BFI Southbank Programme Notes

Wanda

Actor-writer-director Barbara Loden’s film is an extraordinary work in American film history, a bracing tale of a working-class woman’s weariness, drift, and refusal of the romantic plot of marriag...

June 3, 2025 | Wanda and Beyond
The World of Barbara Loden

Amour

Michael Haneke on ‘Amour’ When we spoke about The White Ribbon in 2009, you were writing a film about old age, but you later put it aside because of another film on the subject. So is Amour differ...

June 3, 2025 | Complicit
The Films of Michael Haneke

The Red House

A BFI member since 1967, Ray Deahl served as a BFI Member Governor twice, from 1996 to 2002. For over 50 years, Ray was a constant presence at BFI Southbank, sharing his deep passion for cinema and...

May 30, 2025 | Member Picks - A Tribute to Ray Deahl

Nicky Hamlyn - Cycles of Time

+ Nicky Hamlyn in conversation with BFI National Archive curator William Fowler A work from every decade of Nicky Hamlyn’s extensive output is included in a career-spanning programme about cyclica...

May 29, 2025 | Experimenta

Mountains

Director Monica Sorelle on ‘Mountains’ The film begins with a Haitian proverb; what does that proverb mean, and what resonance does it have for you? Proverbs are really big in Haitian culture. Wh...

May 29, 2025 | Black Debutantes
A Collection of Early Works by Black Women Directors

Valkyrie

In the film that marked the beginning of Cruise’s collaborations with his recent Mission: Impossible writer-director Christopher McQuarrie, Cruise plays Claus von Stauffenberg, the German Colonel w...

May 28, 2025 | Tom Cruise

Amorosa

For her final feature, Zetterling returned to Agnes von Krusenstjerna – this time telling the novelist’s life story rather than adapting her work. The film begins as a fever dream, with von Krusens...

May 25, 2025 | Passion and All That Goes with It
The Films of Mai Zetterling

War of the Worlds

Dock worker and divorced dad Ray has custody of his children for the weekend when a tumultuous thunderstorm brings with it more than inclement weather. In Cruise’s second collaboration with Spielbe...

May 24, 2025 | Tom Cruise

Test Pattern

Director’s notes Test Pattern complicates the easier narratives of sexual assault. #metoo, Times Up, and modern feminism have caused a world-shaking shift in power, empowering individual victims o...

May 23, 2025 | Black Debutantes
A Collection of Early Works by Black Women Directors

Sleeping Car

+ intro by Michael Williams, author of Ivor Novello: Screen Idol Train attendant Gaston has a girl in every city and juggles them with farcical results. Ivor Novello effortlessly made the transiti...

May 20, 2025 | Projecting the Archive

100 Years of Film as Art - Celebrating the Centenary of The Film Society

+ intro by BFI National Archive curator Bryony Dixon It’s 100 years since a group of London cinephiles founded The Film Society. From its first screenings in October of that year, the society was ...

May 18, 2025 | Silent Cinema

A Way of Life

Growing up in South London in the 1980s writer and first-time director Amma Asante recalls ‘the part of London I lived in seems so diverse now. It wasn’t then. We were one of two Black families liv...

May 16, 2025 | Black Debutantes
A Collection of Early Works by Black Women Directors

Nightshift

+ intro by Jon Jost, filmmaker, cinematographer and friend of Robina Rose Legendary punk stayover The Portobello Hotel provides the location for Robina Rose’s stunning, psycho-dramatic long-night...

May 13, 2025 | Restored

Drylongso

Cauleen Smith on ‘Drylongso’ In your Amos Vogel lecture at the 2022 New York Film Festival, you discussed his idea of cinema as both a medium of subversion and one of wonder and magic. Considering...

May 11, 2025 | Black Debutantes
A Collection of Early Works by Black Women Directors

Jerry Maguire

Jerry Maguire, a slick, high-flying sports agent working for a giant company has doubts about the ethics of his industry. When he proposes there is a better, kinder way for taking care of clients h...

May 10, 2025 | Tom Cruise

The Haunting

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Filmmaker Brian Yuzna on ‘The Haunting’ The cinema of fear is my special interest. Since my first flickering nightmares, I have been...

May 10, 2025 | Big Screen Classics

Jack Reacher

Jack Reacher is based on One Shot, the ninth in the series of Lee Child’s novels, so why begin in the middle, as it were? Producer Don Granger says, ‘One Shot is perhaps the most cinematic of all t...

May 9, 2025 | Tom Cruise

Collateral

Silver-haired Vincent hops on a random taxi with a suitcase and a mission. In the driver’s seat is a man with big dreams (Jamie Foxx), none of which involve a hitman in the back of his car. Alas, d...