BFI Southbank Programme Notes

Let's Scare Jessica to Death

We are pleased to be screening an original 35mm distribution print of this film. Given its age, the colour of the picture has now faded to a pink hue. We hope this does not take away from your enjo...

November 2, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

The Firm (Alternative Cut)

With his wife (Manville, then married to Oldman), child, comfortable home and job as an estate agent, Clive ‘Bexy’ Bissel (Oldman) would seem a respectable citizen; his abiding passion, however, is...

November 2, 2022 | GARY OLDMAN

A Bunch of Amateurs

+ Q&A with director Kim Hopkins, producer Margareta Szabo and special guests from the Bradford Movie Makers Director’s Statement A Bunch of Amateurs is set in Bradford in the north of England,...

November 2, 2022 | PREVIEW

Us

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. A middle-class family’s relaxing getaway turns into a waking nightmare when their lake house is invaded by a group of strangers who...

November 1, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

Prospero's Books

Prospero’s Books is a version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest starring John Gielgud. Shakespeare’s play centres on Prospero, Duke of Milan, who has been deposed by his brother, Antonio, supported by A...

November 1, 2022 | FRAMES OF MIND
THE FILMS OF PETER GREENAWAY

Living

+ Q&A with director Oliver Hermanus, writer Kazuo Ishiguro and actor Aimee Lou Wood Living began rather serendipitously. One night, when author Kazuo Ishiguro and producer Stephen Woolley wer...

November 1, 2022 | PREVIEW

Pontypool

As a conceit for a penny-pinching horror movie, it’s hard to fault. Restrict the action to the basement studio of a local radio station in deepest Ontario and feel the tension rise as reports come ...

October 31, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

Pontypool (Relaxed Screening)

+ intro and discussion. Terror strikes an Ontario town after an aural virus infects its inhabitants, with radio announcer Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie) the last line of defence against the zomb...

October 31, 2022 | RELAXED SCREENING

Cette maison

+ Q&A with director Miryam Charles Miryam Charles on ‘Cette maison’ Cette maison opens with the words of a heavy, exhausted, nostalgic heart, which dreams of being caught up by the sea, broug...

October 31, 2022 | WOMAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA PREVIEW

28 Days Later...

+ Q&A with director Danny Boyle Imagine waking up in a hospital with no idea how you got there and finding London completely deserted, a ghost town after the population was decimated by the sp...

October 31, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

Nightbreed Director's Cut

+ intro (on Sunday 30 October only) Perhaps even more unclassifiable than his debut Hellraiser, Clive Barker’s singular sophomore feature is an exhilarating action/horror hybrid about a secret kin...

October 30, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

Hellraiser - 35th Anniversary

+ intro by actors Nicholas Vince and Simon Bamford, with Phil Stokes, BFI Governor/Curator of the Clive Barker Archive On location with ‘Hellraiser’ In a gutted North London mansion that, conveni...

October 30, 2022 | PREVIEWS AND EVENTS

A Nightmare on Elm Street

When a group of teenagers discover they are all having nightmares about the same creepy guy, they realise they must stay awake if they want to stay alive. Often grouped in with the slasher sub-genr...

October 29, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

Candyman

In this instant cult classic, based on a short story by Clive Barker, white graduate student Helen Lyle (Madsen) is researching urban legends when she discovers the tale of the Candyman (Todd). Bor...

October 29, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

Viy

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Circumventing the restrictions of Soviet film production, Viy is a loose adaptation of a Nikolai Gogol story in which a seminary stu...

October 28, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

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...

October 28, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

Ghostwatch

Content warning: this is a live immersive event and may contain loud and sudden sounds, strobe lighting, smoke, and jump scares throughout. On Halloween night, 1992, 11 million viewers tuned into ...

October 28, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

The Banshees of Inisherin

The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Lieutenant of Inishmore… In titling his gritty, west coast Irish dramas, Martin McDonagh certainly has a type. All three aforementioned pl...