Bangkok Cinema Scene special: European Union Film Festival, June 23-July 3, 2016

Sixteen films from 13 countries will screen for the general public in the long-running annual European Union Film Festival, starting next week at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld.

This year, the festival takes the theme “Look to the Past, See the Future”. Highlights include The Broken Circle Breakdown, a Belgian film that was a 2014 nominee for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Finland’s The Fencer, a Cold War drama that was a Golden Globe nominee, and Victoria, an innovative German crime drama that won three awards at the Berlin film fest and has been noted for its cinematography.

Other films hail from the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Hungary, Sweden, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

There’s also a hidden 17th film from another country, Italy, which offers a one-off, invitation-only opening-night screening next Wednesday of Tale of Tales, a horror-fantasy from noted director Matteo Garrone and starring Salma Hayek.

Here is the line-up for the general public:

• The Broken Circle Breakdown – Belgium’s Oscar-nominated drama takes its title from the American bluegrass music that brings together two musicians, a young man and woman, who have a daughter they name Maybelle. Tragedy then strikes.
• Family Film – In this 2015 black comedy from the Czech Republic, a mum and dad take off for a vacation, inexplicably leaving their children and the family dog to fend for themselves.
• The Sunfish – A third-generation Danish fisherman struggling to hold on to his livelihood finds unlikely romance when he invites a marine biologist aboard his vessel. This won many prizes, including Denmark’s 2014 Bodil Awards for best actor and supporting actress for Henrik Birch and Susanne Storm.
• Silent Heart – A second entry from Denmark has three generations of a family reuniting amid conflict as their ailing mother wants to die before her illness worsens. Directed by Bille August, it won many prizes including best film at the 2015 Bolid Awards.
• The Fencer – The award-winning Finnish drama is set in 1950, with a young man trapped between his World War II past and the future of Estonia as his country comes under control of the Soviet Union.
• Standing Tall – A French judge (Catherine Deneuve) and a schoolteacher (Benoit Magimel) take up the cause of putting a juvenile delinquent (Rod Paradot) on the straight and narrow. It was a major nominee for this year’s Cesar Awards, with Magimel winning best supporting actor and newcomer Paradot named most promising actor.
• The Sweet Escape – In another French entry, a middle-aged graphic designer seeks to change his urban lifestyle and takes up kayaking.
• The People vs Fritz Bauer – Germany’s embattled Nazi hunter, the attorney general Fritz Bauer, comes under attack after he covertly approaches Israel’s spy service for help in tracking down Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. It was a nominee for several German Film Awards, and won best film.
• Victoria – Winner of the Berlin Silver Bear for cinematography, this German thriller was shot in one eye-popping continuous take, and follows a young Spanish woman, a newcomer to Berlin, as she is befriended one night by four young men who turn out to be criminals.
• Afterlife – A neurotic young man encounters the ghost of his father and the two form a bond that seemed impossible when the man was alive. From Hungary, this 2014 comedy-drama was nominated for prizes in Karlovy Vary and Palm Springs.
• Bikes vs Cars – Sweden offers a documentary look at how bicycles stack up against other forms of transport in such cities as Los Angeles, Toronto, Sao Paulo and Copenhagen.
• Baby (a) lone – Luxembourg’s official submission to the Oscars has troubled teenagers, a boy and girl, who meet in a school-detention programme and form a bond as they take out their frustrations with society.
• Finn – A boy and his father, both mourning the loss the boy’s mum, who died in childbirth on Christmas Eve, find solace in music and religious symbolism. From the Netherlands, this family drama was a nominee for the Crystal Bear at the 2014 Berlin film festival.
• Jack Strong – Poland offers a taut Cold War thriller about top Polish military official Ryszard Kuklinski, who became a spy for the US, spilling Warsaw Pact secrets in a bid to keep his country safe. Marcin Dorocinski stars, along with Patrick Wilson as Kuklinski’s CIA handler.
• The Wolf’s Lair – Portuguese filmmaker Catarina Mourao lifts the covers off her family’s tragic past in this documentary, in which she seeks to unravel the secrets and mysteries of her family during Portugal’s dictatorship.
• Truman – A terminally ill man is visited by an old friend, and the two set out for one last adventure, accompanied by the man’s loyal pet dog.

The European Union Film Festival opens to the general public next Thursday and runs until July 3 at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld in Bangkok. The festival will then be held from July 8 to 17 at SFX Maya Chiang Mai and from July 21 to 24 at SF Cinema City, CentralPlaza Khon Kaen.

Films will have English and Thai subtitles. Tickets are Bt120 in Bangkok, Bt80 in Chiang Mai and free in Khon Kaen.

The schedule can be found online. For more details, check www.SFCinemaCity.com.

(Cross-published in The Nation)

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening May 7-13, 2015

Keeta Maha Raja Niphon

Four short films by noted Thai directors pay tribute to songs composed by His Majesty the King in Keeta Maha Raja Niphon (คีตราชนิพนธ์).

Nonzee Nimibutr directs a story of an elderly woman trying to convince a formerly famous singer to perform again in public while Wallop Prasopphol has a story of a bullied boy trying to impress a girl by acting in the school play.

Parkpoom Wongpoom recounts the life of Seub Nakhasathien, the activist wildlife conservation official who sacrificed himself to call attention to the plight of endangered animals and natural areas. He's portrayed by talented actor Nopachai “Peter” Jayanama (Headshot, Naresuan).

And Yongyoot Thongkongtoon directs a profile of a Boy Scout whose goal is to raise his school's flag, a job reserved only for the best-behaved students.

