BFI Southbank Programme Notes

Scarface

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Michael Mann on ‘Scarface’ Howard Hawks’s Scarface has a special significance for me because [producer] Marty Bregman called me up, ...

May 17, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Dance, Girl, Dance

Dance, Girl, Dance, a glorious and subversively feminist film from the Golden Age of Hollywood, had inauspicious beginnings. In 1940, RKO had a film in production that was going off the rails – a r...

May 16, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Still Walking

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. In Japanese, there’s more than one mode of greeting someone as you enter their house during the day. There’s ‘konnichiwa’, for exam...

May 15, 2023 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Tenebrae

Contains violence, gore and sexual violence SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. As far removed from the Technicolor phantasmagoria of Suspiria (1977) and Inferno (1980...

May 13, 2023 | DARIO ARGENTO
DOORS INTO DARKNESS

Abolition

+ intro by Brazilian MP, Benedita da Silva (pre-recorded) and panel discussion with Vanessa Gabriel-Robinson, chair, Latin American Women’s Rights Service (LAWRS), and Dr Maria Augusta Arruda (Univ...

May 13, 2023 | AFRICAN ODYSSEYS

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