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 July 16-22, 2015

P’chai My Hero

A much-needed fresh perspective in Thai cinema emerges in the indie drama P'Chai My Hero (พี่ชาย My Hero), which is adapted from the short stories of noted Thai-American writer Rattawut Lapcharoensap and directed by Korean-American Josh Kim. Combining two stories from Rattawut's Sightseeing collection, P'Chai My Hero is known internationally as How to Win at Checkers (Every Time).

The story centers on the tender relationship between two brothers, insecure 11-year-old Oat and his masculine but openly gay older brother Ek. Orphaned at a early age, the boys live with their superstitious aunt and her pest of a younger daughter. It's a warm-hearted yet bittersweet coming-of-age tale, as Oat looks for ways to help Ek stay out of the army as the annual military draft lottery approaches. Oat also wants desperately to beat Ek at checkers, so that Ek will finally take him for a night out in Bangkok.

Not only is this Thai film cobbled together from the English literature of a Thai-American writer by a Korean-American director (he previously did a short documentary called Draft Day, on transgender folk taking part in Thailand's unique military conscription drawing), the producers hail from all over – Indonesia, South Korea, Thailand and the US. They are Edward Gunawan, Chris Lee, Andrew Thomas Tiernan and Anocha Suwichakornpong. This could well signal a direction to follow in the Asean Economic Community, as Southeast Asia's filmmakers look for ways tell stories that resonate with home audiences as well as those abroad.

How to Win at Checkers (Every Time) premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, and also had a screening at the inaugural Bangkok Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Critical reception has been highly positive – this is one of the best Thai films of the year so far. Don't miss it. It's at Apex, Esplanade Ratchada, House, Major Ratchayothin, Paragon and Chiang Mai Airport Plaza. Rated 18+

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Ant-Man

The Marvel Cinematic Universe takes a comedic turn with Ant-Man, a super-sized superhero who has the ability to be as small as an ant or as big as a skyscraper. A brilliant scientist, he's actually one of the founding members of The Avengers superhero team.

Paul Rudd stars as a small-time thief who is tasked by scientist Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) with recovering his stolen super-suit, which gives the wearer the ability to shrink in size with a corresponding increase in strength. Corey Stoll and Evangeline Lilly also star.

This project was originated by cult British director Edgar Wright, who was set to direct. But, when the far-out ideas of Wright and his writing partner Joe Cornish clashed with the lockstep world-dominating plans of Marvel Comics executives, he left the project and Adam McKay (Anchorman) was brought in to rewrite the script, along with Rudd. Peyton Reed (Bring It On, The Break-Up) directs.

Critical reception is generally positive. Like The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, this will have references to other Marvel movies, so keep your seat during closing credits if you don't want to miss out. It's in 2D in converted 3D (including IMAX). Rated G

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Also opening

Kidnapping Freddy Heinenken – Anthony Hopkins stars as the heir to a Dutch beer empire in this fact-based crime drama about a 1983 kidnapping that resulted in the biggest ransom ever paid. But, the strain of the caper tested the friendships of the perpetrators. Sam Worthington, Jim Sturgess and Ryan Kwanten also star. It's directed by Daniel Alfredson, a Swede who previously did two sequels in the Swedish The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo movies and is the older brother of Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy). Critical reception is mixed. Rated 15+

Bajrangi Bhaijaan – A five-year-old speech-impaired Pakistani girl gets lost at a railway station in India, and finds shelter in the colorful community of a Hindu man (Salman Khan), who takes it upon himself to reunite the mute girl with her family. Kareena Kapoor, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Om Puri also star. It's in Hindi with English and Thai subtitles Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Rama III and Pattaya. Opens Friday.

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Also showing

European Union Film Festival – Still plenty to see as the long-running annual EU fest rolls into its final weekend at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld. Tonight, it's Beloved Sisters, a historical drama from Germany. Tomorrow is the Dutch thriller Borgman, in which a street person worms his way into the lives of an upper-class family. Saturday has the darkly comic Heavenly Shift, about a Budapest ambulance worker, the Belgian surrogate pregnancy drama Melody and the highly acclaimed '71, about a British soldier stranded alone in Troubles-wracked Belfast. And Sunday has the Romanian family drama The Japanese Dog and two from the late Portuguese auteur Manoel de Oliveira, Gebo and the Shadow and The Old Man of Belem. The EU fest next moves to SFX Maya Chiang Mai from July 24 to August 8 and then to SF Cinema City in Khon Kaen from August 7 to 9. For details, check my earlier post, the SF cinemas website or the EU's Facebook.

The Friese-Greene Club – A controversial flop when it was originally released, director Tod Browning's 1932 sideshow drama Freaks found its audience on the midnight-movies circuit in the 1970s. Screening tonight, it is now a cult classic. Tomorrow night's "precocious girl" is once again Natalie Portman, who followed up her role in 1994's Leon with 1996's Beautiful Girls, which has a bunch of adults at a crossroads during a high-school reunion. Timothy Hutton, Matt Dillon and Noah Emmerich also star. Saturday's "bad kid" is Jodie Foster, in the rare and underrated 1976 thriller The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane. Martin Sheen also stars. The first rule about Sunday's film: You do not talk about Sunday's film. The second rule about Sunday's film: You do not talk about Sunday's film. And next Wednesday, it's the classic Canadian summer camp comedy Meatballs, which featured Bill Murray in his first film role. Shows are at 8pm (even the "midnight" movies). 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.

