BFI Southbank Programme Notes

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence

Jeremy Thomas on David Bowie and ‘Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence’ After Oshima saw Bowie in The Elephant Man on Broadway, in 1980, he asked him to be part of his next film. How did you get involved?...

September 10, 2022 | SOUND AND VISION

Letter from an Unknown Woman

Introduced by Geoff Andrew, Programmer at Large (Wednesday 21 September only) Producer John Houseman on ‘Letter from an Unknown Woman’ Letter from an Unknown Woman is bittersweet Viennese. It is t...

September 10, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

A Hen in the Wind

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Little circulated and rarely shown, A Hen in the Wind is one of Ozu’s least-discussed postwar films. This may also be traceable to a...

September 10, 2022 | KINUYO TANAKA - A LIFE IN FILM

Jackie Brown

The Friday 9 September screening will include a pre-recorded intro by Pam Grier. Please be advised that this film contains racist language throughout. ‘Quentin said: “You know what? What you did...

September 9, 2022 | RE-RELEASES

Crimes of the Future

Director’s Statement Crimes of the Future is a meditation on human evolution. Specifically – the ways in which we have had to take control of the process because we have created such powerful env...

September 9, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

The Score

+ Q&A with director Malachi Smyth and actor Johnny Flynn Two mismatched small time crooks Mike and Troy (Johnny Flynn and Will Poulter) stop at a roadside cafe ahead of a rendezvous with a big...

September 7, 2022 | PREVIEWS

Cobain - Montage of Heck

Pop time runs differently to clock time; it’s elastic, stretching like blown bubble gum and imploding to nothing. It hardly seems possible that Nirvana was in the wider public consciousness for bar...

September 6, 2022 | SOUND AND VISION

Comedy

Panellists: Channel 4 Head of Comedy Commissioning Charlie Perkins; Trix Worrell (writer, Desmond’s); Original Senior Commissioning Editor Comedy and Entertainment, Mike Bolland; Peter Richardson (...

September 6, 2022 | CHANNEL 4
40 YEARS OF REVOLUTION

Accident

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. The working partnership between American director Joseph Losey and British writer Harold Pinter produced the finest work on screen t...

September 6, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Eric Ravilious
Drawn to War

A true story, Eric Ravilious is as compelling and enigmatic as his art. Set against the dramatic wartime locations that inspired him, Kinmonth’s film brings to life this brilliant but still grossly...

September 5, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

The Bride Wore Black

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Penelope Houston on Hitchcock’s influence on Truffaut In the introduction to his Hitchcock interview book, François Truffaut lists 2...

September 5, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

In a Lonely Place

Introduced by Geoff Andrew, Programmer at Large (Wednesday 14 September only) SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. ‘I was infatuated with her, but I didn’t like her ve...

September 4, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

The Enigma of
Kaspar Hauser

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser is a story with a beginning and an end; or at least, being based on a historical case, it feels as if it...

September 4, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Wild Strawberries

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. An elderly scientist (Sjöström, superb) drives with his daughter-in-law from Stockholm to Lund to receive an honorary award; distur...

September 3, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Sambizanga

+ pre-recorded intro and Q&A with host and curator Mosa Mpetha and special guest Annouchka De Andrade (daughter of Sarah Maldoror). Anti-colonial struggle is vividly captured in this realistic...

September 3, 2022 | AFRICAN ODYSSEYS

Jawbone

+ Q&A with writer-actor Johnny Harris, actors Michael Smiley and Ray Winstone and director Thomas Napper Marking the arrival of a new photobook Jawbone: The Autobiography of a Film, Johnny Har...

September 3, 2022 | EVENTS

Bodies Bodies Bodies

A group of rich twentysomething friends gather together to wait out a hurricane at a party in a remote family mansion. The air is already hostile, with old fallouts and unspoken grievances rising t...

September 3, 2022 | PREVIEWS

Wildhood

Two-spirit Mi’kmaw teenager Link (Lewitski) is just discovering – and asserting – his sexuality when his already volatile home life goes off the rails. His abusive father explodes after the cops bu...

September 2, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

Do the Right Thing

Introduced by freelance writer and producer Kaleem Aftab (Wednesday 28 September only) During 24 sweltering hours in Brooklyn, tensions mount between various individuals in the multiracial communi...

September 2, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Music and Youth

Panellists: Producer/director Jonnie Turpie; Original Channel 4 Commissioner Youth/Music, Mike Bolland; Current Head of Youth and Digital Channel 4 Karl Warner; Producer The Tube, Malcolm Gerrie. ...

September 2, 2022 | CHANNEL 4
40 YEARS OF REVOLUTION