Programme Notes

BFI Southbank

The Elusive Pimpernel

Although The Elusive Pimpernel is a light-hearted romp that refuses to take itself seriously, it was the source of bitter recriminations and a subsequent lawsuit between its executive producers. Th...

October 28, 2023 | CINEMA UNBOUND
THE CREATIVE WORLDS OF POWELL + PRESSBURGER

Donnie Darko

Richard Kelly on ‘Donnie Darko’ Is there anything about Donnie’s story that is autobiographical? Yes (laughs). All of it. Not literally. I didn’t grow up seeing rabbits. A jet engine never fell o...

October 28, 2023 | DESTINATION TIME TRAVEL
PLAYING WITH TIME IN FILM AND TV

Wings of Desire

Few modern films have made the transition to classic status as quickly as Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire. His tale of a guardian angel in a still-Wall-divided Berlin who falls in love with – and to e...

October 27, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

The Souvenir

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Early on in this delicate, acute story of artistic self-discovery and amour fou, shy film student Julie is introduced to Fragonard’s...

October 27, 2023 | INTERNAL REFLECTIONS
THE FILMS OF JOANNA HOGG

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

While completing the deeply cleansing smoke sauna rituals and traditions of Estonia’s Võro community, a group of women share their innermost secrets and intimate experiences. Their stories touch on...

October 27, 2023 | NEW RELEASES

Run Lola Run

‘Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.’ Marilyn Bergman and Alan Bergman This roller-coaster of a film established Tom Tykwer as one of the most exciting writer-directors a...

October 27, 2023 | DESTINATION TIME TRAVEL
PLAYING WITH TIME IN FILM AND TV

Thelma Schoonmaker
in conversation

The collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker is the stuff of cinematic legend – not so very unlike that between Powell and Pressburger. It was Scorsese who introduced Schoonmake...

October 26, 2023 | EVENTS

Je t'aime Je t'aime

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. For Alain Resnais there is a place but not necessarily a time, for everything. There are often several times. A man’s stored experie...

October 26, 2023 | DESTINATION TIME TRAVEL
PLAYING WITH TIME IN FILM AND TV

Time Bandits

The screening on Wednesday 25 October will be introduced by director Terry Gilliam. Perhaps the most ferociously imaginative fantasy film Britain has ever produced, Time Bandits – a violent, absu...

October 25, 2023 | DESTINATION TIME TRAVEL
PLAYING WITH TIME IN FILM AND TV

Erase and Forget

+ Andrea Luka Zimmerman and James Mackay (via Zoom) in conversation with BFI National Archive curator William Fowler Two films from the BFI National Archive explore the charged and imagistic power...

October 25, 2023 | EXPERIMENTA

A Canterbury Tale

Probably Powell and Pressburger’s most personal and unusual film, A Canterbury Tale bewildered critics and audiences on its release, but has since come to be seen as one of their very best; Pressbu...

October 25, 2023 | CINEMA UNBOUND
THE CREATIVE WORLDS OF POWELL + PRESSBURGER

Blackmail

+ intro by Bryony Dixon, BFI National Archive Curator (Wednesday 25 October) SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Hitchcock’s first (part-)talkie, about a detective’s f...

October 25, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Red Ensign + The Night of the Party

Red Ensign In his twelfth film in four years, Michael Powell directed his own story of an ambitious shipbuilder, David Barr (Leslie Banks), and his attempt to turn around the fortunes of the Britis...

October 24, 2023 | CINEMA UNBOUND
THE CREATIVE WORLDS OF POWELL + PRESSBURGER

Playing Away

+ intro by writer Caryl Phillips (Tuesday 24 October only) In Playing Away the Brixton Conquistadores, a black cricket team from south London, accepts an invitation to play a ‘friendly’ charity ga...

October 24, 2023 | POWER TO THE PEOPLE
HORACE OVÉ’S RADICAL VISION

The Lazarus Project

+ Q&A with cast Paapa Essiedu, Caroline Quentin, Anjli Mohindra, writer Joe Barton and director Carl Tibbetts. When the world locks into a never-ending time loop that will ultimately end with ...

October 24, 2023 | Events

Pressure +
Panel discussion

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. Widely regarded as the first black British feature film, Horace Ové’s neorealism-inspired Pressure focuses on the tribulations of ...

October 23, 2023 | POWER TO THE PEOPLE
HORACE OVÉ’S RADICAL VISION

Horace Ové
Reflecting the People
A Career Retrospective

Spanning four decades, Horace Ové’s work encompassed cutting-edge drama and documentary, as well as programmes examining music and the visual arts. At a time when telling authentic Black stories on...

October 23, 2023 | POWER TO THE PEOPLE
HORACE OVÉ’S RADICAL VISION

La dolce vita

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. In an age when few arthouse films cause riots or give rise to parliamentary debates, it’s difficult to envisage the sheer seismic fo...

October 23, 2023 | POWER TO THE PEOPLE
HORACE OVÉ’S RADICAL VISION

Contraband

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s second collaboration neatly captures the darkness and disorientation (both literal and metaphorical) of London during the early stages of the war, while also...

October 23, 2023 | CINEMA UNBOUND
THE CREATIVE WORLDS OF POWELL + PRESSBURGER

One of Our Aircraft Is Missing

Made quickly and relatively cheaply (for £700,000) at the height of the war, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing was one of Powell and Pressburger’s early successes both critically and financially. Alth...

October 22, 2023 | CINEMA UNBOUND
THE CREATIVE WORLDS OF POWELL + PRESSBURGER

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