100 All-Time Favorite Movies

Not my favourite films, 100 All-Time Favorite Movies is instead the title of a new book edited by Jurgen Muller. Published by Taschen in two volumes (1915-1959 and 1960-2000), it includes a chronological survey of 100 classic films. Being a Taschen book, its layout and photography are superb; the selection of films is impressive, too, with only two questionable entries (Fanfan The Tulip and Forrest Gump) and only one inexplicable omission (Singin' In The Rain).

Taschen's 100 All-Time Favorite Movies are as follows:

• The Birth Of A Nation
  
• Nosferatu
  
• The Ten Commandments
  
• The Gold Rush
  
• Battleship Potemkin
  
• The General
  
• Metropolis
  
• The Blue Angel
  
• Under The Roofs Of Paris
  
• M
  
• Duck Soup
  
• King Kong
  
• Modern Times
  
• Grand Illusion
  
• Gone With The Wind
  
• Fantasia
  
• Citizen Kane
  
• To Be Or Not To Be
  
• Casablanca
  
• The Big Sleep
  
• La Belle & La Bete
  
• Notorious
  
• The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre
  
• Bicycle Thieves
  
• The Third Man
  
• All About Eve
  
• Rashomon
  
• The Young & The Damned
  
• Sunset Blvd
  
• A Streetcar Named Desire
  
• The African Queen
  
• High Noon
  
• Fanfan The Tulip
  
• The Wages Of Fear
  
• The Seven Samurai
  
• La Strada
  
• Rebel Without A Cause
  
• The Night Of The Hunter
  
• Giant
  
• The Searchers
  
• Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud
  
• Wild Strawberries
  
• Vertigo
  
• The 400 Blows
  
• Some Like It Hot
  
• Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ
  
• La Dolce Vita
  
• L'Avventura
  
• Psycho
  
• Breakfast At Tiffany's
  
• Lawrence Of Arabia
  
• To Kill A Mockingbird
  
• Dr Strangelove
  
• Goldfinger
  
• Dr Zhivago
  
• Pierrot Le Fou
  
• Andrei Rublev
  
• Bonnie & Clyde
  
• The Graduate
  
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
  
• Once Upon A Time In The West
  
• Easy Rider
  
• Midnight Cowboy
  
• The Wild Bunch
  
• Death In Venice
  
• A Clockwork Orange
  
• Deliverance
  
• Cabaret
  
• The Godfather
  
• The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie
  
• A Woman Under The Influence
  
• Chinatown
  
• Jaws
  
• One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
  
• Taxi Driver
  
• Star Wars IV: A New Hope
  
• Annie Hall
  
• The Deer Hunter
  
• The Tin Drum
  
• Mad Max
  
• Apocalypse Now
  
• Raging Bull
  
• Fitzcarraldo
  
• Fanny & Alexander
  
• Scarface
  
• Blade Runner
  
• The Fourth Man
  
• Blue Velvet
  
• Dead Ringers
  
• The Silence Of The Lambs
  
• Forrest Gump
  
• Chungking Express
  
• Pulp Fiction
  
• LA Confidential
  
• Face/Off
  
• The Celebration
  
• All About My Mother
  
• American Beauty
  
• Magnolia
  
• Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

Note that Ben-Hur is the 1959 sound version rather than the 1925 silent version, and Scarface is the 1983 remake rather than the 1932 original.

The oddest mistake: Psycho ends with a smirking skull, not a "smirking toilet seat" (page 440)!

Russell Brand quits BBC

Following thousands of public complaints, and even criticism from the UK Prime Minister, Russell Brand has resigned from BBC Radio 2.

UK PM criticises BBC prank call

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has criticised Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, who left a series of offensive messages on actor Andrew Sachs's answer-phone. In a pre-recorded programme broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on 18th October, Brand and Ross called Sachs repeatedly, claiming that Brand had slept with Sachs's grand-daughter. Yesterday, the PM said: "This is clearly inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour, as is now widely recognised".

The Nation On Sunday

Following the Bangkok Post's Sunday relaunch and expansion last month, The Sunday Nation has been relaunched as The Nation On Sunday. It's still very thin, with just two pages of national news, and the Sunday edition seems to drop the business focus of the daily edition.

The rather pointless name-change is accompanied by a new magazine produced in partnership with Asia News. The first half of the magazine includes new features by Nation journalists; this is encouraging, as most features (and all international news and sport) in both The Nation and the Bangkok Post are supplied by agencies.

However, the back half of the magazine is occupied by reprints of Asian newspaper/magazine articles which were previously reprinted in Asia News. In what is either an embarrassing mistake or a sign of desperation, two of the articles reprinted from Asia News are actually articles which it reprinted from The Nation and the Daily Xpress. So the articles were reprinted in Asia News and then recycled from Asia News back to their original source! One of them is a preview of the World Film Festival and first appeared in the Daily Xpress on 10th October, more than two weeks ago.

(To be fair, the Bangkok Post's Saturday and Sunday magazines also feature a mix of original and reprinted features, though theirs are reprinted from The Independent and The New York Times, not out-of-date repetitions of their own articles.)

The Movies That Matter

The latest (24th) edition of Halliwell's Film Guide has been published, under the cumbersome title Halliwell's The Movies That Matter: From Bogart To Bond & All The Latest Film Releases.

The book is edited by David Gritten, who took over from John Walker at the last minute before the previous edition was published. Gritten has made radical changes to this new edition, the most alarming being the removal of 20,000 film reviews.

In his introduction, Gritten outlines the dilemma he faced: Halliwell's Film Guide was expanding each year, as more films were added. The 23rd edition reviewed over 24,000 films, and, apparently, readers were complaining that the book was too large and heavy. (Why don't they just buy more sturdy shelves?) So, Gritten decided to substantially shift the book's focus: it will no longer attempt to review every release, and will, instead, concentrate on only a few thousand noteworthy films. The emphasis is on theatrical releases, not on DVDs or videos, in another departure from recent editions.

Thus, there are reviews of every mainstream film released in the past year (350 of them), plus 2,000 significant films released in the past twenty years, plus 500 classic films released more than twenty years ago. (The 500 films range in chronology "from Intolerance to Blue Velvet", according to Gritten, though actually The Birth Of A Nation, which predates Intolerance, is also included.) In total, therefore, there are almost 3,000 films listed.

Why include 2,000 films from twenty years yet only 500 films from ninety years? Gritten's rationale is that "for good or bad, most films seen today" are less than twenty years old. That may be true, but it does not explain why they are Movies That Matter. Gritten, in his introduction, claims that the 2,000 films in the twenty-years group all have "brand new" reviews, though this is not really the case. Thus, although this new version has 350 extra reviews of very recent films, we are not actually getting value for money, because the deletions (more than 20,000!) far exceed the additions.

The films are listed alphabetically, though not always logically. For example, The Devil's Backbone is listed under 'T' (for 'The') whereas The Godfather appears under 'G' (for 'Godfather'). To add to the confusion, there is no cross-referencing of alternate titles: for instance, A Bout De Souffle appears under its original title, but if you only know it as Breathless then you'll never find it.

Mohammed look-a-like competition cancelled

Unsurprisingly, the forthcoming Mohammed look-a-like competition organised by Titanic magazine has now been cancelled. The event was to have been held tomorrow at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany.

MovieMail's Top Fifty Films Of All Time!

The November edition of the MovieMail Monthly Film Catalogue features a list of the Top Fifty Films Of All Time.

Also, the company's website (moviemail-online.co.uk/top50) has a nomination form for your own three favourite films, and the results of this public poll will be announced in January 2009. (My nominations are: Psycho, Dr Strangelove, and Annie Hall.)

The Top Fifty Films are as follows:

1. Three Colours: Blue/White/Red
2. Breathless
3. Singin' In The Rain
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey
5. A Man Escaped
6. The Seventh Seal
7. The Third Man
8. The Leopard
9. Miller's Crossing
10. M. Hulot's Holiday
11. The Lives Of Others
12. Lawrence Of Arabia
13. Blade Runner
14. I Was A Fireman
15. Casablanca
16. Andrei Rublev
17. The Seven Samurai
18. Citizen Kane
19. Brief Encounter
20. Annie Hall
21. Some Like It Hot
22. It's A Wonderful Life
23. The 400 Blows
24. A Matter Of Life & Death
25. Bicycle Thieves
26. Tokyo Story
27. Jaws
28. Battleship Potemkin
29. The Rules Of The Game
30. Pather Panchali/Aparajito/Apur Sansar
31. Psycho
32. The Battle Of Algiers
33. Nashville
34. Belle De Jour
35. Dr Mabuse The Gambler
36. All About Eve
37. My Neighbour Totoro
38. The Godfather I-III
39. Vertigo
40. Sunset Blvd.
41. La Dolce Vita
42. Fitzcarraldo
43. All Quiet On The Western Front
44. There Will Be Blood
45. Satantango
46. L'Avventura
47. The Night Of The Hunter
48. Festen
49. The New World
50. Chinatown

There are actually fifty-six films on the list, as it includes three trilogies. Interestingly, Blade Runner at #13 is the 'final cut' version with digital tweaks approved by Ridley Scott last year.

now the pressure mounts on Somchai

He was only appointed as Thailand's Prime Minister last month, but already Somchai Wongsawat is facing calls for his resignation.