The four shorts are screening for free until Sunday at Major Cineplex branches. Seats have already filled up for several screenings and reservations are a must. To reserve your seat, check this special website, perhaps with the assistance of a Thai friend.

And you can find out more about the project at that other blog or from an article in The Nation. There's also a Facebook page and a YouTube channel.

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Also opening

The Last Five Years — Pitch Perfect star Anna Kendrick again puts her vocal cords to work in this adaptation of a stage musical. It chronicles the end of a love affair and marriage between an up-and-coming novelist and a struggling actress. Jeremy Jordan also stars. Richard LaGravenese (Beautiful Creatures, P.S. I Love You) directs. Critical reception is mixed, leaning to positive. Rated 15+

Foosball – Tiny players from a foosball table magically come to life to aid a young man in his bid to rescue his girlfriend and save his town from being leveled by an old childhood rival to make way for a new sports stadium. From Argentina, this animated feature is also known as Metegol or Underdogs. It's at SF cinemas. Rated G

Parasyte – Worm-like aliens fall from the sky and take over most everyone’s bodies, but one high-school student manages to keep his parasite confined to his right hand. He sets out to conquer the aliens. From Japan, this is the first of at least two parts. At Apex and SF. Rated 15+

Postcard Tee Mai Me… Tee Ma (โปสการ์ดที่ไม่มี..ที่มา , Postcard from Nowhere) – Three people cross paths thanks to a postcard – photographer Sai Lom (Puttipong Sriwat), Khet (Sarawut Martthong) and Karnda (Worranun Chantarasami), the woman Khet loves. Rated G

Piku – Three top Bollywood talents – Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone and Irrfan Khan – star in this road-trip comedy. An architect (Padukone) has to take her ailing father (Big B) from New Delhi to Kolkata. She recruits a cab-company owner (Khan) to take them, since none of his drivers are willing to endure the father-daughter pair. In Hindi with English and Thai subtitles Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Rama III and Pattaya. Opens Friday.

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Also showing

Alliance Française – Tonight at 6.30 is the opening of 40 Years Later: The Commemoration of the Fall of Phnom Penh, a photo exhibition by French lensman Roland Neveu, who was there in 1975 in the moments before the Khmer Rouge took over. He'll be there to sign a book of his photos. Also present will be French-Cambodian filmmaker Iv Charbonneau-Ching, whose emotion-filled documentary Cambodge, après l’adieu (Cambodia After Farewell) will be screened tonight. It follows his family's return to Cambodia after their escape from the Khmer Rouge regime in 1975. Tickets are 100 baht. You can reserve your movie ticket online. For more details, check the Facebook events page. Neveu's photos will be up through May 24. Next Wednesday, the month of French films about children continues with Tritesse Club about two men, who may or may not be brothers, meeting a young woman who may or may not be their sister. They then set out to find the man they think might be their father, who may or may not be dead. Vincent Macaigne, Laurent Lafitte and Ludivine Sagnier star. Vincent Mariette directs. It screens at 7pm on Wednesday, May 13 at the Alliance.

The Friese-Greene Club – Music documentaries are featured on Wednesdays, American Palme d'Or winners at the Cannes Film Festival are on Thursdays, British Golden Palm winners are on Fridays, films that are sexier than Fifty Shades of Grey are on Saturdays and "modern" musicals on Sundays. This week's American triumph at Cannes is Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, which was actually booed by the typically hard-to-please crowd. As with many other films that are booed at Cannes, it became a cult hit. Tomorrow's British winner at Cannes is Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes the Barley, about the Irish War. Saturday, it's Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin, a break-out role for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, portraying a gay hustler. And on Sunday, it's A Chorus Line. Next Wednesday is Searching for Sugar Man, in which a pair of obsessed music fans try to find out what happened to 1970s' one-hit-wonder Rodriguez. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Documentary Club – As detailed in last week's post, the ongoing Doc Holiday series at SF cinemas continues tomorrow with 1971, debuting director Johanna Hamilton’s recounting of a break-in at an FBI office that led to the exposure of Cointelpro, J. Edgar Hoover’s secret, illegal surveillance program that targeted civil rights leaders, journalists and leftist politicians. It is on from tomorrow until Sunday at SFW CentralWorld and SFX Maya Chiang Mai. Advance bookings are encouraged. Further shows may be added. For more details, please see www.Facebook.com/DocumentaryClubTH.

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand – The FCCT's Contemporary World Film Series continues with this year's Academy Award winning best foreign language film, Ida, from Poland. A gobstoppingly beautiful film, shot in lovely black-and-white and framed in the classic 4:3 ratio, the drama follows an orphaned young novitiate nun in 1960s Poland. Before taking her vows, she's encouraged to track down her sole surviving family member. She's her boozing, chain-smoking aunt – a disgraced but still-formidable state prosecutor from the Stalinist era. They take a road trip to bring closure to a dark family secret dating back to the Nazi occupation. The screening, courtesy of the Embassy of Poland, comes with Polish Zubrowka vodka cocktails (don't try to keep up with that hard-drinking aunt!) and Szarlotka apple pie. It's at 7pm on Monday, May 11 at the FCCT. Admission is 150 baht for non-members and 100 baht for anyone wanting pie.

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Take note

Upcoming events include a festival of Singaporean films at SFW CentralWorld from May 21 to 24. There is also the next entry in the Bangkok Art and Culture Center's Cinema Diverse: Director's Choice series, which on May 23 welcomes Thai director Aditya Assarat and young Indian director Chaitanya Tamhane for a screening of Tamhane's 2014 feature Court and a talk by the two auteurs afterward.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening January 22-28, 2015

The Songs of Rice

My favorite film of 2014, The Songs of Rice (พลงของข้าว, Pleng Khong Kao), finally comes to Thai cinemas this week in a limited release.

