The complainant, identified only as John Doe in the Los Angeles Superior Court file, alleges that Spacey groped him during a massage session in Malibu, California, two years ago.

A representative of Spacey allegedly contacted the plaintiff requesting a massage for the actor at a private home.

The complainant said that after he went to the home and began performing a massage on Spacey the actor pulled his hand into the actor’s genital area.

A startled Doe was eventually able to get away with his massage table but, in his rush to depart, left sheets and oil behind, the suit says.

Spacey was considered one of the finest actors of his generation. His career has nosedived following allegations by more than a dozen men in the United States and Britain.

He has not been charged but remains under investigation in both countries.

The first public report of alleged abuse by him came from actor Anthony Rapp, who claimed that Spacey sexually abused him when Rapp was 14, in 1986.

Spacey apologized to Rapp, claiming not to remember the incident, but remained silent as accusations against him mushroomed.

As a result, Netflix dropped Spacey from its political thriller series “House of Cards,” and he was dumped from his scenes in Ridley Scott’s film “All the Money in the World.”

Spacey is one of the most high-profile scalps in the torrent of allegations that have brought down male power players from the worlds of politics, finance, entertainment and journalism, in the wake of accusations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein a year ago.

Taped before a live audience at the Eventim Apollo and featuring the Conchords performing songs from their recent “Flight of the Conchords Sing Flight of the Conchords Tour,” Flight Of The Conchords: Live In London will air on HBO on November 21 at 10.50pm, and HBO Signature on December 20 and 31 at 7pm and 9pm respectively.

The two New Zealanders will play new, never-before-televised songs on the special, as well as some of their classics.

McKenzie and Clement debuted on HBO in 2005 in an edition of the comedy series “One-Night Stand”, returning to the network in 2007 for the debut season of the series “Flight of the Conchords,” which followed fictionalised versions of their lives in New York City. The show was praised by critics and beloved by fans, turning the cult favourites into an international sensation. “Flight of the Conchords” earned ten Emmy nominations over its two-season run on HBO, while their album “The Distant Future” won Best Comedy Album at the 2008 Grammy Awards.

The Conchords have also enjoyed individual success. Clement’s film credits include the “Rio” movies, “Men in Black 3”, “What We Do in the Shadows” and “The BFG,” and he has also been seen in a recurring role on HBO’s “Divorce.” McKenzie was the music supervisor for “The Muppets,” which won him an Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Man or Muppet,” and “Muppets Most Wanted”.

WHAT WOULD it feel like to be trapped at the bottom of a six-metre deep pool with no possibility of climbing out and no one around to help? Director Ping Lumpraleng clearly remembers thinking about such a scenario when he first saw that pool 12 years ago while scouting locations for his directorial debut “Kote Rak Aeng Loei”.

That feeling is also what inspired him to write the script for his thriller “Narok 6 Metre” (“The Pool”), which hits cinemas tomorrow.

“The Pool” tells the story of Day (Teeradej Wongpuapan), an insecure prop man who is left alone to clear up a deserted six-metre-deep pool after a shoot. He falls asleep on an inflatable raft and wakes up to find that the water level has sunk so low that he cannot climb out of the pool on his own. He screams for help but the only thing that hears him is a creature from a nearby crocodile farm.

“My first idea when I started writing the script was ‘Nothing can pull us out from the lowest point of our lives except love’,” he tells The Nation.

Ping, who always introduces a personal account to his films, says that the story dwells on a man in his 40s who has yet to find success in life and faces an uncertain future. He likens Day to the way he was when he was working on his directorial debut.

Even though back then he was actually a well-known scriptwriter, Ping says that he was a nobody in terms of his filmmaking career. Just like Day who follows the orders of his much younger colleague, he was frustrated with his life.

But when Day is trapped at the bottom of the pool and his girlfriend injures herself jumping off the springboard to surprise him, he realises he has to find a way out for the one he loves and that shapes him into a better person – if, of course, he survives.