Today, army chief Anupong announced in a Channel 3 television interview that, if he were Prime Minister, he would resign to accept responsibility for the violence of 7th October. His message to Somchai is loud and clear.

Whether Somchai will resign remains to be seen. He has hinted that he might step down, but only after pushing through an amendment of the constitution. (Changing the constitution, either by parliamentary committee or by referendum, has long been on the PPP's agenda.)

The Jewel Of Medina delayed in UK

The UK publication of The Jewel Of Medina has been postponed, following an arson attack on the offices of Gibson Sq., the book's UK publisher. This echoes the decision by Random House to cancel their planned American publication. Fortunately, the book has now been published in the US, by Beaufort, and is also available online as part of amazon.com's Online Reader service.

The Jewel Of Medina

The Jewel Of Medina: A Novel, Sherry Jones's fictionalised account of the life of Mohammed's bride Aisha, has been published by Beaufort in the US ahead of schedule. Beaufort agreed to publish the novel following the decision by Random House to cancel publication.

PAD leaders surrender to police

The leaders of the PAD have finally surrendered to Thai police, six weeks after arrest warrants were issued for them. They have all been released on bail, enabling them to return to their illegal protest camp at Government House.

Chamlong back at Government House

PAD leader Chamlong Srimuang has been released on bail, and after he left custody he headed for Government House, back to the PAD's protest camp. (When he was arrested on Sunday, he said he would not apply for bail...)

Also, the Appeals Court has ruled that the nine PAD leaders (including Chamlong) should not face treason charges. Lesser charges of illegal assembly were not withdrawn. Yesterday, PAD leader Sondhi Limthongkul pledged that he, Chamlong, and the other PAD leaders would all surrender to police shortly.

wikipedia.org pages blocked in Thailand

Wikipedia's profiles of King Bhumibol (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhumibol_Adulyadej) and his late brother Ananda Mahidol (en.wikpedia.org/wiki/Ananda_Mahidol) are currently intermittently blocked in Thailand. Various mirror sites of these two profiles are also blocked.

Bangkok demonstrations; two people die

Today, PAD protesters gathered outside parliament, in an attempt to prevent MPs from convening. Police used tear gas to temporarily disperse thousands of protesters early this morning, to allow MPs to enter parliament. A bomb exploded nearby, killing a man. Tear gas was used again early this evening, to allow the MPs to leave. Several protesters were reported to have been badly injured, and a woman was killed.

The police have been criticised for firing tear gas, though tear gas is fairly standard in riot control, and its use was arguably necessary in this case to disperse the disruptive protesters. Furthermore, the violence of the PAD was worse than that of the police: police officers were shot, clubbed, stabbed, and run over by PAD protesters.

The PAD's protest is escalating following the arrest two days ago of PAD core leader Chamlong Srimuang. (Warrants for the arrests of all PAD leaders were issued in August, and Chamlong was arrested when he left the Government House protest camp to vote in Sunday's Bangkok gubernatorial election. Pallop Pinmanee, an associate of Chamlong's, has fortunately rescinded his earlier pledge (or threat) to lead the PAD if Chamlong were arrested; thankfully, he changed his mind because he disagrees with the PAD's 'New Politics' proposal.)

Have You Seen...?

Have You Seen...?: A Personal Introduction To 1,000 Films is an alphabetical guide to "a thousand fiction films, going back to 1895 and ranging across the world - the landmarks are here, the problem films, a few guilty pleasures, a few forlorn sacred cows, some surprises, a thousand for you to see".

The most surprising thing about this book is that I don't hate it. Thomson's Biographical Dictionary Of Film is routinely described as the greatest film book ever written, but personally I can't stand it; and I often find Thomson's newspaper articles infuriating. Have You Seen...? is much more satisfying, though: the layout is clean and simple, with one page per film; the selection of titles is inclusive and diverse; and the reviews are fair, with Thomson acknowledging the merits of even the films he doesn't like.

Ploy

In Ploy, by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, a jet-lagged husband and wife arrive at a Thai hotel after their flight from America. At 5am, the husband (Wit) goes to the hotel bar for a smoke, and meets a teenage girl (Ploy). Wit invites Ploy up to the hotel room to rest, which naturally angers his wife (Daeng). Frustrated and jealous, Daeng goes out to a cafe, where she is chatted up by a stranger who invites her back to his apartment.

