BFI Southbank Programme Notes

Stir Crazy

On a crisp March morning, some 90 newcomers went into the maximum-security block of the Arizona State Penitentiary. Leading the party the way were Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. They were in the j...

January 17, 2025 | SIDNEY POITIER
HIS OWN PERSON

Ludwig

Shown at the sweeping, epic length Visconti initially intended, and not without some vague parallels to his own life, this stately biopic focuses on the life of wildly eccentric, closeted gay royal...

January 12, 2025 | LUCHINO VISCONTI
DECADENCE AND DECAY

Death in Venice

In this classic depiction of queer desire and mortality, adapted from the novel by Thomas Mann, Visconti captures the aesthetic pleasures and exquisite longing of an ageing intellectual following t...

January 11, 2025 | LUCHINO VISCONTI
DECADENCE AND DECAY

Nightbeat

+ intro by Josephine Botting, BFI Curator Britain’s first blonde bombshell: celebrating the centenary of Christine Norden The story of Christine Norden’s road to fame is a publicist’s dream. Whil...

January 8, 2025 | PROJECTING THE ARCHIVE

From Here to Eternity

It took James Jones 858 pages to tell From Here to Eternity’s story of the US army in the last months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but the film is as lean and powerful as its star Bu...

January 8, 2025 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Videodrome

A contemporary review David Cronenberg’s audacious attempt at conflating medium and message produces more than just the time-honoured confusion of illusion and reality: it actually tests the audien...

January 6, 2025 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Desperately Seeking Susan

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Although Desperately Seeking Susan has been sold as a Madonna vehicle directed at the teenage market, its success in the US has been...

January 5, 2025 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

The Leopard

The casting of Burt Lancaster in the title role threatened to poison the production from the very beginning, since Goffredo Lombardo, head of the production company Titanus, had made the decision t...

January 4, 2025 | LUCHINO VISCONTI
DECADENCE AND DECAY

The Wizard of Oz

On 13 October 1938 Production No.1060 on the MGM’s Culver City lot went before the cameras. A full six months later than the moneymen wanted, the film had already notched up the kind of budget MGM ...

January 3, 2025 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

8 Mile

No performer since David Bowie in the 1970s has better exploited the actorly impulses at the heart of pop music than hip-hop star Eminem. Shuffling a deck of alter egos (alongside his stage name he...

January 3, 2025 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Scrooge

One of the best-known adaptations of Charles Dickens’ Christmas classic, Brian Desmond Hurst’s 1951 film stars Alastair Sim as the notorious curmudgeon Ebenezer Scrooge, visited by the ghosts of Ch...

December 21, 2024 | CHRISTMAS FILMS

It's a Wonderful Life

Frank Capra cleared his throat, and began. The war was over and he was anxious to make another movie. In early October 1945, he approached Lew Wasserman, James Stewart’s agent at MCA, telling him t...

December 20, 2024 | CHRISTMAS FILMS

Eternal Sunshine
of the Spotless Mind

‘Kaufman’s script showcases a perfect balance between intelligent and resourceful storytelling.’ – Carolina, BFI Member We celebrate the 20th anniversary of director Michel Gondry and writer Charl...

December 19, 2024 | MEMBER PICKS

A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things

Scottish artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham – voiced here by Tilda Swinton – had an extraordinary creative passion. In his poetic documentary portrait, Mark Cousins explores her artistic practice, re...

December 18, 2024 | RELAXED SCREENING

Meet Me in St. Louis

The closer you look at most famous Hollywood productions, the harder it is to see how they turned out all right – let alone to believe that anyone was in charge. Just as on any set the crew trusts ...

December 15, 2024 | CHRISTMAS FILMS

GoodFellas

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. A contemporary review Scorsese’s return to the milieu of Mean Streets invites comparison less with that film than with Coppola’s The...

December 15, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

The Dresser

Richard Eyre on ‘The Dresser’ What made you want to get involved in this production of The Dresser ? I was approached by executive producer Colin Callender and asked if I would like to make a fil...

December 15, 2024 | RICHARD EYRE
WEAPONS OF UNDERSTANDING

The Shop around the Corner

Ernst Lubitsch grew up in Berlin as the son of the Russian Jewish émigré owner of a dressmaking company. He knew the world of shops and they feature often in his films. Perhaps witnessing the patte...

December 14, 2024 | CHRISTMAS FILMS

Notes on a Scandal

‘People have always trusted me with their secrets. But who do I trust with mine?’ (Barbara Covett, Notes on a Scandal) Two women caught up in a drama of need and betrayal are at the heart of this ...

December 14, 2024 | RICHARD EYRE
WEAPONS OF UNDERSTANDING

Eyes Wide Shut

Jan Harlan (executive producer): Stanley’s idea was to show a modern hell, a very abstract concept, a hell into which people enter out of boredom – money and wealth won’t do it any longer. Did he s...

December 14, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS