Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening March 27-April 3, 2014

Sabotage

Writer-director David Ayer (Training Day, End of Watch) teams up with Arnold Schwarzenegger for the gritty, ultra-violent and very sweary crime drama Sabotage.

Arnie, channeling his '80s action star, is the head of an elite task force of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. After the team raids a cartel stash house and confiscates million of dollars, a serial killer starts picking off members of the task force one by one. Who's the culprit? Who can Arnie trust?

Other stars are Sam Worthington, Olivia Williams, Mireille Enos, Terrence Howard, Joe Manganiello, Josh Holloway, Harold Perrineau, Martin Donovan and Max Martini

Skip Woods (A Good Day to Die Hard, The A-Team) co-wrote the script with Ayer.

This is just coming out this week, so there's not much critical reception. Rated 18+

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Also opening

Thanks for Sharing – Titled after a catchphrase often sarcastically heard at 12-step support-group meetings, this ensemble comedy-drama is about folks from various walks of life dealing with sex addiction. Among them is Mark Ruffalo as an environmental consultant who is afraid to let love back into his life. Tim Robbins is a small-business owner with many problems at home. And there's an emergency-room doctor (Josh Gad) who likes to rub up against women on public transportation and take upskirt photos. Gwyneth Paltrow, Joely Richardson, Patrick Fugit and Alecia "Pink" Moore also star. Stuart Blumberg (Keeping the Faith) directs. Critical reception is mixed. Rated 18+

Dhoom: 3 – The latest entry in the Bollywood action franchise was released here already, but now it's back for a wider release and this time around it's Thai-dubbed. Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra star as top Indian cops Jai Dixit and Ali Akbar. They are called upon by Chicago police to assist catching a criminal mastermind (Aamir Khan) who is using his acrobatic skills to rob Windy City banks. Katrina Kaif also stars. It's Thai-dubbed only.

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Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club – Philip Seymour Hoffman is a skeevy film-crew worker in the porn business in Paul Thomas Anderson's dynamite Boogie Nights, screening tonight. Tomorrow, the "perspectives of war" are from Japan in the very, very sad classic animation Grave of the Fireflies by Isao Takahata. On Saturday, Peter Finch is mad as hell, and he's not going to take it anymore. Yes, it's Network, Sidney Lumet's 1976 skewering of the mass media. And March winds down with Michael Curtiz' 1947 adaptation of the hit Broadway play, Life With Father. April's schedule starts with Overnight, about a bartender who suddenly becomes the biggest thing in Hollywood. It's part of a Wednesday series of documentaries about "obsessive filmmakers". Other features in April include Anthony Hopkins on Thursdays, Albert Brooks on Fridays, David Mamet on Saturdays and Michael Redgrave on Sundays. And Tuesdays are request days. Shows start at 8. The FGC is down an alley next to the Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. With just nine seats, the screening room fills up fast, so reservations are a must. There are sometimes additions and changes in the schedule, so please check the website and Facebook page for updates.



Salaya International Documentary Film Festival – The journey of Karen families from a refugee camp on the Thai border to their resettlement in the U.K. is covered in Moving to Mars, screening at 5.30 today at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya. It's part of a package from the British Council, which also includes Soundtrack for a Revolution, about songs from America's civil rights movement, Requiem for Detroit, chronicling the decay of the once-great Motor City and South African ladies helping street kids in Rough Aunties. Competition entries screen today and tomorrow at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center. All worth a look, they include a son's gift to his mother in Homemade, the bittersweet cross-cultural romance Jazz in Love, Vietnam war wounds in Mrs. Bua's Carpet and the exiles' lament To Singapore, with Love. There's no program at the BACC on Saturday, so you'll want to catch the bus to the Film Archive to see the Cambodian Oscar nominee The Missing Picture as well as the much-anticipated closing film The Songs of Rice. Or you can catch The Missing Picture on Sunday during Doc Day at the BACC, which starts at 10.30am with Kazuhiro Soda's Campaign, then Campaign 2. There's also Receiving Torpedo Boats – exciting footage from 1937 of the Royal Thai Navy's historic voyage to Italy to bring back a pair of new warships. Hit the following link for the full schedule.

German Film Weekends – The Goethe-Institut's film series enters its final week with the World War II comedy-drama Hotel Lux on Saturday. It's about a German comedian who flees the country and ends up at a hotel in Moscow, where people believe he's Hitler's personal astrologer. On Sunday, it's Two Times Lotte, a 1950 live-action adaptation of the children's story Lottie and Lisa (Das doppelte Lottchen), about twin girls separated at birth meeting each other at a summer camp. It's been remade many times, including a couple by Disney as The Parent Trap. The shows are at 4pm at the Esplanade Cineplex Ratchadaphisek. Check the website for details on tickets.