According to Marguerite Duras Project – The ongoing Marguerite Duras series continues on Tuesday and Wednesday at Thong Lor Art Space with 1969's Détruire dit-elle (Destroy, She Said), in which a depressed man meets a mysterious woman who might be involved in kidnapping women sold into prostitution. It will be followed on July 28 and 29 by 1959's Hiroshima Mon Amour, directed by Alain Resnais. All will have English and Thai subtitles. In addition to the films, which are free, the project is also staging a play, An Epilogue to the Malady of Death, which is on at 7.30pm on Thursday and Friday and 3pm on Saturday and Sunday until August 1. For details, check the Thong Lor Art Space Facebook page or the Facebook events page.

Alliance Française – In Au Galop (In a Rush), a young single mother is about to get married when she meets another guy, a single dad with an overbearing mother. Louis-Do de Lencquesaing directs and stars in this comedy-drama, which also stars Marthe Keller. It screens at 7pm on Wednesday, July 22, at the Alliance.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening April 23-29, 2015

Skin Trade

Tony Jaa, fresh off his well-received Hollywood debut in Fast and Furious 7, takes the lead in Skin Trade, a gritty crime drama that has the Thai action star teaming up with Swedish bruiser Dolph Lundgren to go after human traffickers in Bangkok.

It's directed by Ekachai Uekrongtham, a filmmaker and theater director who has been celebrating some of his own success lately, with the nightly stage show Muay Thai Live: The Legend Lives marking one year of drawing crowds to the tourist-oriented Asiatique the Riverside Bangkok. Ekachai previously won widespread acclaim for his work on the fact-based transgender drama Beautiful Boxer, which was a winning mix of Muay Thai action and art-house sensibilities. He talks more about his work on Skin Trade in an article in The Nation.

Skin Trade has Jaa as a Thai policeman who teams up with a New York cop (Lundgren) to tangle with Serbian mobsters who are running a human-trafficking ring in Bangkok. Ron Perlman also stars, along with Celina Jade, Michael Jai White and Peter Weller.

The project is something Lundgren has been trying to get produced for a long time. The fair-haired action icon made his breakthrough as an imposing Russian boxer in Rocky IV and is among the cast of Stallone's Expendables movies. And he worked with Jaa on an unfinished movie called A Man Will Rise, which was set up at Thai studio Sahamongkol Film. Jaa at the time was going through a career transition, and he decamped from A Man Will Rise amid a still-boiling contract dispute with Sahamongkol. Under new manager and producer Michael Selby, Jaa and Lundgren eventually set to work on Skin Trade, which was made after Fast and Furious 7, and was filmed mostly in Thailand but also in Canada.

Skin Trade is just out here in Thailand and is set for a U.S. release on May 8 but early buzz from action-oriented websites has been positive. Although the English soundtrack is generally available, there's a Thai-dubbed version lurking as well, so take care when choosing the showtime. Rated 18+

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Also opening

Woman in Gold – Helen Mirren stars in this fact-based drama, portraying Maria Altmann, a determined Jewish woman who fought a decades-long legal battle for the return of priceless Klimt masterpieces that were stolen from her family by the Nazis. Ryan Reynolds is her wet-behind-the-ears lawyer Randol Schoenberg. Daniel Brühl, Katie Holmes, Tatiana Maslany and Max Irons also star. Critical reception is politely mixed. Rated 13+

The Age of Adaline – A 29-year-old woman who has remained ageless for some eight decades and has kept mostly to herself so others won't discover her secret, falls for a wealthy man. She spends a weekend with the man's parents in which she must make a decision that will change her life forever. Blake Lively, Michiel Huisman, Harrison Ford, Kathy Baker and Ellen Burstyn star. Critical reception is mixed, leaning to positive. Rated 15+

4 Sao (สี่เส้า, a.k.a. Love Is) – Three ethnic Chinese women from Doi Mae Salong, Chiang Rai, head to college and develop a friendship with a young man named Kamol (Pongsakorn “Toei” Mettarikanon). Karanyapas Khumsin directs. Rated 15+

Fleet of Time – The relationship of six Beijing friends is traced from the waning days of high school in 1999 to a reunion 15 years later as one from their group is set to wed. In Chinese with English and Thai subtitles at CentralWorld, Esplanade Ratchada and Paragon; Thai-dubbed elsewhere. Rated 15+

108 Demon Kings – France, Belgium and Luxembourg team up with China for this animated fantasy, which is based on the literary epics The Water Margin and Journey to China. The story has three very different people – a prince, a monk and a pickpocket – teaming up to battle monstrous demons who are terrorizing the land. Thai-dubbed. Rated G

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Also showing

Week of Portuguese Cinema – The fest continues at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center with screenings at 6 tonight and tomorrow. Tonight, it's the award-winning Tabu, about the epic star-crossed romance between expat lovers in colonial Africa. Directed by Miguel Gomes, it features tedium-inducing present-day Lisbon scenes in color with vivid memories of the past in stylishly framed black-and-white. His latest, a six-hour tryptch Arabian Nights as at the Cannes Director's Fortnight. Tomorrow, it's E Agora? Lembra-me (What Now? Remind Me), filmmaker Joaquim Pinto's first-person documentary about living with HIV. The fest returns on Saturday to the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom, closing out with 35mm screenings. The show starts at 1 with Capitães De Abril (April Captains), a 2000 coup drama by Maria de Medeiros. That's followed by encore screenings of classic films by the late Manoel De Oliveira, 1990's Non Ou a Vã Glória De Mandar (No, or the Vain Glory of Command) and his 1942 debut Aniki-Bóbó. Seats can be reserved online at bit.ly/portuguesefilmthailand.

