Film/Art
Some would argue now was not the time to open a new cinema in Hong Kong. M+ Begs to differ.
At a time when movie theatres are closing, partially thanks to COVID but also thanks to falling attendance, you wouldn’t be out of line to call M+’s decision to open its M+ Cinema a little bit daffy. Combine that with Hong Kong’s rock-solid image as a cultural wasteland and it seems even daffier. There are plenty of cinemas around town that could use the business – like the special programmes M+ has been running for six years – and the Hong Kong Film Archive is right there for the taking. It begs the question: Serioulsly, people?
The cinema is opening on June 8 with a screening of Jia Zhangke’s breakout Xiao Wu and post-film talk with Jia (via video call) and M+ Hong Kong curator Li Cheuk-to (in Putonghua), and follows with the 4K remaster of Wong Kar-wai’s seminal Days of Being Wild, a less ballyhooed and more interesting film than In the Mood for Love (fight me!) on June 9. After that Li, associate curator Chanel Kong, and the museum’s moving image head curator Silke Schmickl have big plans for the M+ cinema, which they hope will include collaborations with other museums and galleries, partnering with film festivals, deep dives into individual artists, and pulling film programmes from the material already in the gallery. Whether or not anyone will say so, M+ is setting up a distinct MoMA vibe for its cinema.
“The cinema was always part of M+. This is one of our core disciplines, together with visual arts, architecture, and design,” explained Schmickl during a media day in May. “We see ourselves as part of a community rather than in competition with the other screens in the city. We want to add something to the landscape. We feel that as a [body] that studies, conserves and collects we have an obligation to have dedicated spaces through which to share [these collections] with audiences. I think that makes us different form other institutions. A lot of the stuff on the screens is owned by us.” Screening rooms are a vital part of many of the world’s great galleries, and the list of Berlin and Cannes regulars whose earliest work screened in galleries are too numerous to count. M+’s goal is obviously greater discourse and engagement. Whether or not it has the audience for it remains to be seen.
Located on the equivalent of B1 and part of the Moving Image Centre (which include the Mediatheque, the Grand Stair, and the museum façade), the cinema is made up of three auditoriums, each in its own cosy, soothing colour. House 1 is the largest with 180 seats, House 2 holds 60, and 3 (opening later this year) holds 40, and combined give the venue a decidedly academic feel. It doesn’t feel like a university lecture hall, but it feels brainier than your average commercial cinema. All three were designed by the starchitects at Herzog & de Meuron (who did the entire building), who installed seating by Italian furniture maker Poltrona Frau, finished with purple (House 1), green (2) and blue (3) fabric by Danish designer Kvadrat. The chairs are comfortable enough on the bottom end, but the short back is a potential nightmare for anyone over, say, 5’ 8” or so. The back will dig in just under the rib cage, and the lack of anything to lean on will make dull films nearly unbearable without a place to nap.
But of course, M+ Cinema is running highly specialised programming, so audiences who pony up (regular adult tickets run up to $85) for a four-hour documentary about the history of the Polaroid are likely to be motivated, so it’s not really that much of an issue. Otherwise it’s very much of a piece with the rest of the museum: Lots of bamboo, roomy lobby spaces, hushed corridors. It’s not too far from the coffee shop either, which is a must after any kind of film, much less an art film. And yes: the screens display gorgeous hi-def images, the 7.1 surround sound is almost flawless, and the booth is fitted with old school 16mm and 35mm projectors. No art cinema would be without a working 16!
And really, no shade. An epic deconstruction of the Polaroid sounds awesome (we’re making that one up), and Schmickl & Co. have put some serious work into the programme. The cinema opens with a no-brainer: “Hong Kong: The Establishing Shot” (opening June 10) is a direct complement to the “Hong Kong Here and Beyond” exhibit running in the Main Hall Gallery. The series “presents the city's ever-evolving capacity as an activated stage where time, space, and action intersect in compelling narratives.” The films zero in on the visuals that have gone a long way to defining what was Hong Kong film. The disappearing cityscapes and distinct neighbourhoods get a moment in the spotlight, and Hong Kong action films get reassessed as ways to understand the city. On the docket are Heiward Mak’s astute coming-of-age debut, High Noon, a pair of early Fruit Chan films, Ann Hui’s The Way We Are, Soi Cheang’s Accident (see it and understand where Limbo came from) and, perhaps most exciting, Johnny Mak’s hard to see, 1984 stone classic The Long Arm of the Law.
And “The Establishing Shot” is one of six programmes to kick off, the others being “Performing the Image”; examining expression and gender; what the museum calls a film course anchored by Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema, Mark Cousins 14-hour documentary about, well, filmmaking. Broken up into a series of two-hour chapters and post-screening discussions, if you always wanted to go to film school but didn’t want to put in four years, this is for you. “Makers and Making” is a doc series about the artistic process, specifically photography, film criticism and architecture; the “Screen Encounters” section is curated by other artists, focusing on their influences. The first curator is Hong Kong writer/poet/filmmaker Yau Ching, who selected Yvonne Rainer’s Film About a Woman Who… Rounding out the first line-up are two segments from Russian director Ilya Khrzhanovskiy international DAU project. Almost all screenings start with shorts, as well as M+’s film commissions by artists Simon Liu and Florence Lee, designed to interrogate the collective viewing experience. If the last two years have told us anything, it’s that we like to watch. Together. One thing is certain though: There will be no explosions. We think.
M+ Cinema
Where: M+, 38 Museum Drive, West Kowloon Cultural District
Hours: Tuesday to Fridays: 3pm to 9pm; Saturdays, Sunday, Public Holidays: 9am to 9pm
Closed: Mondays
Details: www.mplus.org.hk/en/cinema