“When a man reaches 40 and has achieved nothing in life, he will feel down about himself. I was like that 12 years ago, so I asked myself, if I were Day, what should I do to get out from the pool? How do you emerge from the lowest point in your life?” he asks.

Ping was at the 40-year-old mark when he was working on his first film. “I felt uncertain and at that time I was nobody so it wasn’t easy as a director to order my crew to do what I wanted. Today I am surprised at my success and Day will be like me if he can escape from his lowest point,” says the 53-year-old director.

Despite finishing the script 10 years ago, Ping was unable to find funding and was delighted when Visute Poolvoralaks, formerly of GTH and the founder of production company T-Moment Film, greenlighted the project after reading the treatment.

Surprisingly over the 10 years he had been hawking the script to studios, Ping never even thought about changing the structure.

“Actually I never change my scripts once I finish them. I did fix some elements that weren’t there in the beginning because of the budget conditions. Also for “The Pool”, even though the story requires a great deal of CG technology, the storyline has nothing to do with how the world is changing. It is still about a man trapped at the bottom of the pool with his girlfriend and a furious crocodile and how he survives the situation,” he says.

To meet the CG demands, T Moment joined up with Riff Animation Studios, whose previous works include “May Nai Fai Raeng Fer”(“May Who?”).

But whether or not the “trapped in a situation” plot will appeal to local audiences suspicious of Thai skills in CG techniques and a storyline they have rarely encountered, is another matter. Since the trailer was released, the plot has become a hot topic online and opinion is firmly divided.

Those who are for it say it’s great that a new idea is being introduced to a Thai movie and they will go to watch it.

Others say the plot is irrational, ask why Day’s girlfriend is so stupid as to jump into an empty pool, why the pool doesn’t have steps and comment that a crocodile would never show up in such a location. In the film’s defence, some point out that diving is not a popular sport in Thailand so the majority of people know nothing about such pools.

The director smiles at those comments and says it’s good that the trailer is stirring up criticism because it provokes curiosity and he provides all the answers in the movies.

“But you know what? They comment on everything from the plot, the CG to the location but no one complains about the actor Ken Teeradej. I really appreciate that he said yes to this project. I can’t see any actors at this age (40) that can handle the whole story from the beginning to the end. Having him in this film is not just about his acting talent but his ability to be totally convincing as Day,” Ping says.

To overcome the flaws of a CG crocodile, Ping added backup shots using both a mechanical crocodile and also the real live reptile. And even though Thailand has plenty crocodile farms, convincing one to act as they wanted was no easy task.

“We filmed each scene involving the crocodile three times to give us some choice. However most of the scenes that appear in the movie are actually Riff’s CG ones. I doubt very much if the audience will be able to differentiate between the two.”

Visute earlier told The Nation that he gave the green light after reading the plot. “We have seen such plots in Hollywood movies like “The Shallows” or “127 Hours” but never in a Thai film. “The Pool” is a new idea for local audiences and we felt it had a good chance of success,” he said.

“We can’t do bombings or car explosions at the Hollywood level,” adds Ping “What we can do is bring a character into a high-pressure situation and give the story a good rationale. This film is neither a ghost or horror story but the story of a man who is trapped in a life or death situation.

Neither is “The Pool” an action fantasy where human fights against monster. So how and why does the crocodile fit in? Ping reiterates that he provides all answers in the film.

“We see news about crocodiles escaping from the farms every now and then, right? So it is a normal and believable situation. My intention was not to make a monster movie but a realistic drama that focuses on the character’s development,” he says.

“The Pool” finished shooting in July last year and the last 12 months have been spent on visual effects and post-production. The director praises T Moment for dedicating time and money to make the story complete despite the long lead-in period.

The first draft of the movie was too long at around two hours, 30 minutes and Ping painfully tried to trim little by little before Visute asked if he could help. The end result is a thriller that lasts 100 minutes without the loss of anything important. Here too Ping is full of praise for Visute’s editing style, so much so that he credits him as a co-director.

