BFI Southbank Programme Notes

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...

October 28, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

Experimental Sound
and Vision
Found Sounds, Lyrical Loops and Landscapes

+ intro by author and musician David Toop (Thursday 17 November only) Greenaway’s early films were made against the backdrop of the emergence of a new style of music, most vividly represented by t...

October 27, 2022 | FRAMES OF MIND
THE FILMS OF PETER GREENAWAY

Barbarian

Travelling to Detroit for a job interview, a young woman books a rental home. But when she arrives late at night, she discovers that the house is double-booked, and a strange man is already staying...

October 27, 2022 | PREVIEW

Queer Horror and Experimental Magic Films from the BFI National Archive

For one night only, we present three strange, otherworldly horror artefacts from the BFI National Archive. Inspired by Tony Scott’s The Hunger and the radical avant-garde, The Mark of Lilith (198...

October 26, 2022 | EXPERIMENTA

The Fly

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. In his inspired overhaul of the 1958 original, David Cronenberg’s fusion of romantic melodrama and body horror sees reclusive scien...

October 26, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

Kuroneko

While her son is at war, a woman and her daughter-in-law are raped and murdered by samurai. They return as vengeful spirits, seducing samurai to their deaths. A young man returns from battle a war ...

October 25, 2022 | IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

True Romance

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. Scripted by Quentin Tarantino, this is an unashamedly slick, brash, violent account of a spree embarked on by Detroit comic-store a...

October 24, 2022 | GARY OLDMAN

SAS Rogue Heroes

+ panel and Q&A with creator/writer Steven Knight, cast members Connor Swindells and Alfie Allen, Director Tom Shankland and Exec Producer Karen Wilson. Filmed on location in the UK and Moro...

October 24, 2022 | TV PREVIEW

Peter Greenaway Shorts Programme 1

Greenaway’s innovative shorts provide essential insight into his obsessions and immense talent. A Walk Through H introduces us to the character of Tulse Luper, who we meet again in The Tulse Luper ...

October 24, 2022 | FRAMES OF MIND
THE FILMS OF PETER GREENAWAY

Walter Rodney - 'What They Don't Want You to Know'

We are really pleased to announce that joining the discussion will be Dr Patricia Rodney (CEO of The Walter Rodney Foundation, academic and author), Gina Nadira Miller (activist politician and bus...

October 23, 2022 | AFRICAN ODYSSEYS

Drowning by Numbers

A contemporary review Peter Greenaway has become his own foremost exegete, although it is not yet clear whether this career move springs from a frustration that most English critics have little tas...

October 23, 2022 | FRAMES OF MIND
THE FILMS OF PETER GREENAWAY

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

+ intro by Lead Programmer Justin Johnson and Film Editor John Wilson ACE (Sunday 23 October only) Eating is a constant theme in the films of Alfred Hitchcock. More oddly, as Donald Spoto observed...

October 23, 2022 | FRAMES OF MIND
THE FILMS OF PETER GREENAWAY

Fruitvale Station

Ryan Coogler’s debut Fruitvale Station is a perceptive docudrama that reconstructs the final day in the life of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old black resident of Oakland, California. In the early hours ...

October 22, 2022 | CLOSE-UP - RYAN COOGLER

The Falls

A record of a cataclysm that never was, The Falls is the epic, lengthy but highly-rewarding culmination of Greenaway’s experiments through the 1970s, channelling sci-fi, mockumentary and the writin...

October 22, 2022 | FRAMES OF MIND
THE FILMS OF PETER GREENAWAY

Creed

Coogler revitalised the Rocky franchise with his second collaboration with lead actor Michael B Jordan. It’s nothing short of exhilarating, with fluid and immersive fight scenes, as well as a surpr...

October 22, 2022 | CLOSE-UP - RYAN COOGLER

The Saddest Music in the World

The Saddest Music in the World is set in Winnipeg during the Great Depression of 1933. Chester Kent (Mark McKinney), a once successful Broadway impresario now on the skids, arrives back in his home...

October 21, 2022 | GUY MADDIN

Prick Up Your Ears

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. With an Alan Bennett script based on John Lahr’s biography of Joe Orton, Stephen Frears’ film about the shifts in power in the playw...

October 21, 2022 | GARY OLDMAN

Emily

In her directorial debut from her own original screenplay, Frances O’Connor paints a stunningly beautiful and playful portrait exploring the life and relationships that inspired Wuthering Heights. ...

October 21, 2022 | NEW RELEASES