Swedish Film Festival – Eight recent and well-acclaimed movies will be shown in this free festival at SFW CentralWorld. The opener at 7 tonight is the romance Belleville Baby followed at 8.40 by the quirky drama Hotell. Tomorrow has two more, the black comedy The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared at 7 and the romantic comedy Ego at 9.15pm. Saturday has the divorce documentary A Separation (Att skiljas) at 3pm, Ego at 5pm and the ensemble romantic drama Stockholm Stories at 7pm. Sunday starts at 3.30pm with the class-reunion comedy The Reunion (Återträffen), The 100-Year-Old Man at 5pm and the drama Shed No Tears at 7.30pm. The fest's entries are detailed in a special post and the schedule is at the SF Cinema City website. Tickets are free, and are handed out 30 minutes before each show.

The Friese-Greene Club – Tonight, Woody Allen explores the musical genre with 1996's Everyone Says I Love You. Tomorrow, it's a final "cult film" entry for the month with the black comedy The Last Supper. And on Saturday it's another of the best westerns with Sam Peckinpah's very stylish and unapologetically violent The Wild Bunch. Sunday's French classic is Breathless, Jean Luc-Goddard's debut that kicked off the French New Wave. And next Wednesday is one more Werner Herzog, his fact-based prisoner-of-war drama Rescue Dawn, which he filmed in Thailand with Christian Bale and Steve Zahn. It is based on Herzog's 1997 documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly, about Dieter Dengler, a US Navy pilot whose plane went down in Laos during the Vietnam War. 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.

Alliance Française – France's foreign minister navigates the tricky world of diplomacy in Quai d'Orsay (The French Minister), a 2013 comedy by French New Wave veteran Bertrand Tavernier. It's in French with English subtitles at 7pm on Wednesday, April 29.

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Sneak preview

Avengers: Age of Ultron – Egotistical billionaire Tony "Iron Man" Stark just can't leave well enough alone. The eternally tinkering genius weapons developer creates an artificial-intelligence peacekeeping entity that becomes the evil killer robot Ultron. To clean up his mess, Stark needs the help of eyepatched maestro Nick Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers – Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye and a few other super folk. Joss Whedon directs. Critical reception is generally positive, with the consensus so far putting this sequel in the "almost as good as the first movie" category. Marvel's latest blockbuster has a one-day sneak preview next Wednesday before opening wide next Thursday. It'll be in converted 3D in some cinemas, including IMAX.

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Take note

Apologies for last week's update, in which I forgot to include details about Perhaps Love, the 2005 Hong Kong musical that was the opener of this season's Contemporary World Film Series at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. Don't miss the next entry in the series, this year's Oscar-winning Polish film Ida, which screens at the FCCT on May 11.

Other upcoming events include Bangkok Entertainment Week (including a Comic-Con) from April 30 to May 3,

Doc Weekend on May 2 and 3 at TK Park at CentralWorld will screen many noteworthy recent Thai documentaries including Somboon, Mother and Wish Us Luck.

And Movie Season 2 on May 9 and 10 at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center will feature 16 student short films. Thanks to Art for letting me know about that.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening April 16-22, 2015

When Marnie Was There

Japan's vaunted animation house Studio Ghibli is reportedly winding things down, with When Marnie Was There being their final feature.

Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi (Arietty), the story is based on a British children’s novel by Joan G. Robinson. It's about a shy sick tomboy who is sent to live with relatives in a coastal village. There, she has visions about a mysterious abandoned mansion and a blonde girl named Marnie who no one else has ever seen.

This will surely be a bittersweet film for fans of Studio Ghibli, which announced Marnie would be its last new movie following the retirement of studio co-founder Hayao Miyazaki and the release of co-founding director Isao Takahata's The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. Though this might only be a "short pause" while Ghibli rights itself, there 's nothing new yet in the pipeline.

Critical reception is generally positive. It's in Japanese with English and Thai subtitles. In addition to Scala and House, it's also at CentralWorld, Paragon, Major Ratchayothin and Esplanade Ratchada. Rated G

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Also opening

The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water – The undersea cartoon world of Bikini Bottom falls into chaos after a pirate (Antonio Banderas) steals the Krabby Patty Secret Formula, forcing Spongebob SquarePants and his pals from the deep to team up, enter our dimension and retrieve the beloved burger recipe. Critical reception is wackily positive. This opened in a sneak preview last week and now moves to a wider release. It's in real 3D in some cinemas. Rated G

Big Game – When Air Force One is shot down by terrorists, the US president – played by none other than Samuel L. Jackson – bails out in his escape pod and lands in the wilderness of Finland. There, he's encountered by a 13-year-old boy undergoing a traditional hunting rite of manhood. Armed with only a bow, it’s up to the kid to fend off attackers while leading the president to safety. Onni Tommila also stars. It's reportedly the most expensive film ever made in Finland. Critical reception is generally positive. Rated 13+