Ping has worked as the scriptwriter for 25 years but he has always wanted to be a filmmaker.

“Filmmaking is the job that nurtures my spirit while script work is how I make my living. So I’ll do the movie jobs I want to do and am happy to wait even if it takes 10 years,” he says.

He adds that the success at the box office doesn’t affect him as a director but he would still like “The Pool” to be a blockbuster.

“The Pool” is the third project of Visute’s T Moment and the first two films were financial flops despite earning good reviews.

“I am worried that the Visute will give up if it fails and the film industry will lose momentum. Finding success at the box office but putting out a poor quality film is not a good result. They should go together,” he says.

After the lackluster performance of the latest installment in the wildly popular “Star Wars” saga, Disney is tapping the brakes on the franchise — an acknowledgment that there can be too much of a good thing.

In an interview published Thursday, CEO Bob Iger told The Hollywood Reporter that Disney plans to slow down the “Star Wars” release schedule, admitting that it had been a mistake to shuttle a new film into theaters every year.

“I made the timing decision, and as I look back, I think the mistake that I made — I take the blame — was a little too much, too fast,” Iger said.

“You can expect some slowdown, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to make films.”

Disney — which paid $4 billion for Lucasfilm in 2012 — had promised a new “Star Wars” movie every year after the hotly-anticipated 2015 release of “The Force Awakens”: news they believed would delight fans around the world.

After all, “The Force Awakens” picked up 30 years after the events of 1983’s “Return of the Jedi” — and came a decade after the previous “Star Wars” movie of any kind.

But Disney, whose initial plan was to alternate releases between chapters in the main series launched in the late 1970s and one-off films expanding the “Star Wars” universe, seems to have learned that anticipation is part of the equation.

Earlier this year, the standalone “Solo: A Star Wars Story” earned $400 million worldwide — a stellar result for most movies, but a mediocre return for a “Star Wars” film, leading many industry observers to speculate about franchise fatigue.

In contrast, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” which was released just six months before in late 2017, earned more than $1.3 billion worldwide.

The next film — “Episode IX,” announced as the last installment in the main Skywalker saga, and directed by JJ Abrams — is due for release in December 2019.

“‘Star Wars’ became a global phenomenon, of course, as a rare and infrequently-served delicacy,” said Robert Thompson, a professor of pop culture at Syracuse University.

“‘Star Wars’ movies were like locusts, or blue moons: impressive but not often. That’s all changed and Iger is probably right in his assessment,” Thompson told AFP.

But he added: “The franchise may be beginning to show its age, but ‘slowdown’ or no slowdown, I expect to see lots more attempts to squeeze it for all it’s worth.”

‘A little bit more careful’

Indeed, in February, Lucasfilm announced that the team behind “Game of Thrones” would create a brand new “Star Wars” series.

The films by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the creators of HBO’s Emmy-winning smash hit fantasy epic, would be separate both from the main storyline and the trilogy being developed by Rian Johnson, writer-director of “The Last Jedi.”

“We have creative entities, including Benioff and Weiss, who are developing sagas of their own, which we haven’t been specific about,” Iger said in the Hollywood reporter interview, without offering more details.

“We are just at the point where we’re going to start making decisions about what comes next after (Episode IX),” Iger told The Hollywood Reporter.

“But I think we’re going to be a little bit more careful about volume and timing. And the buck stops here on that.”

Exhibitor Relations senior box office analyst Jeff Bock said despite the issues, the franchise was hardly in jeopardy.

“There is so much potential with the ‘Star Wars’ TV element that the movies can take a back seat for a while if need be,” Bock told AFP.

Directed by Thai-Irish Tom Waller and starring Vithaya Pansringarm in the lead role, the film is based on the wellknown “Father Ananda Mystery” novels by noted Bangkok-based American writer Nick Wilgus and deals with the highly topical issue of corruption in a Thai monastery.

