Programme Notes

BFI Southbank

Nine Months
(Kilenc hónap)

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Márta Mészáros’ first film in colour shocked some contemporary audiences with its final documentary scene. Pushing the boundaries of...

Man about Town

René Clair excelled at clever filmmaking at a time when the film industry needed it most, during the transition to sound. He was also a thoughtful director who liked film history – liked looking ba...

The Company

Whether in Warner Bros Depression-era spectacles like 42nd Street (1933), flamboyant offerings such as Powell and Pressburger’s The Red Shoes (1948) or even Carlos Saura’s Tango (1998), it’s a conv...

Adoption
(Örökbefogadás)

+ Pre-recorded intro by Selina Robertson, Club des Femmes (Mon 12 Jul only) SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Márta Mészáros’s best-known film, Adoption, tells the s...

35 Shots of Rum

Claire Denis on ‘35 Shots of Rum’ What was the first thing that came to your mind when you conceived 35 Shots of Rum ? It was a story about my grandfather, who raised my mother from two months ol...

Head-On

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. After it took the top prizes at the 54th Berlinale and the 2004 European Film Awards, German/Turkish director Fatih Akin’s Head-On ...

Happy Together
(Chun gwong cha sit)

A trip to Buenos Aires reveals the dark side of love as a gay couple (Tony Leung and Leslie Cheung) struggle with jealousy, co-dependency and possessiveness as their turbulent relationship falls ap...

Gosford Park

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. After unleashing an earthquake on Los Angeles in Short Cuts and a mini-typhoon on Savannah in The Gingerbread Man, Robert Altman beg...

The Croods
A New Age

What’s it about? Last time we met Dreamworks’ Stone Age family the Croods they had left their cave and started a new life. An encounter with the Bettermans – who claim to be more evolved – sets th...

Riddance
(Szabad lélegzet)

Woman with a Movie Camera presents the world restoration premiere of Riddance + pre-recorded extended intro by Márta Mészáros. SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Ridd...

Pinky

Please note: these articles contain language or other content that reflect views prevalent in its time, but that may cause offence today. The articles are included here for historical or cultural r...

Chungking Express
(Chung Hing sam lam)

‘I can honestly say, probably more than any other movie in the last two years, no movie spoke to me, got under my skin, just made me fall in love with it. I’ve seen Chungking Express several times,...

Ashes of Time Redux
(Dung che sai duk)

In all its reincarnations between 1994 and today, Wong Kar Wai’s martial-arts genre-project Ashes of Time, a tale of soured love and swordsmen, has always been a film about change, and the trials a...

Tove

Director Zaida Bergroth on ‘Tove’ Tove Jansson is such a popular figure around the world, but especially in Finland. Can you tell us about your first encounter with her work? I have this book, Fi...

Jumbo

Zoé Wittock’s debut feature is a disarmingly enchanting psychosexual tale of a young woman who falls in love with a fairground ride. Jeanne Tantois (Noémie Merlant, Portrait of a Lady on Fire) live...

The Gingerbread Man

A contemporary review John Grisham is a true publishing phenomenon and Hollywood has been eager to turn his stories into movies, especially after the massive success of Sydney Pollack’s version of ...

Fallen Angels
(Do lok tin si)

Initially developed as part of Chungking Express, Fallen Angels shares a similar freewheeling spirit but it’s a much darker and moodier affair, exploring the nocturnal lives of assassins, femme fat...

Another Round (Druk)

Breezy and boozy, joyful and melancholic, occasionally wild and often wise, Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round is a heady cocktail swiftly downed, with a late kick like a particularly euphoric mule....

Days of Being Wild
(Ah Fei jing juen)

+ pre-recorded intro by season programmer Ann Lee Leslie Cheung gives a magnificent performance as a rakish playboy in the 1960s searching for identity while callously breaking hearts. Wong hit hi...

Don’t Cry, Pretty Girls!
(Szép lányok ne sírjatok)

Music drives this loose narrative of youth culture with a romance at its heart. Searching for their identity, a group of friends explore new ways to live, seeking independence from state and patria...