Child 44 – Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace and Gary Oldman try out their Russian accents with varying degrees of success in this thriller that is adapted from the best-selling novels of Tom Rob Smith. Hardy is a state security officer in the Stalin-era Soviet Union. Disgraced and sent to a remote outpost, he bucks authority as he seeks to find out the truth about a child's death, which he believes to be the work of a serial killer preying on little boys. Daniel Espinosa (Safe House) directs. Critical reception is mixed. Rated 18+

Boychoir – After his single mother dies in a car wreck, a talented-but-undisciplined Texas boy is packed off to an East Coast boarding school. The boy at first clashes with the school’s choirmaster (Dustin Hoffman), an old-fashioned disciplinarian, but soon learns to channel his hard feelings into his singing. Critical reception is mixed. Rated G

Demonic – College students investigating ghosts are found dead inside an abandoned home. A police detective (Frank Grillo) and a psychologist (Maria Bello) attempt to piece together what happened, with the help of – wait for it – video found at the scene. Critics have yet to discover this latest bit of nastiness, which is churned out of the mill of co-producer James Wan, one of the guys responsible for the sickening Saw, Insidious and The Conjuring as well as the new Fast and Furious movie. Rated 15+

Mr. X – Bollywood enters the realm of big-budget-blockbuster sci-fi with this week's big release, Mr. X, in which a young man gains the power of invisibility and becomes a revenge-seeking vigilante. It's 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 – Martin Landau is man in a moral quandary in Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors tonight. Tomorrow, it's Buffalo '66, cult director Vincent Gallo's love-it-or-hate-it crime drama about an ex-con who kidnaps a young woman (Christina Ricci) and forces her to pose as his wife as he seeks revenge against the man responsible for his imprisonment. On Saturday, it's another of the great westerns, The Searchers, which is is quite simply the best of the many fine films made by John Ford and John Wayne. And on Sunday, François Truffaut is struggling to make a film in the French classic Day for Night. Next Wednesday is another weird Werner Herzog movie, the mockumentary Incident at Loch Ness, which Zak Penn directed and Herzog produced. 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.

Week of Portuguese Cinema – Two films by Manoel de Oliveira will screen during the Week of Portuguese Cinema starting on Sunday at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom. De Oliveira, who was making movies well into his 100s, died on April 2 at age 106. Notably, the Thai Film Archive's screenings will feature exclusively 35mm prints, including de Oliveira's debut feature, 1942's Aniki Bobo and his 1990 epic Non Ou a vã Glória De Mandar (No, or the Vain Glory of Command). During the week, from Tuesday to next Friday, the Portuguese movies will screen at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center, but it returns to the Archive on the following Saturday. The entire schedule is detailed in a previous post. Admission is free and you can book your seat online at bit.ly/portuguesefilmthailand.

Alliance Française – After a break for Songkran, the free French films return next Wednesday with Hippocrate, a comedy-drama about a junior doctor who takes a job in a hospital ward headed by his father. It's in French with English subtitles at 7pm on Wednesday, April 22.

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Sneak preview

Woman in Gold – Helen Mirren stars in this fact-based prestige drama, portraying Maria Altman, a determined Austrian woman who fights an extended legal battle for the return of priceless Klimt paintings that were stolen from her family by the Nazis. Ryan Reynolds is her lawyer Randol Schoenberg. Daniel Brühl, Katie Holmes, Tatiana Maslany and Max Records also star. Critical reception is mixed. Officially not due to open until next week, this is in sneak previews from around 8 nightly in most multiplexes. Rated 13+

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Take note

Bit of a mix bag of films this week and next as distributors get some smaller titles off their books and clear the decks for the next comic-book behemoth, Avengers: Age of Ultron, which will have a one-day sneak preview before opening wide on April 30.

Slightly overlapping the Week of Portuguese Cinema will be the Swedish Film Festival, which runs from April 23 to 26 at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld. Details are covered in an earlier post and the schedule is online at the SF Cinema City website.

Bangkok Cinema Scene special: Week of Portuguese Cinema, April 19-25, 2015

Manoel de Oliveira, a titan of Portuguese cinema who died at age 106 on April 2, and who was still making films well into his 100s, is paid tribute during the Week of Portuguese Cinema, which is organized by the Thai Film Archive, Cinamateca Portuguesa, the Bangkok Art and Culture Center and the Camões Institute.

The selection includes de Oliveira's first feature, 1942's Aniki-Bóbó, about a gang of street children in the director's hometown of Porto. There is also his 1990 drama, No, or the Vain Glory of Command, which covers Portugal's military history as seen through the eyes of a soldier in colonial Africa.

Other entries include The Eyes Of Asia, a 1996 drama about a Roman Catholic missionary in Japan; the 1963 coming-of-age drama Os Verdes Anos (The Green Years), which is the debut feature of Paulo Rocha; and 1989's Recordações Da Casa Amarela (Recollections of the Yellow House), a Lisbon waterfront drama directed by and starring João César Monteiro.

There's also the sweeping 2012 romance Tabu, which recalls star-crossed love among expats in colonial Africa, uniquely toggling back and forth between the modern day (in color) and the 1960s (in old-timey black-and-white). This screened at last year's World Film Festival of Bangkok, and was among the must-see selections of that fest's programmers.

And there's the 2013 documentary E Agora? Lembra-me (What Now? Remind Me), in which HIV-positive filmmaker Joaquim Pinto looks back at his life; and Capitães De Abril (April Captains), a 2000 drama that recalls the 1974 coup that overthrew a right-wing dictatorship.