The romance has gone from Wit and Daeng's marriage - it's reached its expiration date, as Wit explains to Ploy. In contrast, in another room, the hotel's bartender has a passionate relationship with one of the maids. These scenes were deemed unacceptable by Thai censors, and the film was released here in a less explicit version, though the director's cut was screened at last year's Bangkok International Film Festival.

Wit, Daeng, and Ploy all drift in and out of sleep, and we are never quite sure what is real and what is a dream. The film's slow pace, long silences, and ambient soundtrack all enhance the sleepy atmosphere. An early murder sequence is certainly a fantasy, though other scenes - the bartender's relationship with the maid, a potentially fatal encounter for Daeng, and a reconciliatory conclusion for the married couple - are more ambiguous, and could perhaps also have been dreamt by the three main characters. This may explain some confusing plot points: why did the receptionist tell Daeng that Wit and Ploy had left together when it was not true, and, more importantly, how did Daeng recover from her (ultimately melodramatic) ordeal so quickly?

The film reminded me of Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, in its themes (marital jealousy and sexual fantasy), its structure (confusion between dreams and reality; the slow pacing; the dangerous, illicit adventure and subsequent reconciliation), and even its score. Last year, Pen-Ek noted that Stanley Kubrick is one of his inspirations, and also that he is more interested in funerals than weddings. (In this film, Wit and Daeng are returning to Thailand to attend a funeral.) Pen-Ek's recent films, including Ploy, share an emotional detachment evident in Eyes Wide Shut and in Kubrick's work generally.

Mohammed look-a-like competition

In an intentionally provocative gesture, the German satirical magazine Titanic has announced plans for a Mohammed look-a-like competition, to be held at the Frankfurt Book Fair on 18th October.

Screening Sex

Screening Sex, by Linda Williams, is a history of the representation of sex in mainstream and arthouse cinema. It complements her definitive history of pornography, Hard Core.

There are chapters on the Hollywood kiss in the Hays Code era, New Hollywood's sexual liberation and counter-culture, mainstream 'porno chic', and hardcore scenes in contemporary arthouse films. In The Realm Of The Senses has a chapter to itself, and there is also extensive discussion of Last Tango In Paris, Deep Throat, Blue Velvet, and Boys In The Sand, amongst others.

My only qualm is: why devote so much space to Brokeback Mountain? Yes, it's topical, but surely it's a very minor footnote in the history of screen sex, and therefore doesn't merit the twenty pages and nine photographs that Williams accords it.

It's no surprise that Screening Sex is such a superlative study of its subject, given its author's reputation as the pre-eminent scholar of cinematic sex. The analytical text is accompanied by a comprehensive bibliography and some surprisingly graphic images.

Traces Of Siamese Smile

Despite its very corny title, Traces Of Siamese Smile: Art & Faith & Politics & Love could be one of the greatest exhibitions of the year. It features multi-media works by Thai artists and film-makers including Wisit Sasanatieng, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook. International artists such as Andy Warhol, Marina Abramovic, and Nobuyoshi Araki are also included, and there are over 100 artists in total. Apichatpong's new video Luminous People features an abbot blessing boat passengers while they sleep and a young man singing about the death of his father. Wisit is represented by his stunning short film Norashinghavatar.

The exhibition (siamesesmile2008.com) was originally scheduled to open on 20th September, at the new Bangkok Art & Culture Centre. Then, the opening was postponed until 23rd September. Finally, at the very last minute, it was inexplicably postponed again, to open on 24th September. It will close on 26th November (not 23rd November as originally scheduled).

Norasinghavatar

Norasinghavatar is a short fantasy film by Wisit Sasanatieng, and was produced last year as part of a project called [take a deep breath] Short Film Project in Commemoration of the Celebration on the Auspicious Occasion of His Majesty the King's 80th Birthday Anniversary. Other directors partaking in the project include Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Pen-Ek Ratanaruang.

Wisit's film is inspired by Hindu mythology, and features Norasinghawatarn, an incarnation of the god Narayana. The film's characters are all played by masked actors, filmed against bluescreen backgrounds generated by CGI. As in Wisit's films Tears Of The Black Tiger and Citizen Dog, there is extensive digital manipulation in post-production, brightening the colours to an almost psychedelic degree. The film lasts for only fifteen minutes; I could have happily sat through a feature-length version.