Wednesday, October 27, 2004

Two kings of Cambodia

Cambodia's King Sihanouk is in the news again, having abdicated the throne and turned it over to his son, Sihamoni.

Before his accession, Sihamoni was quite happy as a Unesco ambassador and Paris-based ballet dancer and dance teacher.

The arts is something that runs in the blood of the royal Norodom family. Sihanouk himself was a filmmaker.

A recent article in The Age (registration required), by Neil Jillett recalls the turbulent times of 1968, when he was invited to Cambodia. Among the activities planned for him and other members of the press was a film festival which opened with the premiere of Shadow Over Angkor, the then-Prince Sihanouk's fourth feature, written by Sihanouk, directed by Sihanouk, produced by Sihanouk and starring Sihanouk.

Jillett was banned from the kingdom for writing a bad review of the film. He said:

It would be excessively charitable to call Shadow Over Angkor a good film. It would hardly be diplomatic to call it a bad one. Letting a little bit of Cambodia's neutrality rub off on me, I would say that, as entertainment of a rather esoteric kind, it takes some beating.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

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