Directed by Uruphong Raksasad and produced by Pimpaka Towira, The Songs of Rice is a joyous celebration of the often-lively (and even explosive) rites and festivities that accompany rice cultivation in Thailand.

It premiered about a year ago at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, where it won the Fipresci Award, and made several other festival appearances. I saw it twice, at Salaya Doc and in Luang Prabang, and both times I was blown away by the film's gently building tempo and the vivid intensity of the images.

A documentary, it is the completion of a trilogy of farming films that Uruphong began with in 2005 with The Stories from the North, a collection of short stories from around his native Chiang Rai province. He followed that up with the ambitious documentary Agrarian Utopia, which followed two families growing rice by hand for a year on a small plot of land, also in Chiang Rai, way up in Thailand's North.

With The Songs of Rice, Uruphong starts out in that same location, but then moves further afield, travelling the length and breadth of the country as he documents religious ceremonies, beauty pageants, parades, communal food preparation, dancing and music. He covers the rocket festival in Yasothon in the Northeast, the buffalo races in Chonburi in the East and falls in with a travelling band of workers and their rice-harvesting spaceships in Roi Et.

Released by Extra Virgin, The Songs of Rice is at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld. Next week, it spreads to Chiang Mai's Maya and SF Cinema City in Khon Kaen on February 5. Rated G

For more details, check the movie's Facebook page. There's also a trailer.

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Also opening

American Sniper – One of this year's nominees for the Academy Awards, Bradley Cooper portrays Chris Kyle, the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history. A U.S. Navy SEAL, he's so effective at protecting his comrades that they nickname him the "Legend", which also puts a price on his head and has insurgents gunning for him. Despite the danger, he serves four harrowing tours of duty in Iraq. But upon returning home, he finds the can’t leave the war behind. Sienna Miller also stars. Clint Eastwood directs. American Sniper is nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor for Cooper. The film is controversial in the U.S., where society is divided over whether the film is pro-war propaganda or a tribute to the men and women who sacrifice their lives in service to the country or even just anti-war. Critical reception is mostly positive. Rated 13_

Big Eyes – Tim Burton directs fact-based comedy-drama about 1950s and '60s American pop artist Margaret Keane (Amy Adams) and her entrepreneurial husband (Christoph Waltz), who took credit for his wife’s famous paintings of big-eyed children. Terence Stamp, Danny Huston, Jason Schwartzman and Krysten Ritter also star. A return to form for Burton, whose recent output has been assailed critically, Big Eyes was nominated for three Golden Globes, and won best actress for Amy Adams. Oscar buzz for it was high, but it was snubbed in the end. Critical reception is mostly favorable. Rated 13+

Maps to the Stars – David Cronenberg taps into the inner-psyche of Hollywood with this social satire about a family that is involved with various facets of show business. John Cusack is a famed TV self-help therapist while his wife (Olivia Williams) is managing the career of their child-star son (Evan Bird), who, at the age of 13, has already been to rehab. Their mentally unstable daughter (Mia Wasikowska) is an assistant to a faded movie star (Julianne Moore). And on the fringes is an aspiring writer-actor (Robert Pattinson) who works as a limo driver. Maps to the Stars premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and critical reception is mixed. The consensus seems to be that it's got just enough of the requisite Cronenberg weirdness to satisfy the director's fans. Rated 18+

Mortdecai – Well, there's no Johnny Depp in this year's Tim Burton film, but that doesn't mean you can't go watch Depp put on silly costumes and clown around. In Mortdecai, he's a moustache-twirling upper-class British twit who is assigned to recover a stolen painting that contains a code to a lost Nazi bank account. He gets help from his leggy girlfriend (Gywneth Paltrow) and his long-suffering servant Jock (Paul Bettany). Ewan McGregor and Olivia Munn also star. It's based on a series of comic novels from the 1970s by British writer Kyril Bonfiglioli. David Keopp (Premium Rush, Ghost Town) directs. Can't imagine critical reception is going to be kind. Rated 13+

Dumb and Dumber To – Twenty years after they made their name with Dumb and Dumber, directors Bobby and Peter Farrelly revisit goofball characters Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne, with original stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels finally returning to their iconic roles after years and years of sequel rumors. The story reunites the two friends for a road trip in search of Harry's long-lost child. Critical reception is mixed. Ratedc 13+

The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death – With bombs raining down on London during World War II, a schoolteacher and her headmistress take their orphan charges to seek refuge in the countryside. Stranded in a deserted village, they set up their school in a manor where supernatural events occurred years before. Phoebe Fox, Helen McCrory and Jeremy Irvine star. Critical reception is mixed. Rated 13+

Ror Dor Khao Chon Phee Thee Khao Chon Kai (รด.เขาชนผีที่เขาชนไก่) – Respected Thai director Tanwarin Sukkhapisit shifts to horror-comedy with this picture distributed by Phranakorn Film. It's set at at the Khao Chon Kai bootcamp in Kanchanaburi, where rival groups of schoolboys going through the ror dor territorial defence training deal with mysterious happenings at night. Somchai Kemklad stars as a ghostly drill instructor. Rated 15+

The Fox Lover – White Fox spirit Xiaochui (Gillian Chung) is in love with the naive mortal Wang Yuanfeng (Julian Cheung), who has hidden powers that enable him to destroy demons. But when Xiaochui’s loyalties are tested in the clash between humans and demons, she is willing to sacrifice her life for love. Thai-dubbed.

Baby – Akshay Kumar stars in this Bollywood actioner as a counter-intelligence agent battling a global plot by a maniacal mastermind. In Hindi with English and Thai subtitles at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Central Rama III and Pattaya. Opens Friday.

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Also showing

Polish Film Festival – Wrapping up today, two entries remain in the festival at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld. First up at 7pm is Fanciful, a coming-of-age drama about a teenage girl who comes down with a mysterious illness after the death of her mother. Producer Eyrk Stepniewski will be on hand afterward for a q-and-a. That's followed at 9pm by One Way Ticket to the Moon, in which a young man about to enter the navy's submarine service is taken on a road trip to lose his virginity. Tickets are Bt120.

The Friese-Greene Club – Pedro Almodovar is the Spanish director in focus tonight with his romantic film, Talk to Her. Tomorrow, head to Jesus Camp, a documentary about an unusual South Dakota summer camp. The club hosts a private event on Saturday but is open for all on Sunday with another classic Doris Day movie, Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, with James Stewart and featuring Day's signature song, the Oscar-winning smash "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)". Next Wednesday is another documentary, 2008's Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father, a touching tribute to a murdered best friend. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22.  For more details, check the club's Facebook page. There's just nine seats, so book them.

Mini-Wathann Film Festival – Filmvirus and the Reading Room present a two-day program of old and new Myanmar films from the Wathann Film Festival, which was Myanmar's first film festival and the first to feature independent films. It was founded in Yangon in 2011 by Myanmar filmmaking couple Thuthu Shein and Thaiddhi, who studied at the Czech National Film School. Opening at 1pm on Saturday and Sunday, the fest will have an older feature from the festival's "memory" section followed by a line-up of short films. Saturday opens with Tender Are the Feet, a 45-minute film from 1972 by Mg Wunna. Short documentaries follow at 2pm. Sunday kicks off with an old memory, 1953's feature Yatanabon (Treasure-trove) by U Tin Maung, followed at 2.30pm by short fictional and experimental films. Myat Noe, Myanmar filmmaker and critic, will be on hand for talks afterward. Admission is free. The venue is the Reading Room, a fourth-floor walk-up near the corner of Silom Soi 19.

Filmvirus Kawaii Luv Luv – Filmvirus' Sunday afternoon double features of Japanese films offers a change of pace this week with Key of Life, a 2012 comedy by Kenji Uchida, about an out-of-work actor who steals the identity of a stranger at a bathhouse and finds himself in the shoes of an elite hitman. That's followed by 9 Souls, a 2003 crime drama by Toshiaki Toyoda about nine escaped prisoners hunting for buried treasure. The show starts at 12.30 on Sunday in the Pridi Banomyong Library at Thammasat University Tha Prachan, in the Rewat Buddhinan Room, floor U2, the basement. Dress appropriately and inform the desk worker you are there to see a movie. For details, call (02) 613-3529 or (02) 613-3530.

German Open Air Cinema – It's a western set in the Alps with The Dark Valley, a 2014 drama in which a lone rider takes a hidden path and turns up in an Alpine town, where people wonder where he came from and how he got there. It screens at 7.30pm on Tuesday, January 27, at the Goethe-Institut of Sathorn Soi 1.

Alliance Française – A lonely man on a park bench is observed by an immense all-star French cast in Bancs publics (Versailles Rive-Droite), a 2009 comedy by Bruno Podalydès. It's in French with English subtitles at 7pm on Wednesday, January 28 at the Alliance.

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Sneak preview

The Imitation Game  – As if 11 new movies in general release and the many other film events going on aren't enough, here's one more – The Imitation Game, a biographical drama about Alan Turing, the mathematician and mastermind of the Allied effort to crack the German Enigma code of World War II. After he heroically helped defeat the Nazis, Turing was criminally prosecuted for his homosexuality. Starring recent Golden Globe winner Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game is nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Morton Tyldum, Best Actor for Benedict Cumberbatch and Best Supporting Actress for Keira Knightley. Critical reception is mostly positive. It's in sneak previews from around 8 nightly at most multiplexes before opening wide next week.

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Take note

The Japanese Film Festival is coming up next week, from January 30 to February 8 at Paragon. I'll aim to provide a special update soon. Another upcoming event is the Thailand International Destination Film Festival, running from February 4 to 12.

Major Cineplex is celebrating 20 years with an update of its website. After being dysfunctional for probably close to a year, it's now a bit easier to use and actually provides showtimes.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening January 15-21, 2015

The Isthmus

A singularly weird film, The Isthmus (ที่ว่างระหว่างสมุทร, Teewang Rawang Samut) opens for a limited run this week, more than a year after it made initial bow on the festival circuit.

Tapping into indie Thai cinema's popularity for "contemplative" or "shoegaze" films, the film's poster adds a new tagline for the Bangkok theatrical run, "A celebration of nothingness."

Directed by a pair of university film-studies lecturers, Sopawan Boonnimitra and Peerachai Kerdsint, The Isthmus deals with a little girl who suddenly starts speaking only Burmese after her Myanmar nanny dies. The girl's hi-so single mother (Sangthong Gate-U-thong from Citizen Dog and Muay Thai Chaiya) is desperate to find out what's wrong, so she takes the girl and journeys to Ranong, the coastal border province that's home to the late nanny's sister and a vast community of Mynamar migrants. There, they encounter various other characters, such a local physician and community activist, and an oddball Japanese priest.