Notably, some of the films will actually be screened with 35mm prints, which doesn't happen much anymore in this digital age. Here is the schedule:

April 19, Thai Film Archive (35mm film screening)

• 1pm – Aniki-Bóbó, Manoel de Oliveira, 1942, with introduction by José Manuel Costa, director of Cinamateca Portuguesa
• 4pm – Os Olhos Da Ásia (The Eyes Of Asia), João Mário Grilo, 1996
• 6pm – Non Ou A Vã Glória De Mandar (No, or the Vain Glory of Command), Manoel De Oliveira, 1990

April 21, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre

• 6pm – Os Verdes Anos (The Green Years), Paulo Rocha, 1963

April 22, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre

• 6pm – Recordações Da Casa Amarela (Recollections of the Yellow House), João César Monteiro, 1989

April 23, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre

• 6pm – Tabu, Miguel Gomes, 2012

April 24, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre

• 6pm – E Agora? Lembra-me (What Now? Remind Me), Joaquim Pinto, 2013

April 25, Thai Film Archive (35mm film screening)

• 1pm – Capitães De Abril (April Captains), Maria De Medeiros, 2000
• 3.30pm – Non Ou A Vã Glória De Mandar (No, or the Vain Glory of Command), Manoel De Oliveira, 1990
• 5.30pm – Aniki-Bóbó, Manoel de Oliveira, 1942

Admission is free. All films will be shown with English subtitles. And, here's a cool thing I wish the other "free" film fests in Bangkok would do – you can book your seats online at the following link: bit.ly/portuguesefilmthailand.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening May 29-June 4, 2014

The Legend of King Naresuan Part V

Seven years after it first made its bow, director MC Chatrichalerm Yukol's lavishly mounted Naresuan epic rumbles to a close with The Legend of King Naresuan Part V: The Great Elephant Battle (ตำนานสมเด็จนเรศวรมหาราช ๕: ยุทธหัตถี, Tamnan Somdej Phra Naresuan Maharaj Ha: Yuthahatthi). It culminates in the 1593 Great Battle of Yuthahatthi, one of the last major battles to use war elephants.

Wanchana Sawasdee, a lieutenant colonel and cavalryman in the Royal Thai Army, stars as Prince Naresuan. Crowned king of Ayutthaya, the former Black Prince faces a challenge from his childhood friend, the wickedly sneering Burmese viceroy prince Phra Maha Upparacha (Napassakorn Mit-em).

Other stars include "Peter" Nopachai Jayanama as Naresuan's long-time friend Lord Ratchamanu, Inthira Charoenpura as a Karen warrior princess and "Aff" Taksaorn Techanarong as Narusuan's long-time sweetheart Maneechan.

There's also Colonel Winthai "Seh Tod" Suwaree of the Royal Thai Army. He was recently the only thing on Thai TV when the military took over, and served long hours as the spokesman, appearing at odd hours to read a new order from the junta. He plays Ekathotsarot, younger brother of Naresuan and eventual successor to the throne.

Coming three years after Naresuan 3 and Naresuan 4, part five faced production delays when a fire destroyed that very footage the whole franchise had been working up to – the elephant battle – forcing the veteran director to remake it. Funding to shoot that elephant battle had initially come from the Culture Ministry's Strong Thailand fund back in 2010 – originally meant to be 100 million baht – half the film-funding initiative's budget – but cut to around 46 million baht after other filmmakers protested.

It's rated G

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Also opening

The Raid 2: Berandal – Indonesia's martial-arts action franchise barrels on, sending rookie policeman Ram (Iko Uwais) on an undercover assignment in prison, where he's tasked with infiltrating a Jakarta crime syndicate. Director Gareth Evans sequelizes the sequel, adding car chases, more fights and more sinister characters – look out for assassins Hammer Girl and Baseball Bat Man. It was a huge hit at Sundance and critical reception  is mostly positive. Action fans have been practically hyperventilating over it. It's at Major Cineplex only, and looks like it's Thai-dubbed with English subtitles. Rated 18+

Le Week-End – Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan star as a long-married English couple who revisit Paris for the first time since their honeymoon in hopes of rekindling romance. Jeff Goldblum also stars, playing an egotistical American professor living in Paris. Roger Michell (Hyde Park on Hudson, Notting Hill) directs. A nominee for five British Independent Film Awards, and winner of the best actress prize for Duncan, critical reception is mostly positive – perhaps a pleasant diversion for gentle souls seeking something other than a Thai historical battle epic or an Indonesian martial-arts film. It's Apex Siam Square, House, Paragon and CentralWorld. Rated 13+

Island of Lemurs: Madagascar
– Morgan Freeman narrates this short live-action documentary. Nothing to do with the DreamWorks animated series, this chronicles the efforts of a scientist as she works to protect the unique and highly evolved primate species that only lives on the island off Africa. Running just under 40 minutes, it's in 3D at IMAX. Rated G

Heropanti – It's star-crossed romance for two young lovers – a girl named Dimpy who has a strict and stern father, and a guy named Bablu who fights for her love. Kriti Sanon and Tiger Shroff star, making their film debut. It's in Hindi with English and Thai subtitles at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Rama III and Pattaya. Opens Friday.

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Also showing

Movies on Design – The film program of the Bangkok Design Festival wraps up today with two entries, Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present, about the artist who staged an "interactive performance" in 2010 at New York's Museum of Modern Art at 4.15pm and From Nothing, Something: A Documentary on the Creative Process at 6.30pm, followed by a talk. Tickets are 180 baht. More details at the fest's Facebook page.

