BFI Southbank Programme Notes

Beyond Therapy

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. The span between the 1980 ‘catastrophe’ of HealtH and Popeye and the 1992 ‘comeback’ of The Player is often regarded as Robert Altm...

June 24, 2021 | ROBERT ALTMAN - AMERICAN OUTSIDER

The Warriors

Introduced by director Asif Kapadia (Monday 21 June screening only). ‘What I like to do is put interesting characters in tough situations and force them to make choices about conduct,’ Walter Hill...

June 21, 2021 | DREAM PALACE - THE FILMS THAT CINEMAS WERE BUILT FOR

Raya and the Last Dragon

What’s it about? Disney’s latest stunning animated feature follows Raya, a warrior from Kumandra, a realm of warring nations divided by mistrust. When the bickering tribes break a magical orb and ...

June 20, 2021 | BFI FAMILIES

Bitter Victory

Two officers leading a mission to attack Nazi headquarters in the Libyan desert come into conflict, due partly to sexual jealousy, partly to differences in capability and courage in facing the peri...

June 20, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Ahimsa
Gandhi – The Power of the Powerless

+ Pre-recorded Q&A Featuring music by U2 and AR Rahman, this compelling and powerful documentary explores the roots and global impact of the Gandhian message of non-violence. Including intervi...

June 20, 2021 | BAGRI FOUNDATION LONDON INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL

WolfWalkers

+ pre-recorded Q&A with directors What’s it about? It’s the mid-17th century and young Robyn arrives in Ireland with her father, who is tasked with hunting down the local wolves. Yet everyth...

June 19, 2021 | BFI FAMILIES

The Warrior

+ On-stage interview with writer-director Asif Kapadia The Rajasthan desert in Northwest India is not a place where you expect to find a theatrical film shoot. It’s hot, inhospitable and far from ...

June 19, 2021 | BAGRI FOUNDATION LONDON INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL

The Reason I Jump

Director Jerry Rothwell on ‘The Reason I Jump’ Naoki Higashida’s descriptions of a world without speech provoke us to think differently about autism. For most of history, nonspeaking autistic peop...

June 18, 2021 | NEW RELEASES

The Reason I Jump
(Relaxed Screening)

‘I think we can change the conversation around autism by being part of the conversation,’ says Ben on his letter board. Jerry Rothwell’s multi-award winning documentary is a significant step in the...

June 18, 2021 | RELAXED SCREENING

In the Earth

Following an uncharacteristically tepid adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca undertaken for Netflix and released last year, Ben Wheatley here returns to the diseased rural British underbelly h...

June 18, 2021 | NEW RELEASES

Women in the Films of Robert Altman – An Online Panel Discussion

We are delighted to announce that film critics Anne Billson and Hannah McGill, as well as season programmer Geoff Andrew, will join us for this discussion hosted by film programmer Rowan Woods. Ro...

June 17, 2021 | ROBERT ALTMAN - AMERICAN OUTSIDER

WOMB

+ On stage Q&A with Srishti Bakshi and film critic Anna Smith. WOMB is a heart-wrenching and heart-warming narrative of the plight, dreams, rights and fight against all forms of violence that ...

June 17, 2021 | BAGRI FOUNDATION LONDON INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL

Secret Honor

Altman on ‘Secret Honor’ I’m interested in the complexity – or the simplicity, I should say – of American politics, power politics. And I do have a political conscience. But I didn’t approach this...

June 16, 2021 | ROBERT ALTMAN - AMERICAN OUTSIDER

HealtH

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. HealtH is the last film that Robert Altman made under his contract with 20th Century-Fox, ending a run of films between 1977 and 19...

June 15, 2021 | ROBERT ALTMAN - AMERICAN OUTSIDER

The Elephant Man

With a pre-recorded introduction by director Prano Bailey-Bond. SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. In 1884, the ‘freak’ John Merrick was discovered in a booth in th...

June 15, 2021 | DREAM PALACE - THE FILMS THAT CINEMAS WERE BUILT FOR

Popeye

Altman on ‘Popeye’ I really asked to do Popeye because … why not? A movie is just a fantasy anyway. And it occurred to me that this was a chance to create my own environment, which I’d done in Qui...

June 13, 2021 | ROBERT ALTMAN - AMERICAN OUTSIDER

The Story of Looking

+ Pre-recorded Q&A As he prepares for surgery to restore his vision, award-winning filmmaker Mark Cousins explores the role that visual experience plays in our individual and collective lives....

June 12, 2021 | SHEFFIELD DOC/FEST 2021

Quintet

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. ln the attempts to ﬁnd an explanation for Quintet, it has been likened to Images, the art-house ﬁlm Altman made at a time when he w...

June 12, 2021 | ROBERT ALTMAN - AMERICAN OUTSIDER

Doctor Who
Dragonfire

Writer Ian Briggs came to the BBC’s Script Unit from studying drama at Manchester University, via a short stint as a member of the behind-the-scenes management team in local theatres. He soon met A...

June 12, 2021 | IN PERSON & PREVIEW

The First 54 Years
An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation

+ Pre-recorded Q&A ‘Military occupation’ is an abstract term, open to mistaken interpretation. What does ‘occupation’ imply? What does it mean for people living under occupation? What means mu...

June 11, 2021 | SHEFFIELD DOC/FEST 2021