Screened at the 2013 edition of the Busan film festival and the World Film Festival of Bangkok, The Isthmus is a strange film and is difficult to sum up, though it is a worthy attempt to address the issues of Myanmar migrants and show their place in society. It's at House on RCA and at Apex in Siam Square.

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Also opening

Blackhat – Celebrated director Michael Mann (Heat, Collateral) makes his return with this globe-trotting high-tech crime thriller. Chris Hemsworth stars as a convicted hacker who cuts a deal with the authorities to be freed from prison so he pursue a network of cyber-criminals in a hunt that takes him from Chicago to Los Angeles and Hong Kong to Jakarta. Viola Davis also stars, along with top Taiwanese talents Tang Wei and Wang Leehom. Critical reception is forthcoming. Rated 15+

Into the Woods – A baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) are cursed with childlessness by a witch (Meryl Streep). So they venture into an enchanted forest to find a way to break the spell and encounter various fairy-tale characters who are searching for their own happy endings. Based on the hit 1980s Broadway musical by James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim, there are plenty of songs and dancing along the way. Anna Kendrick, Chris Pine and Johnny Depp also star. A nominee for three Golden Globe Awards (Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, best actress for Emily Blunt, best supporting for Meryl Streep), critical reception is leaning to positive. Rated G

The Water Diviner – Russell Crowe directs and stars in this historical drama as an Australian farmer whose three sons go off to war in Turkey. When they fail to return after the Battle of Gallipoli, he heads to Turkey himself. In Istanbul, he forms a bond with a hotel owner (Olga Kurylenko) while trying to find a way to get to Gallipolli. Critical reception is mostly positive. Rated 15+

Home (a.k.a. At the Devil’s Door) – As she's preparing a house for sale, a real-estate agent encounters a young runaway girl and then becomes entangled with a supernatural force. An indie horror, it premiered at last year's South by Southwest festival and is directed by Nicholas McCarthy, who earlier did the indie horror The Pact. Critical reception is mixed. Rated 15+

Laggies – Keira Knightly stars in this indie coming-of-age comedy as a 28-year-old slacker woman. At her 10-year high-school reunion, she panics after her long-time boyfriend suddenly proposes marriage. She then crosses paths with a 16-year-old girl (Chloe Grace Moretz), buys her beer and feels a kinship. Sam Rockwell also stars. Lynn Shelton (Humpday, Your Sister's Sister) directs. Laggies premiered at Sundance last year. Critical reception is generally positive. Rated 15+

Wolves – A popular high-school student (Lucas Till) awakens from a horrific nightmare, only to realize that he’s living it. Forced into a life on the run, he is drawn to a remote mountain town where he discovers others like him. Jason Momoa and Merritt Patterson also star. David Hayter, screenwriter on Watchmen and X-Men 2, directs, making his feature debut. Critics are howling. Rated 15+

Tevar – A young man goes to factionalism-hit part of the country to participate in a kabaddi match, but ends up being drawn into a conflict over a young woman and the dangerous faction leader who seeks to marry her. Arjun Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha and Manoj Bajpai star. It's in Hindi with English and Thai subtitles at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Central Rama III and Pattaya. Opens Friday.

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Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club – Tonight, it's a masterpiece of Spanish cinema with Spirit of the Beehive, a 1973 drama by Victor Erice, it's been described as the "bewitching portrait of a child’s haunted inner life". Tomorrow's documentary is The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia, a 2009 portrait of a family of redneck career criminals. Saturday's "strange future" is Woody Allen's Sleeper, while Sunday's Doris Day movie is Calamity Jane. Next Wednesday's documentary is Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22.  For more details, check the club's Facebook page. There's just nine seats, so book them.

Filmvirus Kawaii Luv Luv – Up first in the Sunday double-bill of Japanese romantic dramas is Permanent Nobara from 2010. Directed by Daihachi Yoshida, it follows a young divorced woman back to her small hometown, where she takes up work in her mother's hair salon, where the women spend their days talking about men and relatinships. Next is 1995's A Last Note, about a group of ageing actresses and their friends and their reflections on life. The show starts at 12.30 on Sunday in the Pridi Banomyong Library at Thammasat University Tha Prachan, in the Rewat Buddhinan Room, floor U2, the basement. Dress appropriately and inform the desk worker you are there to see a movie. For details, call (02) 613-3529 or (02) 613-3530.

Polish Film Festival – Six recent examples of Poland’s celebrated cinema will be shown in the Polish Film Festival from Sunday until Thursday at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld. Organized by the Polish Filmmakers Association, the Polish Film Institute and the Embassy of Poland, here is the lineup:

• Ida – Poland's official submission to the Academy Awards, the black-and-white drama is set in the 1960s and follows a young woman as she's about to take her vows as a Catholic nun. She takes trip to see the last surviving member of her family, and uncovers dark secrets about World War II and the Nazis. Screens at 6pm on Sunday with q-and-a by producer Ewa Puszczynska and 9pm on Wednesday. 
• Walesa: Man of Hope – Veteran filmmaker Andrzej Wajda directs this acclaimed biopic about the Nobel Prize-winning founder of the Solidarity Movement, which spearheaded the Polish revolution. Screens at 8pm on Sunday and 9pm on Tuesday.
• One Way Ticket to the Moon – It's 1969 and a young man is about to enter the submarine service in the Polish Navy. Before he goes, his older brother decides to take him on a trip across the country to meet friends and relatives – and for the young man to lose his virginity. Screens at 7pm on Monday with q-and-a by director Jacek Bromski and 9pm next Thursday.
• Fanciful – After the death of her mother, a 15-year-old girl falls ill with a strange disease, and her previously distant father enters her life and tries to re-establish a connection. Meanwhile, the girl’s fight against illness presents a tough test for the family. Screens at 9pm on Monday and 7pm next Thursday with q-and-a by producer Eryk Stepniewski.
• Gods – Another biopic, this one follows the efforts of Dr Zbigniew Religa, a maverick cardiac surgeon who led a team of doctors in Poland’s first human heart transplant. Screens at 7pm on Wednesday with q-and-a by director Lukasz Palkowski.
• Life Feels Good – A young man grows up with cerebral palsy against the backdrop of major changes in Polish society during the 1980s and '90s. Screens at 7pm on Tuesday.