European Union Film Festival – Evening shows for the fest at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld were shifted to around a half hour earlier in keeping with the old 10am-5am curfew. Hopefully they won't change the times again now that curfew isn't until midnight. Here's the remaining line-up through June 5:

• Russian Dolls – The second of French director Cedric Klapisch's trilogy of breezy romantic comedies that started with The Spanish Apartment, Russian Dolls catches up with Xavier (Romain Duris) and his old cohorts from Barcelona five years later. Lucy Gordon, Kelly Reilly, Audrey Tautou and Cécile De France also star. 6.30 tonight.
• Chinese Puzzle – The newest and final entry in Cedric Klapisch's rom-com trilogy follows Frenchman Xavier (Romain Duris) to New York where he's still trying to figure things out as he visits old friends. Take note: This will get a limited commercial release in Bangkok on June 19. 6.30pm tomorrow.
• A Royal Affair –  Alicia Vikander and Mads Mikkelsen star in this costume-drama account of the relationship between Princess Caroline Matilda and the royal physician to Denmark's mentally ill King Christian VII. 4pm on Saturday.
• Jose and Pilar – Portuguese Nobel Prize-winning author Jose Saramago and his resolute wife Pilar del Rio are profiled in this 2010 documentary. 6.30pm on Saturday.
• The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza) – Italian auteur Paolo Sorrentino directs his leading man Toni Servillo through this Fellini-like escapade, following an ageing socialite as he walks through the streets and ruins of Rome following celebrations for his 65th birthday. One of the top films of 2013 of many critics, it won the foreign-language prizes at the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs. 4pm on Sunday.
• A Hijacking – The takeover of a cargo vessel by Somali pirates is experienced by crewmembers while back at the ship owner's offices in Copenhagen, a stand-off unfolds as the ransom is negotiated. 6.45pm on Sunday.
• The Symmetry of the Butterfly – From Luxembourg, this multi-layered comedy has a writer living in a retirement home who uses the people around him as inspirations for his stories. 6.30pm on Monday.
• The Gang of Oss – Authorities try to break the influence of criminal gangs on a Netherlands' industrial town in the 1930s. 6.30pm on Tuesday.
• Walking Too Fast – Set in 1982, this Cold War thriller is about a secret police lieutenant who starts to have doubts about his line of work. 6.30pm on Wednesday.
• Finsterworld – Various quirky characters come together in this drama, the first by documentarian Frauke Finsterwalder, that aims to explore the German psyche. 6.30pm next Thursday.

Tickets are handed out 30 minutes before showtime, but the queues start forming before that. Enjoy. All films will be screened in their original languages with English subtitles. Some films will also have Thai subtitles. Check the schedule at SFCinemaCity.com or see www.Facebook.com/EuinThailand.

The Friese-Greene Club – Tonight's final boarding-school story for May is Yuang Zhang's Little Red Flowers, about the struggles of a little boy in regimented post-revolutionary China. Tomorrow night's big-screen feast is Sergio Leone's spaghetti western masterwork, Once Upon a Time in the West. And May closes out on Saturday with the troubled-youth tale Melissa P. It's an erotic drama based on a Sicilian teenager's diary. The club will be hold a private event on Sunday, so keep out. The June schedule kicks off on Wednesday with Red Sorghum, the debut by Chinese film great Zhang Yimou. Other highlights in June include films on democracy (or lack thereof), censorship (or lack thereof), notable films celebrating anniversaries and the club's own first-year anniversary party on June 28, with an encore screening of the first film shown, Blade Runner. Shows are back to 8pm (7 during the old curfew). 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 aren't a bad idea. For details, check the website and Facebook page.

Bangkok Open Air Cinema Club – A new movie series, set for the last Saturday each month, makes its debut this week at The Hive Rooftop Bar with Star Wars. This is the original 1977 film that started it all. The show's at 7.30pm. Tickets are 300 baht and include a pair of complimentary drinks, beer or prosecco, and unlimited popcorn. Check the website for details on making reservations. The venue is a newly opened five-floor members-only "co-working" space at 46/9 Sukhumvit Soi 49.

Kafka Festival in Bangkok – The embassies of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic and the Goethe-Institut Thailand are hosting a three-day festival to remember writer Franz Kafka on the 90th anniversary of his death. Events will include lectures, performances and films. The screenings are Michael Haneke's 1997 adaptation of Kafka's Das Schloß (The Castle) at 6pm on June 4 and the 1965 Czech short Postava k podpírání (Joseph Kilian) and the 2006 documentary Who Was Kafka? It's all at the Goethe-Institut off Sathorn Soi 1. Check the website for details.

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Take note

Just hours after last week's update went online here, the Thai military, led by General Prayuth Chan-ocha, upgraded its declaration of martial law (and not a coup) to a full-scale seizure of the government.

A curfew was imposed, running from 10pm to 5am, but that was relaxed starting yesterday, so now we're under lockdown from only midnight to 4am.

Though Taylor Swift has canceled her sold-out concert here – uselessly announced on the very day the curfew was relaxed – most film events, including the EU Film Fest, have soldiered on with only a few minor changes in their schedules.

However, one exception was the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand's planned screening of Michael Winterbottom's Trishna last Monday. It will be rescheduled.

