BFI Southbank Programme Notes

Suspiria

Contains violence, gore and animal harm SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Having flirted with the supernatural in Deep Red (1975), Dario Argento abandoned the giallo...

May 12, 2023 | DARIO ARGENTO
DOORS INTO DARKNESS

The Eight Mountains

In a secluded village in the Italian Alps, an unlikely bond forms between two young boys: Pietro, a boy from the city, and Bruno, who has only ever known life in the mountains. Over the years Bruno...

May 12, 2023 | NEW RELEASES

Dario Argento in Conversation with Prano Bailey-Bond

Dario Argento was terrifying audiences in all kinds of creative ways long before the marketing term ‘elevated horror’ began making the rounds. Nevertheless, he is the legitimate godfather of the re...

May 12, 2023 | IN PERSON & PREVIEWS

Brainwashed
Sex-Camera-Power

‘I hate working. I can’t stand working. I hate working. I can’t stand working.’ Ida, a young and alienated sex worker in East Los Angeles, insists in a disaffected cadence on how much she hates wor...

May 12, 2023 | NEW RELEASES

The Big City

Based on a short story by Narendranath Mitra, The Big City tells a relatable story about fear and courage, with a loveable protagonist offering a female point-of-view on issues such as money, labou...

May 12, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Philosophical Screens
The Seventh Veil

Our regular philosophical screens event series exploring cinema through a philosophical lens returns this month with a focus on The Seventh Veil. With her script, Muriel Box became the first woman ...

May 11, 2023 | MURIEL BOX
A WOMAN’S TAKE

Luminaries

+ intro and Q&A with Dishoom co-founder Shamil Thakrar, director Sanvir Singh, history teacher Shalina Patel and film producer Ramneet Baidwan, moderated by Ashvin Devasundaram (Senior Lecture...

May 11, 2023 | UK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2023
FILM WALLAHS

Persepolis

Based on Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novels about a young girl growing up in Tehran around the time of the 1979 Iranian revolution, the big-screen Persepolis – which Satrapi co-direc...

May 10, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Plan 75

In a near-future world, the Japanese government introduces a measure to combat an ageing population. Participants who have passed the age of 75 will receive remuneration for signing up to a euthana...

May 9, 2023 | PREVIEWS

Le Jour se lève

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. Released in June 1939, Le Jour se lève marks a high point for director Marcel Carné, dialogue writer Jacques Prévert, set designer ...

May 9, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Trauma

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Dario Argento’s 12th feature as director, his first full-length film shot entirely outside Italy after his half of the anthology Two...

May 8, 2023 | DARIO ARGENTO
DOORS INTO DARKNESS

Opera

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. + intro by Michael Blyth, season curator (Monday 8 May only) Opera is, arguably, Dario Argento’s last truly great film – it all get...

May 8, 2023 | DARIO ARGENTO
DOORS INTO DARKNESS

Matilda

What’s it about? Young Matilda is a book-obsessed genius whose family don’t appreciate her. After her parents ignore her plea to attend school, Matilda plays enough tricks to exasperate them into s...

May 7, 2023 | FAMILIES

The Wild Bunch

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Pushing the auteur theory into realms of fantasy, it is tempting to take the image of the scorpion in a nest of killer ants which ap...

May 6, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Rodeo

Hot tempered and fiercely independent, Julia finds escape in a passion for motorcycles and the high-octane world of urban ‘Rodeos’ – illicit gatherings where riders show off their bikes and their l...

May 6, 2023 | NEW RELEASES

The River

A contemporary review The career of Jean Renoir has often seemed an enigma. His reputation is, justly, high, but so few of his films have really satisfied. Of the pre-war French films, only the bit...

May 5, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Return to Seoul

‘Loosely based upon the life of Laure Badufle’, reads an intertitle in the credits of Return to Seoul. Laure Badufle is a friend of the film’s director, Davy Chou, and an adoptee from South Korea r...

May 5, 2023 | NEW RELEASES

Monsters

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Monsters does for the CGI generation what George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead did for 1960s horror: takes a series of increa...

May 5, 2023 | MEMBER PICKS

Deep Red

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away most of the plot. In Argento’s filmography, Deep Red comes between his early; densely plotted murder mysteries (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Fou...

May 5, 2023 | DARIO ARGENTO
DOORS INTO DARKNESS

The Blue Caftan

In Salé, one of Morocco’s oldest medinas, Mina and husband Halim run a traditional caftan store. Mina greets the customers and Halim works quietly in the background, hand-stitching each garment wit...