อ่านภาษาไทย
The Film Archive Salaya, it's refreshing to visit once in a while. As a movie lover, every time I come, I want to shout "Action!" loudly. Well, I came to the National Film Archive. When I come to Maya City, if I don't pose for photos and videos as a filmmaker, I don't know why I came.
These days, the National Film Archive has a budget to build a large, multi-story building. This new building has 2 movie theaters (including the original movie theater, making it 3 theaters). There is a quality team that preserves film and welcomes tourists who want to learn about film history in a fun way.
There is also a Thai Film Museum that you might feel is a bit cramped when you walk in, and only 12 people can visit at a time.
Overall, the Film Archive these days looks like an amusement park, a film studio, or a photo shoot location more than a museum. You don't have to be serious when you come, you can have fun.
Learn about film history through Maya City.
When you arrive, go straight to the small shop called "Maya Panich." The building is a replica of the architecture from the reign of King Rama V. It is a shop selling souvenirs such as Thai movie postcards, books about movies, DVDs (only Thai movies), Film Archive souvenirs, and it is also the place to get tickets and reserve times to visit the Thai Film Museum.
I didn't come in, I didn't enter the Thai Film Museum.
After getting the museum ticket, take a walk and wait for the visit time at Maya City first. Maya City is a replica of many buildings from many countries, many eras, specifically related to the history of Thai and foreign films, whether it is the Grand Café, the first place to show movies in France, which is considered the origin of world cinema, Edison's peep show, the Nickelodeon movie theater, and Mongkol Company, the first place to show movies in Siam.
Have fun walking around and finding beautiful angles to take pictures.
A cool cafe with great coffee.
If you walk in the sun for too long, you will get a fever. Please allow me to hide in the small two-story cafe that is like the basement of the Grand Café building, which is air-conditioned. But if you walk in one day and the air conditioner is not cold, it means the air conditioner is broken. There are also snacks and drinks available at reasonable prices. Near Maya City is the Black Maria studio of Thomas Alva Edison, which can open the roof and rotate the entire studio to find the angle to receive light from the sun. When filming a movie, light is very important.
Because we came to the Film Archive, we have the opportunity to walk through history through replica buildings and the replica of the peep show projector, including the replica movie theater in the era when movie screenings were cheap entertainment. You can watch it with just one copper coin, which is different from today, where movies have become expensive entertainment.
Thai Film Museum.
Looking at the clock on the mobile screen, the numbers indicate that it is exactly 2:00 PM, the time to visit the Thai Film Museum that I reserved. This time, the lecture is given by Nong Jam, a beautiful girl from the Thai Film Museum. As for the entrance ticket, you can reserve it, but I don't know if I can reserve Nong Jam in my heart - Ha.
The size of the museum is small, but the items in the museum are great. Most of them are valuable items in the Thai film industry, whether it is the Golden Swan Award or the Phra Surasawadee Award, which the recipients donated.
In addition, some are props from various movies such as Nang Nak, Ongkulimal, Friend, and other Thai movies, including a replica of the scene in the movie Hotel of Hell by the great director, Khun Rat Pestunji, which is the highlight of the Thai Film Museum. Walking around in the museum, listening to Nong Jam's sweet narration.
Listening to it makes me feel drowsy - Ha.
The museum tells the story of Thai films from various eras of filmmaking, from filming, film developing, adding subtitles, and taking visitors to a small movie theater full of dreams, as well as a screening room and film dubbing.
And with the content narrated by Nong Jam, the beautiful girl from the Film Archive, those interested in the history of the reign of King Rama V, like me, gained additional knowledge that I never knew before, that His Majesty was the first Thai person to see a movie when he traveled abroad, and was also the first Thai person to be recorded in motion picture form. If I hadn't come to listen to Nong Jam's narration in the Thai Film Museum, I wouldn't have known about this.
In addition, the National Film Archive Salaya also has other exhibitions such as mobile movie theaters, movie parades, skirt movies, and the movie train of the
Royal Railway Department, which if you read the name and are wondering, I won't reveal it here.
Please come and visit and experience it for yourself.
