Arthouse theatres in Bangkok

The Bangkok Post's Kong Rithdee had an excellent article today on the arthouse theatres in Bangkok. If you have registered with the Post, giving the name of your dog and your dog's birthdate, you can read the article.

The feature includes a bit about the Lido, which is my favorite place to be to see a movie. It also goes into the creation of a new arthouse theater, House, at the UMG RCA along the nightlife-zoned Royal City Avenue - a place frequented mainly by young Thais. Maybe with the opening of the subway here later this year, it'll be a place frequented by older foreigners as well.

Here's an excerpt from Kong's article:

Lido, as part of Apex chain, is the only venue in Bangkok that realises the virtue of variety. An idiosyncratic multiplex with three screens - with middle-aged, bespectacled ushers in bright yellow suits and box office staff who look uncannily like your average aunties - the theatre has had a fair success alternating blockbuster flicks with small, sometimes obscure titles released under its campaign 'Apex Exclusive', thus canvassing a unique reputation among regular film-goers.

'Three years ago a small distributor had this Iranian film called Children of Heaven,' says Suchart Wuttichai, creative consultant of Apex who's overseen the programming of Siam, Lido and Scala theatres for 30 years. 'They saw no commercial prospect and wanted to dump it. I saw the film, and thought it was good enough to give it a try. So we showed it in original soundtrack with Thai and English subtitles, and it became a huge success for us. That was how we came up with `Apex Exclusive'.'

Apex, as a theatre operator, usually does not buy the right to distributing films, but accepts to screen movies from different importers. Among the hits of Apex Exclusive were the French fantasy flick Amelie, Korean soft-core La Belle, and surprisingly, an edgy Swedish comedy Songs from the Second Floor. 'This is an open floor,' Suchart beams. 'We screen movies from every distributor if they're interesting movies. Our aim is not to become a pure arthouse, but to offer a menu of something unusual and rare that you can't find anywhere else.'

Last year Lido, in an unprecedented move, put an independent Thai movie I-san Special in its programme (usually if a Thai film-maker makes a film without the support of a big studio, the theatre will refuse to show it). Suchart knew from the start that the film, a conceptual experiment in staging a narrative on a moving bus, bore little commercial pull despite the guerilla promotion blitz around Siam Square. 'But we decided to show it because, first of all, it's a good Thai movie, and because we think the film could strengthen our position as a venue for different flavours. We're always ready to give opportunities.'