BFI Southbank Programme Notes

Ben Nicholson 1894-1982

+ intro by Steve Foxon, Curator of Non-Fiction, BFI National Archive An account of the life and work of the English painter Ben Nicholson, with reminiscences from the artist Patrick Heron, who too...

February 28, 2024 | ART IN THE MAKING

The Dreamers

+ Q&A with producer Jeremy Thomas Gilbert Adair on ‘The Dreamers’ The novel on which my screenplay for The Dreamers is based was originally published in 1988 under the title The Holy Innocents...

February 27, 2024 | UK PREMIERE OF 4K RESTORATION

Oska Bright Film Festival 2024 First Look

The Cunning The Oska Bright team is delighted to share this selection of highlights ahead of the festival. The festival will explore aspects of the human condition past and present, encompassing...

February 26, 2024 | RELAXED SCREENING

Caesar Must Die

A contemporary review The Taviani brothers, arthouse darlings of the 70s and 80s (Allonsanfàn, Padre padrone, The Night of San Lorenzo), have rather dropped off the international map in recent year...

February 24, 2024 | MAGICAL REALISM
THE FILM FABLES OF THE TAVIANI BROTHERS

Boom

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Set on a secluded island, Boom introduced a new, minimal ‘music box’ sound that Barry frequently used in the years immediately befor...

February 24, 2024 | JOHN BARRY
SOUNDTRACKING BOND AND BEYOND

City of God

In 2002, the Cannes Film Festival was crackling with buzz, about a film that wasn’t in the official competition, was a completely unknown entity, yet was building up a frenzied word of mouth. It wo...

February 23, 2024 | RE-RELEASES

Watermark

+ Q&A with filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky; hosted by Dr Eugénie Shinkle Director’s Notes: Jennifer Baichwal Water has a unique capacity to express scal...

February 17, 2024 | THE ANTHROPOCENE TRILOGY

Manufactured Landscapes

+ intro by Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, Edward Burtynsky. Hosted by Maggi Hurt. Edward Burtynsky: I had to cross some unknown territory through Pennsylvania, which happened to be one o...

February 16, 2024 | THE ANTHROPOCENE TRILOGY

ANTHROPOCENE - The Human Epoch

+ panel discussion with Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky. Hosted by Farah Ahmed, Climate Justice Lead at Julie’s Bicycle Director’s Notes It feels like our films keep ...

February 16, 2024 | THE ANTHROPOCENE TRILOGY

Christopher Nolan in Conversation

From Memento to Batman Begins, Inception to Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan is a rare director who marries his epic vision with an intelligent, unique approach to filmmaking and storytelling. His films ...

February 15, 2024 | IN PERSON & PREVIEWS

The Taste of Things

Who would be a chef? From Boiling Point (2021) to The Bear (2022-), film and TV in the 2020s show the culinary arts to be a vicious, brutal vocation; one that tears apart families, destroys friends...

February 14, 2024 | NEW RELEASES

Showing Up

From the rising tensions of a make-or-break week of a Portland artist getting ready for a big show, filmmaker Kelly Reichardt carves a profound, gorgeously layered portrait of a woman that is as mu...

February 11, 2024 | NEW RELEASES

Padre Padrone

Padre Padrone, a Sardinian-set true story about a young shepherd’s rebellion against his tyrannical father and the seventh feature from brothers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, is based on an autobiogr...

February 11, 2024 | MAGICAL REALISM
THE FILM FABLES OF THE TAVIANI BROTHERS

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

One of the earliest gags thrown out (and apparently away) by the Brothers Coen is their po-faced title-credit claim that O Brother, Where Art Thou? is based on the Odyssey. Aha, you think, typical ...

February 11, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Honor among Lovers

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. Here, Dorothy Arzner’s instinct for story, casting and visuals are employed at the service of some of the era’s finest actors. Her ...

February 11, 2024 | A LEAGUE OF HER OWN
THE CINEMA OF DOROTHY ARZNER

Orphée

Cocteau took the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice (familiar from Virgil and Ovid) and updated it to a fantastical version of post-war Paris, where the poet, played by Cocteau’s muse and lover Marais, b...

February 10, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Kaos

As the Taviani brothers are to Tuscany so, they suggest, Pirandello is to Sicily. It’s doubtful that Pirandello himself ever felt that his Sicilian-ness was a decisive factor in his make-up, but he...

February 10, 2024 | MAGICAL REALISM
THE FILM FABLES OF THE TAVIANI BROTHERS

Don't Look Now

Nicolas Roeg on ‘Don’t Look Now’ To what extent was Don’t Look Now your own choice? A publicity handout says it was Peter Katz, the producer, who thought Daphne du Maurier’s story would make a goo...

February 9, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

All of Us Strangers

In an early scene in All of Us Strangers, Adam (Andrew Scott), a gay man entering middle age, leaves his London flat to visit the suburban area where he grew up. Across a field he spots a handsome ...

February 9, 2024 | NEW RELEASES

The Scent of Green Papaya

The papaya is a fruit when ripe. When green it is considered a vegetable. This is why the papaya is always planted behind the kitchen, in the vegetable garden, among the vegetable and culinary her...

February 8, 2024 | EVENTS