BFI Southbank Programme Notes

By Hook or by Crook

By Hook or by Crook is a buddy film that chronicles three weeks in the life of a handsome, gender-bending, small-town butch with a nagging messiah-complex. Emotionally defeated since the death of h...

August 8, 2023 | BE GAY DO CRIME
A SEASON OF QUEER CRIME FILMS

In the Mood for Love

The signs were already there that Wong Kar Wai’s woozy, hungry, love story was likely to earn a significant promotion in this year’s poll. Ten years ago, it stood out as the best-performing film of...

August 7, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Heat and Dust

+ intro and Q&A with Adrian Garvey, Film Historian SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Speaking of a shrine once sacred to Muslims, a character in Heat and Dust wr...

August 7, 2023 | SENIORS

Zootropolis

In its 92-year history, Walt Disney Animation Studios has created a long and storied legacy of talking-animal films – from Mickey Mouse’s debut short Steamboat Willie to Bambi, Dumbo, The Jungle Bo...

August 6, 2023 | MAKING MAGIC
100 YEARS OF DISNEY

One Hundred and One Dalmatians

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. One of the most delightful notions in Disney’s One Hundred and One Dalmatians is that domesticated dogs see humans as their pets, to...

August 5, 2023 | MAKING MAGIC
100 YEARS OF DISNEY

Mandabi

Hearing of the difficulties faced by the BFI and the Cineteca di Bologna as they attempted to digitise the work of the great filmmaker Ousmane Sembène, Martin Scorsese was prompted to action. ‘It w...

August 4, 2023 | REBEL CINEMA
OUSMANE SEMBÈNE AT 100

Emitaï

Emitaï recounts the state-sanctioned massacre of members of the village of Diola, towards the end of the Second World War, who rebelled against colonial rule and the imposition of taxes. An epic po...

August 4, 2023 | REBEL CINEMA
OUSMANE SEMBÈNE AT 100

The Night of the Hunter

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. In my film-watching experience, The Night of the Hunter is the closest a director has come to capturing the hypnotic, compelling pot...

August 3, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

The Jungle Book

The Indian jungle is the setting for this wonderful adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s tale of an abandoned orphan named Mowgli who is raised by wolves. During the course of his adventure-packed young...

August 3, 2023 | MAKING MAGIC
100 YEARS OF DISNEY

Turning Red

Disney and Pixar’s Turning Red introduces Meilin Lee, a confident, slightly dorky 13-year-old with a solid group of friends, an admirable record in school and a better-than-average relationship wit...

August 2, 2023 | MAKING MAGIC
100 YEARS OF DISNEY

Luca

Disney and Pixar’s original feature film Luca is a fun and heartwarming story about friendship, stepping out of your comfort zone and two teenage sea monsters who experience a life-changing summer....

August 2, 2023 | MAKING MAGIC
100 YEARS OF DISNEY

Dog Day Afternoon

On August 22, 1972 at about 3 p.m., when the temperature in New York hovered around the debilitating mark of 97 degrees, the all-news radio stations began carrying the first reports of an intriguin...

August 2, 2023 | BE GAY DO CRIME
A SEASON OF QUEER CRIME FILMS

Miller's Crossing

Contemporary reviews Blood Simple, the first feature of Joel Coen (writer-director) and his brother Ethan (writer-producer), was widely seen as updating the protocols of the school of writing most ...

August 1, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Black Girl (La noire de...)

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending Ousmane Sembène (1923-2007), often regarded as the father of African cinema, came to moviemaking late. He was 40 before he released...

August 1, 2023 | REBEL CINEMA
OUSMANE SEMBÈNE AT 100

Fantasia

+ intro and discussion Now acknowledged as a landmark animated film, this Disney feature is a musical anthology featuring the great conductor Leopold Stokowski. Eight classical pieces by compose...

July 31, 2023 | RELAXED SCREENING

The Signal Tower

Introduced by film historian Kevin Brownlow On a remote stretch of American railroad, a hard-working signal operator and his family are terrorised by a snarling villain. While his pretty young wif...

July 30, 2023 | SILENT CINEMA

Talk to Me

Danny and Michael Philippou on ‘Talk to Me’ In Talk to Me, grief-stricken 17-year-old Mia (Sophie Wilde) becomes fascinated by a viral Snapchat video of spiritual possession. She convinces best fr...

July 28, 2023 | NEW RELEASES

Destiny

Often a Chahine film evolves out of its immediate predecessor, or from the need to crystallise Egypt’s psychological reality at that particular period. In Destiny he succeeds in warning that Egypt ...

July 27, 2023 | DRAMA AND DESIRE
THE FILMS OF YOUSSEF CHAHINE

Summertime

The credits for Summertime proudly proclaim that it was photographed entirely in Venice. David Lean’s love for the city shines out in every scene. The film was to become his favourite. It was based...

July 24, 2023 | SENIORS

The Emigrant

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. The controversy that surrounded Adieu Bonaparte pales in comparison with the rupture that followed Chahine’s production of The Emigr...

July 24, 2023 | DRAMA AND DESIRE
THE FILMS OF YOUSSEF CHAHINE