BFI Southbank Programme Notes

Twilight

+ intro by Jason Wood, BFI Executive Director of Public Programmes and Audiences, and Second Run’s Mehelli Modi. An occasional colleague of both Miklós Jancsó (as an actor) and Béla Tarr (as a pro...

November 21, 2023 | RESTORED

Miracle in Soho

In a Rank publicity hand out, Emeric Pressburger summarised his intentions of Miracle in Soho: ‘The more I saw of the district the more extraordinary it began to appear to me. But soon I noticed th...

November 20, 2023 | CINEMA UNBOUND
THE CREATIVE WORLDS OF POWELL + PRESSBURGER

Wish

What’s it about? + Q&A with directors Chris Buck, Fawn Veerasunthorn, songwriter Julia Michaels, voice actor Ariana DeBose, producers Peter Del Vecho, Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster Jones and wri...

November 19, 2023 | BFI FAMILIES

Behold a Pale Horse

Set 20 years after the Spanish Civil War, Pressburger’s perspective-shifting first novel Killing a Mouse on Sunday, published in 1961, characteristically avoided simplistic moral judgments. He wrot...

November 19, 2023 | CINEMA UNBOUND
THE CREATIVE WORLDS OF POWELL + PRESSBURGER

Predestination

In Greek mythology, it is precisely Oedipus’s attempts to avoid murdering his own father and marrying his own mother that drive him to fulfil that predicted fate. Yet in dramatising this clash of f...

November 18, 2023 | DESTINATION TIME TRAVEL
PLAYING WITH TIME IN FILM AND TV

Mami Wata

+ intro and panel discussion with director C.J. ‘Fiery’ Obasi and producer Oge Obasi, hosted by Jumoké Fashola Filmgoers outside Africa may never have heard of Mami Wata, the supernatural being wh...

November 18, 2023 | AFRICAN ODYSSEY

The Battle of the River Plate

Made towards the end of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s creative partnership, The Battle of the River Plate is based on the British Navy’s triumph over a German ‘pocket battleship’, the Gra...

November 18, 2023 | CINEMA UNBOUND
THE CREATIVE WORLDS OF POWELL + PRESSBURGER

May December

Todd Haynes knows how to write complicated women. Ever since Julianne Moore stepped into the role of a housewife suffering from a mysterious quasi-psychosomatic illness in Haynes’s environmental th...

November 17, 2023 | NEW RELEASES

Ill Met by Moonlight

In 1950, Emeric Pressburger read an extract from ‘Ill Met by Moonlight’, Stanley Moss’s account of his adventures on occupied Crete during the Second World War, and immediately optioned its film ri...

November 17, 2023 | CINEMA UNBOUND
THE CREATIVE WORLDS OF POWELL + PRESSBURGER

Centre Stage - The Leading Women of Powell + Pressburger

Complex, memorable, subversive… and arguably on occasion also problematic, the female characters in Powell and Pressburger’s films are never less than fascinating. They were brought to vivid life b...

November 16, 2023 | CINEMA UNBOUND
THE CREATIVE WORLDS OF POWELL + PRESSBURGER

La Ronde

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film ‘s ending. In Ophuls’ imaginative, highly personal adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s play, he added an omniscient narrator/master of ceremoni...

November 14, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Bicycle Thieves

A contemporary review Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves, like Rossellini’s Paisa, came to London with a fabulous reputation to live up to, and, in a way, to live down. To Paisa, a film made in a s...

November 14, 2023 | POWER TO THE PEOPLE
HORACE OVÉ’S RADICAL VISION

Typist Artist Pirate King

+ Q&A with writer and director Carol Morley, cast members Monica Dolan, Gina McKee and Kieran Bew, producer Cairo Cannon, composer Carly Paradis and editor Alex Mackie SPOILER WARNING The foll...

November 13, 2023 | EVENTS

Journey to Italy

+ extended introduction by Jeremy Cooper and Ben Rivers, with a reading by actor Toby Jones ‘Brian reminded himself that the reason why he was a regular at the BFI was because it made him feel par...

November 13, 2023 | EVENTS

Ticket of No Return

For the BFI season, I had to include Ulrike Ottinger’s Ticket of No Return. I saw it when I was 19, and it had a decisive influence on me in wanting to become a filmmaker. It’s about a woman, an al...

November 12, 2023 | JOANNA HOGG - INFLUENCES

A Hole in Babylon

A Hole in Babylon Based on the real-life Spaghetti House siege, this was a hugely controversial BBC production, with some seeing its mix of drama and real archive footage as a distortion of the tru...

November 12, 2023 | POWER TO THE PEOPLE
HORACE OVÉ’S RADICAL VISION

Resurrected

Produced by Tara Prem and Adrian Hughes, Paul Greengrass’ directorial debut deals with the experiences of a young squaddie suffering from battle fatigue during the Falklands War. After being missin...

November 11, 2023 | TARA PREM
REPRESENTING THE UNSEEN

Is There Anybody Out There?

+ Q&A with director Ella Glendining, hosted by Jack Thorne A festival circuit favourite, this thought-provoking, funny and sensitive documentary makes you stop and re-evaluate. Glendining s...

November 11, 2023 | PREVIEW

The Eternal Daughter

+ Q&A with writer-director Joanna Hogg and actor Tilda Swinton Joanna Hogg is interested in how we are shaped by the rooms we occupy. The starkest example is Exhibition (2014), set in the uniq...

November 10, 2023 | PREVIEW

Girl

+ Q&A with director Adura Onashile, cinematographer Tasha Back and production designer Soraya Gilanni Viljoen Mother and daughter Grace and Ama have established a deep bond that’s protected th...

November 7, 2023 | WOMAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA PREVIEW