Free film screenings aren't happening in June at the Alliance Française, but that doesn't have anything to do with the curfew or the government situation – it's because there's the annual French cultural fest La Fête, from June 4 to July 6 at various venues.

Meanwhile, there's yet another film festival coming up, the weirdly named Bangkok International Digital Content and Movie Festival, or BIC.Mov.Fest for short, from July 3 to 6 at Siam Paragon. Backed by the Federation of National Film Associations of Thailand, the Culture Ministry, the Commerce Ministry, the Tourism and Sport Ministry and other concerned agencies, it is being positioned as a successor to the long-defunct and scandal-plagued Bangkok International Film Festival. It will offer workshops, seminars and other events to highlight not just the film industry, but also television, video games, animation, character licensing, software and apps. Expect a red carpet to be rolled out at some point. The film selection will likely include a fixture of the old BKKIFF, the "Thai Panorama" of notable and mainstream Thai films of the past year or so.

Just remember, there's the 12th World Film Festival of Bangkok – a real, honest-to-goodness film festival that keeps the focus on films. It's set for October 17 to 26.

Bangkok Cinema Scene special: European Union Film Festival, May 23-June 5, 2014

An Oscar-winning drama and more award-winners are lined up for this year's edition of the European Union Film Festival. With 20 films from 14 countries, highlights include Italy’s The Great Beauty, which swept the foreign-language categories at this year’s Academy Awards, the Golden Globes and the Baftas.

In Bangkok, the fest runs from May 23 to June 5 at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld. The festival then moves to Chiang Mai and later Khon Kaen.

The opener is Come As You Are (Hasta La Vista!), a 2011 Belgian comedy about three disabled young men who want to lose their virginity. They set out to visit a luxury bordello in Spain that caters to special-needs clients. Directed by Geoffrey Enthoven, it won the grand prize at the Montreal World Film Festival.

Ken Loach directs the Scottish comedy The Angels’ Share, starring Paul Brannigan as a young Glaswegian hoodlum who narrowly avoids jail. Sentenced to community service, he undertakes a new direction in life after visiting a whiskey distillery. It won a jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012.

A young man who lives with his dementia-addled mother develops an unexpected bond with her caretaker in the 2012 German romantic comedy Heavy Girls (Dicke Madchen). It won awards at Slamdance and the Hamburg Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.

From Hungary, the Cold War-era spy thriller The Exam follows a young defence officer in 1950s Budapest as his mentor tests his loyalty. The second feature by Peter Bergendy, it won the Gold Hugo in the New Directors Competition at the 2012 Chicago film fest.

The Cold War era is also revisited in the 2009 Czech drama Walking Too Fast (Pouta). Set in 1982, the slow-burn political thriller is about a lieutenant of the secret police who begins having second thoughts about his line of work. It won five Czech Lions, including best film, best actor for Ondrej Maly and best director for Radim Spacek.

The “Czech Beatles” reunite in the 2013 comedy Revival. Written and directed by Alice Nellis, it follows the ageing musicians from the 1960s rock band Smoke as they attempt a comeback tour. It was nominated for seven Czech Lions and won the audience award at last year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Manila is the setting for a Netherlands entry, Lilet Never Happened, about a maladjusted Filipina child prostitute. A Dutch social worker tries to turn the girl’s life around. Garnering positive reviews, Lilet has won awards at various children’s film festivals.

Also from the Netherlands is The Gang of Oss. Set in the 1930s, the crime drama has authorities seeking to end criminal gangs’ stranglehold on the southern Netherlands’ industrial town of Oss.

Veteran Polish helmer Andrzej Wajda directs Walesa: Man of Hope, a biographical drama charting Nobel Prize laureate Lech Walesa’s rise from shipyard electrician to the founding of Solidarity, the dissident political movement that brought about a peaceful revolution against communism. The film won awards at festivals in Chicago, Palm Springs and Venice, including best actor for Robert Wieckiewicz and best actress for Maria Rosaria Omaggio, who portrays Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci.

A Swedish national figure is the subject of the documentary Palme, on the life and times of prime minister Olof Palme, whose assassination on the streets of Stockholm in 1986 changed the country forever.

Denmark offers the lavish historical drama A Royal Affair, set in the 18th-century court of the mentally ill King Christian VII, whose wife Princess Caroline Matilda had an affair with royal physician Johann Friedrich Struensee. Alicia Vikander and Mads Mikkelsen star. It was a foreign-language nominee for both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes this year.

Portugal has a look at Nobel Prize-winning author Jose Saramago in the 2010 documentary Jose and Pilar, following his last years and his relationship with his resolute wife, Pilar del Rio.

From France comes a trilogy of hit comedies by director Cedric Klapisch – 2002’s The Spanish Apartment (L’auberge Espagnole), the 2004 sequel Russian Dolls and this year’s third chapter, Chinese Puzzle. In Spanish Apartment, a strait-laced French student (Romain Duris) moves into a Barcelona apartment with six other roomies from all over Europe. Russian Dolls fast-forwards to five years later, and Chinese Puzzle, which will have a limited theatrical release in Bangkok on June 29, has them in New York City, still trying to figure out their lives. Kelly Reilly, Audrey Tautou and Cecile de France also star.

