Programme Notes

BFI Southbank

Vampyr

The premiere of Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr took place in Berlin in May 1932 almost exactly four years after the first showing of his previous film, The Passion of Joan of Arc. After so long a wa...

May 5, 2022 | RE-RELEASES

Pola X

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 5, 2022 | CRUEL FLESH
FILMS OF THE NEW FRENCH EXTREMITY

I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Mike Hodges on ‘I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead’ The press notes describe I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead as ‘An exploration of family revenge an...

May 5, 2022 | RETURN OF THE OUTSIDER
THE FILMS OF MIKE HODGES

Pulp

Mike Hodges on ‘Pulp’ Since I first went to the cinema in the early 1950s I was always partial to B-movies. They were short, fast, black and white in every sense, and often better than the ‘A’ fil...

May 4, 2022 | RETURN OF THE OUTSIDER
THE FILMS OF MIKE HODGES

Millennium Actress

Satoshi Kon and screenwriter Sadayuki Murai on ‘Millennium Actress’ Who is Chiyoko and how did you come up with this idea that the heroine’s desperately determined wish makes her transcend time an...

May 4, 2022 | ANIME

Everything Everywhere
All at Once

+ Q&A with writer-directors Daniels Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as Daniels, Everything Everywhere All at Once is a hilarious and big-hearted sci-fi action ...

May 4, 2022 | PREVIEW

Croupier

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. To see Croupier as more writer Paul Mayersberg’s work than director Mike Hodges’ is a powerful temptation. But as Get Carter reminds...

May 4, 2022 | RE-RELEASES

Criminal Lovers

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 4, 2022 | CRUEL FLESH
FILMS OF THE NEW FRENCH EXTREMITY

The Tale of The Princess Kaguya

The plan was to release The Tale of The Princess Kaguya in Japan on the same day as The Wind Rises, 25 years after the double-bill of Isao Takahata’s Grave of the Fireflies and Hayao Miyazaki’s My ...

May 3, 2022 | ANIME

Mike Hodges
in Conversation

With a career that spans film and TV – including highlights such as Get Carter, Flash Gordon, Croupier, Tempo and World in Action – Mike Hodges is an auteur filmmaker who has proved himself adept a...

May 3, 2022 | EVENTS

Black Rainbow

‘Black Rainbow is a crossroads of many different ideas,’ says writer/director Mike Hodges. ‘I’m concerned about what we’re doing to our planet and I’m interested in the revival of numerous kinds of...

May 3, 2022 | RETURN OF THE OUTSIDER
THE FILMS OF MIKE HODGES

Akira

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Akira is very probably the first animated feature with a genuinely novelistic density of incident and character. Its narrative speed...

May 3, 2022 | ANIME

The Terminal Man

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. A contemporary review In 1969 the first hapless chimpanzee was directly linked by radio to a computer which took over the functionin...

May 2, 2022 | RETURN OF THE OUTSIDER
THE FILMS OF MIKE HODGES

Sunrise
A Song of Two Humans

When F.W. Murnau left Germany for America in 1926, did cinema foresee what was coming? Did it sense that change was around the corner – that now was the time to fill up on fantasy, delirium and spe...

May 2, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Princess Mononoke

What’s It About After being cursed by a demon, young warrior Ashitaka begins a journey to search for a cure and meets a princess named San. He soon finds himself in the middle of an ongoing war bet...

May 2, 2022 | BFI FAMILIES

Perfect Blue

Satoshi Kon’s feature debut plunges us into Japan’s late 1990s pop idol scene, and surfaces with a fractured tale of psychological and physical brutality. Mima is 21 when she decides to leave CHAM!...

May 2, 2022 | ANIME

The Ordeal

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 2, 2022 | CRUEL FLESH
FILMS OF THE NEW FRENCH EXTREMITY

Man Bites Dog

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 2, 2022 | CRUEL FLESH
FILMS OF THE NEW FRENCH EXTREMITY

Your Name

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Makoto Shinkai’s dreamily emotional anime romance, the highest grossing film of 2016 in Japan at ¥15bn and counting, has unsurprisin...

May 1, 2022 | ANIME

I Stand Alone

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 1, 2022 | FOCUS ON - GASPAR NOÉ

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