BFI Southbank Programme Notes

Gregory's Girl

+ intro by Douglas Weir, BFI’s Content Remastering Lead ‘Gregory’s Girl’: a contemporary review Bill Forsyth’s second film, Gregory’s Girl, is set in and around a pleasant comprehensive school in ...

September 6, 2023 | EVENTS

Bullet Boy

Contains strong violence. SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. The young man whose aspirations to leave a criminal milieu are fatally trumped by his obligations to a wa...

September 6, 2023 | ACTING HARD
WORKING CLASS MASCULINITY IN BRITISH CINEMA

The Lost Sorrows of
Jean Eustache

As our retrospective of Jean Eustache’s work begins, join us for the screening of The Lost Sorrows of Jean Eustache, followed by a conversation about Eustache and his cinema. An extremely personal ...

September 5, 2023 | LOVE, PAIN AND CINEMA
THE FILMS OF JEAN EUSTACHE

I Was Born, But...

Only 36 of Ozu’s 54 films survive to this day. He made the bulk of the lost titles, including his debut and only period drama, The Sword of Penitence (1927), during the silent era. His early ‘nonse...

September 4, 2023 | A FAMILY AFFAIR
THE FILMS OF YASUJIRO OZU

Hidden

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. At a formal level, Michael Haneke’s Hidden contemplates one of the fundamental questions of filmmaking: where to put the camera. Wat...

September 4, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Au revoir l'été

Kōji Fukada on ‘Au revoir l’été’ The export release title might conjure up a Rohmeresque world of holiday-time ennui, but the light, bright, summery images in Kōji Fukada’s third feature, Au revoi...

September 4, 2023 | KOJI FUKADA

Tokyo-Ga

Spiritually and chronologically located somewhere between America and Europe, begun before Wenders had completed Paris, Texas (1984), Tokyo-Ga (1983-85) can be seen as an important port of call in ...

September 3, 2023 | A FAMILY AFFAIR
THE FILMS OF YASUJIRO OZU

Magnolia

Messy is probably the best word to describe Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, a grandiosely sprawling, audaciously earnest concoction that yearns to find meaning and connection among an overextended...

September 3, 2023 | MEMBER PICKS

Make Way for Tomorrow

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. You could come to the films of Leo McCarey by a variety of routes. Silent-comedy fans may know him as the man who teamed Laurel and...

September 2, 2023 | A FAMILY AFFAIR
THE FILMS OF YASUJIRO OZU

I Flunked, But...

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. I Flunked, But… As the obverse of I Graduated, But…, told from the standpoint of one who escapes unemployment, I Flunked, But… defle...

September 2, 2023 | A FAMILY AFFAIR
THE FILMS OF YASUJIRO OZU

Girlhood

With her first two films – Water Lilies (2007) and Tomboy (2011) – Céline Sciamma sought to explore the complexity and range of female experience in contemporary France. Water Lilies examined the s...

September 2, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Tokyo Story

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot Yasujirō Ozu’s celebrated masterpiece, ranked fourth in the 2022 Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time poll and beautifully rest...

September 1, 2023 | RE-RELEASES

Passages

Ira Sachs is interested in the dynamics of couples – in how two people in a relationship relate to one another, passionately, affectionately, through conflict and stress and across time – and also ...

September 1, 2023 | NEW RELEASES

Out of Sight

Like Get Shorty, Out of Sight is adapted from an Elmore Leonard novel by Scott Frank and produced by Danny DeVito’s Jersey Films (and also features Dennis Farina in a bit part). But while Get Short...

September 1, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

The Innocent

When Sylvie (Anouk Grinberg), a prison drama teacher, marries convicted robber Michel (Roschdy Zem), her son Abel (Louis Garrel) is less than thrilled. It seems Sylvie has a habit of falling in lov...

September 1, 2023 | NEW RELEASES

Hospitalité

Kōji Fukada on ‘Hospitalité’ About Hospitalité , why did you pick that title? I started to write the script which was entitled Rotary at first. It referred to rotary printing presses, and the imp...

September 1, 2023 | KOJI FUKADA

Brother

+ Q&A with Marvyn Harrison, owner of BELOVD Agency When his childhood sweetheart Aisha returns to their Toronto neighbourhood of Scarborough for the first time in ten years, Michael is forced ...

September 1, 2023 | S.O.U.L FEST X ABFF GLOBAL LONDON 2023
OPENING NIGHT PREVIEW

Moolaadé

In Moolaadé, the villagers who support the practice of excision – the slicing away of most of the clitoris and labia of young girls, said to promote chastity and discourage female lust – invoke tra...

August 28, 2023 | REBEL CINEMA
OUSMANE SEMBÈNE AT 100

Scrapper

The debut feature of Charlotte Regan, best known for her award-winning shorts and music videos, is a triumphant comedy-drama with a lot of heart and a splash of magic. After her beloved mother pass...

August 25, 2023 | NEW RELEASES

The Living End

Contains scenes graphic violence, scenes of a sexual nature and uses of homophobic language. SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. After they’re both diagnosed with HIV...

August 22, 2023 | BE GAY DO CRIME
A SEASON OF QUEER CRIME FILMS