Programme Notes

BFI Southbank

Alice in the Cities

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. Wim Wenders’ first road movie contrives a situation whereby an emotionally detached photojournalist ends up chaperoning a precociou...

June 7, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

The Matrix

Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) works as a lowly IT programmer, leading a double-life as a hacker at night, under the alias ‘Neo’. One night he is visited by a group of rebels led by charismatic see...

June 7, 2024 | RE-RELEASES

The Beast

Bertrand Bonello on ‘The Beast’ The Beast deals with a lot of disparate ideas and themes, some of which you explored in Coma . When and how did you begin conceptualising the new film? For me it w...

June 7, 2024 | NEW RELEASES

Where Is the Friend’s House?

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. Kiarostami’s classic centres on a young boy determined to return a schoolmate’s notebook he took home by mistake, but unsure of his...

June 5, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Umberto D.

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Vittorio De Sica made his name in the Italian cinema in the 30s as a light romantic actor. He appeared in a series of comedies, main...

June 5, 2024 | CHASING THE REAL
ITALIAN NEOREALISM

The Searchers

Cinema’s poet of the Wild West, John Ford already had countless westerns (among over 100 films) under his belt before reteaming with regular star John Wayne for this disturbing story of racism, obs...

June 4, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

The Runner

A young orphan lives on the shores of the Persian Gulf, a place of dazzling light and oil refineries. When he’s not running chasing trains, the boy has learned to survive in a hostile society by co...

June 4, 2024 | RESTORED

Easy Rider

Easy Rider’s impact was made possible by a bold synthesis of the disparate styles, moods and practices with which 60s pop culture was awash. The acting paid homage to the Actors Studio and the grou...

June 4, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Bellissima

It is unfortunate that Bellissima is not better known outside Italy, as it is a film which, in addition to its merits as an antidote to La terra trema, confounds a number of stereotypes that have b...

June 4, 2024 | CHASING THE REAL
ITALIAN NEOREALISM

Sullivan's Travels

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Sullivan’s Travels is a difﬁcult ﬁlm to categorise. It is a comedy, yet darkly dramatic in its third act. It is a satire about Holly...

June 3, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. The eruption of Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire at 30th place, the highest new entry in the [Sight and Sound] poll, mirr...

June 3, 2024 | MEMBER MONDAYS

North by Northwest

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. ‘Brilliant performances by Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason and Martin Landau, stunning set pieces, a riveting mistaken iden...

June 3, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Stromboli

As a filmmaker, Roberto Rossellini has always been de trop (at least, for the Anglo-Saxon critical fraternity). His immediate post-war films, though by far the most ungrudgingly respected of his oe...

June 2, 2024 | CHASING THE REAL
ITALIAN NEOREALISM

Life of Pi

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. It might be said that there are two kinds of Ang Lee film – the baroque athletic action-style titles and the ‘feast’ pictures. His l...

June 2, 2024 | MEMBER PICKS

It Happened One Night

A runaway socialite clashes with a blunt, down-on-his luck reporter when they are required to pose as a married couple. Colbert and Gable ooze star power as they bicker and flirt their way through ...

June 2, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Badlands

There have always been movies where the sign ‘badlands’ was a significant warning – Badlands of Dakota (1941), Badlands of Montana (1957) and just plain Bad Lands (1939). These are minor films, one...

June 1, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

The Wages of Fear

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. Clouzot’s masterly account of a quartet of desperate and/or greedy misfit expatriates agreeing to transport two truckloads of nitro...

June 1, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

The General

‘The moment you give me a locomotive and things like that to play with, as a rule I find some way of getting laughs out of it,’ Buster Keaton is quoted as saying. Trains had often been used for gag...

June 1, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Cléo from 5 to 7
(Cléo de 5 à 7)

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. When was this immaculate feature film, Agnès Varda’s essay on time and space, love and death, ever not on our minds? Arriving with ...

June 1, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Apocalypse Now
Final Cut

In the year of its 40th anniversary, Francis Ford Coppola’s acid-drenched odyssey to the dark heart of the Vietnam war is returning to the big screen, in what has been billed Apocalypse Now: Final ...

June 1, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS