The Economist unavailable yet again

For the fifth time in less than a year, The Economist will not be distributed in Thailand. The issue dated 4th July contains an article titled Treason In Cyberspace, which discusses several pending lese majeste cases; the article does not contain any inflammatory material, though the magazine's distributors are presumably erring on the side of caution.

Interestingly, the article includes several details (Suwicha Thakhor's username: Thaiman 8; the topic of the prachatai.com comment: Queen Sirikit) not published in the Thai media. It also reports new tallies of blocked websites: apparently, 8,300 are blocked by MICT due to potential lese majeste, and a further 32,500 are blocked by the police. These totals are slightly higher than the latest figures announced by MICT.

Four previous issues of The Economist have been withdrawn in recent months: in December 2008, in January 2009, in January 2009 (again!), and in April 2009.

The Spectator's 50 Essential Films

The Spectator, in its 20th June and 27th June issues, has published its list of 50 Essential Films, as follows:

1. The Night Of The Hunter
2. Apocalypse Now
3. Sunrise
4. Black Narcissus
5. L'Avventura
6. The Searchers
7. The Magnificent Ambersons
8. The Seventh Seal
9. L'Atalante
10. Rio Bravo
11. The Godfather I-II
12. The Passion Of Joan Of Arc
13. Grand Illusion
14. Citizen Kane
15. The Scarlet Empress
16. Tokyo Story
17. Blade Runner
18. Rear Window
19. Point Blank
20. The Red Shoes
21. Mme De...
22. Shadows
23. Pickpocket
24. Viridiana
25. Barry Lyndon
26. City Lights
27. Pierrot Le Fou
28. Sunset Blvd
29. Notorious
30. M
31. The Roaring Twenties
32. Singin' In The Rain
33. The Long Day Closes
34. Killer Of Sheep
35. Gun Crazy
36. Andrei Rublev
37. Taxi Driver
38. The 400 Blows
39. Pulp Fiction
40. Kind Hearts & Coronets
41. In The Mood For Love
42. Sullivan's Travels
43. 8-&-A-Half
44. Pinocchio
45. Great Expectations
46. Rome: Open City
47. Duck Soup
48. Jaws
49. Manhattan
50. Out Of The Past

Most directors are represented by only a single film, though Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock have two each, and Francis Coppola has three. One oversight: nothing by Akira Kurosawa. Foreign-language films are quite well represented, though there are only two silent films. Twelve films from this list are also on my own list of 30 essential films.

Rediscovering Spiritual Value

Rediscovering Spiritual Value: Alternative To Consumerism From A Siamese Buddhist Perspective is a collection of recent articles and speeches by Sulak Sivaraksa. Significantly, it includes an English translation of an interview in which Sulak discusses the Thai monarchy, originally published in a banned edition of the Thai journal Same Sky. An excerpt from The Economist's controversial Thai monarchy critique is also included, as are letters written by Sulak defending himself against various lese majeste charges.

South Korean cartoonist faces prosecution

A cartoonist in South Korea is facing a fine equivalent to $100,000 after his local council filed a complaint with the police. The cartoonist, Choi, inserted insulting comments about South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak into a cartoon in the Happy Wonju newsletter, distributed last month.

Bahrainian newspaper suspended

Bahranian authorities have suspended publication of Akhbar Al Khaleej, after the newspaper printed an article (The Islamic Republic: Vehement Public Anger, by Samira Rajab) which criticised Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election.

Senegal bans L'Essentiel magazine

The current issue of L'Essentiel magazine has been banned in Senegal, after a court ruled that it insulted the government and had the potential to create public disorder. Senegambia News reports that L'Essentiel featured headlines such as "Freemasonry: The Grand Lodge of France Conquers Senegal" and "Nine years after change, the state explodes, The Mourides are in control and Touba in suffering" [sic.].

Inside Time withdrawn over cartoon

The current issue of Inside Time, a magazine for UK prisoners, has been withdrawn following complaints about an opinion column. The article (Porky's Revenge!, by Andy Thackwray) satirically suggests that swine flu is part of a Taliban plot, and is illustrated by a cartoon of Osama as a pig. The 'offensive' text and cartoon have now been deleted from the magazine's website, and all printed copies of the magazine have been withdrawn from circulation.

Thai Rath's David Carradine photo

On Saturday, the sensationalist Thai Rath newspaper published, on its front page, a photograph allegedly showing David Carradine's body at the scene of his death. (His body was discovered in his hotel wardrobe on Thursday.)

The image was partially censored, with a black moire pattern added to cover the body. (Incredibly, this pattern has led some international news sources, who have clearly not seen the photo, to claim that Carradine died wearing fishnet stockings.) The same image was also printed on an inside page with only slight pixelation.

Since the photograph was published, Carradine's family have threatened legal action against any subsequent reproduction. Consequently, no other publication has printed the image, and it has been removed from Thai Rath's website.

There is some speculation that the image is a fake, as it appears to show a relatively young man with black hair. The position of the corpse is consistent with police reports that Carradine was discovered hanged and tied up in an apparent act of auto-erotic asphyxiation. Several seemingly genuine photographs taken after Carradine's autopsy have appeared online, though they have not appeared in any print publlications.

The 67 Most Influential Films Ever Made

The current issue of Total Film magazine features an unordered list titled The 67 Most Influential Films Ever Made, as follows:

• Jaws
  
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
  
• Night Of The Living Dead
  
• The Man With The Golden Arm
  
• All Quiet On The Western Front
  
• Nanook Of The North
  
• The Abyss
  
• Enter The Dragon
  
• Blood Feast
  
• Heaven's Gate
  
• Easy Rider
  
• Star Wars
  
• The Graduate
  
• Tron
  
• Becky Sharp
  
• Carrie
  
• Reservoir Dogs
  
• Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs
  
• Gertie The Dinosaur
  
• The Adventures Of Prince Achmed
  
• Metropolis
  
• Battleship Potemkin
  
• Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
  
• The Evil Dead
  
• Flashdance
  
• Blade Runner
  
• Workers Leaving The Factory
  
• A Streetcar Named Desire
  
• Breathless
  
• Meet Me In St Louis
  
• Blazing Saddles
  
• Stagecoach
  
• Nashville
  
• The Last Laugh
  
• Deep Throat
  
• Room At The Top
  
• The Battle Of Algiers
  
• Sex Lies & Videotape
  
• The Cable Guy
  
• The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari
  
• Shadows
  
• Rashomon
  
• Do The Right Thing
  
• Blackboard Jungle
  
• Psycho
  
• The Birth Of A Nation
  
• The Wild Bunch
  
• Mean Streets
  
• Batman
  
• Halloween
  
• The Jazz Singer
  
• Toy Story
  
• Terminator II: Judgment Day
  
• Pink Flamingos
  
• Twister
  
• Citizen Kane
  
• The Thief Of Bagdad
  
• The Matrix
  
• The Robe
  
• It Happened One Night
  
• Bwana Devil
  
• L'Assassinat Du Duc DeGuise
  
• Cabiria
  
• Le Roman D'Un Tricheur
  
• Un Chien Andalou
  
• Victim
  
• The Blair Witch Project

It's great to see so many silent films included, though there's no Film Noir, no Neo-Realism, and (most surprisingly) nothing by Francis Ford Coppola. Twister, the only entry I take exception to, was included simply because it was the first film released on DVD in the UK. Total Film previously published lists of 100 films in 2005 and 2006.

15 Most Influential Classic Movies

TCM's fifteen most influential classic movies:

• The Birth Of A Nation
  
• Battleship Potemkin
  
• Metropolis
  
• 42nd Street
  
• It Happened One Night
  
• Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs
  
• Gone With The Wind
  
• Stagecoach
  
• Citizen Kane
  
• Bicycle Thieves
  
• Rashomon
  
• The Searchers
  
• Breathless
  
• Psycho
  
• Star Wars

This chronological list was compiled by Turner Classic Movies last week. Almost half of these titles (Battleship Potemkin, Citizen Kane, Rashomon, The Searchers, Breathless, and Psycho) are also on my own list of 30 essential films, and most of TCM's choices deserve a place on any such list.

I would only quibble with a couple of their choices: is It Happened One Night really necessary on such a short list, and surely Stagecoach could be removed if The Searchers is included? Also, nothing from Stanley Kubrick, Ingmar Bergman, Francis Coppola, or Jean Renoir.

Thaksin drops another bombshell

For the first time in public, Thaksin has claimed that the King knew in advance about the 2006 coup. Thaksin had previously accused General Prem, head of the Privy Council, of plotting the coup with Surayud Chulanont and others. Now, in an interview published yesterday in the Financial Times, Thaksin has stated that Prem, Surayud, and "another privy councillor" (Charnchai Likitjittha?) "told his majesty that they will do [a] favour for him by getting me".

The Economist withdrawn yet again

Yet again, the distributors of The Economist have decided to cancel its Thai distribution. The forthcoming issue, due to be published on Saturday, will thus not be available in Thailand. The distributors felt that an article titled The Trouble With The King would contravene the lese majeste law, and they have withdrawn the magazine to avoid potential prosecution. The Economist has suffered a similar fate three times in recent months: in December 2008, in January 2009, and in January 2009 (again!).

UDD radio stations closed

Three UDD community radio stations, based in Lampang, Chiang Mai, and Udon Thani, were closed today. The UDD TV channel D-Station, and several pro-UDD websites, are also currently blocked.

UDD websites & TV blocked

Transmission of the UDD's satellite TV channel, D-Station, was blocked for an hour on Sunday afternoon. At mid-day yesterday, the channel was blocked for over two hours; it resumed transmission for thirty minutes, and has been blocked since then. Aso, sites streaming UDD video and audio broadcasts (dstation.tv, redplusplus.com, salidausa.com, norporchorusa.com. sanamluang.in.th, rednews.info, badict.2hell.com, thairedusa.com, thairedshirt-democracy.org, shinawatraradio.com, clubthaksin.com, justin.tv/nationsiam, thairedshirt-democracy.org, thaipeoplevoice.org, prachachonthai.com, uddtoday.ning.com, and newskythailand.com) have been blocked by MICT.

Blogs featuring news about the current crackdown on UDD protesters (thaiopinions.blogspot.com [and thailandmoment.blogspot.com], thaienews.blogspot.com, downmerng.blogspot.com, thaipresslog.blogspot.com, and siamfreedom.blogspot.com) are also blocked by MICT, as are pro-Thaksin (thaksin.wordpress.com) and anti-military (sites.google.com/site/prachathaiclub) websites.

A further pro-UDD site, democracticthai.com, has been blocked by the ISP company CS Loxinfo, which is ironic as this company was formerly part of Thaksin's communications empire.

This marks the return of political censorship, which had not been seen in Thailand since the 2006 coup. Furthermore, the PAD's websites, newspaper (Manager Daily), TV station (ASTV), and radio stations have never been shut down.

'blasphemous' Egyptian magazine banned

The Egyptian government has revoked the publishing licence of the magazine Ibdaa, accusing it of blasphemy. The accusation relates to a poem titled On The Balcony Of Leila Murad, written by Hilmi Salem, which the magazine published in 2007.

Channel 9 self-censorship

Channel 9 TV in Thailand censored an evening news bulletin last month. A report about the Puea Thai party's no-confidence motion against Abhisit's coalition government was broadcast at 7:09pm on 15th March, though it was abruptly cut short, to the evident surprise and annoyance of the anchorwoman.

[Thanks to Sucha Supittayapornpong (suchaxplore.blogspot.com).]

Finland Plot: libel case verdicts

Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra sued political columnist Pramote Nakornthap and newspaper editor Khunthong Lorserivanich for libel after they alleged that he was involved in a republican scheme known as 'the Finland Plot'.