Film Virus Double Bill – Back-to-back yakuza dramas are on offer this Sunday, starting at 12.30 with Kinji Fukasaku's Battles Without Honor and Humanity. From 1973, it follows the struggles of a gangster in post-war Hiroshima. It's part of a series of highly influential films by Fukasaku called The Yakuza Papers. and is referred to by some as "the Japanese Godfather". Fukusaku later went on to direct the adaptation of the popular Japanese novel and manga Battle Royale, about teen schoolkids in fight-to-the-death survival games. Made in 2000, it's basically the template for all the Hollywood young-adult fiction movies we're seeing today. It's followed by Takashi Nomura's A Colt Is My Passport. From 1967, it's among a cool crop of Japanese films during the era that emulated the shadowy stylings of film noir. Take note: This is the last Double Bill before the break for Songkran. Check back on April 20 for "late western" movies, including John Wayne. The venue is the Rewat Buddhinan Room in the basement of the basement that is the Pridi Banomyong Library at Thammasat University, Tha Prachan. You'll need to show your I.D. and have it scanned to gain entry. The get there by ferry, take the Chao Praya River Express to Wang Lang (Siriraj) pier and then transfer to a ferry heading to Tha Prachan or Wat Mahathat piers.

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand – This year's Contemporary World Film Series at the FCCT opens with La Bella del Alhambra, a Cuban drama that charts the rise of a domineering cabaret performer in old-timey Havana. Beatriz Valdes stars. It won Spain's Goya Award for best foreign Spanish-language film and was Cuba's submission to the Academy Awards in 1990. Screening at 7pm (not 8pm!) on Monday, March 31, it's courtesy of the Embassy of Cuba and Cuban Ambassador Victor Ramirez Pena, who will provide rum, cocktails, snacks and, of course, cigars. Entry is 150 baht for non-members and 100 baht for anyone wanting the drinks, eats or smokes.

Alliance Française – April kicks off with Versailles, a 2008 drama about a homeless young mother and her son. They drift from the streets of Paris to Versailles, where they end up living in the forest near the famous palace, and take up with a man who has cut himself off from the world. Guillaume Depardieu, Aure Atika and Judith Chemla star. The show is at 7pm on Wednesday, April 2 at the Alliance Française de Bangkok. It's at the intersection of Rama IV and Wireless roads, opposite Lumpini Park in the former location of the Suan Lum Night Bazaar.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening March 20-26, 2014

The Teacher's Diary (Khid Thueng Wittaya)

A washed-up wrestler with a broken arm (Sukrit “Bie" Wisetkaew) takes a job as a teacher at a rural school on a houseboat and finds himself feeling lonely after he's cut off from such modern conveniences as 24-hour electricity, smartphones and the Internet. His only solace is the diary of his predecessor (Chermarn “Ploy” Boonyasak), who writes of similar feelings. When she returns to her post, she finds the young man has also written in the diary.

That's the story of The Teacher’s Diary (คิดถึงวิทยา, Khid Thueng Wittaya), a comedy-drama about a romance between two people who have never met. Directed by Nithiwat Tharatorn, it's the first release this year by the major Thai studio GTH, which last year shattered box-office records with the ghost comedy Pee Mak.

The male lead, popular soap star Bie Sukrit is making his feature-film debut (he's also preparing for a Broadway role), while the female lead, Ploy Chermarn, is a still-young actress whose credits go back to her teens, and include such films as the Buppa Rahtree ghost franchise, the romantic drama Chua Fah Din Salai and 2011's Rashomon remake The Outrage.

Director Nithiwat was among six young directors who got their big break with the 2003 hit childhood romance tale Fan Chan – the film that basically built the GTH studio and set the template for all GTH movies – youth-oriented, sentimental tales with high production values and loads of commercial appeal. Nithiwat's other features include the 2006 teen romantic drama Season's Change and 2009's coming-of-age travel tale Dear Galileo.

You can read more about the movie in an article in The Nation. Rated G

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Also opening

Divergent – Another week brings yet another movie ripped from the pages of young-adult novels. Aiming for the types of fans who flocked to movie versions of Twilight and The Hunger Games, Divergent is about a future society that's been broken up into "factions" according to temperament and values. At age 16, you have to choose one. But one young woman, Beatrice “Tris” Prior (Shailene Woodley from The Descendants), learns she’s “divergent” and won’t fit in to any faction. She discovers a plot to destroy the misfits, and with a mysterious guy named Four (Theo James), she seeks to find out what makes “divergents” dangerous before it’s too late. Ashley Judd and Kate Winslet are among the co-stars. Directed by Neil Burger (Limitless), it's based on a young-adult trilogy by first-time novelist Veronica Roth. Critical reception is threadbare, but is so far giving this a collective eyeroll. Rated 15+

Queen – Kangana Ranaut is a young woman from a traditional Punjabi family in Delhi. She sets out on a life-changing solo honeymoon to Paris after her marriage is called off. In Hindi with English and Thai subtitles at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Rama III and Pattaya. Opens Friday.

