Going Out
CINEMA A Matter Of Life And Death. Tomorrow 7.30pm, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Lim Por Yen Film Theatre, $50, Urbtix.
This remains perhaps the most popular of the collaborations between Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the finest combination of talent in British cinema during the 1940s and 50s, and one of the great cinematic products of World War II.
David Niven in one of his best roles plays the airman-poet who the Angel of Death - played by Marius Goring as an 18th-century French aristocrat with fried onions on his breath - loses in the fog when he bails out of his plane on the way to apparently certain death. Niven falls, instead, in love with Kim Hunter.
When Goring locates him, the pilot asserts his right to a second shot at life on the grounds of a divine failure in gathering him in. The cinematography was ground-breaking, the performances superb, and 51 years later the movie is still captivating.
Fourbi. Tuesday 7.30pm, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Lim Por Yen Film Theatre, $50, Urbtix.
A French film tackling the difficult topics of rape and self-defence murder, along with media exploitation of sensational material and lesbianism. Alain Tanner directs and Karin Viard, Jean-Quentin Chatelain, Cecile Tanner, Antoine Basier and Robert Bouvier star. In French with English subtitles.
EXHIBITIONS Early Views Of Hong Kong 1841-1900. From Thursday, 10am to 6pm, Wattis Fine Art, 20 Hollywood Road.
An exhibition of early photographs of Hong Kong coupled with China trade paintings produced only a few years earlier, supplying an insight into how the territory was viewed in two different media before it became the high-rise capital of the world.
The photographs are now available in book form with text written by local historian Arthur Hacker who will be on hand on Thursday between 6pm and 8pm to sign copies and, in all probability, express his views on the decision by the British Council to donate most of its library to Vietnam in order to replace it with computer terminals able to access rubbish from the Internet. The pictures are thoroughly evocative of an era and so, in his way, is Hacker. The wine is on the house.
One Country Two Perspectives. Today noon to 5pm; from tomorrow 10am to 7pm, Galerie du Monde, Pacific Place.
The handover theme is inescapable this month but if you ignore the thematic nonsense the individual works of art in this exhibition are well worth viewing in their own right. Six artists from China and four from Hong Kong are featured working in various media including ink on paper, oil on canvas, watercolour, collage and sculpture.
Chinese contributors are Cheng Yuanan, Du Jie, Wang Changming, Xue Song and Yu Ajun while Hong Kong makes its mark courtesy of Rene Caitinc, Cheung Yee, Chui Tze-hung and Leung Kui-ting.
DANCE The Last Emperor. From Thursday, 7.30pm, plus Saturday 2.30pm, Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Grand Theatre, $120, $200, $250, $350, $450; Saturday matinee $120, $180, $230, $280, $350, Urbtix.
Why exactly a ballet based on the life of the last Manchu emperor of China, Pu Yi, is deemed appropriate as a handover run-up piece, as it is billed, is not entirely clear to me, but for dance enthusiasts Sir Frederick Ashton's choreography alone should be justification for turning up. The Hong Kong Ballet is directed by Stephen Jeffries while the Hong Kong Philharmonic plays the music of Su Cong, who also contributed material to the score of the Bernardo Bertolucci movie.
Revolutionary Pekinese Opera (Millennium Mix). Today 8pm, City Hall Theatre, $80, $130, $160, Urbtix.
At least this looks three years beyond the handover. The millennium is the issue here, tackled with characteristic subtlety by 'Noise Terrorist' Otomo Yoshide on the musical side, choreographed by Helen Lai and danced by the City Contemporary Dance Company. Billed as 'a hyper-real fusion of electronic music and modern dance', this should be stimulating if not terribly quiet.
MUSIC Dongbei Drum And Wind Folk Music Ensemble. Today 8pm, Tsuen Wan Town Hall, Auditorium, $60, $90, $120, $150, Urbtix.
Chinese folk music from the northeast of the country combining a variety of wind and percussion instruments in a performance of the music from Liaoning province. Featuring an ensemble under the expert hand of artistic director Hu Hai-quan. The music is by turns cacophonous and lyrical, and at times seems to have a surprising amount in common with the Celtic tradition of parts of Europe and the British isles. Worth hearing.
CLASSICAL MUSIC The Cecilian Singers. Friday 8pm, City Hall, Concert Hall, $60, $80, $100, $120.
The Cecilian Singers and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta conducted by Caleb Teng in a performance of works by Mendelssohn, Vaughan Williams and Sibelius. Finlandia is a well-established favourite while Mendelssohn's Hymn Of Praise and Williams' Fantasia on the 'old 104' Psalm Tune are both Hong Kong premieres.
