I subscribe to several meetup groups in Bangkok and one caught my eye. The BACC (Bangkok Art & Cultural Center) was hosting a festival featuring films from countries in the European Union. The best part? This event was FREE! ^_^
Over 3 days, I viewed movies from Spain, Luxembourg and Sweden. The films were:
1) Cell 211 (Spain, 2009, director: Daniel Monzn) -- Excellent thriller set during a prison riot. Unexpected ending. What I learned while watching: "Kiwi" in Spanish is....."Kiwi". (laugh) Highly recommended! Trailer HERE.
2) Dust (Luxembourg, 2009, director: Max Jacoby) -- Disturbing theme of incest. Some audience members walked out. o_O I personally loved the music from this film...very minimalist a la John Cage. Trailer HERE.
3) The Wedding Photographer (Sweden, 2009, director: Ulf Malmros) -- Started off quite comical and dove into a silly love story. Not my favorite, sorry. Trailer HERE.
The EU Film Festival was held from 7 ~ 17 July at the Bangkok Art & Culture Center (BTS - National Stadium). It is now in Chiang Mai from July 22 ~ 31, at Vista Kadsuankaew.
I have good news! Cell 211 (Celda 211 -- from Spain) is being released in Thailand! Opens on July 29th.
ReplyDeleteClick HERE for theaters, showtimes and more details.
Totally loved this event, spent so many hours at BACC during that week. It was so nice to hear all the languages that used to sound so familiar to me again. I adore French and Italian cinema, so I had a blast!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed 'Celda 211' (wrote about it on my blog), it was fun to hear Dutch again after such a long time (especially a funny dialect!) in 'The hell of '63', 'The 1000 Euros Generation' (Italy) was quite entertaining, 'The Paper Will Be Blue' (Romania) was... hmmm.. je ne sais pas, really liked 'Run If You can' (Germany), 'An Ordinary Execution' (France) was thrilling but I would not really say you'd have to go and see it, 'Weekend with My Mother' (Romania) was a movie I had really looked forward to. It was quite good, but the end was really.. stupid. (As in, somebody died and you could clearly see her breathing.. got my mind acting all funny..just waiting for part two, where all of it was just a joke...haha)
So ehm, yes.. go and get run if you can, it's good.
Hi Saar,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your long comment! It was great to hear from another person who enjoyed this festival so much.
I noticed that many people just stayed to watch the next film, and the next...it was a great way to escape the heat, wasn't it?
I think the best part of living in BKK is the experience of so many free, or almost free cultural events. At Amarin Plaza, there is a huge culture/food festival on now, the Foreign Correspondent's club often holds film nights and discussions, the International Music and Dance festival will come in September, and I picked up a 'Bangkok Art Map' recently and want to explore all the galleries on it.
It's not a question of finding something that interests you, it's only a question of 'When can I go?' ^_^
If you're free sometime, let's go see a film together. I'm always up for meeting fellow bloggers.
Oh, how clever am I, never checking back these comments - until now. It surely was a great way to get away from the heat, especially after my yoga class!
ReplyDeleteTrue, there is so much to be explored over here, I love going through BK magazine or BAM and read about the options. Even 'just the options'. Haha.
I really, really want to go to the festival in September, they even have a Dutch group coming. (I miss going to the theatre, too bad it's 'expensive')
I would still love to go and see 'The Moon', if you're interested? Oh, and did you read about this? -> http://www.bacc.or.th/exhibition/detail/guid/3bbc0f90ce1aea45172279e6c6246dda
Hi Saar,
ReplyDeleteThanks for checking the comments. ^_^ I saw a contemporary dance group last year from Holland. One member of the troupe was Thai--I think that's why they came.
What is 'The Moon'? A film? I'm up to go. Just let me know the time/date/place.
PS- I clicked the link. The picture scares me a little. I am not big on messy faces... (laugh)