BFI Southbank Programme Notes

Akenfield

The screenplay, written by Ronald Blythe, derives from his book Akenfield, a documentary microcosm of rural life in this country which uses as its framework a series of taped interviews with the in...

July 8, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Name Me Lawand

From Mat Whitecross’s Moving to Mars (2009), a study of two Burmese refugee families resettling in Sheffield, to recent fictional evocations of immigrant dislocation such as Ben Sharrock’s Limbo an...

July 7, 2023 | NEW RELEASES

Cairo Station

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. Considered to be Chahine’s masterpiece, Cairo Station was so sharply on point that the film was reviled by many on initial release....

July 7, 2023 | DRAMA AND DESIRE
THE FILMS OF YOUSSEF CHAHINE

Cinderella

+ intro by season curator, Justin Johnson (Thursday 6 July only) SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. The 1950s were bookended by Disney princesses, Cinderella (1949) a...

July 6, 2023 | MAKING MAGIC
100 YEARS OF DISNEY

The Apple

Introduced by programmer Jelena Milosavljevic Samira Makhmalbaf on ‘The Apple’ How did you first come across the story of The Apple ? I saw a report about the family on television on Wednesday n...

July 6, 2023 | WOMAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA

Splash

When Allen encounters Madison, he thinks he’s finally met the girl of his dreams. Unbeknown to him, she is actually a mermaid and, while the romantic feelings are mutual, there’s an ocean of issues...

July 5, 2023 | MAKING MAGIC
100 YEARS OF DISNEY

Damsels in Distress

Whit Stillman on ‘Damsels in Distress’ Returning to college to visit friends some time after graduating, everyone was full of stories of an amazing group of girls who had revolutionised campus soci...

July 5, 2023 | FEEL ALL THE FEELINGS
THE FILMS OF GRETA GERWIG

My One and Only Love

Legendary singer Farid El-Atrash stars alongside screen icon Shadia in this visual feast, which finds the pair playing characters forced into a marriage neither of them wants, solely to attain an i...

July 4, 2023 | DRAMA AND DESIRE
THE FILMS OF YOUSSEF CHAHINE

The Damned Don't Cry

+ Q&A with director Fyzal Boulifa Lynn + Lucy, the superb 2019 feature debut from Moroccan-British filmmaker Fyzal Boulifa, was powered by the strange, neon-lit energy given off in the unexpec...

July 4, 2023 | PREVIEW

Les Demoiselles de Rochefort

With a plot of pure Shakespearean farce, witty dialogue and lyrics by Demy, and a magnificent jazz score by the late, great Michel Legrand, Les Demoiselles de Rochefort is an effervescent celebrati...

July 3, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Disney turned to the Brothers Grimm for its first animated feature. It’s the classic fairy-tale of a Princess who runs away from her vain and wicked stepmother, deep into a forest where she encount...

July 2, 2023 | MAKING MAGIC
100 YEARS OF DISNEY

Amar Akbar Anthony

Addressing the press after the success of his recent blockbuster Pathaan (2023), Shah Rukh Khan referred to the movie’s female lead, Deepika Padukone, himself and his co-star, John Abraham, as ‘Ama...

July 2, 2023 | FILM WALLAHS
RESTORATION UK PREMIERE

El sur

It is virtually impossible to write about El sur, the second feature in Spanish director Víctor Erice’s highly acclaimed if small body of work –The Spirit of the Beehive was made ten years earlier ...

July 1, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Disney's Silly Symphonies

Carl Stalling, a musician whom Walt Disney had known in Kansas City, and who came to Hollywood in 1928 to become the studio’s first official music director, reportedly became involved in heated dis...

July 1, 2023 | MAKING MAGIC
100 YEARS OF DISNEY

Shabu

+ Q&A with director Shamira Raphaëla Join us in the BFI Bar after the screening for a DJ set from LAJ and more summer treats. Fourteen-year-old Shabu has crashed his absent grandmother’s car...

July 1, 2023 | PREVIEW

Hannah Takes the Stairs

Joe Swanberg’s Hannah Takes the Stairs stands as a key moment in the career trajectory of Greta Gerwig, who co-wrote the film and delivered a memorable performance as the eponymous twentysomething ...

July 1, 2023 | FEEL ALL THE FEELINGS
THE FILMS OF GRETA GERWIG

The Wicker Man

We celebrate the 50th anniversary of this chilling British horror, which only gets better with age. When a schoolgirl is reported missing, Police Sergeant Neil Howie flies to the Hebridean island o...

June 30, 2023 | RE-RELEASES

To Kill a Tiger

+ Q&A with director Nisha Pahuja and guests Director’s Statement To Kill a Tiger actually started off as an entirely different film. That film, called Send Us Your Brother, was a more pointed...

June 29, 2023 | LONDON INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL

The Effects of Lying

+ Q&A with director Isher Sahota, producer Jon Tarcy and cast members Director’s statement This is a universal story that has nothing to do with the ethnicity of these characters. That’s why w...

June 28, 2023 | LONDON INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL

Under the Skin

+ intro and discussion In this loose adaptation of Michel Faber’s acclaimed 2000 novel, Scarlett Johansson’s character expropriates the body of a young woman and prowls Scotland’s winding back r...

June 26, 2023 | RELAXED SCREENING