The film opens with the corpse of a young, homeless monk found in a Buddhist temple. As the cops don’t seem to be too bothered, Father Ananda of the monastery, formerly a homicide detective, decides to investigate. He travels through the canals and streets of the city, to seek the truth, and is shocked to learn that all is not holy within his monastery. The tension remains high till the end, as everyone in the monastery seems suspect.

The movie appeared at more than 20 international film festivals and was nominated for five Subhanahongsa awards.

The director recently announced he would be making a movie about the rescue of 12 boys and their coach trapped in Chiang Rai cave. The title is “Nang Non” (“The Cave”) and shooting is planned for November.

The director and the actor will be present for the screening and the Q & A that follows.

The film is in Thai with English subtitles.

A reception will be held after the screening courtesy of the Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel.

Admission is free but reservations are required. Send a mail to rcbfilmclub@gmail.com.

The 43rd edition of the Toronto International Film Festival drew to a close on Sunday after 11 days of screenings that included likely Oscar contenders Damien Chazelle’s “First Man” and Barry Jenkins’s “If Beale Street Could Talk”.

The Grolsch People’s Choice Award went not, as expected, to “A Star is Born” but to Peter Farrelly’s “Green Book” starring Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen putting the director of the 90’s comedy hits “There’s Something About Mary” and “Dumb and Dumber” in line as a possible winner at the Oscars.

Though the buzz was mainly focused on the upcoming awards season, the festival also presented many Asian titles including three Thai films.

Works from masters like Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Pen-Ek Ratanaruang were among those presented. Pen-Ek, who was in Toronto last year with “Samui Song”, brought his 60-minute episode for HBO Asia’s Original drama series “Folklore” to the Primetime programme, a category dedicated to television series considered cinematic enough to be presented on a big screen.

For “Folklore”, directors from six countries were assigned by HBO Asia to make an episode about ghosts or mythology in their own country with Singapore’s award winning director Eric Khoo serving as producer. The Thai contribution, Pen-Ek’s “Pob” uses the famous Phi-Pob as the main character. In his episode, which was filmed in black and white, a photojournalist visiting his mother in hospital has an encounter with this scary ghost. Also showing in this category was another episode in the series – “A Mother’s Love” by Indonesia’s Joko Anwar, whose latest release “Satan’s Slave” was a hit throughout Southeast Asia.

Kazakh director Emir Baigazin’s “The River” examines the threat to paternalism from the arrival of technology.

Even though he has little experience in directing horror films, “Pob” is one of Pen-Ek’s best works in recent years. Audiences in Thailand can view it through AIS Play next month.

The festival’s Wavelengths section, a showcase for the year’s best experimental cinema, saw Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s new short film “Blue” screened in the Wavelengths 1: Earth, Wind & Fire segment. “Blue” was made as a part of the Paris Opera’s digital platform 3e Scene that invites artists from around the world to create and present their artworks. Unlike Pen-Ek, Apichatpong didn’t attend the festival.

Venice Film Festival award winner Phuttiphong Aroonpheng screened his “Manta Ray” in TIFF’s Discovery section and was on hand, along with his producer Mai Meksawan, to witness its successful North American premiere.

Ho Wi Ding’s “Cities of Last Things” was shot in his preferred 35 mm medium.

“I started this project back in 2009. It was a long time in development,” Phuttiphong told the audience during the Q&A session following the screening.

“Compared to my previous works, I tried to focus on a wider-reaching topic like nationalism. I went to the border between my country and Myanmar and I travelled from the North to the South.” The result was ‘Manta Ray’, the first Thai feature to have a Rohingya individual as the main character. In this film, a young fisherman saves an injured stranger and brings him back home. After the mysterious disappearance of the fisherman, and the sudden return of the fisherman’s wife, the stranger starts to act like him and replaces him in his life.”

Audiences in Toronto showed interest in the film and praised its high artistic standard. After Toronto, the film will continue its journey to San Sebastian, Vancouver, Busan and to other events on the festival circuit.

In general, 2018 was a good year for Asian films in Toronto, with Malaysian filmmaker Ho Wi Ding winning the Platform Prize in the festival’s only juried competition section for feature films.

