THE HOLE - A Big World Pictures release

The Hole

Director: Tsai Ming-Liang
Country: Taiwan
Year: 1998
Running time: 89 min
In Mandarin with English subtitles

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Set just prior to the start of the 21st century, this vaguely futuristic story follows two residents of a quickly crumbling building who refuse to leave their homes in spite of a virus that has forced the evacuation of the area. As rain pours down relentlessly, a single man is stuck with an unfinished plumbing job and a hole in his floor. This results in a very odd relationship with the woman who lives below him. Combining deadpan humor with an austere view of loneliness and a couple of unexpected musical numbers, Tsai Ming-Liang crafted one of the most original films of the 1990s. Produced for French television's 2000 Seen by... series, this was originally broadcast in a 69- minute version called Last Dance. This longer version is the director's preferred cut.

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PHOTOS

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PLAYDATES

8/28-9/17/20 Film at Lincoln Center, New York, NY
8/28-9/24/20 Detroit Film Theatre, Detroit, MI
Starting 8/28/20 Kimball's Peak Three Theaters, Colorado Springs, CO
Starting 8/28/20 The Charles, Baltimore, MD
Starting 8/28/20 Corazon Cinema, St. Augustine, FL
Starting 8/28/20 Davis Varsity Theatre, Davis, CA
Starting 8/28/20 Red River Theatres, Concord, NH
Starting 8/28/20 Salem Cinema, Salem, OR
Starting 9/4/20 Brattle Cinema, Boston, MA
9/4-10/8/20 The Film Lab, Hamtramck, MI
Starting 9/4/20 The Parkway Theater, Minneapolis, MN
9/4-10/1/20 Facets Cinematheque, Chicago, IL
9/4-10/8/20 Cleveland Cinematheque, Cleveland, OH
Starting 9/4/20 Zeitgeist Theatre, New Orleans, LA
Starting 9/4/20 Movies of Delray, Delray Beach, FL
Starting 9/4/20 Plaza Theatre, Atlanta, GA
9/4-17/20 Sie FilmCenter, Denver, CO
Starting 9/4/20 North Park Theatre, Buffalo, NY
Starting 9/4/20 Suns Cinema, Washington, DC
Starting 9/4/20 Apohadion Theater, Portland, ME
Starting 9/4/20 Coral Gables Art Cinema, Coral Gables, FL
9/4-10/29/20 Film Bar, Scottsdale, AZ
Starting 9/4/20 Normal Theater, Normal, IL
Starting 9/9/20 Vermont Intl. Film Festival, Burlington, VT
Starting 9/11/20 Laemmle Theaters, Los Angeles, CA
Starting 9/11/20 The Roxie, San Francisco, CA
Starting 9/11/20 The Loft Cinema, Tucson, AZ
9/11-10/30/20 Jacob Burns Film Center, Pleasantville, NY
Starting 9/11/20 Oxford Film Festival, Oxford, MS
Starting 9/11/20 SNF Parkway Theatre, Baltimore, MD
9/11-11/12/20 Fine Arts Theatre, Asheville, NC
9/11-24/20 Darkside Cinema, Corvallis, OR
9/16-10/15/20 AFI Silver, Silver Springs, MD
Starting 9/18/20 The Onyx, Nevada City, CA
Starting 9/18/20 The Lightbox Film Center, Philadelphia, PA
Starting 9/22/20 a/perture cinema, Winston-Salem, NC
Starting 9/23/20 Symphony Space, New York, NY
Starting 9/25/20 CineCina, New York, NY
Starting 9/25/20 Cinema Arts Movie Theatres, Fairfax, VA
Starting 9/25/20 Frida Cinema, Santa Ana, CA
10/7-27/20 Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Starting 10/9/20 FilmScene, Iowa City, IA
Starting 11/19/20 CalArts, Los Angeles, CA
Starting 4/28/22 Metrograph At Home, New York, NY (Virtual)
6/15, 19/22 Suns Cinema, Washington, DC
8/26-29/22 Austin Film Society, Austin, TX - Rare 35mm screenings!
10/29, 11/8/22 The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY - Rare 35mm screenings!
3/18/23 BAMcinematek, Brooklyn, NY - Rare 35mm screening!
12/16-21/23 Metrograph, New York, NY - Rare 35mm screening!
1/17-21/24 Northwest Film Forum, Seattle, WA
1/19-29/24 Cinema Moderne, Montreal, Quebec
2/22/24 Cinema Moderne, Montreal, Quebec

REVIEWS

"‘The Hole,’ for all its sorrowful prescience, does not traffic in the customary pandemic-thriller idiom of paranoia and alarm...A genius of deadpan comedy as well as a poet of urban anomie, Tsai fills his meticulously composed frames with revealing details that often double as sight gags...funny, melancholy and finally entrancing" - Justin Chang, The Los Angeles Times

"‘The Hole’ proves to be an eerily prophetic and timely movie, perhaps better now than it ever was...**** (4/4 stars)"
- Jeffrey Anderson, San Francisco Examiner

"As it turns out, what might be the best film about how it feels to be alive right now was already made 22 years ago. Tsai Ming-Liang’s playful pandemic romance 'The Hole' is a story of lonely hearts in quarantine, longing for love amid the day-to-day drudgery of life during lockdown. It’s a deadpan musical about seeking a friend for the end of the world, following two characters who seldom speak but fall for one another through a hole in the ceiling. I love this movie."- Sean Burns, WBUR Boston

“The best movie of 2020—and the most 2020 movie of the year—was made in 1998. It’s all brilliantly staged, existential slapstick about life during a very wet pandemic. Did I mention it’s a musical too?” – Bob Strauss, The San Francisco Chronicle (via Tweet)

“Tsai's most distilled, droll, deftly realized allegory...One of the 10 Best Films of 1999.”- J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

“The most memorable fusion of song, dance and weather since Singin’ in the Rain.” - Dennis Lim, The Village Voice

“A broodingly apocalyptic and thoroughly original view.”- Marjorie Baumgarten, The Austin Chronicle

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