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Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club – The late Philip Seymour Hoffman is in one of his creepier roles tonight in Doubt, squaring off against Meryl Streep in the tale of a priest suspected of preying on girls at a Catholic school. Tomorrow, the "perspectives of war" are from Poland with 1957's Kanal by Andrzej Wajda, the first film about the Warsaw Uprising. Saturday, get ready for a workout alongside Sylvester Stallone in his Oscar-winning triumph, 1976's Rocky. Sunday, Errol Flynn hits the bullseye in one of his signature roles, 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood, directed by Michael Curtiz. Shows start at 8. The FGC is down an alley next to the Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. With just nine seats, the screening room fills up fast, so reservations are a must. There are sometimes additions in the schedule, especially on Tuesday request days and Wednesdays, so please check the website and Facebook page for updates.

Alliance Française – In addition to its usual free French films on Wednesdays, the Alliance Française de Bangkok this week has a special film event on Saturday to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the publication of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's beloved children's book The Little Prince. It starts at 10am with a screening of Hollywood's 1974 Lerner and Loewe adaptation by Stanley Donen (apparently dubbed in French with no subtitles). Then at 6.30 on Saturday, there will be a screening of the 1994 documentary Saint-Exupéry: La Dernière Mission (also with no subtitles), in which the writer-artists life is presented in flashbacks that cover his other career as a pilot. At 7pm on Wednesday (with English subtitles as usual), it's 17 Filles (17 Girls), a fact-based 2011 drama about 17 teen girls who make a pact to get pregnant at the same time. The Alliance Française de Bangkok is at the intersection of Rama IV and Wireless roads, opposite Lumpini Park in the former location of the Suan Lum Night Bazaar.

Salaya International Documentary Film Festival – The fourth Salaya Doc opens at 1pm on Saturday at the Thai Film Archive with At Berkeley, a four-hour examination of one of America's top research universities by one of the world's top documentary filmmakers, Frederick Wiseman. Other highlights include the Asean Documentary Competition, with all seven entries screening on Sunday at the Film Archive. The fest adds the Bangkok Art and Culture Center as a venue from Tuesday until March 28 (plus Doc Day on March 30), with screenings starting most days at 5.30. The sked includes Japanese Campaign material from Kazuhiro Soda and a UK film package. All are worth checking out! The schedule can be found by hitting this link. For more details, see the festival's Facebook page.

German Film Weekends – The award-winning Barbara screens on Saturday as the Goethe-Institut's series continues. Set in East Germany in the 1980s, it's about a young East Berlin doctor (Nina Hoss) who wants to leave East Germany but is assigned to a rural clinic. She bides her time while she waits for a chance to defect. Directed by Christian Petzold, it won the Silver Bear at the Berlin fest in 2012. On Sunday it's Cracks in the Shell, in which a drama student has mind games played on her by a professor. He tells her she's invisible, just before she has a major audition. The shows are at 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays until March 30 at the Esplanade Cineplex Ratchadaphisek. Check the website for details on tickets.

Cinema Diverse: Director's Choice – The Bangkok Art and Culture Center's Cinema Diverse series was relaunched last November with Director's Choice, lining up five prominent Thai filmmakers to choose a favorite foreign film and then talk about it. It opened with Kongdej Jaturanrasmee (Tang Wong) presenting Charlie Kaufman's mind-bending directorial debut Synecdoche, New York. After having an event hosted by Tanwarin Sukhapisit (Threesome) postponed in January, this Saturday it's the turn of Pen-ek Ratanaruang (Headshot, Last Life in the Universe), who will screen the much-acclaimed 2009 Sri Lankan drama Between Two Worlds. "The first shot of Between Two Worlds is a long shot of an empty ocean, just sea and sky. We watch this empty shot for what seems like an eternity, then a tiny figure falls from the sky into the ocean. The film becomes more and more entertaining as it switches between surrealism and fable... it's magical, funny, thought-provoking and absolutely unforgettable,” Pen-ek says. As an added treat, the film's director, Vimukthi Jayasundara, will also be present to chat about the film with Pen-ek. The film will have English and Thai subtitles and the talk will be translated in both English and Thai. Vimukthi will present a masterclass to registered participants at Bangkok University on Monday. Other entries in the Cinema Diverse: Director's Choice series has Nonzee Nimiutr showing the South Korean western The Good, the Bad, the Weird on May 17, Jira Maligool with the 2011 Czech film Autumn Spring on July 19 and Tanwarin closing out the series on September 20 with Himizu from Japan. The screening is at 6pm with registration opening at 4.30pm at the BACC's fifth-floor auditorium.