Spaniards try to beat a casino run by a figure called “the Beast” in The Pelayos (Winning Streak
This year’s winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza), the latest opus from celebrated director Paolo Sorrentino. Starring Sorrentino’s usual leading man Toni Servillo, it follows an ageing socialite as he walks through the ruins and city streets of Rome following a party for his 65th birthday, reflecting on his life and his first love. Also the winner of the Golden Globe and British Film Academy Award for foreign features, The Great Beauty was on many critics’ top 10 lists of 2013’s best films.

Before last year’s high-seas drama Captain Phillips, there was the 2012 Danish thriller A Hijacking, in which Somali pirates raid a cargo ship and hold the crew for ransom. Meanwhile back in Copenhagen, the shipping company’s CEO enters into tense negotiations.

Luxembourg chips in with D’Symmetrie vum Paiperlek (The Butterfly’s Symmetry), a multi-layered comedy in which a writer living in a retirement home uses the people around him as inspirations for his stories. Among them is the tale of a misogynistic chess master who wants revenge after a young woman beats him in a match.

The Bangkok edition of the fest closes with Finsterworld, the fiction debut by German documentary director Frauke Finsterwalder. Exploring the German psyche, it has a dozen characters in gradually interconnected storylines. They include a pedicurist, three generations of a family, a documentary maker and her policeman boyfriend who is secretly likes to dress up in animal costumes.

The European Union Film Festival runs from May 23 to June 5 at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld, Bangkok, June 13 to 22 at SFX Maya, Chiang Mai and June 27 to 29 at SF Cinema City, CentralPlaza Khon Kaen.

Tickets are free and will be available 30 minutes before the show – first come first serve, maximum two tickets per person per screening. This is a very popular festival, especially among thrifty retirees and bargain-hunting young film enthusiasts, so if you want to ensure you have a decent seat, be prepared to queue up – the lines often start forming an hour or two beforehand.

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.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening May 23-29, 2013

Fast and Furious 6

The Fast and Furious circus jets over to London for another mindlessly fun hot-rod ride.

According to producers, Fast and Furious 6 is the first of the franchise entries to not feature underground road racing as a major plot point. They felt they'd reached a "ceiling" in audience appeal, thinking that tuned Suburus and scantily clad race girls dancing to hip-hop weren't enough.

But there's still plenty of thrills as gravel-voiced Vin Diesel and his gang drive their musclecars on the wrong side of the road in England.

Franchise regular Paul Walker also returns, as do Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges and Sung Kang. And, surprise, Michelle Rodriguez is back. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson reprises his role from Fast Five. Joining the cast this time around is Welsh actor Luke Evans as the chief villain, plus MMA fighter Gina Carano from Haywire. And stick around for a post-credits scene to see the star of another car-chase franchise.

Director Justin Lin, who's steered The Fast and the Furious series since the third entry Tokyo Drift, is back in the drivers's seat one more time. He's moving aside to concentrate on other projects as Saw director James Wan takes over on the already-in-production Fast and Furious 7.

Following their big caper in Rio de Janeiro, Dominic Toretto (Diesel) and his crew of street-racing high-stakes thieves have retired but remain wanted fugitives. Diplomatic Security Service agent Hobbs (Johnson) gives them a chance for a clean slate when he asks for Dom's help in bringing down a British ex-special forces soldier (Evans) who is leading a team of mercenaries in daring highway heists across Europe. Among the team of criminals is Dom's supposedly dead girlfriend Letty.

Critical reception is mostly positive, so far. Rated 15+.

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Also opening

Epic – A teenage girl is shrunken down and discovers an incredible secret realm right in her own backyard. While trying to figure out a way to contact her nutty professor father and return to her normal size, she is caught up in a battle between the Leaf Men and their mortal enemies the Boggans. This animated feature is from Blue Sky Studios and is directed by Chris Wedge, the helmer of Ice Age and Robots. It is based on William Joyce's children's book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs. The voice cast is headed by Amanda Seyfried, along with Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson, Christoph Waltz, Aziz Ansari, Chris O'Dowd, Pitbull, Jason Sudeikis, Steven Tyler and Beyoncé Knowles. Critical reception, so far, is generally positive. In 3D. Rated G.

Crush – A shy lonely high-school girl (Crystal Reed) turns into a psycho when she experiences her first feelings of love, making life a living hell for a hunky sports star (Lucas Till from X-Men: First Class). Sarah Bolger also stars. This went direct-to-DVD in the States and critical reception somewhat mixed. Rated 15+.

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Also showing

European Union Film Festival – Wrapping up this weekend, tonight's feature is the Spanish drama Don't Be Afraid. Tomorrow, there are three movies: the Danish World War II drama This Life, the Polish black comedy Wonderful Summer and Julien Temple's documentary London – The Modern Babylon. Saturday's offerings are Stars Above from Finland, Goethe! from (where else?) Germany and Portugal's The Death of Carlos Gardel. And the fest closes on Sunday with Sweden's Beyond, starring Noomi Rapace, Cool Kids Don't Cry from the Netherlands and the Luxembourgish crime thriller Blind Spot. It's all at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld. As always, tickets are free but you have to queue up to get them 30 minutes before showtime. This is a very popular festival, especially with the culture-starved expats, so be prepared for long lines. Check the festival website for the schedule.

Baara (Work) – The Alliance Française screens free movies with English subtitles at 7.30pm every Wednesday. Next week's offering is this 1978 African workplace comedy-drama by Souleymane Cissé. It's set in a factory in Bamako, Mali, where the harsh conditions and corruption of the bosses cause the workers to revolt.