about a script I’ve just read entitled Stretch. It is to be directed by Charles de Meaux who has [...]
DVD Times (Free subscription) | 06/22/2008
News: BFI have announced the UK DVD release of three titles on 23rd June 2008. Released in addition to the Bill Douglas Trilogy are Syndromes and a Century - Thailand's Apichatpong Weerasethakul's surreal fifth feature is a Buddhist meditation on the m...
Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal (Free subscription) | 06/20/2008
Praised everywhere in the world yet embattled in the filmmaker's home country, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Syndromes and a Century will receive the treatment it deserves in a DVD release by the British Film Institute. Features include Worldly Desires , a 40-minute "experimental love story" that Apichatpong made for the Digital Short Films by Three Filmmakers project at the 2005 Jeonju International...
GreenCine Daily (Free subscription) | 06/09/2008
With Euro 2008 in full swing, perhaps the most pertinent way into the new issue of Frieze is Jennifer Doyle's piece on the "art of football," with an emphasis on film and video. Her paragraph on Fußball wie noch...
JoBlo (Free subscription) | 05/27/2008
The were announced this past Sunday in what turned out to be a star studded affair. Robert De Niro himself presented La Palme D'Or to the winner while the President of the Jury was actor extraordinaire Sean Penn.As for the Jury itself, here's who was doing the judging this year: Jeanne Balibar (Actress) - Rachid Bouchareb (Director) - Sergio Castellitto (Actor) - Alfonso Cuaron (Director) - Alexandra...
eugonline (Free subscription) | 05/27/2008
Backstage on awards night: Cannes Film Festival jurors Maria Lara (left), Sean Penn (standing, left), Rachid Bouchareb and Jeanne Balibar (center), Apichatpong Weerasethakul (white coat, right), Marjane Satrapi and Alfonso Cuaron (background, right). [photo by eugene hernandez/indieWIRE]...
Twitch (Free subscription) | 05/22/2008
It's been hard to bite my tongue on this but the word is now officially out and I am free to spread the word. The official lineup for the 2008 edition of the Worldwide Short Film Festival here in Toronto has been officially announced and, while I am hugely biased, I say there is some stellar stuff in there. How biased am I? Well, I programmed the Midnight programs (Creepy and Freaky) as well as helping...