All films have English and Thai subtitles. Tickets are Bt120.

German Open Air Cinema – The fact-based story of a Swiss policeman who helped German and Austrian Jews escape the Nazis during the late 1930s is depicted in Akte Grüninger (Grüninger's Fall). It screens at 7.30pm on Tuesday, January 20, at the Goethe-Institut of Sathorn Soi 1.

Alliance Française – A woman struggles to balance her job as a journalist with raising her two young daughters, just as the president election arrives in her town and her ex-husband shows up for his court-appointed visit with the kids. It's La Bataille de Solférino (Age of Panic), in French with English subtitles at 7pm on Wednesday, January 21 at the Alliance.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening December 31, 2013-January 7, 2015

Satree Lek Tob Loke Taek

Poj Anon, Thailand's leading maker of films featuring cross-dressing actors in bad wigs, offers his own take on the true story of the “iron ladies” – the transgender-queer volleyball team from Lampang that won a men's national championship in the 1990s, with Satree Lek Tob Loke Taek (สตรีเหล็กตบโลกแตก).

It is another version of story that is already a fine film, released in 2000, Satree Lek (The Iron Ladies). It was among the first in a new wave of Thai titles to make a splash internationally and was directed by Yongyoot Thongkongtoon, making his debut. He even made a sequel, and has since gone on to be one of the major players behind the hit-making Thai studio GTH.

Always the opportunist, Poj makes films that seem ripped from the headlines, and his volleyball movie has synergy with current affairs thanks to the women's national volleyball team winning a world championship this year. He drafted them for a cameo appearance in his film.

The remake has enlisted a few prominent male stars to don wigs and loud makeup, among them sought-after talent "Film" Rattapoom Toekongsap and bespectacled character actor Padung “Jazz Chuanchuen” Songsang. Ubiquitous little comedienne, actress and TV presenter "Tukky" Sudarat Butrprom is also featured, portraying the coach. Rated 15+

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Also opening

Seventh Son – Jeff "the Dude" Bridges mumbles and chews his way through the scenery in this fantasy epic. He's Master Gregory, a knight of ancient times who tangles with a witch (an also-scenery-munching Julianne Moore) who he imprisoned ages ago but is now out for vengeance. The only way to defeat her is to train a new apprentice (Ben Barnes), the seventh son of a seventh son. Critics, so far, aren't falling for any of the tricks. Rated 13+

Tua Phor, Riak Phor (a.k.a. The One Ticket) – Local studio Sahamongkolfilm offers what it thinks New Year's viewers want to see – a crass comedy starring former boyband singer "Dan" Worawech Danuwong. He's a young slacker father who'd rather party with his friends than spend time with this daughter, and when he squanders the girl's savings, he's deprived her of a chance to see her favorite Japanese band. To put things right, dad has to do everything he can to get her that concert ticket. Rated 15+

Stand by Me Doraemon – One of Japan's longest-running and and most-popular franchises, Doraemon enters the computer-animation age with this first CG-animated entry. Based on the first seven volumes of the manga series, this is an origin tale, depicting how a robotic cat was sent from the future to teach and protect a bratty boy named Nobita. It's Thai-dubbed in most place, though SFW CentralWorld might have the original Japanese soundtrack. Rated G.

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Also showing

• German Open Air Cinema – After a break for the holidays, the weekly series resumes on Tuesday with Forget Me Not, a 2012 documentary by David Sieveking, in which he uncovers the past of his mother, who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease. The show is at 7.30pm at the Goethe Institut off Sathorn Soi 1.
• Alliance Française – The year opens with 8 Fois Debout, a comedy about a young mother struggling to find work and support her son. The show is at 7pm on Wednesday, January 7.

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Take note

Happy new year! Because of the holiday, movies are released a day earlier than usual.

I had yet to see a January schedule from the Friese-Greene Club, so watch their Facebook page for updates.

As the year gets underway, there are a number of film events in the works. Among the highlights will be the Polish Film Festival from January 18 to 22 at SFW CentralWorld.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening May 22-28, 2014

X-Men: Days of Future Past

The comic-book onslaught continues as Fox's X-Men franchises converge in X-Men: Days of Future Past, with the stars of the original 2000-2006 film trilogy sharing the screen with the mutant superheroes of the 2011 reboot X-Men: First Class.

Rivalling Disney's Marvel Studios' own juggernaut The Avengers for sheer star power, it's a cast stuffed with Shakespearian-trained talent – Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan as friends-turned-enemies Professor Charles Xavier and Magneto, played in their younger days by a pair of other figures from the stage and arthouse screen – James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender.

Also returning is Hugh Jackman as Logan, a.k.a. Wolverine – he had a hilarious cameo in First Class. Here, with just raw bones for claws now, he's front and center, tasked by Professor X (Stewart) with going back in time to the 1970s to stop a chain of events that led to the creation of the Sentinels – unstoppable killer robots.

