Pitch Black is a movie-and-art themed cafe along Haji Lane, near Arab Street. It’s a quiet place to chill and there’s a screening room – equipped with a Blu-ray DVD player – on the 2nd floor.
Next week, they are doing a Wong Kar Wai Retrospective. I’ve watched most of the films that will be shown. I’ve not watched Fallen Angels, so I might go down for that on Thu, 10 May.
Food wise, they’ve got nice potato wedges. The drinks are so-so. The teh tarik shake (or something like that) was nice and thick the first time I went there, but was progressively more diluted on my subsequent visits.
The screenings are free with $5 minimum spent. A food item and a drink should more than cover that.
Pitch Black, 63 Haji Lane, +65 6392 3457
Technorati Tags: film, movie, screening, wong kar wai, hong kong cinema
Walter
/ Friday, 4 May 2007Nice recommendation Kenneth. Will try to make time to visit it since I heard and read all about Wong Kar Wai’s films but never had the chance to catch them.
acroamatic
/ Friday, 4 May 2007Ah, you should!
My TV lecturer at Ngee Ann introduced the class to his work. He screened Chungking Express, and I’ve been a fan of Wong Kar-Wai since.
wkw’s work is what I call moving art. His choice of shots is simply amazing. Literally, portraits that move. Some find it plodding and boring. But I think he says more in the non-dialogue scenes he films than the ones with dialogue! He tells simple stories beautifully.
Oh, I must mention that his music choice is fantastic. Somehow, he always finds the right music to accompany certain scenes. Mesmeric, I tell you.
And he’s the director who gets the best out of Tony Leung Chui Wai and Maggie Cheung.
All that said, you might want to give 2046 a miss. It was a bit too pretentious and self-indulgent. Definitely not his best work.
Hmmm… just spotted a typo in Pitch Black’s graphic: Chingking Express.
Qinz
/ Saturday, 5 May 2007Hey…
Check this out – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBCDc7yonyE
2001-2002, BMW commissioned a few directors to do short films and this was Wong Kar Wai’s bit.
Btw, I haven’t caught fallen angels yet so might pop down. Wanna go together?
py
/ Saturday, 5 May 2007Thank you for this information. I can let a few of my friends know of it.
By the way, I think I saw you from a far distance when I was on the National Stadium tour this morning. I was with the first tour group. My friend wanted to start the tour early, so we joined the first group.
acroamatic
/ Sunday, 6 May 2007@ Qinz Turns out I might have a meeting after work on that day. Will let you know if I can make it.
Ah, The Follow. I have the whole BMW Films series on DVD. Watched The Follow when they first released it on the internet. The DVD version is slightly longer though, small additions to nearly every other scene. Didn’t feel that it added much. In fact, the original edit was much tighter and better for it.
I like The Follow a lot. Once again, impeccable music choice.
My other favourite in that series is Star by Guy Ritchie. Just plain fun. Clive Owen displays a very different take on his driver character than in most of the other short films.
Oh yes, Clive Owen fans, you’ll want to watch all the BMW Films. I thought he would make a good James Bond because of his acting here.
@ PY My goodness, PY, you have very good eyesight. Yes, I was late, so I tagged along with another group. Walter and Georgiana were in the group too!
It’s been a long day, so haven’t had time to upload my photos.
Qinz
/ Sunday, 6 May 2007Ah yes.. Star.
*snicker* Racing the Devil – 2nd season by Tony Scott was quite funny as well.
Did you get it off BMW themselves? Because I think they had someone else to do the continuation between short films
acroamatic
/ Monday, 7 May 2007Didn’t like the 2nd season.
Hahah… I can’t remember how I got the DVD! I downloaded them when they were first released online. Deleted all except The Follow and Star ‘cos I didn’t have space on my 20GB hard disk. Someone who knows I like the series had a spare copy of the DVD, so he or she passed it to me.
Really can’t recall who it was.
Anand
/ Wednesday, 9 May 2007Went to see the aforementioned Chungking Express earlier this evening – it’s as quirky & interesting as I remembered it from my first viewing years ago. And Pitch Black is just a pretty nice place lah – one of the coolest public film screening venues I’ve come across. You guys should def check it out.
I will be back …. (perhaps for Motosikal Diaries next week :)
acroamatic
/ Wednesday, 9 May 2007Ah, so you went! Pitch Black is a nice place. But its relatively quiet location is both a blessing and a curse. Not sure how well they are doing.
You and Pitch Black have something in common: both should start a blog. =P
Motorcycle Diaries… haven’t watched that. Next Thursday, eh? Perhaps I will join you.
acroamatic
/ Thursday, 10 May 2007Just came back from Pitch Black. They didn’ screen Fallen Angels because one of the bosses took the disc home and forgot to bring it back. Argh!
They screened Happy Together instead. (And I remember telling someone that they weren’t showing this at all.) My second time watching. Mala and Ee enjoyed it.
Anand
/ Monday, 14 May 2007Update:
Heard from Pitch Black people that they’re getting new DVDs of the films that had problems or weren’t shown, & will screen them again another time – maybe next month.
So that’s something to look out for …. (I wouldn’t mind seeing Fallen Angels again actually – WKW at his quintessential best :)
acroamatic
/ Monday, 14 May 2007Thanks for the update!
wai
/ Thursday, 17 May 2007Wong Kar Wai will be releasing his latest film Blueberry Nights starring Norah Jones and Jude Law at Cannes. I reckon it’s his first Western feature. It’d be interesting to see how it looks. Already reviews have been positive.
acroamatic
/ Thursday, 17 May 2007Ah, interesting! He seemed to have worked well with Clive Owen, so that’s good precedent. But he didn’t work with his long-time collaborator, Christopher Doyle. Wonder how that will affect the look of the film. Still, I reckon it’ll be good. Just read that it’s the opening film at Cannes. Can’t wait to see it when it arrives here. (No pun intended.)