BFI Southbank Programme Notes

Diary for My Children
(Napló gyermekeimnek)

+ pre-recorded extended intro by Márta Mészáros (Saturday 24 July only) Rejected by Communist censors for many years, this first part of the Diary trilogy shows Márta Mészáros expertly weaving bet...

July 24, 2021 | ORDINARY PEOPLE, EXTRAORDINARY LIVES
THE CINEMA OF MÁRTA MÉSZÁROS

My Blueberry Nights

Wong Kar Wai on ‘My Blueberry Nights’ What was the primary impulse behind the film? I was in New York, doing some research for Lady from Shanghai, a project I have with Nicole Kidman, and I someh...

July 23, 2021 | WORLD OF WONG KAR WAI

Mandabi (The Money Order)

Hearing of the difficulties faced by the BFI and the Cineteca di Bologna as they attempted to digitise the work of the great filmmaker Ousmane Sembène, Martin Scorsese was prompted to action. ‘It w...

July 23, 2021 | RE-RELEASES

Girlfriends

One of the key unsung films of ‘second wave’ 70s feminism, Claudia Weill’s spare, funny and vividly authentic study of Manhattan best friends severed by a sudden marriage, was a breath of indie fre...

July 23, 2021 | RE-RELEASES

The Hand

Like In the Mood for Love, The Hand is set in the hazy Hong Kong of the 1960s, but its characters couldn’t be more different from the earlier film’s restrained, haunted lovers. Originally conceived...

July 22, 2021 | WORLD OF WONG KAR WAI

Born in Flames

We are delighted to present a pre-recorded post-screening discussion with film programmer and academic Karen Alexander as well as film writer and curator So Mayer, hosted by film critic and program...

July 22, 2021 | EXPERIMENTA

The Grandmaster
(Yi dai zong shi)

Wong Kar Wai on ‘The Grandmaster’ There have been numerous films made about Ip Man, by Wilson Yip, Herman Yau and others. Did you feel they had failed to capture some aspect that your own approach...

July 20, 2021 | WORLD OF WONG KAR WAI

The Heiresses (Örökség)

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Based on a true story, The Heiresses is the first time Mészáros used a period setting. Isabelle Huppert plays Irén, a quiet Jewish s...

July 18, 2021 | ORDINARY PEOPLE, EXTRAORDINARY LIVES
THE CINEMA OF MÁRTA MÉSZÁROS

What Will People Say

In Norway 16-year-old Nisha is kidnapped and taken to Pakistan by her parents after they catch her in bed with a boy. Based on the director’s own experience, this film (Norway’s entry to the 2019 A...

July 16, 2021 | T A P E PRESENTS
BUT WHERE ARE YOU REALLY FROM ?

The Girl

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 16, 2021 | WOMAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA
POWERED BY JAGUAR

Deerskin (Le Daim)

Deerskin is the story of a man morbidly – and murderously – fixated on a second-hand tasselled jacket. So what is Quentin Dupieux’s film really about? Delusional narcissism? Obsessional fetishism? ...

July 16, 2021 | NEW RELEASES

2046

Five years in production, at least intermittently, 2046 presents itself as Wong Kar Wai’s magnum opus. It’s set in the Hong Kong of the late 1960s, but includes flashbacks to the protagonist’s earl...

July 15, 2021 | WORLD OF WONG KAR WAI

The Two of Them
(Ők ketten)

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Both compromised by inadequate marriages, two women become entangled in a friendship that transcends age and social class. Monori an...

July 14, 2021 | ORDINARY PEOPLE, EXTRAORDINARY LIVES
THE CINEMA OF MÁRTA MÉSZÁROS

The Namesake

Wednesday 14 July’s screening will be introduced by three young poets who will explore names as a source of both power and significance. Mira Nair on ‘The Namesake’ How did you get involved in Th...

July 14, 2021 | T A P E PRESENTS
BUT WHERE ARE YOU REALLY FROM ?

The Magnificent Ambersons

A study of The Magnificent Ambersons will keep speaking of it as a ruin and treating it as one of the great tragedies of movie history. I recognise that, in the state to which its owners reduced it...

July 14, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

In the Mood for Love
(Fa yeung nin wa)

Wong Kar-Wai on ‘In the Mood for Love’ Do you know why it took so long for this film to coalesce into its final form? The project had a very complicated evolution. It goes back to 1997, when we h...

July 14, 2021 | WORLD OF WONG KAR WAI

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...

July 13, 2021 | ORDINARY PEOPLE, EXTRAORDINARY LIVES
THE CINEMA OF MÁRTA MÉSZÁROS

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...

July 13, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

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...

July 13, 2021 | ROBERT ALTMAN - AMERICAN OUTSIDER

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...

July 12, 2021 | ORDINARY PEOPLE, EXTRAORDINARY LIVES
THE CINEMA OF MÁRTA MÉSZÁROS

Diary for My Children (Napló gyermekeimnek)