The allegations were made in a series of five articles written by Pramote, published in the Manager Daily newspaper (17th-25th May 2006) edited by Khunthong. Manager Daily is one of the publications owned by PAD leader Sondhi Limthongkul.

Today, the Criminal Court gave one-year suspended prison sentences to Pramote and Khuntong. Pramote's articles on the topic are still available on Sondhi's thaiday.com and manager.co.th websites.

The Nation newspaper reported that Khunthong was previously given a two-year suspended sentence in December 2007, also following a Thaksin libel lawsuit. It's not clear if today's verdict is a different case or an unsuccessful appeal against the earlier verdict.

Zapiro on CNN

Cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro (known as Zapiro) appeared on CNN's African Voices today and discussed his controversial cartoon of Jacob Zuma published last year.

Indian newspaper editor arrested

The editor and publisher of the Indian newspaper The Statesman have been arrested following their decision to reprint an article from the UK newspaper The Independent. The article (Why Should I Respect These Oppressive Religions?, written by Johann Hari) was published in The Independent on 28th January and reprinted in The Statesman on 5th February. In the article, Hari criticised the Islamic prophet Mohammed. Indian Muslims had protested for several days outside the offices of The Statesman, after the article was reprinted.

Iranian magazine editor arrested

The editor of Hemat, a weekly Iranian satirical magazine, has been arrested. The magazine had published a spoof film poster featuring images of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his potential electoral rivals.

Have I Got News For You blocked

Clips from the BBC1 TV show Have I Got News For You on youtube.com have been blocked in Thailand because they include humorous references to Rama IX. The 'offensive' episode of the programme was originally broadcast in the UK on 7th December 2007; it would be accused of lese majeste if it were broadcast in Thailand. Two years ago, the entire youtube.com website was blocked in Thailand as it contained videos insulting the King, however access to the site was subsequently restored after YouTube agreed to filter some videos from Thai viewers.

The Economist withdrawn yet again

For the second week running, the Thai distributors of The Economist have decided not to sell it within Thailand. (Distribution was also cancelled last week, and in December last year.) The magazine claims that PM Abhisit is compromised by his unfortunate military connections (Anupong's role in bringing together the coalition government), though a brief reference to Queen Sirikit is more controversial. Presumably the distributors are concerned about potential lese majeste charges, though Queen Sirikit's presence at the funeral of PAD demonstrator Angkhana Radappanyawut has already been widely reported. The article in question, titled A Sad Slide Backwards, is available on the magazine's website, as is the problematic article from last week's issue, The Trouble With Harry.

The Economist withdrawn from Thailand again

This week's issue of The Economist magazine will not be on sale in Thailand, after its Thai distributors decided not to make it available. It contains an article about Harry Nicolaides and lese majeste (online at economist.com), thus the distributors presumably pre-empted a government ban by self-censoring the magazine. They made the same decision last month; why do they care so little about their subscribers, and why are they so keen to help the government censor the media?

another complaint against BBC journalist

Thai police officer Wattanasak Mungkandee has again accused BBC journalist Jonathan Head of lese majeste (after previously accusing him in June). This time, Wattanasak disapproves of Head's BBC News article titled How Did The Protesters Manage It?, published online on 3rd December. The article briefly discusses the possibility of royal support for the PAD (a subject also broached by The Economist), though Head clearly dismisses any such speculation: "Some in the government even believe the revered king may be backing the movement, although at the age of almost 81 this seems unlikely".

Zuma sues cartoonist

Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa's ruling ANC party, is suing cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro for libel. Shapiro's 'objectionable' cartoon was published in the Sunday Times newspaper on 8th September.

The Economist banned in Thailand?

The current issue of The Economist magazine is not available in Thailand. The magazine features a detailed analysis of the Thai monarchy's supposed support for the PAD - a highly sensitive topic in Thailand, needless to say. Whether the magazine has been officially banned is not clear; it could be an act of self-censorship by the distributors, with or without pressure from the government. It contains allegations which could be considered lese majeste under Thai law.

wordpress.com blog deleted

A blog has been deleted by its host, wordpress.com, following a complaint from the government of Indonesia. The blog, lapotuak.wordpress.com, featured two explicit Mohammed comic strips, and the Indonesian government threatened to block the entire wordpress.com site if the 'offensive' blog was not deleted. (Infamously, Mohammed caricatures were published in Denmark in 2005, inspiring more satirical Mohammed cartoons.)

LittleBigPlanet song deleted

The new Sony PlayStation game LittleBigPlanet has been recalled and modified, to remove a song from its soundtrack. The song, Tapha Niang (from Toumani Diabate's album Boulevard De L'Independance), features quotations from the Koran. Fortunately, the album is still available.

Also this month, a remix of the new Busta Rhymes single Arab Money includes lines from the Koran. Previously, a song featuring Koran quotes was removed from Joey Boy's album The Greatest Beats in Thailand.

L'Express International banned in Morocco

The current issue of L'Express International, the global edition of the French weekly magazine L'Express, has been banned in Morocco. The magazine features images of Jesus and Mohammed on its front cover, though Mohammed's face was covered in the international edition.

Mohammed cartoon in Russian Newsweek

In its 29th September issue, the Russian edition of Newsweek magazine reprinted one of the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed caricatures. Newsweek is one of many international publications which have reprinted the cartoons.

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.)

Mohammed 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.

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.

Empire's 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time

Empire magazine's current issue features The 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time - and the magazine has 100 different covers, each featuring one of the films from the list.

Empire asked its readers for their nominations last month. International directors and critics were also polled, making this survey, according to Empire, "THE MOST AMBITIOUS MOVIE LIST EVER ATTEMPTED".

The 500 films are as follows:

1. The Godfather
2. Raiders Of The Lost Ark
3. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
4. The Shawshank Redemption
5. Jaws
6. GoodFellas
7. Apocalypse Now
8. Singin' In The Rain
9. Pulp Fiction
10. Fight Club
11. Raging Bull
12. The Apartment
13. Chinatown
14. Once Upon A Time In The West
15. The Dark Knight
16. 2001: A Space Odyssey
17. Taxi Driver
18. Casablanca
19. The Godfather II
20. Blade Runner
21. The Third Man
22. Star Wars IV: A New Hope
23. Back To The Future
24. The Lord Of The Rings I: The Fellowship Of The Ring
25. The Good The Bad & The Ugly
26. Dr Strangelove
27. Some Like It Hot
28. Citizen Kane
29. Die Hard
30. Aliens
31. Gone With The Wind
32. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
33. Alien
34. The Lord Of The Rings III: The Return Of The King
35. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
36. Andrei Rublev
37. A Clockwork Orange
38. Heat
39. The Matrix
40. Vertigo
41. The 400 Blows
42. Kind Hearts & Coronets
43. The Big Lebowski
44. Schindler's List
45. Psycho
46. On The Waterfront
47. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
48. This Is Spinal Tap
49. Evil Dead II
50. The Seven Samurai
51. Eight-&-A-Half
52. The Shining
53. Donnie Darko
54. The Lord Of The Rings II: The Two Towers
55. La Dolce Vita
56. Casino Royale
57. Lawrence Of Arabia
58. His Girl Friday
59. Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
60. Come & See
61. The Usual Suspects
62. The Graduate
63. Sunset Blvd
64. Oldboy
65. Harold & Maude
66. Edward Scissorhands
67. Tokyo Story
68. Annie Hall
69. Three Colours: Red
70. Stand By Me
71. The Night Of The Hunter
72. 12 Angry Men
73. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
74. The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre
75. A Matter Of Life & Death
76. Manhattan
77. Spartacus
78. Rosemary's Baby
79. The Thin Red Line
80. The Life & Death Of Colonel Blimp
81. Batman Begins
82. The Great Escape
83. Brazil
84. LA Confidential
85. Blue Velvet
86. Carrie
87. The King Of Comedy
88. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
89. Magnolia
90. When Harry Met Sally
91. Star Wars VI: Return Of The Jedi
92. Once Upon A Time In America
93. Spirit Of The Beehive
94. The Wild Bunch
95. Yojimbo
96. American Beauty
97. Reservoir Dogs
98. North By Northwest
99. Toy Story
100. Network
101. Raising Arizona
102. The Hustler
103. Rear Window
104. The Rules Of The Game
105. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
106. A Man For All Seasons
107. An American Werewolf In London
108. The Tree Of Wooden Clogs
109. Touch Of Evil
110. Before Sunset
111. Fitzcarraldo
112. I Am Cuba
113. Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy
114. The Conversation
115. Blazing Saddles
116. Rio Bravo
117. Miller’s Crossing
118. Withnail & I
119. The Wages Of Fear
120. The Battle Of Algiers
121. Los Olvidados
122. The Princess Bride
123. A Woman Under The Influence
124. The Silence Of The Lambs
125. Breathless
126. Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid
127. The Sting
128. Lost In Translation
129. Harvey
130. The Man Who Would Be King
131. The Last Of The Mohicans
132. Pan's Labyrinth
133. Double Indemnity
134. Seven
135. Duck Soup
136. Amadeus
137. Dances With Wolves
138. Cool Hand Luke
139. Blow Out
140. As Good As It Gets
141. Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs
142. Almost Famous
143. Cyrano DeBergerac
144. There Will Be Blood
145. Sophie's Choice
146. Shampoo
147. Notorious
148. Z
149. The Red Shoes
150. The French Connection
151. Gladiator
152. Boogie Nights
153. The Innocents
154. Betty Blue
155. Badlands
156. Saving Private Ryan
157. True Romance
158. Unforgiven
159. The Royal Tenenbaums
160. Being There
161. The Year Of Living Dangerously
162. A Nightmare On Elm St.
163. The Bridge On The River Kwai
164. The Searchers
165. Partie De Campagne
166. Goldfinger
167. Don’t Look Now
168. Tootsie
169. Viridiana
170. La Haine
171. Brief Encounter
172. The Wizard Of Oz
173. Memento
174. Superman
175. Rushmore
176. A Canterbury Tale
177. City Of God
178. Hellzapoppin'
179. Toy Story II
180. To Kill A Mockingbird
181. Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls
182. Performance
183. Le Samourai
184. Dirty Harry
185. Paths Of Glory
186. United 93
187. The Big Country
188. School Of Rock
189. Ghostbusters
190. Big
191. Brokeback Mountain
192. Eraserhead
193. Ed Wood
194. Bicycle Thieves
195. It's A Wonderful Life
196. Amelie
197. Point Break
198. Fargo
199. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
200. Before Sunrise
201. JFK
202. The Killer
203. Monty Python's Life Of Brian
204. Bride Of Frankenstein
205. The Addiction
206. The Exorcist
207. The Misfits
208. The Departed
209. Local Hero
210. Platoon
211. Moulin Rouge!
212. M
213. Songs From The Second Floor
214. Army Of Shadows
215. Jackie Brown
216. Sunday Bloody Sunday
217. The Magnificent Seven
218. M. Hulot's Holiday
219. The Outlaw Josey Wales
220. Far From Heaven
221. McCabe & Mrs Miller
222. Mother & Son
223. Safe
224. Distant Voices Still Lives
225. Get Carter
226. Romeo & Juliet
227. Leon
228. No Country For Old Men
229. Festen
230. Howl's Moving Castle
231. Shaun Of The Dead
232. Jurassic Park
233. Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom
234. The Bourne Ultimatum
235. Battle Royale
236. Black Narcissus
237. Delicatessen
238. Requiem For A Dream
239. Cinema Paradiso
240. Forrest Gump
241. Brighton Rock
242. King Kong
243. Heimat
244. Dazed & Confused
245. Downfall
246. The Philadelphia Story
247. All That Jazz
248. Pandora's Box
249. My Darling Clementine
250. Sunrise
251. Darling
252. The Leopard
253. First Blood
254. The Verdict
255. Ninotchka
256. Port Of Shadows
257. The Black Cat
258. The Blues Brothers
259. Groundhog Day
260. Field Of Dreams
261. Roman Holiday
262. The Virgin Suicides
263. Das Boot
264. American Graffiti
265. AI: Artificial Intelligence
266. Ghost World
267. Crimes & Misdemeanors
268. The Lady Vanishes
269. A Place In The Sun
270. The Death Of Mr Lazarescu
271. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
272. The Bird With The Crystal Plumage
273. The Maltese Falcon
274. Sin City
275. My Neighbour Totoro
276. Layer Cake
277. On The Town
278. Carlito's Way
279. National Lampoon's Animal House
280. Mad Max II
281. Interview With The Vampire
282. The Godfather III
283. Ran
284. Scarface
285. Solaris
286. L'Avventura
287. Secrets & Lies
288. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
289. The Thing
290. Rashomon
291. Rocco & His Brothers
292. La Belle & La Bete
293. La Maman & La Putain
294. The Red Balloon
295. The Untouchables
296. All The President's Men
297. It Happened One Night
298. La Cercle Rouge
299. The Palm Beach Story
300. Sawdust & Tinsel
301. Love & Death
302. The Best Years Of Our Lives
303. Together
304. Radio Days
305. The Prestige
306. Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade
307. Midnight Cowboy
308. The Terminator
309. Transformers
310. Gremlins
311. American History X
312. Suspiria
313. Battleship Potemkin
314. Sweet Smell Of Success
315. Sense & Sensibility
316. Trainspotting
317. Midnight Run
318. Rebecca
319. The Lion King
320. Braveheart
321. Funny Face
322. Aladdin
323. The Last Seduction
324. Lone Star
325. Kill Bill I
326. Out Of Sight
327. The Nightmare Before Christmas
328. The Truman Show
329. The Lives Of Others
330. Star Wars III: Revenge Of The Sith
331. The Green Mile
332. The Sixth Sense
333. Grease
334. The Magnificent Ambersons
335. The Seventh Seal
336. Titanic
337. 300
338. Jules & Jim
339. Spirited Away
340. High & Low
341. The Passenger
342. The Gold Rush
343. Monsters Inc.
344. The Last Waltz
345. Fatal Attraction
346. Leave Her To Heaven
347. All About Eve
348. Au Hasard Balthasar
349. Arthur
350. Planet Of The Apes
351. Zulu
352. Unfaithfully Yours
353. Bugsy Malone
354. Un Chien Andalou
355. Sunshine
356. Napoleon
357. The Long Goodbye
358. Russian Ark
359. The Lady Eve
360. The Return
361. Clerks
362. The Elephant Man
363. Good Morning Vietnam
364. Natural Born Killers
365. The Bourne Identity
366. Pradator
367. Cabaret
368. Airplane!
369. The Breakfast Club
370. Rocky
371. Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl
372. Army Of Darkness
373. Wall-E
374. Hot Fuzz
375. Four Weddings & A Funeral
376. Zodiac
377. Mean Streats
378. The Goonies
379. Ratatouille
380. Children Of Men
381. Monty Python & The Holy Grail
382. Cache
383. Serenity
384. The Shop Around The Corner
385. Ace In The Hole
386. The Great Silence
387. Rain Man
388. The English Patient
389. Election
390. Two Days In Paris
391. Mulholland Dr.
392. Paris Texas
393. Garden State
394. Cloverfield
395. Casino
396. The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
397. Night Of The Living Dead
398. Killer Of Sheep
399. Greed
400. The Incredibles
401. Batman Returns
402. Little Miss Sunshine
403. Do The Right Thing
404. RoboCop
405. Dirty Dancing
406. Iron Man
407. The Jungle Book
408. Zelig
409. Men In Black
410. A Hard Day's Night
411. Spider-Man II
412. Heathers
413. Finding Nemo
414. The Double Life Of Veronique
415. Dawn Of The Dead
416. Bad Taste
417. Lords Of Dogtown
418. V For Vendetta
419. Days Of Heaven
420. Jerry Maguirre
421. Lethal Weapon
422. A Man Escaped
423. Kill Bill II
424. To Have & Have Not
425. Wonder Boys
426. Enduring Love
427. Spring In A Small Town
428. The Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser
429. Danger: Diabolik
430. Big Trouble In Little China
431. Electra Glida In Blue
432. X-Men II
433. Good Will Hunting
434. The Cat Concerto
435. American Psycho
436. Beauty & The Beast
437. Spider-Man
438. The Lost Boys
439. Grosse Pointe Blank
440. Akira
441. Being John Malkovich
442. Atonement
443. Dog Day Afternoon
444. Hairspray
445. Dumb & Dumber
446. High Fidelity
447. Ten
448. A History Of Violence
449. Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace
450. King Kong
451. Speed
452. Unbreakable
453. Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
454. The Bourne Supremacy
455. Top Gun
456. 28 Days Later
457. Full Metal Jacket
458. Batman
459. Ikiru
460. Crash
461. Halloween
462. Dead Man's Shoes
463. Juno
464. Seven Brides For Seven Brothers
465. 12 Monkeys
466. Snatch
467. The Deer Hunter
468. The Crow
469. Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas
470. Glengarry Glen Ross
471. Harry Potter & The Prisoner Of Azkaban
472. Le Doulos
473. Into The Wild
474. Enter The Dragon
475. Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
476. Santa Sangre
477. Rebel Without A Cause
478. Flesh
479. The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty
480. The Son's Room
481. Topsy-Turvy
482. Scream
483. The Big Red One
484. The Fountain
485. The Wicker Man
486. Breakfast At Tiffany's
487. Superbad
488. Princess Mononoke
489. Brick
490. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet St.
491. Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ
492. Amores Perros
493. In The Company Of Men
494. Sideways
495. Jailhouse Rock
496. Superman Returns
497. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
498. Back To The Future II
499. Saw
500. Ocean's 11