Film Virus Double Bill – "Cinema politics" enters the picture on this Sunday with Silent Wedding (2008, Horatiu Malale, Romania) and After the Battle (2012, Yousry Nasrallah, Egypt). The show starts at 12.30pm. The venue is the Rewat Buddhinan Room in the basement of the Pridi Banomyong Library at Thammasat University, Tha Prachan. You'll need to show your I.D. and have it scanned to gain entry. The get there by ferry, take the Chao Praya River Express to Wang Lang (Siriraj) pier and then transfer to a ferry heading to Tha Prachan or Wat Mahathat piers.

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand – Hot off its much-buzzed-about nomination for this year's Academy Awards and win at Britain's BAFTAs, The Act of Killing will screen at 7pm on Wednesday, March 26 at the FCCT. Director Joshua Oppenheimer will be there for a talk afterward. The widely acclaimed documentary covers the deeds of the anti-communist death squads in Indonesia in the 1960s. Largely unheard of outside the country, the former militiamen went unpunished and are living out their lives. Rounded up by the filmmakers, they were encouraged to re-enact their killings in various colorful ways – as westerns or gangster movies, even as a big musical spectacle, complete with one of the killers as a diva drag queen. Non-members have to pay 350 baht plus 350 baht more for members and non-members who want the buffet. Reservations are recommended. See the FCCT website for details.

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Take note

Although there's not much in the way of new films opening this week, there is an overwhelming number of special events. It was a lot of work to get all this information together. But I probably still missed something. If you're reading this right now and you run a regular film event in Bangkok but I didn't mention you, I'd like to hear about it. Hit the contact link at the top of the blog for my e-mail.

Bangkok Cinema Scene special: Salaya Doc 2014

The schedule has been completed for the fourth Salaya International Documentary Film Festival, which runs from March 22 to 29 at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom and from March 25 to 28 and on March 30 at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.

Highlights include the Thai premieres for the Rotterdam award-winner The Songs of Rice and the Oscar-nominated Best Foreign Language Film The Missing Picture.

The opening film will be At Berkeley, a brand-new work by documentarian Frederic Wiseman. Running for four hours, it chronicles the debate over tuition increases and budget cuts at the University of California at Berkeley.

The Songs of Rice, the latest feature by Agrarian Utopia director Urupong Raksasad, will be the closing film. It was among a big crop of Thai films at this year's International Film Festival Rotterdam, where it made its world premiere and was given the Fipresci Award.

The Missing Picture, the first Foreign Language Film nominee for Cambodia at the Academy Awards, is the latest work by Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh to examine the legacy of the Khmer Rouge. It combines archival footage and uses clay figures of his vanished family members in a bid to reconstruct fading memories. It makes its Thai premiere in a special screening.

Another special screening will be Receiving Torpedo Boat (การรับเรือตอร์ปิโด), 1935 footage by Luang Kolakarn Jan-Jit (Pao Wasuwat) about Royal Thai Marines going to Italy to acquire a torpedo boat. The film was added last year to the Registry of Films as National Heritage.

The Director in Focus this year is Kazuhiro Soda, with screenings of two of his films, Campaign 1 and Campaign 2
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There will also be a selection of UK-produced documentaries co-presented by the British Council – Rough Aunties, Requiem for Detroit, Moving to Mars and Soundtrack for a Revolution.

Entries from Cambodia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam have been selected for the festival's Asean Documentary Competition.
Two of them are by Thai indie filmmakers – Sivaroj Kongsakul and Wichanon Sumumjarn.

In Homeland, Sivaroj continues on the themes he explored in his semi-autobiographical debut feature, 2010’s family drama Eternity (Tee-Rak). The 23-minute documentary is about a schoolteacher who, after 36 years of instructing first-grade pupils, hopes to own her own home before she dies.

Wichanon, who made his feature debut with the semi-autobiographical documentary-drama In April the Following Year There was a Fire, looks at a young Isaan lass as she takes a job as a product presenter in Pretty Woman Walking Down the Street.

From Myanmar, Aung Nwai Htway dissects his parents’ marriage in Behind the Screen. His folks were film icons in 1960s Myanmar, but today Htway struggles to reconcile those glamorous images with the painful memories of his parents’ divorce.

The Cambodian entry Red Wedding looks at a legacy of the Khmer Rouge, which forced some 250,000 women into marriages. Directed by Lida Chan and Guillaume Suon and produced by Rithy Panh, Red Wedding tells the story of Sochan, who at the age of 16 was forced into a marriage with a soldier who raped her. After 30 years of silence, she brought her case to the international tribunal in Phnom Penh.

Another Asean neighbour’s past is unearthed in To Singapore, With Love by Tan Pin Pin. Her controversial film features interviews with the country’s political exiles.

The past also lingers in the Vietnamese entry, Mrs Bua’s Carpet, in which director Duong Mong Thu goes looking for memories and traces of war in Danang.