For help, Logan has to work with the younger Xavier, a powerful telepath who is a broken man following the events of First Class, in which his lifelong friend, the blue-skinned shape-shifting Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) left him and his other good friend Magneto betrayed him. But they need metal-bending Magneto, who is held in a super-max prison inside the Pentagon.

Others taking part include Halle Berry as Storm, Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde, Anna Paquin as Rogue, Nicholas Hoult as the Beast and Fan Bingbing as the teleporting mutant Blink. Original trilogy stars Kelsey Grammer, James Marsden and Famke Jansen also turn up. New to the franchise is Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage, portraying Dr. Bolivar Trask, the scientist who created the Sentinels.

Back in the director's chair is Bryan Singer, who helmed 2000's X-Men and the 2003 sequel X2 and has guided the franchise as producer all along. The movie's release comes as he's fighting a scandal in Hollywood.

Writers include Matthew Vaughn, the British producer-director of Kick-Ass and First Class, and Simon Kinberg, whose credits also include the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot and Star Wars: Episode VII.

Critical reception is wildly positive, making Days of Future Past one of the strongest in the X-Men franchise.

As has become the norm with Marvel Comic movies, there's a post-credits scene, so stick around as all the special-effects names roll by.

It's in real 3D in some cinemas, including IMAX and IMAX Digital. Rated G

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Also opening

Rob the Mob – Young husband-and-wife hoodlums plan a caper to take revenge on the New York mob in this fact-based crime-comedy starring Michael Pitt (Boardwalk Empire) and Nina Ariana. Andy Garcia, Ray Romano, Aida Turturro, Frank Whaley and Griffin Dunne also star. Critical reception is mostly positive – a pleasant surprise. Rated 15+

Draft Day – Kevin Costner, enjoying a career resurgence at the moment, is back doing what he does best – sports movies. The star of Field of Dreams, Bull Durham (baseball), Tin Cup (golf) and Waterworld (sailing), turns to the gridiron in this comedy-drama that takes place on one of the biggest days for American professional football – the NFL draft – in which a flurry of deals are made for college players. Costner is the manager of the Cleveland Browns, and has to make difficult personal and professional choices as he ponders what to do with the No. 1 draft pick. Jennifer Garner also stars. Ivan Reitman, better known for his comedies like Ghostbusters, directs. Critical reception is mixed, leaning to positive. Rated 15+

The Quiet Ones – Hammer Films, the British studio that made classic B-movie horrors from the 1950s through the '70s, was revived a few years back, and has brought us such new B-movie thrillers as The Woman in Black and the Let the Right One In remake Let Me In. The Quiet Ones has a former Oxford professor (Jared Harris from Mad Men) conducting experiments on a young woman who is possessed by dark forces. Sam Claflin and Olivia Cooke also star. Critical reception is mixed. Rated 15+

Kochadaiiyaan – India's first motion-capture animated feature tells the historical tale of good and evil, featuring South Indian megastar Rajinikanth performing and voicing three roles. The story involves a warrior who returns to his homeland to avenge the death of his father, who was unjustly put to death by the king. Deepika Padukone also stars, performing her own stunts. With music by Oscar-winning film-score composer A.R. Rahman, it's directed by Rajinikanth's daughter, Soundarya R. Ashwin. It was made using the performance-capture technique that was used for such films as Avatar, Tintin and for certain characters in the Lord of the Rings, Planet of the Apes, and yes, Godzilla! It's a first for India. It's also getting a huge debut, delayed a week, so that it could be released across the subcontinent and worldwide in nine languages. For Thailand, it's in Hindi with English and Thai subtitles at Paragon and Major Cineplex Sukhumvit (Ekamai), Rama III and Pattaya. And, it'll be in 2D only, so you can leave your 3D glasses at home. Opens Friday.

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Also showing

Movies on Design – Part of the Bangkok Design Festival, Movies on Design actually started on Tuesday at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center, but it seems nobody bothered to say anything about it until Monday. The fest, continuing until next Thursday, features documentaries about architecture, art and design. Here's the lineup:

• Life Architecturally – A profile of Australian architect Robert McBride and his wife, interior designer Debbie Ryan. 2.30 today and 7.45pm on May 28.
• Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Reimagining Lincoln Center and the High Line – Meet the minds behind the expansion of the New York's premiere performing-arts center and the innovative renovation of a derelict Manhattan elevated railway into a landmark new public park. 4.45pm today and 7pm on May 27 with a talk.
• Cartoon College – A look at American comic culture, with visits to comic-book stores, museums and conventions and talks with such cartoonists as Lynda Barry, Charles Burns, Art Spiegelman and Chris Ware. 5pm on May 28 with a talk.
• Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present – A profile of the artist who staged an "interactive performance" in 2010 at New York's Museum of Modern Art. 6 tonight with a talk and 4.15pm on May 29.
• From Nothing, Something: A Documentary on the Creative Process – A series of profiles on creators from different backgrounds, including a novelist, a musician, a designer of movie creatures, chefs, an architect and cancer researchers. 5.15pm on May 27 and 6.30pm on May 29 with a talk.

Tickets are not free! Prices start at 180 baht and they may be purchased at various venues. Check The Nation for details.