Note that The Maltese Falcon is the John Huston version, Casino Royale is the Martin Campbell version, Scarface is the Brian DePalma version, Ben-Hur is the William Wyler version, Romeo & Juliet is the Baz Luhrmann version, Titanic is the James Cameron version, and Crash is the Paul Haggis version. Two versions of King Kong appear: the original is #242, and the Peter Jackson remake is #450.

Empire published a list of 201 films in 2006, in which The Godfather was voted #5. The film has also appeared on the magazine's previous lists: Empire Readers' 100 Favourite Films Of All Time, 1996 (#6); Your 100 Greatest Films Ever!, 1999 (#7); The 50 Best Films, 2001 (#4); 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time, 2004 (#6).

Jakrapob faces lese majeste charge

The Thai police announced today that they have enough evidence to put Jakrapob Penkair on trial for lese majeste. Jakrapob resigned from the cabinet in May, following criticism of a speech he gave at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand on 29th August last year.

If they're prepared to charge Jakrapob, they might as well charge the editor of Asia Weekly, too, because this week's issue asks: "Is the monarchy part of the solution, or part of the problem?". (The magazine is printed in Hong Kong, though on sale in Thailand.)

Indian protests after cartoon is reprinted

There have been protests in India following the reprinting of a Mohammed cartoon by the Tamil newspaper Dinamalar on 2nd September. A dozen highly controversial Mohammed caricatures were originally published in Jyllands-Posten in 2005, and widely reprinted the following year.

Bangkok Post Sunday

The Bangkok Post today relaunched its Sunday edition, substantially expanding its pagination. Traditionally, Sunday newspapers are thicker than their weekday equivalents, and in the UK I enjoyed nothing more than settling down to read The Observer and The Sunday Times on a Sunday afternoon (as I discussed a couple of years ago). So it's great that the Bangkok Post has expanded its Sunday edition.

In contrast, today's edition of The Sunday Nation is extremely thin: only eighteen pages in total, with virtually no advertising at all. Today's launch of the bulkier Bangkok Post Sunday should have been the perfect opportunity for The Nation to either launch a new supplement or revamp its existing content. However, The Nation instead appears to have practically given up. It does at least include national news now, which it had dropped following the launch of the Daily Xpress; the Xpress itself is now twenty pages shorter than it used to be (and is seemingly no longer published on Sundays, replaced by The Sunday Nation).

nominations for Empire's Top 500

Empire magazine has launched a survey to find the 500 greatest films of all time. Voting is open until 5th September, and you can either vote online at empireonline.com/500 or by using the form printed in the magazine.

Mohammed cartoons publisher cleared

The Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission, Canada, has rejected a complaint by the Edmonton Council of Muslim Canadians against Ezra Levant, the former publisher of Western Standard magazine. A previous Commission investigation into Levant was dropped after Sayed Soharwardy withdrew a complaint against him. Western Standard published the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed cartoons on 13th February 2006, one of many magazines which reprinted the images.

Grand Theft Auto withdrawn from Thailand

The distributors of Grand Theft Auto have withdrawn all versions of the game from sale in Thailand, after a taxi driver was stabbed by a man who says the game inspired him.

Phalawat Chinno, a student, admitted murdering Khuan Phokaeng, saying he was motivated by a sequence in the game in which a taxi driver is also murdered. Phalawat stabbed Khuan more than ten times with a kitchen knife. It's not clear exactly which version of GTA (I-IV) he played, although there is a sequence in Grand Theft Auto II titled Taxi Drivers Must Die!; Grand Theft Auto IV had not yet been released in Thailand, and its release has now been cancelled.

Blaming media violence for real-life violence is an easy, knee-jerk response, but it doesn't address the social causes. It could be argued that GTA gave Phalawat the idea to select a taxi driver as his victim (rather than a postman, or a shopkeeper, for example), but the act of playing a game cannot turn someone into a murderer. Violent games can, in contrast, be cathartic, allowing us to release our natural violent feelings in a controlled situation, thus making us less violent in real life.

Violence has always been a part of human nature, and murders were committed long before video games were invented. Violence in the media is reflecting the violence which already exists in real life, not influencing it.

Just because a criminal uses a computer game as an excuse does not mean that the person is any less culpable, unless the person is either so young, or so mentally unbalanced, that they cannot distinguish fantasy from reality. Phalawat's mental state, personal morality, and socio-economic background are the real causes of this crime, not GTA.

Stanley Kubrick's Boxes

As part of a Kubrick Season on More4 this month, Jon Ronson presented (and directed) Stanley Kubrick's Boxes on 15th July, a True Stories documentary about Kubrick's archives. Ronson examined the boxes (designed to Kubrick's specifications) containing the director's notes, photographs, and props in situ at Childwickbury Manor, near St Albans, before they were transferred to the Stanley Kubrick Archive at the University of the Arts in London. The programme includes a short Lolita screen test featuring Sue Lyon, and footage filmed by Vivian Kubrick on the set of Full Metal Jacket.

Art Monthly Australia criticised

Art Monthly Australia magazine has been criticised by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd after it printed a photograph of a nude child on this month's cover. The photograph was published in protest at the closure of a Bill Henson exhibition (which was subsequently cleared of obscenity last month).

The cover photo shows six-year-old Olympia Nelson posing in front of a painted landscape; it was taken by the girl's mother, Polixeni Papapetrou. The magazine now faces losing the state funding it receives.

Deia Juan Carlos case resumes

Spain's National Court has resumed legal proceedings against the satirical magazine Deia, despite the case being dismissed in April. The magazine's controversial photomontage of King Juan Carlos was originally published in 2006. (In a parallel case, two El Jueves cartoonists are appealing against their convictions after they were fined 3,000 euros for their cartoon of Prince Filipe.)

appeal against Jyllands-Posten acquittal fails

An appeal by a group of Danish Muslims against Jyllands-Posten has been rejected. The appeal was launched following the dismissal of a lawsuit against the newspaper in 2006. Jyllands-Posten printed twelve Mohammed cartoons in 2005; the illustrations ignited an international controversy and were widely reproduced.