And Jazz in Love by Filipino filmmaker Baby Ruth Villarama centres on cross-cultural romance as it looks at a young Filipino named Jazz as he awaits the arrival of his fiance, a middle-aged German man.

Hit the following link to download the schedule.

(Via The Nation)

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening March 13-19, 2014

The Cheer Ambassadors

Perhaps Thailand's warring political parties could learn a lesson or two from The Cheer Ambassadors, a rousing documentary about the plucky band of misfits who formed the Bangkok University cheerleading squad. Together, they trained hard and became determined to make it to the world cheerleading championships, and, against all odds, they actually won!

Directed by Luke Cassady-Dorion, the documentary bursts with energy as it follows the cheerleaders while they work under their coach, the obsessive Sarawut "Toey" Samniangdee. Inspired by late-night ESPN viewings of the "cheerleading Olympics", he gathered together a squad and pushed until they shared his dream of a Thai team competing on the world stage.

Since its premiere at the ninth World Film Festival of Bangkok in January 2012, The Cheer Ambassadors has spread its uplifting story around the world, winning several awards, including Best Documentary at the 60°N Os festival in Norway, the Audience Award at the ChopShots documentary Edge Festival in Jakarta and third place International Documentary at the All-Sports Los Angeles Film Festival.

But for the filmmakers, their greatest honor was being granted an audience to show The Cheer Ambassadors to Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Srindhorn.

I liked it too and listed it among the Top 10 Thai Films of 2012.

It's at House on RCA. Rated G

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The Lego Movie

A 3D-animated feature adapted from the line of Lego building-block toys, The Lego Movie follows an ordinary Lego minifigure named Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt of Parks and Recreation) who is mistakenly thought to be an extraordinary person and the key to saving the world.

He undertakes an epic quest to stop an evil tyrant who wants to glue all the world's building blocks together. Aided by the heroine Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), Emmet encounters a crazy array of characters, including Batman (Will Arnett), Superman (Channing Tatum) and Han Solo from Star Wars. Other voices include Will Ferrell in a triple role, Morgan Freeman as the wizard Vitruvius and Liam Neeson as Bad Cop/Good Cop.

It's directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who previously did Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and the hit remake 21 Jump Street.

A box-office hit in the U.S., critical reception is way, way better than anyone ever expected. While this is a kids' movie, adults will also be thoroughly entertained. In 3D. Rated G

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Also opening

Threesome (เธอ เขา เรา ผี, Ther Khao Rao Phee) – Tanwarin Sukkhapisit (It Gets Better) directs this ghostly romantic comedy about Som (Arpa Pawilai), a movie-make-up artist who breaks up with her boyfriend Rang (Chaiyapol Julien Poupart) and starts dating Ple (Steven Fuhrer). Rang tries to get her back, but not because he's jealous but because Ple is a ghost. Rated 15+

Non-Stop – Liam Neeson is back in action as an air marshal aboard a transatlantic flight. The gruff Irish leading man faces an impossible situation when he receives text messages that threaten the death of a passenger every 20 minutes unless $150 million is transferred to an off-shore bank account. Who could the killer be? Julianne Moore, Michelle Dockery and Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong'o from 12 Years a Slave also star. It's directed by Jaume Collet-Serra who previously steered Neeson through another impossible situation in Unknown. Critical reception is mixed, leaning to positive. Rated 13+

Delivery Man – Wedding Crashers and Dodgeball star Vince Vaughn portrays another of his usual eternal-manchild slackers in this comedy about a guy who has made anonymous donations to a fertility clinic over 20 years. He's hit with a lawsuit from 142 families demanding to know his identity. In all, it seems he has fathered 533 children. Cue the montage for his soul-searching journey. Critical reception is mixed. Rated 13+

Vampire Academy – A young woman who is from an ancient race of guardians of benevolent vampires attends boarding school with the good vampire princess, protecting her against the evil vampires. Zoey Deutch and Lucy Fry star. It's directed by Mark Waters (Mean Girls, Freaky Friday) with the screenplay by Daniel Waters (Heathers) adapted from the best-selling series of young adult fantasy novels by Richelle Mead. Critics aren't biting though. Rated 13+

Rak Fung Keaw (รักฝังเขี้ยว) – And here's some Thai vampires. They are Wayu (Seigi Ozegi) and Asanee (Thanachat Tulyachat), who go to battle to win over Napha but accidentally kill her. Five centuries later, Napha is reborn as Fah and the two vampires start fighting over her again. Rated 13+

Bewakoofiyaan – Ayushmann Khurrana is a young mid-level marketing executive in love with a shoe-obsessed woman (Sonam Kapoor) who works in finance. They'd like to climb the corporate ladder together but are blocked by the woman's stubborn father (Rishi Kapoor) who believes his daughter can do better. It's at Paragon and Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Rama III and Pattaya. Opens Friday.

