BFI Southbank Programme Notes

The General

‘The moment you give me a locomotive and things like that to play with, as a rule I find some way of getting laughs out of it,’ Buster Keaton is quoted as saying. Trains had often been used for gag...

January 1, 2023 | SIGHT AND SOUND GREATEST FILMS OF ALL TIME 2022
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L'avventura

When Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’avventura arrived in 1960 – amidst a tumultuous reception in Cannes that saw some disturbed audience members wanting to throw something at the screen – cinema was al...

January 1, 2023 | SIGHT AND SOUND GREATEST FILMS OF ALL TIME 2022
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Corsage

In Corsage, a dry, wry, winking quasibiopic of the Empress Elisabeth of Austria, the anachronisms arrive slowly, subtly and then, quite recklessly, all at once. Does that swimming pool the empress ...

December 27, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

The Queen of Spades

Described by Martin Scorsese as ‘A uniquely haunting film’ and once thought lost forever, The Queen of Spades is the perfect horror tale for a winter’s day. It’s 1806 and in St Petersburg, Captain ...

December 23, 2022 | RE-RELEASES

A Dark Song

Sophia is grief-stricken and overwhelmed with sadness since the untimely death of her son. In a desperate attempt to achieve some form of closure, she reaches out to Solomon, an occultist with expe...

December 23, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

Ginger Snaps

Try to imagine what Buffy the Vampire Slayer would look like if it had been written by Angela Carter and you might get close to the heady cocktail of high-school pubescence and feminist folklore th...

December 21, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

Society

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Out of the morassic age of huge teen mullets, John Hughes high-school psychodramas and squishily analogue genre FX came this unnervi...

December 20, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

Gremlins

Joe Dante on ‘Gremlins’ I never happened to believe that Gremlins was a movie that scared children. That was a thing that came up when the movie was released, and there were articles in the paper....

December 20, 2022 | CHRISTMAS FILMS

Living

Living began rather serendipitously. One night, when author Kazuo Ishiguro and producer Stephen Woolley were having dinner, Bill Nighy dropped by for a drink. ‘[They] are film nerds,’ laughs Nighy ...

December 19, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

Day of the Dead

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. A contemporary review Although Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead were supposed to be the first two thirds of a trilogy, ...

December 19, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

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 18, 2022 | CHRISTMAS FILMS

The Woman King

+ intro and Q&A The Agojie were an all-female unit of warriors who protected the African kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s. The story follows the emotionally epic journey of General Nanisca who ...

December 17, 2022 | AFRICAN ODYSSEYS

She Said

Two-time Academy Award® nominee Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman, An Education) and Emmy nominee Zoe Kazan (The Plot Against America, The Big Sick) star as New York Times reporters Megan Twohe...

December 17, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

Scrooged

Bill Murray’s Frank Cross is a modern-day Scrooge. An unpleasant TV executive, he pushes his team to the limit when he plans a live production of A Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve, expecting them ...

December 17, 2022 | CHRISTMAS FILMS

Scrooge

Although there will always be dispute over which is Alastair Sim’s finest screen performance, there’s little doubt as to which is the best known. His 1951 characterisation of Charles Dickens’ notor...

December 17, 2022 | CHRISTMAS FILMS

Häxan

Benjamin Christensen’s Häxan is sort of a documentary, and it’s the ‘sort of’ that makes it unlike any other film. The Swedish silent melds historical fact and folk superstition to explore ideas ab...

December 17, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

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 17, 2022 | CHRISTMAS FILMS

Triangle of Sadness

Ruben Östlund on ‘Triangle of Sadness’ Let’s start with the title: what does ‘triangle of sadness’ refer to? It’s a term used in the beauty industry. A friend sat next to a plastic surgeon at a p...

December 16, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

Tangerine

On Christmas Eve, a couple of transgender sex workers meet-up at a donut shop in Hollywood. From there, the evening pans out, encompassing discovered infidelity, police interference, an impressive ...

December 16, 2022 | CHRISTMAS FILMS

One Cut of the Dead

It’s impossible to discuss Shin’ichirô Ueda’s One Cut of the Dead in any meaningful way without giving away vital plot twists and this review is no different. If you haven’t seen it yet, stop here ...

December 16, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

The General

L'avventura

Corsage

The Queen of Spades

A Dark Song

Ginger Snaps

Society

Gremlins

Living

Day of the Dead

Meet Me in St. Louis

The Woman King

She Said

Scrooged

Scrooge

Häxan

Carol

Triangle of Sadness

Tangerine

One Cut of the Dead

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