(A similar appeal, against the acquittal of French magazine Charlie Hebdo, also failed.)

Flat Earth News

Flat Earth News, by Nick Davies, paints an unpleasant picture of contemporary journalism. It's subtitled An Award-Winning Reporter Exposes Falsehood Distortion & Propaganda In The Global Media.

Davies criticises journalists for their reliance on wire stories and press-releases, and for never letting the facts get in the way of a good story. I'm pleased to say that the Daily Mail, a reactionary UK tabloid, is one of the main targets: Davies criticises the racist scaremongering and distortion in the Mail's immigration coverage.

Newspaper sensationalism and distortion is nothing new, of course. Press baron William Randolph Hearst (the model for Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane) once reputedly told a photographer: "You furnish the pictures, I'll furnish the war" (a line which was paraphrased in Kane). Famously, in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, a fictional newspaper editor explains: "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend".

Davies was initially inspired by the news media's unquestioning acceptance of government spin regarding Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. As a pretext for war, the UK and US governments both claimed that Saddam Hussain possessed WMDs and even nuclear weapons, warning that he could deploy them against the West at any time. The BBC reported that some of these claims were inserted at the request of UK spin doctors, and after the invasion of Iraq, the WMD threat was exposed as a gross exaggeration. (Alastair Campbell wrote about his involvement with this issue in his diary, published last year; Davies claims that Campbell's criticism of the errors in the BBC's coverage was a smokescreen to cover the errors in the government's dossiers.)

Flat Earth News is a necessary book, because media literacy is so crucial in a media-saturated culture. Life truly has few greater pleasures than a quality newspaper, though we should always read actively and, sometimes, skeptically.

El Jueves cartoonists appeal

Two Spanish cartoonists, Guillermo Torres and Manel Fontdevila, are appealing against their 3,000 euro fines and lese majeste convictions. They were responsible for a banned cartoon of Spain's Prince Filipe published in 2006.

The C Word

The C Word, rather cumbersomely subtitled How We Came To Swear By It, was broadcast by BBC3 in the UK on 30th July 2007. The programme, directed by Pete Woods, was an hour-long investigation into attitudes towards the c-word, making Channel 4's A Brief History Of The F-Word (2000) seem tame by comparison. It was a fascinating programme which managed to touch on all of the major debates surrounding the word.

The presenter, Will Smith, was quite annoyingly middle-class; he looked a bit like a young Stephen Fry, and I wonder why Fry himself didn't present the show instead. Smith made the class aspect of the word a major focus, which is something I've always avoided because I feel that it's out-dated. Also, he interviewed the increasingly ridiculous Eve Ensler for far too long, perhaps because more important people such as Germaine Greer had clearly turned him down. (Greer made a ten-minute segment about the c-word for BBC1's Balderdash & Piffle in 2006.) Smith told us that the word's first appearance in a newspaper was in The Independent in the 1980s; this 'fact' has been regularly repeated, though my own research has antedated the c-word's first appearance by over a decade.

[Full disclosure: I was invited to take part in this programme, but I couldn't fly back to the UK at a suitable time.]

Maxim Goes To The Movies

This month's Maxim magazine is a special Maxim Goes To The Movies issue, and includes a list titled The 300 Movies You Must See Before You Die!, divided into genres and other (occasionally odd) categories. (Musicals have been deliberately excluded.)

There are actually slightly more than 300 films included, because original films and their sequels are counted as single entries. The Lord Of The Rings I, The Warriors, Fight Club, A History Of Violence, Star Wars V, and Terminator II all appear twice, each in two different categories.

Comedy

• The Big Lebowski
  
• Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy
  
• Kingpin
  
• Monty Python & The Holy Grail
  
• This Is Spinal Tap
  
• Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan
  
• Airplane!
  
• Animal House
  
• Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery
  
• American Pie
  
• Bachelor Party
  
• Bananas
  
• Beverly Hills Cop
  
• Blazing Saddles
  
• Caddyshack
  
• The Cannonball Run
  
• Clerks
  
• Dazed & Confused
  
• Duck Soup
  
• Dumb & Dumber
  
• Election
  
• The 40-Year-Old Virgin
  
• Ghostbusters
  
• Groundhog Day
  
• Happy Gilmore
  
• Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
  
• It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World
  
• The Jerk
  
• Modern Times
  
• The Nutty Professor
  
• Office Space
  
• Old School
  
• The Pink Panther Strikes Again
  
• The Princess Bride
  
• Raising Arizona
  
• Sixteen Candles
  
• Some Like It Hot
  
• Trading Places
  
• Vacation
  
• Wedding Crashers
  
• Wet Hot American Summer
  
• Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
  
• Young Frankenstein

The Master Class

• Breathless
  
• Citizen Kane
  
• La Dolce Vita
  
• The Seven Samurai
  
• The 400 Blows
  
• The Seventh Seal
  
• Un Chien Andalou

War

• The Deer Hunter
  
• The Bridge On The River Kwai
  
• Dr Strangelove
  
• Apocalypse Now
  
• Black Hawk Down
  
• The Dirty Dozen
  
• Gallipoli
  
• The Great Escape
  
• M*A*S*H
  
• Platoon
  
• Saving Private Ryan

So Bad They're Good

• Glen Or Glenda?
  
• Showgirls
  
• Airport 1975
  
• Barbarella
  
• Battlefield Earth
  
• Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls
  
• Death Race 2000
  
• Phantom Of The Paradise
  
• Reefer Madness
  
• Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
  
• The Toxic Avenger

Sequels That Are Better Than The Original

• Bride Of Frankenstein
  
• Evil Dead II
  
• Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan
  
• Superman II
  
• Terminator II: Judgment Day
  
• Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back

Rebels

• Cool Hand Luke
  
• Taxi Driver
  
• Sid & Nancy
  
• Easy Rider
  
• Billy Jack
  
• Dirty Harry
  
• Dirty Mary Crazy Larry
  
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off
  
• The Graduate
  
• A History Of Violence
  
• The Hustler
  
• The King Of Comedy
  
• Network
  
• One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
  
• Raging Bull
  
• Risky Business
  
• Smokey & The Bandit
  
• Three Days Of The Condor
  
• Trainspotting

Classics

• Lawrence Of Arabia
  
• Kind Hearts & Coronets
  
• The Adventures Of Robin Hood
  
• Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ
  
• Casablanca
  
• Double Indemnity
  
• Metropolis
  
• The Night Of The Hunter
  
• On The Waterfront
  
• The Third Man
  
• Touch Of Evil
  
• Vertigo
  
• White Heat
  
• The Wizard Of Oz

Sci-Fi/Fantasy

• Starship Troopers
  
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
  
• Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
  
• Alien I-II
  
• Back To The Future
  
• Blade Runner
  
• Children Of Men
  
• Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
  
• ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
  
• King Kong
  
• Planet Of The Apes
  
• Star Wars IV: A New Hope
  
• Terminator I-II

Horror

• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
  
• Night Of The Living Dead
  
• Dawn Of The Dead
  
• Carrie
  
• The Exorcist
  
• The Fly
  
• Halloween
  
• Jaws
  
• A Nightmare On Elm St.
  
• Psycho
  
• Rosemary's Baby
  
• The Shining
  
• 28 Days Later

Non-Boring Documentaries

• Brother's Keeper
  
• Don't Look Back
  
• Hoop Dreams
  
• Pumping Iron
  
• Richard Pryor: Live In Concert
  
• When We Were Kings

Conspicuously Gay Straight Movies (Beyond Top Gun)

• 300
  
• Fight Club
  
• Spartacus
  
• The Bear
  
• The Lord Of The Rings I: The Fellowship Of The Ring
  
• The Warriors
  
• X-Men

Westerns

• The Good The Bad & The Ugly
  
• The Searchers
  
• Jeremiah Johnson
  
• Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
  
• High Noon
  
• High Plains Drifter
  
• Tombstone
  
• True Grit
  
• Unforgiven
  
• The Wild Bunch

Buddy Movies

• The Last Detail
  
• Top Gun
  
• Superbad
  
• Deliverance
  
• American Graffiti
  
• The Blues Brothers
  
• Breaking Away
  
• Glengarry Glen Ross
  
• The Goonies
  
• Lethal Weapon
  
• The Right Stuff
  
• Saturday Night Fever
  
• The Shawshank Redemption
  
• Stand By Me
  
• Stripes
  
• Swingers
  
• The Warriors

Conspicuously Gay [Patrick] Swayze Movies

• Next Of Kin
  
• Red Dawn
  
• Road House
  
• The Outsiders
  
• Youngblood

Action

• The Matrix
  
• Rocky I-IV
  
• The Road Warrior
  
• Batman
  
• Batman Begins
  
• Battle Royale
  
• The Bourne Identity/Supremacy/Ultimatum
  
• Braveheart
  
• Clash Of The Titans
  
• Die Hard
  
• Enter The Dragon
  
• Face/Off
  
• First Blood
  
• 48 Hours
  
• Gladiator
  
• The Incredibles
  
• Kill Bill I-II
  
• The Lord Of The Rings I-III
  
• Predator
  
• Raiders Of The Lost Ark
  
• Speed
  
• Spider-Man

Non-Gratuitous Nudity!

• Wild Things
  
• Fast Times At Ridgemont High
  
• Carnal Knowledge
  
• Angel Heart
  
• Body Heat
  
• Boogie Nights
  
• Coffy
  
• Jackass: The Movie
  
• McCabe & Mrs Miller
  
• Mulholland Dr.
  
• Poison Ivy: The New Seduction
  
• Revenge Of The Nerds
  
• Ten

Essential James Bond Movies

• Casino Royale
  
• Goldfinger
  
• The Spy Who Loved Me
  
• Live & Let Die
  
• You Only Live Twice

Arthouse

• City Of God
  
• A Clockwork Orange
  
• Annie Hall
  
• Withnail & I
  
• Midnight Cowboy
  
• Badlands
  
• Bicycle Thieves
  
• The Conversation
  
• Do The Right Thing
  
• The Elephant Man
  
• The Last Picture Show
  
• Repo Man
  
• Rushmore
  
• Short Cuts
  
• There Will Be Blood

Mindbenders

• Akira
  
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show
  
• Beetlejuice
  
• Blue Velvet
  
• Brazil
  
• Donnie Darko
  
• Edward Scissorhands
  
• Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
  
• Fight Club
  
• Memento
  
• Pink Floyd: The Wall
  
• The Manchurian Candidate

Best Movies With Puppets

• Being John Malkovich
  
• Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
  
• Team America: World Police
  
• The Dark Crystal
  
• The Muppet Movie
  
• Weekend At Bernie's

Cops

• To Live & Die In LA
  
• Bullitt
  
• Hard-Boiled
  
• Bad Lieutenant
  
• Chinatown
  
• The Departed
  
• Donnie Brasco
  
• Fargo
  
• The French Connection
  
• RoboCop
  
• Seven
  
• Shaft
  
• The Silence Of The Lambs
  
• The Untouchables

Criminals

• The Godfather I-II
  
• No Country For Old Men
  
• Bonnie & Clyde
  
• Reservoir Dogs
  
• Atlantic City
  
• Bad Boys
  
• Bloody Mamma
  
• The Boys From Brazil
  
• Boyz 'N The Hood
  
• Carlito's Way
  
• Casino
  
• Crimes & Misdemeanors
  
• Dog Day Afternoon
  
• The Getaway
  
• Get Carter
  
• GoodFellas
  
• Heat
  
• A History Of Violence
  
• In Cold Blood
  
• The Long Good Friday
  
• Mean Streets
  
• Midnight Express
  
• Natural Born Killers
  
• Pulp Fiction
  
• River's Edge
  
• Scarface
  
• Sexy Beast
  
• Sin City
  
• Super Fly
  
• True Romance

Movies You Need To See Once But Are
So Traumatic You Never Need To See Again

• Leaving Las Vegas
  
• Million Dollar Baby
  
• Requiem For A Dream
  
• Schindler's List
  
• United 93

Casino Royale is [presumably] the recent version rather than the 1960s spoof, Ben-Hur is the William Wyler version, and Scarface is the Brian DePalma version instead of the Howard Hawks original, but otherwise the list is refreshingly free of remakes.