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Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club – Tonight, Philip Seymour Hoffman portrays mentoring rock critic Lester Bangs in Almost Famous, director Cameron Crowe's coming-of-age tale of a teenager assigned writing a Rolling Stone article about a rock band in the '70s. Tomorrow, the "perspectives of war" come from the German side during World War II, with Das Boot, Wolfgang Petersen's chilling portrayal of sailors aboard a submarine fighting in the Atlantic Wolf Pack. This is the 3.5-hour director's cut, so the movie starts earlier, at 7.30pm. Saturday, it's okay to go in the water. Dip in and see 1975's Jaws, the movie that kicked off the modern blockbuster era and still holds up. On Sunday, swashbuckler Errol Flynn trades in his sabre for a six-gun as he takes the job of sheriff in Dodge City, a 1939 western by Michael Curtiz. Shows start at 8, unless otherwise noted. The FGC is down an alley next to the Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. With just nine seats, the screening room fills up fast, so reservations are a must. There are sometimes additions and changes to the schedule, especially on Tuesday request days and Wednesdays, so please check the website and Facebook page for updates.

German Film Weekends – The Goethe-Institut Thailand's film series begins on Saturday with Westwind, in which the bond between sisters on the East German rowing team is tested as they meet two boys while practicing for the 1988 Olympics. Sunday's offering is Short and Sweet IV, a compilation of nine live-action and animated shorts. While the styles and subject matters of each film differs greatly, they have one thing in common - all were either nominated for, or won, the Academy Award. They include 1989's Oscar-winning short Balance by Christoph and Wolfgang Lauenstein, 1993's winner Black Rider, about discrimination on a bus and the 1996 Oscar-winning animated short Quest and 2000's Quiero Ser. You can read more about the lineup in an article in The Nation last Friday. The shows are at 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays until March 30 at the Esplanade Cineplex Ratchadaphisek.

Film Virus Double Bill – I finally made it over to Thammasat University last Sunday for the screening of two Filipino films that were so soapy I still feel absolutely sparkling. This Sunday's double bill has two "Euro-centric" offerings, Dillinger è morto (1969, Marco Ferreri) and Dossier 51 (1978, Michel Deville). The show starts at 12.30pm on Sunday. The venue is the Rewat Buddhinan Room in the basement of the Pridi Banomyong Library at Thammasat University, Tha Prachan. You'll need to show your I.D. and have it scanned to gain entry. The best way to get there is to take the Chao Praya River Express to Wang Lang (Siriraj) pier and then transfer to a ferry. Due to construction on the Bangkok side of the river, the boats to Tha Prachan appeared to not be operating, so grab the one to the next closest pier at Wat Mahathat (not Tha Chang!).



Alliance Française – The award-winning drama Tomboy screens next Wednesday. Directed by Céline Sciamma, it's about a 10-year-old girl who moves to a new neighborhood and is mistaken for a boy. She embraces her new identity as she makes new friends. The show starts at 7pm at the Alliance Française de Bangkok. It's at the intersection of Rama IV and Wireless roads, opposite Lumpini Park in the former location of the Suan Lum Night Bazaar.

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Take note

Make plans to attend the Salaya International Documentary Film Festival, which has completed its schedule. Running from March 22 to 30, the best place to take it all in will be the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom, though there are screenings at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center from March 25 to 28 plus Doc Day, all day, on March 30 at the BACC. Highlights include the opener At Berkeley and premieres of the Oscar-nominated foreign-language film The Missing Picture from Cambodia and celebrated filmmaker Uruphong Raksasad's latest The Songs of Rice. I'll have more details about the festival early next week.

Also, film programming is resuming at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand, which will screen the Oscar-nominated documentary The Act of Killing on March 26 and the Cuban film La Bella del Alhambra on March 31.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening March 6-12, 2014

Mr. Peabody and Sherman

Adapted from the archly satirical and lovably goofy Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons made by Jay Ward in the 1950s and '60s, Mr. Peabody and Sherman is a feature-length treatment of a segment called Peabody's Improbable History, in which an urbane bespectacled talking dog masterminds time-travel adventures with his trusty adopted human boy, the awkward geek Sherman.

The story involves the bullied Sherman misusing Peabody's vaunted WABAC machine to impress his classmate Penny, and it is up to them to restore the space-time continuum. Mr. Peabody's time-travel adventures usually involved him encountering historical figures. Here, the characters include Sigmund Freud (Mel Brooks), Leonardo da Vinci (Stanley Tucci), King Agamemnon (Patrick Warburton) and Mona Lisa (Lake Bell).

Ty Burrell (Modern Family) is Peabody and kid actor Max Charles is Sherman. Other voice actors include Stephen Tobolowsky, Allison Janney, Dennis Haysbert, Stephen Colbert and Leslie Mann.

