Programme Notes

BFI Southbank

Les Dames
du Bois de Boulogne

Based on an anecdote in Denis Diderot’s novel Jacques le fataliste, this tale of sexual rivalry and revenge boasts glittering dialogue by Jean Cocteau and a magnificent performance by Maria Casarès...

June 3, 2022 | OF SIN AND SALVATION
THE CINEMA OF ROBERT BRESSON

Les Anges du péché

Les Affaires publiques Please note: The film author asks you to excuse the fact that he agreed to cut certain scenes from this film. It was his first film. Three songs were judged to be too extrav...

June 3, 2022 | OF SIN AND SALVATION
THE CINEMA OF ROBERT BRESSON

Ivan's Childhood

Tarkovsky’s first feature – about a Soviet teenager engaged in espionage missions on the German front during World War Two – is also one of his finest: visually impressive, emotionally direct, esch...

June 2, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Diary of a Country Priest

This portrait of an ailing young curate haunted by his perceived failures in saving human souls is something of a transitional work; the literary script (from a novel by Georges Bernanos) is played...

June 2, 2022 | OF SIN AND SALVATION
THE CINEMA OF ROBERT BRESSON

The Merchant of Four Seasons

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Fassbinder was influenced by a range of aesthetic practices, but this chronicle of the downward spiral of a would-be-engineer-turned...

June 1, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Judy Garland
20th Century Icon

Launching our Judy Garland season, this illustrated talk by season programmer Emma Smart – followed by a panel of guest experts – will take you through the films selected, exploring Garland’s extra...

June 1, 2022 | JUDY GARLAND - A STAR IS REBORN

Frequencies

+ intro and discussion. This enigmatic sci-fi is set in an alternative reality where frequencies emitted by the human brain determine future outcomes. The very existence of free will is question...

May 30, 2022 | RELAXED SCREENING

Martyrs

The films of the New French Extremity and the accompanying focus on Gaspar Noé examine an important, controversial and highly violent cinema movement. They are not suitable for all. The film you a...

May 28, 2022 | CRUEL FLESH
FILMS OF THE NEW FRENCH EXTREMITY

Ms .45

After being sexually assaulted twice in one day, Thana, a non-speaking seamstress, is left terrified and traumatised. Arming herself with the .45 caliber pistol of her second attacker, Thana soon e...

May 27, 2022 | TERROR VISION

East Palace, West Palace

+ intro by Chris Berry, Professor of Film Studies, King’s College London Zhang Yuan on ‘East Palace, West Palace’ Zhang Yuan isn’t gay, but he’s been planning to make a ‘gay film’ for some time. H...

May 27, 2022 | QUEER EAST

Climax

The films of the New French Extremity and the accompanying focus on Gaspar Noé examine an important, controversial and highly violent cinema movement. They are not suitable for all. The film you a...

May 27, 2022 | FOCUS ON - GASPAR NOÉ

The Quiet Girl

This sensitive adaptation of Claire Keegan’s acclaimed short story ‘Foster’ follows a quiet, neglected girl as she’s sent away from her dysfunctional family to live with foster parents for the summ...

May 21, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

Irreversible

In his introduction to the Edinburgh screening of Irreversible, writer/director Gaspar Noé told the audience that certain scenes may prove unwatchable, but asked them to stick with it, joking that...

May 21, 2022 | CRUEL FLESH
FILMS OF THE NEW FRENCH EXTREMITY

Dandelion Dead

Mike Hodges: I agreed to do Dandelion Dead because of the script – it’s witty, wicked and black. Reading a script is one thing, shooting it is another. I am a fast director but I had to be faster ...

May 21, 2022 | RETURN OF THE OUTSIDER
THE FILMS OF MIKE HODGES

Lux Æterna

The films of the New French Extremity and the accompanying focus on Gaspar Noé examine an important, controversial and highly violent cinema movement. They are not suitable for all. The film you a...

May 20, 2022 | FOCUS ON - GASPAR NOÉ

The Incredible Shrinking Man

A landmark sci-fi classic with a superb script by Richard Matheson, this examines the protagonist’s changing relationship with his wife and his immediate environment when he starts diminishing in s...

May 19, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Grave of the Fireflies

In March 1945, as the Pacific War entered its endgame, the United States launched a concerted campaign to destroy Japan’s cities with fire. The stated aim was to cripple the country’s industrial ba...

May 19, 2022 | ANIME

Tempo

Hodges succeeded Kenneth Tynan as producer of Tempo, ITV’s arts programme. He switched its largely studio-based output to 16mm film and launched three series: Tempo Profiles; Tempo Entertainers; T...

May 17, 2022 | RETURN OF THE OUTSIDER
THE FILMS OF MIKE HODGES

Little Miss Sunshine

‘This is one of the first films I remember watching… It’s full of heart, deliriously funny, and the cast is superb’. Claire Cho, BFI member When the Hoover family discover that young Olive (Abigai...

May 17, 2022 | MEMBER PICKS

Them

The films of the New French Extremity and the accompanying focus on Gaspar Noé examine an important, controversial and highly violent cinema movement. They are not suitable for all. The film you a...

May 16, 2022 | CRUEL FLESH
FILMS OF THE NEW FRENCH EXTREMITY

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