Review | Picture palaces: Thailand’s movie theatres, from art deco to brutalist, celebrated and mourned
- Philip Jablon’s poignant photo book Thailand’s Movie Theatres recalls the glory days of cinema-going before shopping centre multiplexes cornered the market
- He recalls a time when announcers dubbed films into Thai live, and reels were rushed between cinemas for near-simultaneous premieres
Thailand’s Movie Theatres: Relics, Ruins and The Romance of Escape, by Philip Jablon, River Books
Even if Philip Jablon had kept strictly to his original premise of documenting Thailand’s purpose-built cinemas – an obsession he says first took hold in 2008 – his new photo book still would have been warmly welcomed by followers of film history.
From the book’s earliest Thai temple of celluloid, Bangkok’s Prince Theatre from 1912, Jablon’s photographs in Thailand’s cinemas capture a wealth of 20th-century architectural styles, from Bangkok’s tropical art deco Scala Theatre (built in 1969) to the brutalist Siri Phanom Rama Theatre (1979) in Chachoengsao province, each filtered through a distinct Southeast Asian sensibility.
Along with theatre exteriors, numerous lobbies and the occasional auditorium, Jablon also gathers a range of movie memorabilia, particularly movie posters and hand-painted banners, and expands on his descriptions of individual cinemas with personal and historical anecdotes.
At a time when seeing a movie generally means a trip to the shopping centre – that is, for those who want a more elaborate experience than home streaming – it takes some effort to imagine what this process meant in Thailand for much of the 20th century.