It's directed by Rob Minkoff, the animation vet who helmed The Lion King. Craig Wright wrote the screenplay. His credits include the decidedly adult TV shows Six Feet Under and the short-lived 2007 series Dirty Sexy Money, which he created. It's produced by Dreamworks Animation.

Although Rocky and Bullwinkle only ran during the height of the Cold War from 1959 to '64, it aired in syndication during my childhood. I suppose somewhere out there, Moose and Squirrel are still cracking kids up with their sophisticated satire and sideways-glancing puns. The animation may have been a bit on a crude side, but the writing was top-notch.

Previous adaptations from the Jay Ward franchise have not fared well. The live-action-animation Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle from 2000 (with Robert DeNiro as the evil Fearless Leader) wasn't that good. And the live-action Dudley Do-Right from 1999 fell flat off his horse. But Mr. Peabody and Sherman seems like it is actually pretty good – surprisingly. It opened in sneak previews last week and now moves to a wide release. It's in 3D (actual) in some cinemas. Rated G

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300: Rise of an Empire

Australian action star Sullivan Stapleton is the lead warrior in 300: Rise of an Empire, a sequel to the cult-hit swords-and-sandals CGI epic 300.

But he likely won't be promoting the movie because of a serious head injury he sustained when he fell off a tuk-tuk a few weeks back while in Bangkok on a break from filming the Cinemax military-action series Strike Back. Not much else is known about the incident, which happened while Stapleton was "exploring the town in his free time". The series' production is on a six-month hiatus, likely delaying its premiere for a few months or even until next year. According to film-industry sources, they shot around his remaining scenes in Thailand and are now on a break before resuming production in Hungary.

Anyway, 300: Rise of an Empire is based on 300 graphic novelist Frank Miller's unpublished Xerxes. It deals with what was going on with another band of scrappy Greek warriors while 300 Spartans were fighting and dying at Thermopylae. Stapleton is Themistocles, an Athenian general leading the Greeks in ab-crunching exercises. Eva Green is the the fierce warrior queen Artemisia and Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro is the imposing and much-pierced King Xerxes of Persia. Game of Thrones' Lena Headey is the Spartan queen.

Noam Murro (Smart People) takes over as director from 300 helmer Zack Snyder, who is at work on his Man of Steel sequel. But the comic-book fan Snyder still has a hand in, producing and co-writing the script.

Critical reception is mixed, leaning to favorable. It's in 3D (converted) in some cinemas, including IMAX. Rated 15+

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Also opening

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? – This award-nominated romantic comedy from Taiwanese director Arvin Chen stars Richie Ren and Mavis Fan as a couple with one kid who've been married for nine years. With the wife putting pressure on her hubby because she wants another child, complications arise when an old friend of the husband turns up and turns out to be gay. It premiered at last year's Berlin International Film Festival and was in competition at New York's Tribeca fest. Fan is a supporting-actress nominee for the upcoming Asian Film Awards. Critical reception is leaning to favorable. It's at House, Paragon, Esplanade Ratchada and SFW CentralWorld. Rated 15+

Gulaab Gang – An all-female movie is a rarity from any film industry, especially Bollywood, but that's what we have here with Gulaab Gang, which stars Madhuri Dixit as a woman who sets up a sanctuary for her abused and battered sisters. Armed with axes and sickles, these vigilantes in pink saris mete out justice while grinding spices and weaving baskets. Juhi Chawla, Divya Jagdale, Priyanka Bose and Tannishtha Chatterjee also star. It's in Hindi with English and Thai subtitles at Paragon and Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Rama III and Pattaya. Opens Friday.

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Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club – Philip Seymour Hoffman is a skeevy schoolteacher in love with his teenage student in 25th Hour, Spike Lee's post-9/11 commentary of New York, as seen through the eyes of a drug dealer (Edward Norton) who is on his way to prison and is spending one last night out with his pals. It screens tonight. Tomorrow is the Soviet war drama Come and See. From 1985, Elem Klimov's film deals with the Nazi occupation of Byelorussia during World War II. On Saturday, it's 1975's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which is only the second film to win all five major Academy Awards. Sunday is the flag-waving musical by Michael Curtiz, Yankee Doodle Dandy, with Jimmy Cagney as the irrepressible Broadway showman George M. Cohan. Shows start at 8. The FGC is down an alley next to the Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. With just nine seats, the screening room fills up fast, so reservations are a must. There are sometimes changes in the schedule, so please check the website and Facebook page before planning a visit.