European Union Film Festival – Oh joy! It's another of Bangkok's wonderful free film festivals! Get ready to queue up for an hour or more to get those precious little tickets, which they start doling out 30 minutes before showtime. Running from tomorrow until June 5 at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld, here's this week's lineup:

• Come As You Are – Three disabled Belgian men want to go to a high-end Spanish bordello. 7pm tomorrow.
• The Angels' Share – Taking its title from the industry phrase for the booze that evaporates during distilling, Ken Loach's 2012 Cannes Jury Prize winner is about four young Scottish lawbreakers doing community service who turn their lives around when they discover a high-end brand of whiskey. 2.45pm on Saturday.
• Heavy Girls – Two German men – a young man who lives with his dementia-suffering mother and her caretaker – develop an unexpected queer bond. 4.30pm on Saturday.
• The Exam – In 1950s Budapest, a young intelligence officer is put through his paces by a mentor. 7pm on Saturday.
• Lilet Never Happened – In Manila, a Dutch social worker tries in vain to improve the life of a maladjusted Filipina child prostitute. 2.30pm on Sunday.
• Revival – Smoke, a 1960s band that was known as the "Czech Beatles", reunites for a comeback tour. 4.30pm on Sunday.
• Walesa: Man of Hope – Veteran Polish helmer Andrzej Wajda directs this biopic about a shipyard electrician who founded a dissident labour movement that brought a peaceful end to communism in Poland. 7pm on Sunday.
• The Pelayos (Winning Streak) – An oddball collection of Spaniards think they've figured out how to beat the roulette wheel at a casino run by a figure known as the Beast. 7pm on Monday.
• Palme – The life and times of slain Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme is recalled in this documentary. 7pm on Tuesday.
• The Spanish Apartment (L’auberge Espagnole) – A young Frenchmen (Romain Duris) moves into a Barcelona flat with group of colorful roomies from all over. Kelly Reilly, Audrey Tautou and Cecile de France also star. Directed by Cedric Klapisch, this is the first of a rom-com trilogy that was followed by Russian Dolls and Chinese Puzzle, each screening on consecutive nights next week, starting at 7 on Wednesday.

All films will be screened in their original languages with English subtitles. Some films will also have Thai subtitles. Hit the following link to download the schedule or check it at SFCinemaCity.com. For more information, see www.Facebook.com/EuinThailand.

The Friese-Greene Club – Last Saturday's "troubled youth" show ended up being SubUrbia, a 1996 dark comedy by Slackers director Richard Linklater, and not the 1983 gutterpunk drama Suburbia by Penelope Spheeris, as advertised. Linkater's is also a "troubled youth" movie, more in the spirit of Dazed and Confused, and is flat-out hilarious. I'd never seen it before. So no harm, no foul. Keep an eye out for Spheeris' film to be rescheduled. Tonight's show is Flirting, a 1991 Australian boarding-school drama starring Noah Taylor as a boy who enters into a star-crossed romance with Thandie Newton. Nicole Kidman also stars as a sexually repressed student. Tomorrow's big-screen spectacle is Spielberg's sci-fi freak-out Close Encounters of the Third Kind. On Saturday, stay gold with the "troubled youth" selection – Francis Ford Coppola's teen drama The Outsiders, starring the bratpack of Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, Matt Dillon, C. Thomas Howell and Ralph Macchio. Sunday is Billy Wilder's original Sabrina, a romantic comedy starring Humphrey Bogart, William Holden and Audrey Hepburn. Next Wednesday, all you need is this paddle game ... the ashtray, the paddle game, and the remote control, and that's all you need ... and these matches ... and this chair ... it's Steve Martin in the great American comedy The Jerk. 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 good idea. There are sometimes additions and changes in the schedule, so please check the website and Facebook page for updates.

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand – For his 2011 drama Trishna, stylish director Michael Winterbottom adapts the classic novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and ports the setting of the star-crossed romance to Rajasthan, India, where the scion of a wealthy British-Indian family falls for a shy local lass who works in the family's hotel. Riz Ahmed and Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire) star. Supported by the British Council, the screening will feature Fullers London Pride beer, fish, chips and British Ambassador Mark Kent. The show is at 7pm – not 8pm as they have been in the past – on Monday, May 26 at the FCCT. Admission is 150 baht for non-members plus 100 baht more for the brew and snacks.

Alliance Française – The relationship between pioneering 19th-century neurologist Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot and his star teenage patient is examined Augustine, a 2012 historical drama by Alice Winocour. Vincent Lindon and Soko star. It's in French with English subtitles at 7pm on Wednesday, May 28.

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Take note

Now comes the news from Moveedoo: The House website is back!

And those were the cheers of everyone who dislikes Facebook, which was where House's showtimes were listed for the past while, and sometimes hard to access. But somehow the new website design looks familiar. Navigate it by immediately hauling your mouse/finger down, and there is everything in all its heavenly glory.

Bangkok residents awoke to news early Tuesday morning that martial law had been declared by the Thai military. Revealing a little-known codicil in the constitution that gives the army power to preserve order in time of emergency, they aren't calling it a coup, and the "caretaker" government, left toothless by Constitutional Court rulings, is supposedly still in place.

On the surface, the move by the Army is aimed at containing protests by both the Thaksin-leaning red-shirts and the anti-Thaksin folk led by Suthep Thaugsuban.

There is no curfew for now. The military have a presence in certain areas, which includes media outlets. Folks are complaining about traffic. In other words, just another week in Bangkok.

There's an upcoming event to mention, the Kafka-Festival at the Goethe-Institut, screening three Kafka-related films there from June 3 to 5, 1997's The Castle by Michael Haneke, a 1960 Czech film Joseph Kilian by Pavel Jurácěk and Jan Schmidt and 2006's Who was Kafka? by Richard Dindo.

Also, Thai Aurora at the Horizon, in which a collection of new politically themed and somehow-still-relevant short films by young Thai directors will be screened on Sunday, June 15, at TK Park at CentralWorld. The show starts at 2pm.