BFI Southbank Programme Notes

Dead of Night

Horror films or stories of the supernatural were little attempted in British cinema prior to the days of Hammer in the 1950s. There are the exceptions of course, such as The Ghoul (1933) and Dark E...

September 2, 2024 | ROOTS, RITUALS AND PHANTASMAGORIA

Shooting Stars

‘Not until Peeping Tom (1960) over 30 years later did a British film so knowingly and so effectively turn its own camera on itself. It is a young man’s film, the first effort of someone representat...

September 1, 2024 | MARTIN SCORSESE SELECTS HIDDEN GEMS OF BRITISH CINEMA

Lee

+ Q&A with Kate Winslet hosted by broadcaster Anna Smith. Elizabeth ‘Lee’ Miller, born in 1907 in Poughkeepsie, New York was, as Kate Winslet explains, ‘An unstoppable force of nature with a t...

September 1, 2024 | PREVIEW

The Draughtsman’s Contract

Peter Greenaway on ‘The Draughtsman’s Contract’ The Draughtsman’s Contract. A film that is 40 years old. Made in 1982 about events in 1694. Elaborate, stylised, enjoyable, spiteful and mysterious, ...

September 1, 2024 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Dougal and the Blue Cat

The arrival of Buxton the Blue Cat throws Dougal, Florence and friends into turmoil. His desire for control and obsession with Blue sees Buxton become increasingly powerful, proclaiming that everyt...

September 1, 2024 | STOP MOTION
CELEBRATING HANDMADE ANIMATION ON THE BIG SCREEN

Sing Sing

Filmmakers Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley began their careers together in the early 2010s, having met after graduating from university and finding they shared similar interests in telling stories of...

August 30, 2024 | NEW RELEASES

Starve Acre

+ Q&A with director Daniel Kokotajlo and actors Morfydd Clark and Robert Emms Daniel Kokotajlo on ‘Starve Acre’ What first drew you to Andrew Michael Hurley’s novella? I like Andrew’s affini...

August 28, 2024 | PREVIEW

Who in da Mornin

We are delighted that the director of Who in da Mornin , Jonathan Isaac Jackson, will introduce this screening and attend a Q&A. We are also very pleased to announce that Mario Gousse will joi...

August 24, 2024 | AFRICAN ODYSSEYS

The Turin Horse

A contemporary review The inevitable question confronting any artist of stature as the twilight years close in: will the inspiration fade away; and if so when? And concomitantly: should I call time...

August 24, 2024 | WILL HEAVEN FALL UPON US
A BÉLA TARR RETROSPECTIVE

D.E.B.S.

+ panel discussion and Zoom Q&A with director Angela Robinson Amy is a top student at the D.E.B.S. academy for elite spies in training, but when tasked with taking down notorious supervillain ...

August 24, 2024 | WOMAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA

Pulp Fiction (30th Anniversary)

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. It looks like a tribute to Quentin Tarantino’s fast rise to fame that he has managed to draw quite such a varied crowd of names for ...

August 23, 2024 | RE-RELEASES

Kneecap

Deftly fusing the sublime with the ridiculous, this ketamine-fuelled adrenaline ride through the back streets of Belfast sees the most unlikely of figureheads propelled to the front of a movement t...

August 23, 2024 | NEW RELEASES

Forbidden

+ intro by film critic Phuong Le Producer/director George King is a figure who has been unjustly neglected by British cinema historians. Often described as ‘King of the Quota Quickies’, he is gene...

August 22, 2024 | PROJECTING THE ARCHIVE

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!

+ Q&A with director Peter Lord ‘I loved pirate stories when I was a boy – particularly Treasure Island,’ says two-time Academy Award nominee Peter Lord, a co-founder of Aardman and the directo...

August 21, 2024 | IN PERSON & PREVIEWS

Koyaanisqatsi

A timely alert to how life on Earth is changing, Godfrey Reggio’s film was produced on a surprisingly small budget over many years, only to become an instant cult success. Philip Glass’s gorgeous...

August 19, 2024 | RELAXED SCREENING

The Fog of War
Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara

Morris’s Oscar-winning portrait of Robert S. McNamara, the former US Defence Secretary, who offers his thoughts on modern warfare, is both compelling and provocative. The director made great use of...

August 19, 2024 | SHIFTING LAYERS
THE FILM SCORES OF PHILIP GLASS

The Man from London

The extinction of the aesthetically and intellectually rigorous European art film has been predicted for so long (in the early 1980s, a Sight and Sound columnist called for the creation of a Societ...

August 18, 2024 | WILL HEAVEN FALL UPON US
A BÉLA TARR RETROSPECTIVE

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

+ Q&A with writer-director Guillermo del Toro This glorious adaptation of Florentine writer Carlo Collodi’s 1883 book The Adventures of Pinocchio is a striking, often breathtakingly beautiful ...

August 18, 2024 | IN PERSON & PREVIEWS

Sátántangó

Béla Tarr is not a man for small talk. When our Zoom call connects, I begin by thanking him for his time and telling him I was pleased to have this opportunity – to which he replies that I shouldn’...

August 17, 2024 | WILL HEAVEN FALL UPON US
A BÉLA TARR RETROSPECTIVE

Lone Star

When an old skeleton with a sheriff’s badge is unearthed in a Texas border town, Sheriff Sam Deeds must investigate what could have happened to his predecessor. Examining racial violence, local leg...

August 16, 2024 | RE-RELEASES