Programme Notes

BFI Southbank

Distant Voices
Still Lives

Terence Davies makes films in instalments. The 100-minute Trilogy – Children, Madonna and Child, Death and Transfiguration – which was begun in 1976 took eight years to complete. It won the 1984 BF...

July 7, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

As Tears Go By
(Wong Gok ka moon)

Wong Kar Wai’s impressive debut feature may seem like a conventional Hong Kong triad drama on the surface but it offers glimpses of what would become his distinctive signature style. This atmospher...

July 7, 2021 | WORLD OF WONG KAR WAI

Trottie True
(aka The Gay Lady)

Introduced by BFI Curator Josephine Botting. Based on a popular 1946 novel, Trottie True can be related to the Victorian music-hall world of Champagne Charlie (d. Alberto Cavalcanti, 1944) and Gai...

July 6, 2021 | PROJECTING THE ARCHIVE

Cookie's Fortune

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. ‘Aunt Jewell was murdered!’ Except she wasn’t (and it’s no spoiler to say so). Rather, the murder plot is an elaborate ruse concoct...

July 6, 2021 | ROBERT ALTMAN - AMERICAN OUTSIDER

Binding Sentiments (Holdudvar)

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. From the opening ‘Scope tracking shot across the airfield it’s clear that this is a film about observation. Kati Kovács plays the f...

July 6, 2021 | ORDINARY PEOPLE, EXTRAORDINARY LIVES
THE CINEMA OF MÁRTA MÉSZÁROS

The Girl +
Introducing Márta Mészáros

Once a major European cinema name, but comparatively neglected since the early 1990s, Márta Mészáros has long been overdue a revival. If the upcoming 90th birthday retrospective at BFI Southbank in...

July 5, 2021 | ORDINARY PEOPLE, EXTRAORDINARY LIVES
THE CINEMA OF MÁRTA MÉSZÁROS

Short Cuts

The last word spoken in Robert Altman’s film Short Cuts is ‘lemonade’: we hear it as the camera tracks out over a briefly shaken Los Angeles, as two partying couples toast to survival in the face o...

July 4, 2021 | ROBERT ALTMAN - AMERICAN OUTSIDER

Kansas City

Part of Robert Altman’s 1990s comeback, but made directly after the catwalk wobble of Prêt-à-porter (1994), Kansas City is a tale of jazz, kidnapping and gangsters set in the eponymous Missouri cit...

July 4, 2021 | ROBERT ALTMAN - AMERICAN OUTSIDER

Binti

Binti, a 12-year-old girl, was born in Congo but has lived with her father Jovial in Belgium since she was a baby. Despite not having any legal documents, Binti wants to live a normal life, and dre...

July 4, 2021 | T A P E PRESENTS
BUT WHERE ARE YOU REALLY FROM ?

All the President's Men

A contemporary review A reputation as one of the most faithful and artful of movie adaptations has preceded All the President’s Men to the screen. Beginning with Robert Redford’s acquaintance with...

July 4, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Wild Strawberries

On the 20th of February 1960, Ingmar Bergman delivered an address at the Swedish Film Academy. The following tribute to Victor Sjöström is a slightly abridged translation of that address. No. I c...

July 3, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Vincent and Theo

Robert Altman on ‘Vincent and Theo’ When I took on Vincent and Theo, I was very clear about what kind of picture I was not going to make. I’ve never seen one of those biographical films that I lik...

July 3, 2021 | ROBERT ALTMAN - AMERICAN OUTSIDER

Prêt-à-porter

A contemporary review Fashion means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It can be seen as an industry, as a social phenomenon or as an art-form. In his latest film, Prêt-à-port...

July 3, 2021 | ROBERT ALTMAN - AMERICAN OUTSIDER

The Player

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. Robert Altman on ‘The Player’ I hadn’t heard of this project until March a year ago. I hadn’t read or heard of the book; it was ...

July 3, 2021 | ROBERT ALTMAN - AMERICAN OUTSIDER

How Green Was My Valley

John Ford’s Oscar®-winning adaptation of Richard Llewellyn’s best-seller about the hardships faced by a Welsh mining family in the late 19th century fields some glaringly inappropriate accents, yet...

July 3, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Supernova

A lovely, semi-abstract sequence opens Harry Macqueen’s Supernova. A dark sky lights up, star by star, in time with a single repeated piano note. With every key strike, more points of light appear;...

July 2, 2021 | NEW RELEASES

Rumble Fish

‘A dreamy coming-of-age film, soundtracked by Stewart Copeland.’ Katie Sawyer, BFI Member SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. A contemporary review Francis Coppola’...

July 2, 2021 | MEMBER PICKS

All about My Mother

The first of Almodóvar’s 13 features to be shown in competition at Cannes, All about My Mother not only won him the prize for best director but also proved to be the popular hit of the festival, w...

July 2, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Hope and Glory

Hope and Glory is a bold example of a film refusing to tailor itself to the supposed requirements of the substantial international audience that it presumably needs. The meticulously detailed subur...

July 1, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Eyimofe (This Is My Desire)

The stunning feature debut from the Esiri twin brothers, Arie and Chuko, opens on a chaos of red, yellow, green and black electric cables, echoing the currents of desire which animate the film. Eyi...

July 1, 2021 | T A P E PRESENTS
BUT WHERE ARE YOU REALLY FROM ?

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