It’s about time Taipei opened an art house cinema!!
I wish they’d listed when exactly “Fargo” is showing.
Great stuff!
Alien,
many thanks for that.
Have you ever been down to the 8 and a 1/2 theatre in Taizhong? One of the coolest little cinemas I’ve been to. The boss has an extensive range which if you’re a member you can just pop in and watch whenever. Believe me there’s some seriously off the wall stuff in there,
Cheers,
HG
You could call and ask: (02) 2778-2991.
No. 18, Zhongshan North Road Section 2
MRT stop: Chungshan (Exit 4)
Their utterly useless website is www.spot.org.tw. After wasting 10 minutes downloading Flash plugins for Mozilla, I couldn’t find a schedule. I also noticed that their English site is not working. Would there be other Segue members interested in helping them maintain their english contet as a volunteer project?
Film buff that I am, I just might be able to spend a few hours a week editing for this worthy cause! Let me know your next step, Feiren. I’m all eyes.
It’d be cool too if they had a printed flyer displaying each month’s films that they could put around town at different coffee shops and pubs, kind of like the fold out ones from San Francisco’s Red Vic, or Castro Theatres.
Ah, Taipei is becoming a real city… 
I’m so glad they resurrected that old ambassador’s residence and made something cool out of it.
Hey Alien, It’s kinda lonely over in the events calendar - perhaps you could join me in posting events that might be of interest to the Segue community. The Monday Group needs you! 
I agree with Poagao that is great that they spruced up the place again.
It used to be such a beautiful residence years ago.
what does SPOT stand for? not one newspaper story has explained this.
AFI means American Film Institute
CInemateque Francaise means just that
What does SPOT mean?anybody know and care to tell us
I was there this evening and asked that very question.
“It means the kind of light that they use in movies or the theater,” one of the workers there told me.
After talking with them some more, I figured out that it’s not also an initialism. They just decided to capitalize everything, probably because they thought it “looks better,” “that’s the way the do it in English,” or some other such nonsense.
I briefly explained why they shouldn’t use all capital letters. They smiled at me and nodded politely, having no idea what I was talking about.
Oh well.
Anyway, the place itself looks very nice. There’s a coffee shop and an Eslite on the ground floor, and an elegant, expensive bar on the second floor. And of course a space for film screenings. I highly recommend stopping by if you’re in the neighborhood (just north of the intersection of Nanjing and Zhongshan).
Still Pissed On Tequila
I hear they have a resonably late bar there. Anyone know how much they’re charging for a pint?
I went there today, abd it is a pretty place. It’s mostly a coffee shop and bookstore plus I had the dizzying excitement of seeing Ang Lee at a book signing! The Eslite has a good DVD collection of classic movies also.
When I lived near that place, I had the chance to nip over the glass-topped wall and potter about in the house and the garden and it actually felt like a chapter in Taiwan’s history that had been frozen in time. It was damp and old and delapidated, but still felt like it had a soul. But now the big old trees in the garden have been ripped out and the house’s grounds cemented over so young Taiwanese movers and shakers can drink their overpriced lattes on the forecourt.
The vast majority of the ground floor has been sold out to the McDonald’s of Taiwan bookstores – Eslite. Usual cheesy decor and wannabe highbrow Taiwanese putting on airs.
The movie theater was showing two movies, neither of which had English subtitles. The first word I read in the movie schedule had a typo in it.
Upstairs, there’s an exhibition area smaller than my bedroom. The only installed art there was three large TVs, which thankfully, were turned off.
Also upstairs is a little restaurant where you can buy a bottle of beer at a 500% markup or a bottle of Johnnie Walker for NT$3,000. And they won’t let you in unless you agree to a NT$600-per-person cover charge. There’s also a locked “VIP Room” that looks like a plush but tacky KTV lounge inside.
At least the main structure of the house is still standing, though I have a feeling this was a cost-cutting measure, not some deliberate attempt to preserve a unique heritage site.
Had the building been converted into a museum, library or art gallery, I don’t think i’d have walked away feeling quite so disappointed. What was the cultural affairs bureau thinking?
If it’s that kind of cinema, could the name perhaps be an acronym for “Screening Plenty Of Tit”?
Sorry, I shouldn’t have written that.
Oh dear, Monkey, you’ve almost completely put me off wanting to go there now. Is it really so bad? Do others agree, or was Monkey perhaps being a trifle harsh in his judgment? But whatever else they’ve done with the place, the cutting down of those trees must be bad, bad, bad.
Is there any chance that they’re going to use the place for showcasing Taiwanese films? If so, I’ll welcome it with great enthusiasm. I always rail against how difficult it is here to see any of the many excellent films made by local directors – I’m sure it would be much easier for me to see them if I were still in London. And I can hardly ever find the VCDs either. So strange! The output of the local film industry is one of the things that Taiwanese people ought to be most proud of.
A friend of mine finally told me what SPOT means in the title. NOT "If it’s that kind of cinema, could the name perhaps be an acronym for “Screening Plenty Of Tit”? " as omini humorously put it above. No.
SPOT TAIPEI is another Taiwan Chinglish oddity, well intentioned, poorly executed. The word SPOT is acutally from the word SPOTLIGHT, yes, and that word is in the Chinese name of the place. In others words, SPOT TAIPEI is the place where the spotlight shines on Taiwanese films (and foreign films too, like the Cinemateque Francaise in Paris and the AFI in Los Angeles)… but rather than write SPOTLIGHT TAIPEI or SPOT LIGHT TAIPEI or TAIPEI SPOTLIGHT or something like that, the board who runs the place thought it would be cool to just call a spotlight a “spot”, since in film director’s lingo, like Ang Lee and others, Steve Spoolberg, too, they often just call a spotlight a spot. [“Shine the spot over there, Clive, will ya?”]
SHortand for spotlight. So SPOT TAIPEI is really supposed to signify in English the concept of a SPOTLIGHT shining on TAIPEI, but unfortunately, in the Chinglish rendition, it sounds rather silly to call a film museum SPOT ANYTHING. But since this is not an English speaking country, all is forgiven, must be forgiven, and the natives can call the place any damn thing they want to in English, but everyone will just call it by its CHinese name in conversation. It’s just the foreign tourists who will ask HUH WHY IS IT CALLED SPOT TAIPEI? Well, that’s what I heard last weekend. My friend talked to the bossman there, and that’s what he told her.
Actually, if i could have voted, i would have voted for
SPOT ON! – Taipei Film House
or something like that.
{okay, …out out, damn spot!)
I went there today and it was really great. Worth a visit even if you don’t want to see any films. The Eslite bookstore specialises in cinema, so there’s a lot of good film texts there. The downstairs cafe has great outdoor seating. The place itself is really nice, and there was a fantastic atmosphere there today, with the sunny weather and people coming to see the film festival. Easy walk from Zhongshan MRT.
Brian
My post didn’t work either.
Just wanted to say that I went ther today and it was relly good. They’ve done a really good job. The Eslite bookstore is a cinema speciality branch with lots of great film books. The cafe downstairs was great sitting outside ona sunny day. The place had a great atmosphere today, with the lovely weather and people milling around for the film festival. It’s worth a visit, even if you don’t want to see a film.
Brian
SPOTLIGHT - Taipei Film House (it’s real name, Chinglish aside)
thanks, Brian, for the positive reivew, sounds cool.i hope to get over there tomorrow.