BFI Southbank Programme Notes

Les Demoiselles de Rochefort

Following on from the success of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg comes Les Demoiselles de Rochefort – Jacques Demy’s large-scale tribute to the Hollywood musical featuring screen legend Gene Kelly. The...

August 5, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

All About Bette Davis

In this richly illustrated and insightful discussion our invited speakers will explore Bette Davis’ extraordinary career, including her acting style, the key aspects of her star persona, and the fi...

August 5, 2021 | BETTE DAVIS – HOLLYWOOD REBEL

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Over here to publicise her latest film, “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?”, Bette Davis has about as much physical resemblance to the character she plays in it as her 19-year-old Stanley in In This...

August 4, 2021 | BETTE DAVIS – HOLLYWOOD REBEL

The North Water

+ Q&A with director Andrew Haigh and actor Sir Tom Courtenay (in person) plus live via Zoom, actors Colin Farrell and Jack O’Connell. Hosted by broadcaster and critic Rhianna Dhillon. Adapted...

August 4, 2021 | BFI & RADIO TIMES TELEVISION FESTIVAL PRESENTS
TV PREVIEW

Jezebel

Jezebel, that’s where the career really began to take shape. Hal [Wallis] found Jezebel for me. I remember David Selznick wanted to sue us because we came out with it just before Gone with the Wind...

August 4, 2021 | BETTE DAVIS – HOLLYWOOD REBEL

Boyz N the Hood

+ pre-recorded intro by film critic Leila Latif (Wednesday 4 August only) With so much of John Singleton’s film raging against the curtailing of life, it was painful to read of his sudden, recent ...

August 4, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

What the Hell Is It This Time?
Sparks Live in London

+ intro by Edgar Wright Dive into the Maelstrom with this full-length live Sparks concert, filmed on their most recent world tour at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town in May 2018. An infectiously energ...

August 3, 2021 | SONIC CINEMA

Earwig and the Witch

What’s it about? Ten-year-old orphan Earwig is taken in by a witch, who teaches her how to cast magic spells in return for helping around the house. With the aid of a talking cat, Earwig starts to ...

August 3, 2021 | BFI FAMILIES

Bright Star

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Jane Campion on ‘Bright Star’ Did you have a particular idea about the Romantics that led you to make Bright Star ? I’d read Richa...

August 3, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

All about Eve

Davis is on prime, imperious form in All about Eve, imbuing acclaimed stage actress Margo Channing with the imposing resilience of a woman who’s made it to middle age in an industry that reveres yo...

August 3, 2021 | BETTE DAVIS – HOLLYWOOD REBEL

The Sounds of Ennio Morricone

To launch the Ennio Morricone season, we gather together a panel of special guests to discuss Morricone’s celebrated career as the cinema’s foremost film composer. Through clips and lively convers...

August 2, 2021 | MORRICONE

Pool of London

1951 was something of a vintage year for Ealing Studios: two of its best remembered comedies, Alexander Mackendrick’s The Man in the White Suit and Charles Crichton’s The Lavender Hill Mob, and the...

August 2, 2021 | EARL CAMERON

A Fistful of Dollars

In Britain, Morricone is best known for his work with Sergio Leone. As Bernard Herrmann is to Alfred Hitchcock, Nino Rota to Federico Fellini, John Barry to James Bond and John Williams to Steven S...

August 2, 2021 | MORRICONE

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

With pre-recorded intro by Julie Lobalzo Wright, University of Warwick (Wednesday 18 August only) While monogamy remains the secular religion, Mazursky’s ambling satire, exploring a bourgeois 60s ...

August 2, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Of Human Bondage

Bette Davis shows her considerable range and ambition with the role of Mildred Rogers, who torments a would-be doctor (Howard) who’s obsessed with her. With several pictures under her belt and unde...

August 1, 2021 | BETTE DAVIS – HOLLYWOOD REBEL

Ernest and Celestine

What’s it about? Bears live upstairs and mice live downstairs and never the twain shall meet. That’s just the way it is. But this delicate balance between the species is blown apart when Ernest, a...

August 1, 2021 | BFI FAMILIES

Celebrating Britain's First Black Screen Star

Actor-director Burt Caesar presents an illustrated overview of the unique seven-decade career in film and television of this modest pioneer. Panel discussions featuring guests such as Esther Anders...

August 1, 2021 | EARL CAMERON

The Most Beautiful Boy in the World

‘His face recalled the noblest moment of Greek sculpture – pale, with a sweet reserve, with clustering honey-coloured ringlets, the brow and nose descending in one line, the winning mouth, the expr...

July 30, 2021 | NEW RELEASES

Limbo

In a boxy 4:3 frame, like an old television show, a narrow road spills down toward the sea and the hills of a Scottish island rise up toward the sky. It’s a scene most familiar from aesthetically p...