BFI Southbank Programme Notes

The Headless Woman

Introduced by Zeina Durra In Argentine writer-director Lucrecia Martel’s disquieting psychological thriller, a woman collides with something while driving her car. She initially believes she hit a...

May 4, 2023 | WOMAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

A contemporary review If Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie registers as the funniest Buñuel film since L’Age d’or, probably the most relaxed and controlled film he has ever made, and arguably the...

May 4, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

New Films by George Barber

The leading-figure behind the Scratch Video phenomena of the 1980s, in turn influencing music video, television, alternative film and beyond, George Barber’s influence and standing in British artis...

May 3, 2023 | EXPERIMENTA

Four Flies on
Grey Velvet

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Dario Argento’s third feature film as director was intended to be his farewell to the giallo that he’d helped to reinvigorate with t...

May 3, 2023 | DARIO ARGENTO
DOORS INTO DARKNESS

The Seventh Seal

Seven reasons to celebrate ‘The Seventh Seal’ Set in the time of the Black Death, Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal centres on a pensive knight, Antonius Block (Max von Sydow), who returns to Swed...

May 2, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

The Passionate Stranger

+ intro by filmmaker Carol Morley (Tuesday 2 May only) When an Italian chauffeur is taken on by a married couple, the novelist wife writes him into her new book. He finds the manuscript and, belie...

May 2, 2023 | MURIEL BOX
A WOMAN’S TAKE

Muriel Box
The Odd Woman Out

Despite being an accomplished screenwriter and Britain’s most prolific female director, Muriel Box is little remembered today. Join us for this season introduction event as filmmaker Carol Morley, ...

May 2, 2023 | MURIEL BOX
A WOMAN’S TAKE

The Bird with the
Crystal Plumage

While Mario Bava’s formative 1963 murder mystery The Girl Who Knew Too Much set the giallo blueprint, Argento’s soaring debut, about an American in Rome who fears for his life after witnessing an a...

May 2, 2023 | DARIO ARGENTO
DOORS INTO DARKNESS

The Seventh Veil

Muriel Box was the first woman to win the Oscar™ for Best Original Screenplay (shared with her husband Sydney), for this story inspired by her fascination with new methods of therapy. When a young ...

May 1, 2023 | MURIEL BOX
A WOMAN’S TAKE

Good-Time Girl

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot Good-time Girl, made during the period when Sydney Box was in charge of production at Gainsborough, seems – superficially at least –...

May 1, 2023 | MURIEL BOX
A WOMAN’S TAKE

Enys Men with live score by The Cornish Sound Unit

To coincide with the BFI Player and dual format release of Enys Men, we’re thrilled to be presenting the film with a live score that sonically reimagines its source material. It will be performed b...

May 1, 2023 | IN PERSON & PREVIEWS

My Son the Fanatic

Written by Hanif Kureishi from his own short story, My Son the Fanatic was the first British feature film to tackle what was already a subject of growing importance in the wake of the Salman Rushdi...

April 30, 2023 | NORTHERN VOICES

Young Soul Rebels

Isaac Julien on ‘Young Soul Rebels’ I suppose Young Soul Rebels is a film which tries to deal with a number of questions that people would rather sweep under the carpet at this moment, especially ...

April 28, 2023 | RE-RELEASES

The Passion of Remembrance

The men disaffected by the turbulence of the 1980s place themselves at the forefront of black liberation, embodying their authoritative traditional gender roles to dictate a vision for the future. ...

April 28, 2023 | RE-RELEASES

Theorem

+ intro and talk with Bruce LaBruce, a/political exhibition and Doesn’t Exist magazine launch Bruce LaBruce has reimagined Pasolini’s Theorem for his latest project, a photoshoot and exhibition fo...

April 27, 2023 | EVENTS

Deep End
(Relaxed Screening)

+ intro and discussion Set in London – but mostly filmed in West Germany – at the end of the 1960s, Deep End explores the space between fantasy and reality, as teenage swimming pool attendant Mi...

April 24, 2023 | RELAXED SCREENING

Storm Warning

When Marsha Mitchell (Rogers, in one of her strongest roles) visits her sister (Doris Day) in the Deep South, she witnesses a Ku Klux Klan murder involving her brother-in-law. This frighteningly te...

April 23, 2023 | GINGER ROGERS
ALL THAT SASS

Essential Killing

Appropriately coming from a filmmaker who has endured his own share of troubles, Essential Killing deals with survival against the odds. Premiered to acclaim at the Venice Film Festival, Jerzy Skol...

April 23, 2023 | OUTSIDERS AND EXILES
THE FILMS OF JERZY SKOLIMOWSKI

Lunana
A Yak in the Classroom

What’s it about? Trainee teacher Ugyen is disappointed to learn that in the final year of his learning will be spent in Lunana, a remote village in northern Bhutan. It’s a staggering seven-day walk...

April 22, 2023 | BFI FAMILIES

Sick of Myself

A very funny unromantic comedy about a delightfully unhinged couple in a toxic relationship. Twentysomething Signe is coasting, spending her days working in a café and scrolling through social medi...

April 21, 2023 | NEW RELEASES