Filipino Carlo Francisco Manatad’s “The Imminent Immanent” was in TIFF’s Short Cut competition.

Ho Wi Ding, who has worked in Taiwan, Singapore and Mainland China and now resides in Taiwan was in Toronto for the first time with his new feature “Cities of Last Things”, which was shot in 35 mm.

“I shot in 35 mm, because I was trained to shoot in 35 mm, and my first short film and first feature film were both shot in 35 mm.  People say that 35 mm is dead, but for me it is still alive. I feel confident in this medium. I don’t like people to tell me that the film is dead. We use expired film stock from Fuji, which is another way to be environmentally friendly,” Ho Wi Ding told the audience at the Q&A session.

Vietnamese director Ash Mayfair’s “The Third Wife” won the NETPAC award.

“Cities of Last Things” is similar to the films of Wong Kar-Wai in terms of colour and atmosphere,  but is considerably more violent. It tells the story of Zhang, a former policeman tormented by his relationship with his wife, and explores his life in reverse chronological order. It now travels to the Busan International Film Festival.

Another winner in the Platform competition was Emir Baigazin’s latest film ‘The River’, which won an Honourable mention. The new film by the young Kazakh director whose “Harmony Lessons” was screened in competition at the Berlin Film Festival in 2013, earlier won the Best Director prize in the Orizzonti section at Venice Film Festival.

A scene from Indonesian filmmaker Yosep Anggi Noen’s latest short “Ballad of Blood and Two White Buckets”.

“The River” talks about paternalism in Kazakh society and how it is being threatened by the arrival of technology and the modern world through the tale of a family in rural Kazakhstan, where the sons who are heavily controlled and monitored by their father encounter a new friend from the city who arrives with his iPad.

“The Third Wife” from Vietnam was another winner in Toronto, picking up the NETPAC Award from the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema. Female director Ash Mayfair, who studied filmmaking at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, tells the story of Vietnamese women in the 19th century through May, who is chosen to be the third wife of Hung, a wealthy landlord and is forced to move into his mansion.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s new short film “Blue”

“The Crossing” by another female filmmaker Bai Xue also won an honourable mention from NETPAC. It focuses on a Chinese girl who decides to smuggle mobile phones across the border between Hong Kong and China in order to raise money for a trip to Japan with her friends.

The festival screened many other works by young Asian filmmakers, such as “Bulbul Can Sing”, a new film by female Assamese filmmaker Rima Das, who also presented her previous film “Village Rockstars” in Toronto. Filipino filmmaker Carlo Francisco Manatad brought his new short “The Imminent Immanent” to TIFF’s Short Cut competition where it screened alongside Indonesian filmmaker Yosep Anggi Noen’s latest short “Ballad of Blood and Two White Buckets”.

All of these titles will soon be travelling on the festival circuit and show, once again, that Toronto is not only about American films, but serves as a great platform for filmmakers from around the world.

The series will be available on HBO GO via AIS Play and AIS Playbox.

“Camping” follows a group of old friends as they arrive at the underwhelming Brown Bear Lake campsite to celebrate a landmark birthday, sparking heightened emotions, latent tensions (sexual and otherwise) and memories they’d rather forget.

To celebrate her husband Walt’s 44th birthday and so the obsessively organised and aggressively controlling Kathryn gathers together her meek sister, her holier-than-thou ex-best friend and a free-spirited tagalong to the party. What was supposed to be a delightful back-to-nature camping trip quickly becomes a weekend of tested marriages and woman-on-woman crime that won’t soon be forgotten.

Other series regulars include Juliette Lewis, Arturo Del Puerto, Ione Skye, Janicza Bravo and Brett Gelman.

The show is written and executive produced by Lena Dunham (creator and star of HBO’s “Girls”), Jenni Konner (executive producer of “Girls”) and John Riggi, and is based on the British series of the same name created by Julia Davis and produced by Baby Cow Productions.

Also on the bill are “Once”, “In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America” and “Song of the Sea”.

