Update Aug. 9: “A Clockwork Orange” replaces “The Shining.”
A maniacal, axe-wielding Jack Nicholson. Malcolm McDowell is little droog Alex hunting for a little of the old in-out, in-out (aka rape); but is society to blame for his horrible behavior? Audrey Hepburn speaks in a Cockney accent. A master swordsman puts together a team of ronin to save a mountain village.
Some of these memorable scenes from all-time classic films will show on the big screen at a vintage standalone theater, which will be running a World Class Cinema program every month until the end of 2019.
So what’s on in August? It’s Pather Panchali, a Bengali-language drama circling around a poor priest who leaves his rural village for a better life. The film, produced by the then government of West Bengal, is considered the first Indian film that places India on the international cinema map. The movie will screen at noon on August 18.
The next screening will take place on Sept. 15: Stanley Kubrick’s suspenseful The Shining A Clockwork Orange will be back on the big screen, which is really the only place to see a Kubrick film. The dystopian crime movie sees sadistic teen gang leader Alex volunteer for a conduct-aversion experiment, after which things start going very, very wrong.
Musical fans, here’s your chance to sing along with a movie — on Nov. 17, the cinema will show My Fair Lady, which premiered 55 years ago and won the Oscar for Best Picture. The film stars Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison and involves around a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from a phonetics professor, as well as an education in etiquette, so that she can act as someone of high society.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phUUHRg_QOA
The program this year ends on Dec. 28 with Akira Kurosawa’s black-and-white Seven Samurai, one of the most badass films ever made in Japan. While the plot is simple — seven samurais help protect townspeople from bandits — the film has been highly praised throughout the decades for its impressive battle scenes, superb editing techniques and groundbreaking visual style.
All films will be screened with Thai subtitles. Tickets are THB120, THB140 and THB160 and can be purchased in advance at Scala Theatre. The 50-year-old standalone cinema is located on Soi Siam Square 1 and can be reached from BTS Siam.
The World Class Cinema program is organized by the Thai Film Archive, the national film archive operating under the Fine Arts Department. Last year it showed classic films such as The Exorcist, which is still held up by many as the scariest movie of all time, and Walt Disney’s first full-length animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
FIND IT:
World Class Cinema program
Scala Theatre
Soi Siam Square 1
BTS: Siam
Read: Loved, forgotten, abandoned: Thailand’s cinemas once ruled the kingdom (Photos)
