BFI Southbank Programme Notes

Scrooge

One of the best-known adaptations of Charles Dickens’ Christmas classic, Brian Desmond Hurst’s 1951 film stars Alastair Sim as the notorious curmudgeon Ebenezer Scrooge, visited by the ghosts of Ch...

December 21, 2024 | CHRISTMAS FILMS

It's a Wonderful Life

Frank Capra cleared his throat, and began. The war was over and he was anxious to make another movie. In early October 1945, he approached Lew Wasserman, James Stewart’s agent at MCA, telling him t...

December 20, 2024 | CHRISTMAS FILMS

Eternal Sunshine
of the Spotless Mind

‘Kaufman’s script showcases a perfect balance between intelligent and resourceful storytelling.’ – Carolina, BFI Member We celebrate the 20th anniversary of director Michel Gondry and writer Charl...

December 19, 2024 | MEMBER PICKS

A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things

Scottish artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham – voiced here by Tilda Swinton – had an extraordinary creative passion. In his poetic documentary portrait, Mark Cousins explores her artistic practice, re...

December 18, 2024 | RELAXED SCREENING

Meet Me in St. Louis

The closer you look at most famous Hollywood productions, the harder it is to see how they turned out all right – let alone to believe that anyone was in charge. Just as on any set the crew trusts ...

December 15, 2024 | CHRISTMAS FILMS

GoodFellas

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. A contemporary review Scorsese’s return to the milieu of Mean Streets invites comparison less with that film than with Coppola’s The...

December 15, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

The Dresser

Richard Eyre on ‘The Dresser’ What made you want to get involved in this production of The Dresser ? I was approached by executive producer Colin Callender and asked if I would like to make a fil...

December 15, 2024 | RICHARD EYRE
WEAPONS OF UNDERSTANDING

The Shop around the Corner

Ernst Lubitsch grew up in Berlin as the son of the Russian Jewish émigré owner of a dressmaking company. He knew the world of shops and they feature often in his films. Perhaps witnessing the patte...

December 14, 2024 | CHRISTMAS FILMS

Notes on a Scandal

‘People have always trusted me with their secrets. But who do I trust with mine?’ (Barbara Covett, Notes on a Scandal) Two women caught up in a drama of need and betrayal are at the heart of this ...

December 14, 2024 | RICHARD EYRE
WEAPONS OF UNDERSTANDING

Eyes Wide Shut

Jan Harlan (executive producer): Stanley’s idea was to show a modern hell, a very abstract concept, a hell into which people enter out of boredom – money and wealth won’t do it any longer. Did he s...

December 14, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

Les Parapluies de Cherbourg enjoys a legendary place as an all-but-unique curiosity in French cinema – the film for which the epithet ‘bittersweet’ was invented, less a musical (though French examp...

December 13, 2024 | RE-RELEASES

Carol

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Adapted from a Patricia Highsmith novel, Haynes’ typically elegant yet acerbic movie charts the intense (yet hesitant and furtive) r...

December 12, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Monty Python’s Life of Brian

+ intro by Justin Johnson, BFI Lead Programmer (Wednesday 11 December) According to legend, the idea for Life of Brian stemmed from a throw-away remark by Eric Idle during an interview shortly aft...

December 11, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

The Apartment

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. Wilder’s much-lauded classic is a film of contradictions: a romantic comedy about suicide and adultery, at once glaringly ‘Hollywoo...

December 10, 2024 | CHRISTMAS FILMS

Tangerine

It’s Christmas Eve and at a donut shop in Hollywood a couple of transgender sex workers meet up to discuss a problem one of them faces. Soon, questions of infidelity, the fine line between performa...

December 9, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Iris

+ extended intro by Sir Richard Eyre and Dame Judi Dench (8 December only) ‘Essentially, Iris is about forms of love and the way in which love changes and love endures,’ explains director Richard ...

December 8, 2024 | RICHARD EYRE
WEAPONS OF UNDERSTANDING

Just a Boys' Game + The Insurance Man

There can be no better justification for the modus operandi of the BBC drama department of the 1960s and 70s than the discovery of Peter McDougall. The most original Scottish voice of the era, McDo...

December 7, 2024 | RICHARD EYRE
WEAPONS OF UNDERSTANDING

The Ploughman's Lunch

Ian McEwan on ‘The Ploughman’s Lunch’ Could you tell me something about how you came to write The Ploughman’s Lunch and to work with Richard Eyre? We made a film for television [The Imitation Gam...

December 6, 2024 | RICHARD EYRE
WEAPONS OF UNDERSTANDING

Oldboy

When he released Oldboy in 2003, Park Chan-wook was a mainstream filmmaker in his native South Korea, having broken box-office records with his 2000 political thriller Joint Security Area. To inter...

December 5, 2024 | ECHOES IN TIME
KOREAN FILMS OF THE GOLDEN AGE AND NEW CINEMA

Key Scholar Lecture
Laugh Together, Weep Alone - South Korean Cinema’s Ethical Ambiguities

In the latest in this series of lectures featuring world-leading scholars, Professor Steve Choe from San Francisco State University will address how key works from the New Korean Cinema respond to ...