All will be screened with their original English dialogue, plus Thai subtitles.

Admission is Bt120 (Bt90 for members, students and children).

“Once”, whose soundtrack included the track “Falling Slowly”, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, is a 2007 romantic musical written and directed by John Carney.

The film stars that tune’s composers, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, formerly of the band the Swell Season, as Guy and Girl, struggling musicians in Dublin.

They travel across the city, forming a connection as they perform music, then attempt to produce a record even as they must step lightly around the romantic complications of one another’s past.

“My Left Foot” is a biographical comedy-drama co-written and directed by Jim Sheridan. It tells the story of Christy Brown (Day-Lewis), an Irishman born with cerebral palsy who could control only his left foot but became a gifted writer and artist.

Day-Lewis’ co-star Brenda Fricker won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and there were nominations for the adapted screenplay, director and as Best Picture.

“John Hume in America” is a 2017 feature documentary about the Nobel Peace laureate inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.

He enlisted American presidents and other world leaders in an effort to secure peace in Northern Ireland. Narrated by Liam Neeson, the film includes interviews with Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and John Major.

“Song of the Sea” is a 2014 animated fantasy directed by Tomm Moore, from his original story written for the screen by Will Collins. The Irish-Belgian-Danish-French-Luxembourg co-production is about a 10-year-old boy named Ben who lives in a lighthouse with his father, who enchants him with tales of selkies – seals that turn into humans.

Ben’s mother dies giving birth to an unusual little sister, Saoirse, who speaks not a word until her sixth birthday. Their father, still grieving, sends them to Dublin to live with their grandmother, separating Saoirse from the ocean that is her life force and Ben from his beloved hound. They set off for home on a perilous journey, encountering mythical demons along the way.

 It has taken more than a year of painstaking work to restore the classic Thai film “Plae Kao” (“The Scar”) but now at last it’s ready. The timing couldn’t be better: Tomorrow marks what would have been the 87th birthday of its director, the late Cherd Songsri, and what better way to celebrate the occasion than to organise a screening at Scala Theatre?

Sanchai Chotirosseranee, deputy director of the Thai Film Archive, which is behind the project, says the success in restoring “Santi Vina”, the first film ever to win an award for Thailand and which was found quite by accident after being missing for 60 years, provided the impetus for “The Scar”. “Santi-Vina”, which was shown at Cannes in 2016, later went on limited release and was well received by the public.

“We saw with ‘Santi-Vina’ that this was a good way to promote and raise recognition of movie restoration and preservation. So we looked at a few potential films that were popular in their heyday and ‘Plae Kao’ was the obvious choice,” Sanchai adds.

“The Scar” was an overwhelming success at the box office when it was released in 1977, earning Bt13 million before being introduced to international audiences. It started its journey on the festival circuit in London, where it was shown alongside the independent film “Prachachon Nok” by veteran director Manop Udomdej, in 1981. It went on to share the Golden Montgolfiere with “They Don’t Wear Black Tie” by Brazilian director Leon Hirszman at the Festival des Trois Continents in Nantes, France, and was voted as one of the world’s 360 classic movies by the Museum of the Moving Images in London, Sight & Sound magazine and film directors and critics in 1998.

It was remade in 2002 in Thailand as “Kwan-Riam” and again under its original name in 2014 starring Chaiyapol Poupart and Davika Hoorne in the lead roles.

Yet despite the relative successes of both these films, Cherd’s original is hailed as the best and most memorable version.

The late director Cherd gave his negative films to the archive 30 years ago. But even with careful storage, the quality deteriorated dramatically with the colours fading to blue when it was reprinted in 2006 for a screening at the “Tout a fait Thai” event in France.

“We check the negative films we have once in a while but restoration can usually wait as we are equipped with cold storage to preserve the film quality,” Sanchai says.

Fading and deterioration are common in old negative films but not every movie has to be restored immediately. Sometimes, the experts say, it is better to wait for new technology to come along to make the project feasible.

