Programme Notes

BFI Southbank

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...

July 9, 2021 | NEW RELEASES

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...

July 9, 2021 | NEW RELEASES

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 ...

July 9, 2021 | ROBERT ALTMAN - AMERICAN OUTSIDER

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...

July 9, 2021 | WORLD OF WONG KAR WAI

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....

July 9, 2021 | NEW RELEASES

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...

July 8, 2021 | WORLD OF WONG KAR WAI

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...

July 7, 2021 | ORDINARY PEOPLE, EXTRAORDINARY LIVES
THE CINEMA OF MÁRTA MÉSZÁROS

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

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