The Top 100 Films Of All Time

On Saturday, The Times published a list of the Top 100 Films Of All Time, chosen by a selection of the newspaper's film critics led by James Christopher. The list is deliberately revisionist and provocative, hence its intentional omission of established classics like Citizen Kane. (Kane as the world's greatest film may be a cliche, but it's still an essential film by any standard.) There are actually 102 films on the list, as the entry for Pather Panchali also includes two subsequent films about the Apu character.

The Top 100 Films are as follows:

1. Casablanca
2. There Will Be Blood
3. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
4. Chinatown
5. The Shining
6. Vertigo
7. Kes
8. Sunset Blvd
9. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
10. The Godfather
11. The Sound Of Music
12. Alien
13. 2001: A Space Odyssey
14. The Jungle Book
15. Apocalypse Now
16. Metropolis
17. Annie Hall
18. Don't Look Now
19. The Exorcist
20. The Wizard Of Oz
21. The Towering Inferno
22. The Breakfast Club
23. Some Like It Hot
24. The Philadelphia Story
25. Picnic At Hanging Rock
26. GoodFellas
27. A Clockwork Orange
28. Gone With The Wind
29. Duck Soup
30. Rebel Without A Cause
31. His Girl Friday
32. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
33. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
34. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
35. Withnail & I
36. Jaws
37. Beau Travail
38. Rear Window
39. The Graduate
40. Monty Python's Life Of Brian
41. A Star Is Born
42. Blue Velvet
43. Terminator II: Judgment Day
44. A Streetcar Named Desire
45. The Life & Death Of Colonel Blimp
46. All About Eve
47. Fargo
48. Shoah
49. High Society
50. Blade Runner
51. Cabaret
52. La Dolce Vita
53. Mildred Pierce
54. Roman Holiday
55. The Matrix
56. Whisky Galore
57. Raging Bull
58. Dr Zhivago
59. Pulp Fiction
60. The Crying Game
61. Rashomon
62. Taxi Driver
63. On The Waterfront
64. Do The Right Thing
65. The Thin Blue Line
66. Toy Story
67. The Piano
68. The Maltese Falcon
69. Cache
70. The Conversation
71. This Is Spinal Tap
72. Days Of Heaven
73. Great Expectations
74. Rosemary's Baby
75. The Good The Bad & The Ugly
76. From Here To Eternity
77. Pather Panchali/Aparajito/Apur Sansar
78. The Lady Eve
79. Deliverance
80. Tokyo Story
81. North By Northwest
82. Chungking Express
83. Spartacus
84. Festen
85. Dog Day Afternoon
86. Nosferatu
87. The Silence Of The Lambs
88. Wild Strawberries
89. Touch Of Evil
90. Trainspotting
91. Short Cuts
92. Breathless
93. Cool Hand Luke
94. La Haine
95. Grand Hotel
96. Lost In Translation
97. Point Break
98. My Fair Lady
99. La Belle & La Bete
100. Jurassic Park

Every film on this list is important in some way, but there should be more silents (there are only two) and more foreign-language films (there's nothing from Italy pre-La Dolce Vita, and nothing by Jean Renoir or Sergei Eisenstein). There Will Be Blood may be a modern classic, but is it really the second-greatest film ever made? (Note that The Maltese Falcon is the John Huston version, which is actually a remake of an earlier Roy Del Ruth film.)

Deia Juan Carlos case dismissed

A Spanish court has ruled that a satirical photomontage of King Juan Carlos published in 2006 does not constitute lese majeste. (A similar case, however, did result in a conviction, when two El Jueves cartoonists were fined 3,000 euros last year for a cartoon of Prince Filipe.)

Bangladeshi cartoonist released

Arifur Rahman, the Bangladeshi cartoonist who was jailed last year following his innocuous "Mohammed cat" cartoon, has now been released after the prosecution failed to pursue the case against him.

appeal against Charlie Hebdo acquittal fails

In 2006, the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo published a collection of Mohammed cartoons and was sued by a group of French Muslims. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2007, and yesterday an appeal against the dismissal was rejected, completely vindicating the magazine.

Daily Xpress

Today saw the launch of Thailand's first free daily newspaper, the Daily Xpress, published in Bangkok by The Nation. (The Nation is one of two daily English-language newspapers on sale in Thailand, the other being the Bangkok Post.)

The first issue of the Xpress has forty-eight pages. Even with ten pages of classified ads, it's an impressive total for a freesheet. 100,000 copies will be distributed every day. The emphasis is on features, human interest, and lifestyle, and the lead story in today's issue is an interview with Lydia (a singer who has been romantically linked with ex-PM Thaksin). The interview is quite a coup [no pun intended], though it boils down to only a few sentences of original quotes.

The Xpress does have a surprising amount of entertaining and original content. It is, however, disposable rather than informative, and it can't replace other titles as a news source.

To coincide with the Xpress launch, the Nation itself has been rebranded. It now styles itself as "Thailand's biggest business daily", and has shifted its focus almost entirely to business news. Politics and international news have been reduced to one page each, and sports news has been moved over to the Xpress. There is no coverage of general Thai news at all.

This is a risky decision, as it narrows the Nation's target market and takes it out of direct competition with the Post. The new business focus also makes it an odd bedfellow for the Xpress, as the two papers are aimed at opposite audiences. While the Xpress may attract young readers who pick it up for free, the copies bundled with the Nation will probably remain unread.

On Sundays, the Xpress will become the Sunday Xpress and "incorporate" [read: 'replace'] the Sunday Nation, meaning that there will be no general Thai news coverage on Sundays.

Indie Sex

Indie Sex is a series of documentaries broadcast on America's Independent Film Channel last year. Each episode deals with a different theme: Censored, Taboos, Teens, and Extremes. Each show features critics and directors discussing the history of (almost exclusively heterosexual) sex in cinema. Most of the film clips (with a few exceptions) are very tame, though the DVD includes more graphic sequences.

The first episode, Censored, gives a detailed history of American film censorship (and is less polemical than This Film Is Not Yet Rated). There is quite a lot of overlap, though, with the same points being made, and the same films being discussed, in several episodes. Among the directors interviewed are John Waters (discussing A Dirty Shame), Fenton Bailey (discussing Inside Deep Throat), Catherine Breillat (discussing Anatomy Of Hell), and John Cameron Mitchell (discussing Shortbus).

uncensored poster provokes death threats

The editor of a Swedish newspaper has received death threats after he published a poster featuring Satan defecating on Jesus.

The poster, advertising the Navar Igen IV: Punx Against Christ! festival, was censored by the local council, though the Ostgota Correspondenten newspaper published it uncensored yesterday.

Zgoda editor released

Aleksandr Sdvizhkov, editor of the Belarus newspaper Zgoda, has been released from jail. He had been sentenced to three years in prison, after his newspaper reprinted the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed cartoons.

complaint against Levant dropped

Syed Soharwardy has dropped his complaint against Canadian publisher Ezra Levant. Levant's magazine, Western Standard, printed the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed cartoons on 13th February 2006.

100 Best Films

Today, The Sunday Telegraph newspaper, in its magazine supplement Seven, has published a 100 Best Films list. The list was compiled by Catherine Shoard, Jenny McCartney, Alan Stanbrook, and Mike McCahill. It is divided into ten categories: drama, thriller/action, comedy, animation, horror, romance, kids, musicals, documentary, and world cinema. Each category has ten films, arranged preferentially.

Drama

1. The Conversation
2. Strangers On A Train
3. There Will Be Blood
4. Winter Light
5. Dogville
6. Raging Bull
7. The Godfather I-II
8. Double Indemnity
9. Apocalypse Now
10. Chinatown

Thriller/Action

1. North By Northwest
2. Raiders Of The Lost Ark
3. Manhattan Murder Mystery
4. Heat
5. The 39 Steps
6. Terminator II: Judgment Day
7. Once Upon A Time In The West
8. The Ladykillers
9. The Silence Of The Lambs
10. Die Hard

Comedy

1. Some Like It Hot
2. Annie Hall
3. Meet The Parents
4. Withnail & I
5. His Girl Friday
6. The Odd Couple
7. Zoolander
8. Stir Crazy
9. Gregory's Girl
10. Tootsie

Animation

1. Dimensions Of Dialogue
2. The Jungle Book
3. Spirited Away
4. Toy Story
5. Composition In Blue
6. Grave Of The Fireflies
7. The Secret Adventures Of Tom Thumb
8. Finding Nemo
9. Perfect Blue
10. Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs

Horror

1. Psycho
2. Frankenstein
3. The Exorcist
4. Night Of The Living Dead
5. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
6. Dead Of Night
7. The Wicker Man
8. The Blair Witch Project
9. Vampyr
10. The Kingdom I-II

Romance

1. Before Sunset
2. Head-On
3. I Know Where I'm Going!
4. Brief Encounter
5. The Lady Vanishes
6. The Quiet American
7. Hannah & Her Sisters
8. Bringing Up Baby
9. Days Of Heaven
10. Casablanca

Kids

1. Back To The Future
2. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
3. Babe: Pig In The City
4. Freaky Friday
5. Addams Family Values
6. Mean Girls
7. Anne Of Green Gables
8. Clueless
9. Enchanted
10. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit

Musicals

1. West Side Story
2. The Sound Of Music
3. Cabaret
4. Top Hat
5. Chicago
6. Mary Poppins
7. Singin' In The Rain
8. Nashville
9. Woodstock
10. My Fair Lady

Documentary

1. American Splendor
2. The Sorrow & The Pity
3. American Movie
4. Touching The Void
5. Capturing The Friedmans
6. Spellbound
7. To Be & To Have
8. Hearts & Minds
9. My Kid Could Paint That
10. Neil Young: Heart Of Gold

World Cinema

1. Battleship Potemkin
2. The Passion Of Joan Of Arc
3. The Rules Of The Game
4. Tokyo Story
5. The Seven Samurai
6. Pather Panchali
7. Smiles Of A Sumer Night
8. A Man Escaped
9. Andrei Rublev
10. The Colour Of Pomegranates

The animation section is surprisingly diverse and even avant-garde, but that's the exception rather than the rule because, in general, this list is terrible.

Dividing the 100 titles into ten rigid categories is asking for trouble. Manhattan Murder Mystery, for example, is listed as a thriller/action film (the third greatest thriller/action film, no less), but it's actually a comedy. Why it's listed at all is a mystery, because it's a pale imitation of Annie Hall. Bringing Up Baby appears in the romance list, even though it's one of the most famous comedies ever made.

The inclusion of so many very recent films is bizarre. Is Enchanted (released last year) really one of the greatest children's films ever made? Is There Will Be Blood (released this year) really one of the best dramas of all time? Is it really necessary for seven of the ten documentaries to be films made after 2001? Emphatically no, in all cases.