“The Scar” was on the shortlist for restoration to promote the Thai Film Archive’s work along with other classics including the 1959 version of “Mae Nak Phra Khanong” starring Preeya Rungruang and Mitr Chai Bancha’s most successful film, 1970’s “Monrak Luk Thung”.

However, both films are older and in a much worse state than “The Scar”.

“We even sent them to a specialist laboratory in Italy we used for ‘Santi-Vina’ to restore but the quality is still not good enough,” Sanchai says.

“So we are putting the two movies on hold until someone comes up with the technology that will revive the quality to the level we have been able to achieve with ‘Santi-Vina’ and ‘The Scar’. Moreover, “The Scar” is a more contemporary film and many people over the age of 40 will have seen the original. We are really pleased with the restoration, which has made the film as good as new,” he continues.

Much of the work on “The Scar” has been carried out by L’ Immagine Ritrovata, and this time the archive sent Thai staffers who had attended the Film Restoration Summer School to Bologna.

While the laboratory has the technology required to remove scratches from the film, the colour grading requires several pairs of eyes and from its experience with “Santi-Vina”, the archive realised that the Italian company knew little about the colour temperature of Thai film or the skin tones of different Thai actors.

This time, they scanned negative print into digital format, then sent some references to the Italian team to show the colour temperature as well as references of the actor’s skin tone.

These references they provided included scenes from Cherd’s other movies like “Luead Suphan” and a behind-the-scenes segment of the first Thai feature animation “Sud Sakorn” showing actress Nantana Ngaokrachang.

The Thai archive even did some colour grading itself as an example. They also discussed night shots as Thai movies at that time used day-for-night filming, which could also result in the wrong grading tone.

Cherd produced the film with the idea of showing Thai culture to the world. Investors though were not interested and he ended up making the film with his own money and casting relative newcomers, among them rookie actress Nantana Ngaokrachang. The romantic tragedy was also considered a risk as cinemagoers in the late ’70s tended to prefer action movies or comedies. And Cherd also faced difficulties in getting the venues to screen his film as theatre owners feared losing money. He however proved them all wrong and the movie became a big hit.

The film is based on the novel of the same name by Mai Muengderm but adds more detail to the story. It is set in 1936 Bang Kapi, at that time a rural area and home to rice farmers. Kwan (Soraphong Chatree) and Riam (Nantana) are the son and daughter of rival village chiefs. Riam gives in to Kwan’s charms and the two pledge their love for each other at a spirit shrine on an island in the river. Riam’s father disapproves of the relationship. He wants Riam to marry Joi (Settha Sirachaya), the son of a wealthy local nobleman.

Her father then decides to send Riam to Bangkok, where she will be sold into as a maid for Mrs Thongkham (Suphan Buranaphim), a money lender who holds the deed to Riam’s father’s land. When the woman sees Riam’s face, she is struck by Riam’s resemblance to her dead daughter. So Riam is adopted by the woman, who introduces her to high-class Bangkok society, including the son of a wealthy nobleman, Somchai (Chalit Fuang-arom). After hearing that her mother is near death, Riam returns to the village for her final days. Kwan comes to bid his last respects, and Riam agrees to meet him the next day at noon, on the spirit island. Kwan does everything he can to prevent Riam from leaving, angering Somchai, Riam’s father and older brother, Roen and leading to the denouement.

After the screening at Scala tomorrow, the movie will travel to the Busan International Film Festival where it will be shown in the new Busan Classic category and introduced by veteran film critic Tony Raynes, the man who selected “The Scar” for the London Film Festival 37 years ago.

It will go on release at Scala and SF World Cinema from October 18.

NEXT UP FROM THE ARCHIVE

•   In addition to selecting old classic movies to restore, the archive is organising the second edition of the “Tueng Nang Loke” (“World Class Cinema”) screening series.
•  For updates, visit Facebook.com/ Thai Film Archive.