Singapore Film Festival – Nostalgia for the 1990s is being stoked this weekend in the Singapore Film Festival at SFX the Emporium. Two films are being screened, That Girl in Pinafore and Ilo Ilo. Up first at 7 on Friday is That Girl in Pinafore by Chai Yee Wei. Set in 1992 – the year the island republic banned chewing gum – four young pranksters enter a music contest while they chase girls. It also screens at 4 on Saturday. Showing at 7 on Saturday and Sunday, Ilo Ilo is the first Singaporean entry to win a prize at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, the Camera d’Or for debuting director Anthony Chen. It’s the heartfelt story of a Filipina maid (Angeli Bayani) who goes to work for a middle-class Singaporean family. She struggles to bond with the family’s bratty boy and please the domineering pregnant matriarch (Yeo Yann Yann) while the father has been thrown out of work, but is keeping that a secret. Tickets are free and can be collected 30 minutes before the screening.

Film Virus Double Bill – Two titans of Filipino cinema, Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal are featured this Sunday. Up first is Brocka's All Be Damned (Hahamakin lahat) from 1990. A social drama involving betrayal and revenge, it follows lower and upper-class couples in conflict. Bernal's Working Girls from 1984 is a contemporary urban satire. It was recently remade. The show starts at 12.30pm on Sunday. The venue is the Rewat Buddinan Room in the basement of the Pridi Banomyong Library at Thammasat University, Tha Chan. You'll need to show your I.D. and have it copied to gain entry. The best way to get there is to take the Chao Phraya River Express to Wang Lang (Siriraj) pier and then ride the ferry across to Tha Chan.

German Film Series – The Goethe-Institut Thailand's monthly film series offers the 2011 drama If Not Us, Who? at 3pm on Tuesday, March 11 at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center. There is another screening at 3pm on Sunday at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya. It covers a tumultuous time of change in Germany, from the post-war late 1940s through the '60s, culminating in the German student protests of 1968. August Diehl stars and Andres Veiel directs. The film premiered in competition at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival and won the Alfred Bauer Prize and the Prize of the Guild of German Art House Cinemas.

German Film Weekends – Apart from the ongoing monthly German Film Series, there is also the Goethe-Institut Thailand's German Film Weekends from March 15 to 30 at the Esplanade Cineplex Ratchadapisek. The opening gala is actually not on a weekend, it's next Wednesday, March 12, with proceedings starting at 5.30pm, when World Film Festival of Bangkok director Kriengsak "Victor" Silakong will share his experiences from this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. Afterwards they'll show the drama Lessons of a Dream by Sebastian Gobler. It's about an English teacher (Daniel Bruhl) who teaches boys a new game – soccer. Other films will be Westwind on March 15, a package of Oscar-winning and nominated live action and animated shorts in Short and Sweet IV on March 16, Barbara on March 22, Cracks in the Shell on March 23, Hotel Lux on March 29 and 1950's Two Times Lotte on March 30. Shows are at 4pm. Tickets are free and can be reserved by phone at (02) 287-0942-4 ext. 80/82 or by e-mail, programm@bangkok.goethe.org. For more details, please see the Goethe website.

Alliance Française – Cyril Mennegun directs the 2012 drama Louise Wimmer, about a homeless woman who works hard to maintain her dignity. Corinne Masiero, Jérôme Kircher, Anne Benoît and Marie Kremer star. The show starts at 7pm at the Alliance Française de Bangkok. It's at the intersection of Rama IV and Wireless roads, opposite Lumpini Park in the former location of the Suan Lum Night Bazaar.

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Take note

All is calm in Siam Square on Tuesday night, as folks head in to the 9 o'clock screening of Pompeii.

Bangkok breathed a collective sigh of relief last Saturday when it was announced by the whistleblowing anti-government protesters that they would end their occupation of major city intersections and set up camp in Lumpini Park. The move came as deadly violence was ramping up around the rally sites and there was even talk of civil war. While joggers in Lumpini are inconvenienced, residents can visit the Pathumwan, Ratchprasong and Asoke areas without fear of having a bead drawn on them by snipers or blown to bits by grenades.

Now that it's safe to roam around, later evening shows have resumed at the Apex chain's Lido and Scala cinemas in Siam Square. They had been curtailed while the rally was in force at Pathumwan.

The end of the Bangkok Shutdown also clears the way for film-lovers to safely take part in an upcoming event, the Salaya International Documentary Film Festival, which runs from March 22 to 29 at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya with a concurrent program from March 25 to 28 at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center. Among highlights will be At Berkeley by the great documentarian Frederick Wiseman and premieres of the award-winning The Songs of Rice and Cambodia's first Foreign Language Film nominee, The Missing Picture. Read more about it at that other blog.

Disney's Frozen is back in cinemas, in celebration of its winning the Oscars for animated feature and original song. The move was perhaps prompted by the viral social-media photo of one of the Thai animators who worked on the film holding the Oscar statuette. Many other Oscar winners and nominees can also be seen on the Bangkok big screen, including 12 Years a Slave, Dallas Buyers Club, Blue Jasmine, Gravity, American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street.