BFI Southbank Programme Notes

Mona Lisa

Contains strong violence, sexual violence and racist terms. A bunch of chrysanthemums is hurled at a slammed front door, smartly followed by a dustbin. Enraged by the wife who wants rid of him, Ge...

September 24, 2023 | ACTING HARD
WORKING CLASS MASCULINITY IN BRITISH CINEMA

An Autumn Afternoon

Critics, especially auteur critics, tend to take an artist’s last work as a summing up, the goal toward which every other work has moved. The impulse is hard to resist with respect to An Autumn Aft...

September 24, 2023 | A FAMILY AFFAIR
THE FILMS OF YASUJIRO OZU

Sexy Beast

Contains strong violence. If Scum’s Carlin made it to adulthood, he might have resembled Gal, an ex-con enjoying life in the south of Spain. But the arrival of terrifying gang enforcer Don Logan d...

September 23, 2023 | ACTING HARD
WORKING CLASS MASCULINITY IN BRITISH CINEMA

A Year in a Field

Winter Solstice 2020: with his camera and tripod, BAFTA winning documentary filmmaker Christopher Morris began filming each day in a field near his home. ‘I’ve never glued my hand to a road, or st...

September 22, 2023 | NEW RELEASES

Muscle

+ Q&A with director Gerard Johnson, actors Craig Fairbrass, Cavan Clerkin and Polly Maberly. Contains scenes of unsimulated sex. Gerard Johnson’s films frequently confront the banality of mal...

September 22, 2023 | ACTING HARD
WORKING CLASS MASCULINITY IN BRITISH CINEMA

Attack the Block

+ panel discussion with actors Michael Ajao and Jumayn Hunter, hosted by Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka Joe Cornish’s 2011 sci-fi comedy about a group of youths defending their south London housing est...

September 21, 2023 | EVENTS

My Beautiful Laundrette

Contains strong violence and racist terms. SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Originally shot for television in six weeks on a low budget, My Beautiful Laundrette (19...

September 20, 2023 | ACTING HARD
WORKING CLASS MASCULINITY IN BRITISH CINEMA

Au revoir les enfants

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. ‘Do you realise,’ muses the 12-year-old Julien Quentin, rapt in the entranced solipsism of early adolescence, ‘that there’ll never b...

September 20, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

The Kid with a Bike

Brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have few equals in terms of consistently magnificent filmmaking. Their latest film The Kid with a Bike may differ from its predecessors in small, subtle ways, ...

September 19, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

The Exorcist

Introduced by Mark Kermode When 12-year-old Regan displays unusual and disturbing behaviour, and after all medical options have been exhausted, her mother becomes convinced the girl is possessed b...

September 18, 2023 | 50TH ANNIVERSARY

Doctor Who - The Five Doctors

+ Q&A with actors Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, David Banks and Mark Hardy Making ‘The Five Doctors’ In 1981, producer John Nathan-Turner was very aware that a significant date ...

September 16, 2023 | EVENTS

The Anatomy of Ozu

An afternoon of illustrated talks and discussions exploring some of the elements that make the world of Ozu’s films so rich and distinctive, including his meticulous style, recurring use of domesti...

September 16, 2023 | A FAMILY AFFAIR
THE FILMS OF YASUJIRO OZU

Ama - An African Voyage of Discovery

+ intro by His Excellency Papa Owusu-Ankomah, Ghana’s High Commissioner and Q&A with actor Georgina Ackerman and director Kwesi Owusu hosted by film lecturer, Imruh Bakari On its first release...

September 16, 2023 | AFRICAN ODYSSEYS

Love Life

Kōji Fukada on ‘Love Life’ Across the past 15 years, Kōji Fukada has steadily become one of the most celebrated independent filmmakers working in Japan. Many of his films are characterised by a fam...

September 15, 2023 | KOJI FUKADA

Early Spring

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. After the domestic critical and box office success of Tokyo Story in late 1953, Ozu found himself taking an uncharacteristic break ...

September 14, 2023 | A FAMILY AFFAIR
THE FILMS OF YASUJIRO OZU

Boiling Point

+ Q&A with actors Vinette Robinson, Stephen Graham, Hannah Walters, Stephen Odubola, director Philip Barantini and writer James Cummings. Chaired by critic Rhianna Dhillon. Eight months after ...

September 14, 2023 | TV PREVIEW

Blue Story

Contains strong violence. With the recent return of lauded inner-city drama Top Boy to our screens, this energetic debut feature from filmmaker and grime artist Andrew ‘Rapman’ Onwubolu appears we...

September 14, 2023 | ACTING HARD
WORKING CLASS MASCULINITY IN BRITISH CINEMA

Together with Lorenza Mazzetti

SPOILER WARNING The following content may reveal plot details Together with Lorenza Mazzetti was directed by Brighid Lowe. Interviews with Lorenza Mazzetti were filmed in London (2013) and Rome (2...

September 13, 2023 | TOGETHER
THE LONDON FILMS OF LORENZA MAZZETTI

Sweet Sixteen

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Contains strong violence. Sweet Sixteen is sure to be written off in some quarters as Ken Loach beating the same old drum, and that...

September 13, 2023 | ACTING HARD
WORKING CLASS MASCULINITY IN BRITISH CINEMA

K
Together

+ intro discussing the Mazzetti film restorations by William Fowler, Curator, and Elena Nepoti, Film Conservation Manager, BFI National Archive The Slade School of Fine Art, where Lorenza Mazzetti...