The other big story of the gala, television’s answer to the Oscars, was the huge success of eight Emmys overall for best comedy series “The Marvelous Mrs Maisel,” Amazon’s story of a 1950s housewife-turned-stand up comic.

“The Handmaid’s Tale” — last year’s best drama and an early favorite for more hardware — went home empty-handed from the event at the Microsoft Theater, having won three minor awards handed out a week ago.

The ceremony hosted by “Saturday Night Live” regulars Colin Jost and Michael Che took on a decidedly political hue, with a barrage of edgy jokes on hot-button issues such as diversity in Hollywood, #MeToo and President Donald Trump.

The gala also saw a handful of sentimental favorites take home their first Emmys.

Matthew Rhys won for best drama actor for spy thriller “The Americans,” Claire Foy was named best drama actress for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in “The Crown” and Henry Winkler triumphed for supporting comedy acting on “Barry.”

But the coveted drama prize went to “Game of Thrones,” which was ineligible for last year’s Emmys. Peter Dinklage took home the best supporting actor prize for his portrayal of Tyrion Lannister.

“Writing for these actors behind us is the honor of a lifetime,” said series co-creator David Benioff

“But we didn’t invent these characters. That was George R.R. Martin. The show could not be without the mad genius of George.”

It won nine Emmys this year, meaning the blood-spattered tale of the battle for the Iron Throne — which returns in 2019 for an abbreviated eighth and final season — now has 47 awards overall.

That breaks the program’s own record as the most decorated fictional show since the Television Academy first handed out prizes in 1949.

‘Mrs Maisel’ breaks through

In the comedy categories, “Mrs Maisel” bested all comers in its first year of eligibility, sweeping the female acting prizes (star Rachel Brosnahan and co-star Alex Borstein) and best series honors.

Earlier this year, the series won two Golden Globes.

“One of the things I love the most about this show, while I have you captive for another two seconds — it’s about a woman who is finding her voice anew,” Brosnahan said.

“It’s something that’s happening all over the country right now. One of the most important ways that we can find and use our voices is to vote. So if you haven’t already registered, do it on your cell phone right now.”

HBO dark comedy “Barry” notched two acting wins — for Winkler and series star Bill Hader.

Politics and #MeToo

The show opened with a daring song-and-dance number poking fun at myriad controversies including diversity in Hollywood.

“We solved it!” crooned “Saturday Night Live” nominees Kate McKinnon and Kenan Thompson, with back-up from pop stars John Legend and Ricky Martin — and even RuPaul.

They then yielded the stage to Jost and Che — who let the zingers fly.

“This year, the audience is allowed to drink in their seats. Hope you’re excited about that — because the one thing Hollywood needs right now is a bunch of people losing their inhibitions at a work function,” Jost said, a reference to #MeToo.

An Emmy-winning proposal

Looking to boost audience ratings, Emmys organizers said they were hoping to shake up the broadcast — and indeed they did, intentionally and unintentionally.

A surprise marriage proposal from Emmy-winning director Glenn Weiss won over the audience — and the internet.

As Weiss accepted his award for directing the Oscars, he asked Jan Svendsen, who was sitting in the audience, to marry him.

“You wonder why I don’t like to call you my girlfriend? Because I want to call you my wife,” he added to cheers, applause and a few teary-eyed actors in the audience.

Svendsen then joined Weiss on stage as the director got on one knee and formally proposed.

The moment was especially poignant as Weiss revealed his mother had recently passed away — and offered Svendsen the ring his father had given his mom.

Drama showdown

Other big winners included FX’s “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” which won Emmys for best limited series and best lead actor in a limited series for Darren Criss, who took a dark turn as the designer’s killer Andrew Cunanan.

Thandie Newton won the best supporting actress in a drama statuette for her work on HBO’s futuristic western “Westworld.”

“I don’t even believe in God but I’m going to thank her tonight,” Newton quipped.

“Saturday Night Live” won the award for best variety sketch series.

In the emerging battle of traditional networks vs new platforms, streaming giant Netflix and HBO ended in a dead heat at the top — at 23 Emmys each.