Why is world cinema relegated to only ten films, as if it were a genre? Are 90% of the 100 'best films' really English-language? No. The world cinema category whitewashes whole chapters of film history: no German Expressionism, no French New Wave, and no Italian Neo-Realism.

Oh, and the compilers seem to have forgotten about science-fiction and westerns altogether. D'oh! So there's no place for Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Odyssey (no Kubrick films at all, in fact), Metropolis, Stagecoach, The Searchers, or High Noon.

Finally, what about Citizen Kane? I'd like to think that the compilers were making a revisionist statement by omitting it, but I'm more inclined to believe that they simply forgot about it because it doesn't fit into one of their ten categories.

Finally, note that Frankenstein is the James Whale sound version, not the Thomas Edison silent film.

Jane [bleep] Fonda

On Thursday, Jane Fonda made an appearance on Today, a morning TV show in America. She was with Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues. Fonda explained her own involvement with the Monologues, and used the c-word on live television. That doesn't happen very often in the UK, and it hardly ever happens in the US. The host didn't even seem to notice, and continued with the interview, though she did apologise a few minutes later after she realised what had happened.

This is almost an exact replay of a situation on UK TV in 2002, when Caprice appeared on This Morning, also to discuss her performance of The Vagina Monologues. Caprice used the same word, and the presenters didn't notice, so the live interview continued.

Mohammed cartoon reprinted

The most controversial of the twelve Mohammed caricatures published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005 has been reprinted today by various European newspapers. Kurt Westergaard's cartoon, of Mohammed wearing a bomb instead of a turban, came to symbolise the entire controversy. (He was filmed by the BBC drawing a new version of the image last year.)

Danish police have arrested three people who were allegedly plotting to murder Westergaard. To show solidarity with the cartoonist, and to defend free speech, his cartoon has been reprinted today by as many as seventeen Danish newspapers (including Politiken, Berlingske Tidende, and Ekstra Bladet, as well as Jyllands-Posten) and by newspapers in Spain, Holland, and Sweden. (All twelve of the original cartoons were reprinted extensively in 2006.) Politiken has printed a partially-drawn version of the Westergaard image on its front page.

Turkish cartoonists on trial

Two Turkish cartoonists, Musa Kart and Zafer Temocin, are on trial for defamation, after the Cumhuriyet newspaper published their caricatures of Turkish President Abdullah Gul. Kart's cartoon, depicting Gul as a scarecrow, was published on 28th November 2007. Temocin's caricature, of Gul in an envelope, appeared the next day. If they are found guilty, they face four years in jail.

editor jailed for reprinting cartoons

Aleksandr Sdvizhkov, editor of the Belarus newspaper Zgoda, has been imprisoned for three years. His 'crime' was to have published the caricatures of Mohammed which were first printed by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005. Zgoda was one of many newspapers which reprinted the cartoons in 2006.

El Jueves cartoonists fined

Two Spanish cartoonists, Guillermo Torres and Manel Fontdevila, have been convicted of lese majeste and fined 3,000 euros each. Their 'crime' was to produce a cartoon (drawn by Torres and captioned by Fontdevila) for the satirical magazine El Jueves last year.

Bloody Cartoons

The twelve Jyllands-Posten Mohammed caricatures have finally been broadcast by the BBC in the UK. BBC2's Why Democracy? series posed the question Is God Democratic? in a Storyville documentary titled Bloody Cartoons on Monday evening. The programme opened with a new version of the most famous cartoon (Mohammed's turban as a bomb).

Algerian TV stations not guilty

Managers and journalists from two Algerian television stations (Canal Algerie and Algeria 3) were facing up to five years in jail after they broadcast the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed cartoons, though they have now been cleared by an Algerian court which ruled that the broadcasters did not intentionally offend Muslims. The cartoons have also been broadcast on Malaysian television, and reprinted in numerous newspapers and magazines.

media censorship of Goldin photo

Nan Goldin's photograph Klara & Edda Belly-Dancing (removed from a UK gallery last week) has been published in The Sunday Times today, though the 'offensive' lower part was cropped. The image appears twice in the newspaper's News Review section, on page one and page seven. It was also included, again with the lower portion cropped, in a BBC TV news report on Thursday.

[The picture has previously been printed (also in censored form) in the tabloid News Of The World on 11th March 2001.]

There's a full-page, uncensored and uncropped, reproduction of the image in Goldin's monograph The Devil's Playground (2002), on page 115. The Thanksgiving exhibition at Baltic has now been closed, on the requests of Elton John (who owns the photos) and Nan Goldin herself.

Ofcom rejects Diana complaints

Ofcom, the UK broadcasting watchdog, has rejected sixty-two complaints from viewers about The Witnesses In The Tunnel. (The Channel 4 documentary featured a censored version of a notorious photograph of Princess Diana's car crash; the photograph has subsequently been broadcast uncensored by Sky News.)

Bangladeshi cartoonist jailed

Arifur Rahman, a Bangladeshi cartoonist, has been jailed following publication of a cartoon in which a boy calls his cat "Mohammed cat". Rahman's cartoon appeared yesterday in Aalpin, a supplement of the newspaper Prothom Alo.

Swedish Mohammed artist death threat

Terrorist organisation Al Quaeda has pledged up to $150,000 as a reward for the murder of Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who produced a series of pencil drawings depicting Mohammed as a dog. Additionally, a bounty of $50,000 has been placed on Ulf Johansson, whose newspaper Nerikes Allehanda printed the images on 18th August and has subsequently reprinted them twice (28th August and 16th September).

The cartoons have also appeared in other Swedish newspapers, including Aftonbladet (20th August), Sydsvenskan (24th August), Barometern (22nd August), Dagens Nyheter (22nd August), Expressen, and Uppsala Nya Tidning.

The artist has now gone into hiding, with police protection. A claim, brought by three Swedish Muslim organisations, that publication of the cartoons constituted an incitement to racial hatred, has been rejected by the Swedish Chancellor.

Diana crash photo on TV

A photograph of Princess Diana receiving medical treatment at the scene of her car crash has been broadcast uncensored on UK and US TV. On 31st August, Sky News broadcast a report about the medical treatment Diana received after the crash, taken from American television channel CBS News, which included an image of her at the crash scene. The CBS report was titled Could Diana Have Been Saved?, originally broadcast on 30th August. Sky later apologised, saying that they had not pre-vetted the CBS report and would not have broadcast it had they known of its contents.

The Sky broadcast represents the only uncensored availability of the image in the UK. Previously, it had been reproduced by Channel 4 and The Sun, though on both occasions Diana's face was obscured. It has been published uncensored in France and Italy.

Thai papers receive police warning

Thai police yesterday wrote to the Thai Rath and Bangkok Today newspapers, warning them that their front-page pictures of scantily-clad women were inappropriate. It's scary that the police can intimidate the press in this way.

Al Jazeera memo

A transcript of a 16th April 2004 conversation between Tony Blair and George W Bush was leaked to the Daily Mirror newspaper on 22nd November 2005, though publication of the memo is forbidden under the Official Secrets Act. During their conversation, Bush (perhaps in jest) suggested bombing the headquarters of Al Jazeera TV, and Blair dissuaded him.

Love & Money

TCDC's new exhibition, Love & Money (20th July to 16th September) features twenty examples of modern and contemporary British design, including the Berliner redesign of The Guardian and Channel 4 TV's new corporate identity.

1,000 Films To See Before You Die

From Monday to Friday last week, The Guardian printed an alphabetical list of 1,000 essential films chosen by a "panel of experts". Being 1,000 titles, there aren't a great number of important omissions, though as with many such lists some very recent films (such as Borat and Pan's Labyrinth) are included already, before they've had time to mature. Also, there are a few frankly bizarre choices, like Pumping Iron. But, of course, watching most of these 1,000 films would be time well spent.

UK TV censors Diana crash photo

UK TV station Channel 4's documentary Diana: The Witnesses In The Tunnel, broadcast on 6th June, included a notorious photograph of Diana receiving medical treatment at the crash scene.

Channel 4 broadcast the image, citing a public interest defence, despite a letter from Diana's children asking them to cut it. The UK tabloids have been predictably vitriolic in their criticism of Channel 4, though I can't see what all the fuss is about because Diana's face was obscured by a grey square.

The Sun published the photo with Diana's face obscured on its front page on 14th July last year in protest at Chi magazine, so how can they criticse Channel 4 for doing the same thing?

The source of the image is a French police report into Diana's accident, photocopies of which first appeared in the American TV documentary 48 Hours and the French book Lady Diana.

100 Years Of Magazine Covers

Steve Taylor's 100 Years Of Magazine Covers is an international survey of a century of magazine covers, from the first issue of Punch to the latest issue of Modern Toss. The book is divided into five thematic chapters.

The first chapter discusses the magazine cover as celebrity portraiture, including a Patrick Demarchelier portrait of Princess Diana for Elle, an Andy Warhol self-portrait for his own magazine Interview, and the iconic Annie Leibovitz image of John Lennon and Yoko Ono for Rolling Stone.

Chapter two covers reportage and politics, from the reverential (Picture Post's dignified image of Winston Churchill) to the satirical (a savage Richard Nixon caricature by Ralph Steadman for Rolling Stone, and Harold Wilson on the cover of Private Eye). The scope of this chapter is far too large, though, and although it covers (American) politics quite well, there is very little room for war reportage.

The next chapter is devoted to fashion magazines, including Elle, Vogue, i-D, and Dazed & Confused. Fashion magazines from the 1960s dominate this chapter, alongside a survey of contemporary style titles such as Another Magazine. There are only a few Vogue covers represented, though the magazine deserves much more extensive coverage.

The penultimate chapter concerns cultural movements (such as feminism, civil rights, and gay rights) and youth subcultures (including punks and hippies). This chapter's main focus is underground and fanzine titles like Oz and Sniffin' Glue.

Finally, the last chapter looks at magazine covers as graphic design objects, including some wonderful 1980s typography from The Face and bold 1970s covers from Time Out. Four pages devoted to eleven cover reproductions of Fast Company in this chapter seems highly excessive.

The only previous book to present a history of 20th century magazines is Magazine Covers by David Crowley. Crowley's book has 100 pages fewer than Taylor's, though it does have an index whereas Taylor's doesn't. Crowley presents double-page spreads on each magazine, organised into the same chapter themes as Taylor. Taylor has more of a pedigree (he has worked for The Face and Arena; his book is introduced by The Face's art director, Neville Brody), though Crowley's book has more historical scope. Both books are dominated by superb illustrations, with minimal contextualising text, though Crowley's writing is more detailed.

100 Greatest Movies Of All Time

The current issue of Empire magazine's Australian edition has published the results of their reader survey of the 100 greatest films ever made:

1. Star Wars IV: A New Hope
2. Pulp Fiction
3. The Shawshank Redemption
4. Aliens
5. A Clockwork Orange
6. Donnie Darko
7. The Lord Of The Rings III: The Return Of The King
8. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
9. Amelie
10. GoodFellas
11. The Matrix
12. American Beauty
13. Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl
14. The Lord Of The Rings I: The Fellowship Of The Ring
15. The Godfather
16. Grease
17. Braveheart
18. A Nightmare On Elm St.
19. Fight Club
20. Back To The Future
21. Alien
22. Apocalypse Now
23. Gone With The Wind
24. Titanic
25. Forrest Gump
26. Raiders of the Lost Ark
27. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
28. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
29. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
30. Schindler's List
31. Kill Bill I
32. Scarface
33. The Princess Bride
34. Top Gun
35. Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery
36. Rocky
37. Casino Royale
38. An American Werewolf In London
39. The Wizard Of Oz
40. Casablanca
41. Zoolander
42. Gallipoli
43. The Lord Of The Rings II: The Two Towers
44. 2001: A Space Odyssey
45. Heat
46. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
47. Gladiator
48. Terminator II: Judgment Day
49. The Sound Of Music
50. Seven
51. Die Hard
52. Star Wars VI: Return Of The Jedi
53. Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan
54. The Usual Suspects
55. Jaws
56. Memento
57. The Godfather II
58. The Big Lebowski
59. Taxi Driver
60. The Shining
61. Stand By Me
62. Clerks
63. The Silence Of The Lambs
64. Spider-Man
65. The Lion King
66. Chopper
67. Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ
68. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
69. Superman
70. Picnic At Hanging Rock
71. Batman
72. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
73. Platoon
74. To Kill A Mockingbird
75. Blade Runner
76. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
77. Mad Max
78. Brokeback Mountain
79. Chicago
80. Psycho
81. Moulin Rouge!
82. The Breakfast Club
83. Citizen Kane
84. Reservoir Dogs
85. The Crow
86. Mad Max II
87. Babel
88. Annie Hall
89. All About Eve
90. Animal House
91. Rear Window
92. Crocodile Dundee
93. The Seven Samurai
94. The Blues Brothers
95. Romeo & Juliet
96. Monty Python's Life Of Brian
97. Flying High
98. X-Men
99. The Terminator
100. It's A Wonderful Life

Empire Australia's previous poll was in 2002, and was also won by Star Wars IV.

Some people still need to realise that 'greatest film of all time' is not the same as 'movie you saw recently that you liked'; what other explanation can there be for Casino Royale and Borat on the new list? Also, Scarface is the Brian DePalma remake rather than the superior Howard Hawks original, Ben-Hur is the William Wyler remake, Romeo & Juliet is the Baz Luhrmann version, and Titanic is the James Cameron version.

Charlie Hebdo in the clear

The case against Charlie Hebdo, the magazine sued by French Muslim groups, has been dismissed. The magazine reprinted the Mohammed caricatures from Jyllands-Posten, and created a new one for their front cover.

The French court ruled that Charlie Hebdo's cover was not offensive to Muslims, and that its reprinting of the earlier caricatures was not malicious. (A similar lawsuit, filed against Jyllands-Posten, was rejected in Denmark last year.)

Thaksin's CNN interview

Thaksin gave an interview yesterday to CNN's Dan Rivers in Singapore. It was broadcast at 7pm yesterday evening... although not in Thailand, where the CNS deemed it potentially damaging to national unity.

In the interview, Thaksin denied any involvement with the new year's eve bombings and announced that he has no intention of returning to politics.

Canon Fodder

The September-October issue of the journal Film Comment contains a lengthy article by Paul Schrader, titled Canon Fodder. In the article, Schrader attempts something never previously tackled at such length: he explores the history of, and criteria for, a canonical list of necessary films.

There have been many previous attempts at compiling 'definitive' lists of classic films, sometimes selected by public votes, sometimes chosen by individuals or panels of critics, and sometimes distilled from polls of critics and directors. I identified the most frequent types last year. The acknowledged leader in the field is Sight & Sound's list of ten 'greatest films of all time', chosen by hundreds of international critics and published every decade (most recently in 2002); Citizen Kane has remained at the top of their list ever since 1962.

In his article, Schrader traces the fascinating history of the notion of artistic and literary canons. Inspired by Harold Bloom's The Western Canon, he then proposes and explains a series of criteria by which to judge the films of the past 100 years: beauty ("the bedrock of all judgments of taste"), strangeness ("unpredictable burst of originality"), unity of form and subject-matter ("this traditional yardstick of artistic value"), tradition ("The greatness of a film or filmmaker must be judged not only on its own terms but by its place in the evolution of film"), repeatability ("appreciated by successive generations, it grows in importance and context with time"), viewer engagement ("The great film not only comes at the viewer, it draws the viewer toward it"), and morality ("Good or bad resonance [is] beside the point. The point is that no work that fails to strike moral chords can be canonical").

Schrader is consciously elitist in his choices ("to counter the proliferation of popularity-driven lists"), and he also eschews auteurism ("I'd like to concentrate on films, not filmmakers"). Furthermore, he maintains that canons need not contain 'equal opportunities' quotas ("Genre and subject matter don't matter; nor do the age, race, and sex of the filmmakers"). His list is divided into three tiers.

Gold

1. The Rules Of The Game
2. Tokyo Story
3. City Lights
4. Pickpocket
5. Metropolis
6. Citizen Kane
7. Orphee
8. Masculin-Feminin
9. Persona
10. Vertigo
11. Sunrise
12. The Searchers
13. The Lady Eve
14. The Conformist
15. Eight-&-A-Half
16. The Godfather
17. In The Mood For Love
18. The Third Man
19. Performance
20. La Notte

Silver

21. Mother & Son
22. The Leopard
23. The Dead
24. 2001: A Space Odyssey
25. Last Year At Marienbad
26. The Passion Of Joan Of Arc
27. Jules & Jim
28. The Wild Bunch
29. All That Jazz
30. The Life Of Oharu
31. High & Low
32. Sweet Smell Of Success
33. That Obscure Object Of Desire
34. An American In Paris
35. Salvatore Giuliano
36. Taxi Driver
37. Ali: Fear Eats The Soul
38. Blue Velvet
39. Crimes & Misdemeanors
40. The Big Lebowski

Bronze

41. The Red Shoes
42. Singin' In The Rain
43. Chinatown
44. The Crowd
45. Sunset Blvd
46. Talk To Her
47. Shanghai Express
48. Letter From An Unknown Woman
49. Once Upon A Time In The West
50. Voyage In Italy
51. Nostalghia
52. Seven Men From Now
53. Claire's Knee
54. Earth
55. Gun Crazy
56. Out Of The Past
57. Children Of Paradise
58. The Naked Spur
59. A Place In The Sun
60. The General

(In Film Comment's printed list, #35 and #50 were incorrect. Schrader wrote an erratum in the current issue, and the list above is the correct version.)

Mohammed cartoons reprinted

The twelve original caricatures of Mohammed, published by Jyllands-Posten in 2005, have caused riots, protests, and even murders around the world.

While most major news organisations have not reproduced them, several new Mohammed cartoons have been published in expressions of solidatory with Jyllands-Posten, in (amongst others): Weekendavisen, France Soir, The Guardian, Le Monde, Het Nieuwsblad, Charlie Hebdo, The Daily Tar Heel, Akron Beacon Journal, The Strand, Nana, Gorodskiye Vesti, Misselijke Grappen, and Harper's. Mohammed even appeared in (but was censored from) South Park.

Many publications have reprinted some or all of the original twelve images, and wikipedia.org has researched an exhaustive list of Mohammed caricature publications. (Some also appear in the book Blasphemy: Art That Offends.)

The consequences of publishing Mohammed images can be severe. In Algeria, Errisala and Iqraa were closed down, and their editors were arrested. In Canada, The Cadre had its Mohammed issue withdrawn. In France, the managing director of France Soir was sacked. In Jordan, the editor of Al Shihan was arrested and the Mohammed issue was withdrawn. In Italy, politician Roberto Calderoli was forced to resign after he wore the caricatures on a t-shirt. In Malaysia, Guang Ming was temporarily closed down (although the country's TV3 television station, which broadcast the cartoons, escaped censure). In Russia, Nash Region and Gorodskiye Vesti were closed down. In Saudi Arabia, Shams was shut down. In America, the editor of Daily Illini was fired. In Yemen, three newspapers were temporarily closed down - Al Hurriya, Yemen Observer, and Al Rai Al Aam - and their editors were arrested. In Wales, the student newspaper Gair Rhydd had its Mohammed issue withdrawn, as did the newsletter Y Llan.

Deia photomontage of Juan Carlos

Two days ago, the satirical Spanish magazine Deia published a photomontage of Spain's King Juan Carlos, showing him drooling victoriously after shooting a bear which had been subdued with a barrel of vodka. The image is a reference to an alleged hunting incident in which the King apparently killed a drunken bear. Legal proceedings have been instigated against the magazine, and it may face charges of lese majeste. A similar case is also pending against El Jueves, for its cartoon of Prince Filipe earlier this year.

lawsuit against Jllyands-Posten fails

A lawsuit against Jyllands-Posten, filed by a Danish Muslim group in March, has been dismissed by a court in Aarhus. Jyllands-Posten published a dozen Mohammed caricatures last year, and the Muslim group accused the newspaper of intentionally offending Islamic people.

The Top 100 Movies Of All Time

Readers of Total Film magazine have voted for The Top 100 Movies Of All Time, as follows:

1. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
2. Fight Club
3. Pulp Fiction
4. The Lord Of The Rings III: The Return Of The King
5. The Shawshank Redemption
6. GoodFellas
7. The Godfather
8. The Lord Of The Rings I: The Fellowship Of The Ring
9. Jaws
10. Donnie Darko
11. Star Wars IV: A New Hope
12. The Usual Suspects
13. The Matrix
14. Raiders Of The Lost Ark
15. Seven
16. The Godfather II
17. Gladiator
18. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
19. Aliens
20. Sin City
21. The Lord Of The Rings II: The Two Towers
22. LA Confidential
23. Taxi Driver
24. Die Hard
25. Batman Begins
26. Back To The Future
27. Schindler’s List
28. Spider-Man II
29. The Big Lebowski
30. Heat
31. Reservoir Dogs
32. Blade Runner
33. Terminator II: Judgment Day
34. Alien
35. X-Men II
36. Annie Hall
37. Leon
38. Casablanca
39. Apocalypse Now
40. Memento
41. Jurassic Park
42. It’s A Wonderful Life
43. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
44. Monty Python & The Holy Grail
45. The Third Man
46. The Good The Bad & The Ugly
47. Toy Story II
48. A Clockwork Orange
49. Moulin Rouge!
50. The Apartment
51. The Wild Bunch
52. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
53. Trainspotting
54. Raging Bull
55. City Of God
56. Stand By Me
57. The Thing
58. Scarface
59. Airplane!
60. The Silence Of The Lambs
61. Blue Velvet
62. The Seven Samurai
63. Citizen Kane
64. 2001: A Space Odyssey
65. Shaun Of The Dead
66. Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl
67. Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
68. Lawrence Of Arabia
69. Halloween
70. The Searchers
71. Rocky
72. Once Upon A Time In The West
73. Platoon
74. Kill Bill I
75. Magnolia
76. The Deer Hunter
77. The Shining
78. American Beauty
79. Fargo
80. Chinatown
81. Saving Private Ryan
82. Vertigo
83. King Kong
84. Goldfinger
85. The Wizard Of Oz
86. Dawn Of The Dead
87. Requiem For A Dream
88. The Terminator
89. Psycho
90. Brokeback Mountain
91. Dr. Strangelove
92. The Bourne Supremacy
93. The Incredibles
94. Some Like It Hot
95. Spirited Away
96. Rear Window
97. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
98. This Is Spinal Tap
99. Forrest Gump
100. The Exorcist

This list follows the magazine's previous list of 2005, the difference being that the earlier selection was chosen by the magazine's writers whereas the new list was voted for by the magazine's readers.

There are more sequels and remakes in this new list, and fewer world cinema titles. It's depressing that King Kong is the Peter Jackson remake, not the original. Similarly, Scarface is unfortunately the remake instead of the original.

Holy War

In January, Fresh Baked Video Games, a programme on American channel Spike TV, created a trailer for a fake computer game called Holy War, in which various religious figures fight to the death. One sequence showed Mohammed defeating Mormon founder Joseph Smith, and another featured Moses beheading Mohammed.
The Holy War sequence was broadcast after the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed caricatures were published, though before their international condemnation.

