He Was Cambodia’s King, Yes, but What He Really Wanted to Do Was Direct

By ROBERT MACKEY

The New York Times

October 17, 2012 

 http://youtu.be/nLqMSXP_Vq0

Video recorded in Phnom Penh on Wednesday as the body of Norodom Sihanouk, the former Cambodian king, was returned to the city.

Watch Sihanouk's film here.

As my colleague Thomas Fuller reports from Phnom Penh, the body of Norodom Sihanouk, the former Cambodian king, was returned to his homeland in style on Wednesday:

The king’s elaborate coffin, draped in a blue royal flag and festooned with flowers, was placed on a gilded carriage shaped to represent a mythical birdlike creature. Mourners clutched incense sticks and lotus flowers. They remained quiet and reverential, many kneeling, as the carriage wheeled past.

Several mourners managed to record video of the gilded ceremony, which was also broadcast on Cambodian television. Given that King Sihanouk loved cinema and devoted much of his time to directing his own films, it seems quite likely that the man Spalding Gray memorably described as “that happy, sexy, sax-playing prince” would have enjoyed the gaudy pageant.

Clips from his films, and of the king directing and acting in them, can be seen in the documentary “Norodom Sihanouk, King and Filmmaker,” directed by Frédéric Mitterrand, France’s former culture minister.