BFI Southbank Programme Notes

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...

May 5, 2023 | NEW RELEASES

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. ...