Dansk Folkeparti Mohammed cartoons

The Dutch political party Dansk Folkparti asked a group of Dutch students to draw Mohammed cartoons, in a parody of the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed caricatures, and the event was broadcast on Dutch television last month.

Die Besten Filme Aller Zeiten

The German magazine Cinema, in its July issue, has published a list of the 100 greatest films ever made, based on votes from readers:

1. The Lord Of The Rings I-III
2. Pulp Fiction
3. Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl
4. The Matrix
5. The Godfather
6. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
7. Fight Club
8. Titanic
9. The Godfather II
10. Forrest Gump
11. Gladiator
12. Star Wars III: Revenge Of The Sith
13. Star Wars VI: Return Of The Jedi
14. Sin City
15. Star Wars IV: A New Hope
16. Braveheart
17. Schindler's List
18. Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace
19. Seven
20. Terminator II: Judgment Day
21. The Silence Of The Lambs
22. The Godfather III
23. Kill Bill I
24. Once Upon A Time In The West
25. Die Hard
26. American Beauty
27. Star Wars II: Attack Of The Clones
28. Ice Age
29. High Noon
30. Alien
31. Leon
32. Brokeback Mountain
33. Dirty Dancing
34. Amelie
35. Dances With Wolves
36. Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade
37. The Shawshank Redemption
38. Saw
39. Raiders Of The Lost Ark
40. Some Like It Hot
41. Gone With The Wind
42. Once Upon A Time In America
43. King Kong
44. Moulin Rouge!
45. The Big Lebowski
46. The Blues Brothers
47. Donnie Darko
48. Casablanca
49. Crash
50. Back To The Future
51. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
52. From Dusk Till Dawn
53. Pretty Woman
54. Memento
55. Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire
56. The Usual Suspects
57. Die Hard II: Die Harder
58. Walk The Line
59. Monty Python's Life Of Brian
60. Dead Poets Society
61. Shrek
62. Garden State
63. Kill Bill II
64. Lost In Translation
65. Scarface
66. Aliens
67. A Clockwork Orange
68. Heat
69. Saving Private Ryan
70. Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone
71. Spider-Man
72. Apocalypse Now
73. Blade Runner
74. Spider-Man II
75. The Thirteenth Floor
76. Die Hard III
77. Batman Begins
78. Face/Off
79. Shrek II
80. Taxi Driver
81. The Good The Bad & The Ugly
82. Cruel Intentions
83. The Sixth Sense
84. LA Confidential
85. Lethal Weapon
86. Love Actually
87. 1492: Conquest Of Paradise
88. Life Is Beautiful
89. Psycho
90. The Terminator
91. Murder She Said
92. City Of God
93. Million Dollar Baby
94. Reservoir Dogs
95. GoodFellas
96. Snatch
97. Armageddon
98. Big Fish
99. Finding Nemo
100. Independence Day

The magazine previously surveyed its readers in 2000, when their #1 choice was Schindler's List. What's surprising about this new list is the embracing of entire trilogies: Die Hard I-III are all included, as are The Godfather I-III. (Die Hard II-III and The Godfather III are usually [and rightly] ignored in such lists.) Uniquely, all six Star Wars films are included: not only the original trilogy (Star Wars IV-VI) but also the disappointing later trilogy (Star Wars I-III). With so many sequels and trilogies given individual entries, it seems strange to lump the Lord Of The Rings trilogy all together as one entry. There is a general preference for more recent films, as in most polls derived from public votes: King Kong is the Peter Jackson remake, and Scarface is the Brian DePalma remake. Note that Crash is the Paul Haggis Oscar-winner, not the scandalous David Cronenberg film, and Titanic is the James Cameron version.

El Jueves cartoon banned

Yesterday's issue of El Jueves, the satirical Spanish magazine, featured a cartoon of Prince Filipe and his wife having sex, with Filipe telling her: "if you get pregnant this will be the closest thing I've done to work in my whole life". The magazine has consequently been banned by the Spanish High Court.

Fifty Films To See Before You Die

Channel 4's film channel, Film4, has produced a list of Fifty Films To See Before You Die, as follows:

1. Apocalypse Now
2. The Apartment
3. City Of God
4. Chinatown
5. Sexy Beast
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey
7. North By Northwest
8. Breathless
9. Donnie Darko
10. Manhattan
11. Alien
12. Lost In Translation
13. The Shawshank Redemption
14. Lagaan: Once Upon A Time In India
15. Pulp Fiction
16. Touch Of Evil
17. Walkabout
18. Black Narcissus
19. Boyz 'n The Hood
20. The Player
21. Come & See
22. Heavenly Creatures
23. A Night At The Opera
24. Erin Brockovich
25. Trainspotting
26. The Breakfast Club
27. Hero
28. Fanny & Alexander
29. Pink Flamingos
30. All About Eve
31. Scarface
32. Terminator II
33. Three Colours: Blue
34. The Royal Tenenbaums
35. The Ladykillers
36. Fight Club
37. The Searchers
38. Mulholland Dr.
39. The Ipcress File
40. The King of Comedy
41. Manhunter
42. Dawn Of The Dead
43. Princess Mononoke
44. Raising Arizona
45. Cabaret
46. This Sporting Life
47. Brazil
48. Aguirre: The Wrath Of God
49. Secrets & Lies
50. Badlands

This list was selected by a committee including David Puttnam, Jason Solomons, Karen Krizanovich, Tessa Ross, and Menhaj Huda. Puttnam is a key figure in the British film industry, though his is the only worthy name on the committee.

Apocalypse Now is a pretty good choice as #1, but many, many films are too recent to be included in such high positions (City Of God, Sexy Beast, Donnie Darko, Lost In Translation...). Maybe they should rename it 'fifty best cult films'.

Like the recent list by Andrew Collins, The Godfather and Citizen Kane are inexplicably omitted. Scarface is the remake rather than the original.

How To Be A Film Buff

Andrew Collins, film critic for Radio Times magazine, has produced a list of twenty-five essential films, called How To Be A Film Buff. Each entry also has an alternative, making a total of fifty films. The full list is as follows:

• Casablanca (or Citizen Kane)
  
• The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari (or Nosferatu)
  
• Blade Runner (or 2001: A Space Odyssey)
  
• A Matter Of Life & Death (or The Red Shoes)
  
• Out Of The Past (or The Big Sleep)
  
• La Dolce Vita (or Bicycle Thieves)
  
• High Noon (or The Searchers)
  
• Rear Window (or Psycho)
  
• The Hidden Fortress (or Rashomon)
  
• Bonnie & Clyde (or Easy Rider)
  
• Bringing Up Baby (or His Girl Friday)
  
• The Hills Have Eyes (or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)
  
• Un Chien Andalou (or L'Age D'Or)
  
• Armageddon (or Con Air)
  
• Heaven's Gate (or Dances With Wolves)
  
• Annie Hall (or Manhattan)
  
• Singin' In The Rain (or An American In Paris)
  
• Paths Of Glory (or A Few Good Men)
  
• Performance (or Blow-Up)
  
• Bride Of Frankenstein (or Dracula)
  
• Blackboards (or The Apple)
  
• The Day The Earth Stood Still (or Invasion Of The Body-Snatchers)
  
• Pulp Fiction (or Reservoir Dogs)
  
• Shoah (or Night & Fog)
  
• Winter Light (or The Silence)

Mostly, the alternate choices are films of equal quality to their main counterparts, though not in all cases. Bride Of Frankenstein, for example, is paired with the much weaker Dracula. (Paths Of Glory has A Few Good Men as its alternate choice, but I think we all know that, in this case, no alternative is necessary, least of all A Few Good Men.) It's strange that La Dolce Vita and Bicycle Thieves are paired, as they seem more like opposites. There is a choice between Armageddon or Con Air - how about a third choice of 'neither'?

There is a distinct lack of epics here: no Gone With The Wind, no Metropolis, no Apocalypse Now, and no Lawrence Of Arabia. Unusual, and certainly regrettable, is the lack of The Godfather. The biggest surprise, though, is that Citizen Kane is one of the alternative choices and not on the main list: it's an essential film, especially in a list titled How To Be A Film Buff.

Princess Diana crash photograph

Today's UK tabloids are in full outrage mode, after Italian magazine Chi and Spanish magazine Interviu both published a photograph showing Princess Diana receiving medical attention at the scene of her fatal 1997 car crash ("SHAME ON YOU", as The Sun's banner headline puts it).

Chi's "L'ULTIMA FOTO" image was reprinted in the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera on 12th July. The magazines have taken the image from a forthcoming French book, Lady Diana, by Michel Caradec'h. The same photo caused a similar controversy on 21st April 2004 when it was included in a 48 Hours documentary (Diana's Secrets) on American TV.

[Thanks to Filippo Ulivieri (archiviokubrick.it) for Chi.]

photo of Jigme banned

Earlier this month, Thailand celebrated King Bhumibol's sixtieth anniversary. Royalty from other nations came to join the festivities, and the whole event received extensive, reverent coverage throughout the Thai media. By far the most popular royal guest was Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck, heir to the throne of Bhutan. Jigme has set hearts aflutter, and has become quite a pin-up. However, there is one photo of him that can't be distributed.

The most popular Thai web forum (pantip.com) and newspaper (Thai Rath) both printed the picture, showing Jigme and an un-named woman. Thai Rath captioned it "Crown Prince Jigme Girlfiend [sic.] From Bhutan paparazzi”. Yesterday, the police Department of Special Investigation imposed a ban on any further circulation of the image, though how they intend to enforce this remains unclear. It has been quietly removed from pantip.com's archives, though a handful of smaller Thai forums are still hosting it.

Harper's Mohammed cartoon

The June issue of American magazine Harper's has reprinted all of the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed cartoons, complete with a new Mohammed caricature on the cover by Art Spiegelman. It also includes an anti-Semitic version of Kurt Westergaard's caricature, in which Doron Nissimi has covered the bomb/turban with a Hassidic hat.

South Park features Mohammed

An episode from the current season of South Park has been censored by Comedy Central in the US.

The episode - Cartoon Wars II, broadcast on 12th April - was a comment on the American media's refusal to reproduce the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed caricatures. The short sequence featuring Mohammed was replaced by a black screen. Both this episode and the one preceding it (Cartoon Wars I, 5th April) also include parodic censorship of other Mohammed images.

Ironically, however, Mohammed can be seen at the start of every episode in the 2006 season, as he appears in the opening titles sequence. Also, he appeared prominently in the 2002 season's opening titles and the episode Super Best Friends (4th July 2001), and these appearances are not censored when the episodes are repeated or syndicated.

Oregon Commentator Mohammed illustrations

Oregon Commentator, a magazine published by Oregon University, has printed several historical images of Mohammed in its current issue, including a front-page illustration. This pointedly demonstrates that, although the Jyllands-Posten images may be among the first satirical depictions of Mohammed, the prophet has in fact been visually represented in the past.

Same Sky banned

The October-December 2005 issue of Same Sky, a radical left-wing Thai journal, has been banned. The editor has been contacted by the police, who claim that the magazine (specifically its interview with Sulak Sivaraksa) constitutes lese majeste. The banned issue examines the business interests of the Thai monarchy, and its cover illustration (an adaption of the Coca-Cola logo) presents the royal family as a corporation.

Does Snuff Exist?

Channel 4 broadcast a documentary titled Does Snuff Exist? on 18th April. It covered all the familiar bases (the new ending added to Slaughter, the Cannibal Holocaust court case, the fake scenes in Faces Of Death, the faux-Snuff Guinea Pig series, and online terrorist beheading videos), though I was very surprised that David Kerekes was not involved. Kerekes (with David Slater) wrote Killing For Culture, the definitive history of real death on film, and would seem to be an essential contributor to any investigation into the topic.