BFI Southbank Programme Notes

The Servant

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Adapted from a novel by Robin Maugham, The Servant was the first of three collaborations between Joseph Losey and Harold Pinter. It ...

December 9, 2021 | BOGARDE AT 100

Pale Flower

Fresh out of a stretch in prison, ageing yakuza Muraki (Ryo Ikebe) returns to an underworld he barely recognises. He becomes romantically entangled with the mysterious, beautiful Saeko (Mariko Kaga...

December 9, 2021 | JAPAN 2021
100 YEARS OF JAPANESE CINEMA

Battle Royale

Made with a cast of 35-year-old cowboys, soldiers or gangsters, Battle Royale would be no more shocking than any other post-Peckinpah bloodbath, and many violent dystopian satires – from Peter Watk...

December 9, 2021 | JAPAN 2021 AT THE BFI IMAX

The Pumpkin Eater

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. The Pumpkin Eater takes its title from the nursery rhyme: ‘Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater / Had a wife and couldn’t keep her. / He put ...

December 8, 2021 | A CLASS OF HIS OWN
THE FILMS OF JACK CLAYTON

The Passions of
Jack Clayton

Join our special guests, Melanie Williams, Neil Sinyard and Elena Lazic, to explore what made Jack Clayton one of Britain’s most distinctive auteurs. In this richly illustrated event, hosted by the...

December 8, 2021 | A CLASS OF HIS OWN
THE FILMS OF JACK CLAYTON

Gremlins

Joe Dante on ‘Gremlins’ I never happened to believe that Gremlins was a movie that scared children. That was a thing that came up when the movie was released, and there were articles in the paper....

December 8, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Boiling Point

+ Q&A with director Philip Barantini and actors Ray Panthaki, Lauryn Ajufo and Alice Feetham Actor-turned-director Philip Barantini follows his award winning short of the same name and feature...

December 8, 2021 | PREVIEW

The Tourist

+ Q&A with actors Danielle Macdonald and Shalom Brune-Franklin, writers/executive producers Harry & Jack Williams and director Chris Sweeney. From Emmy-winning and BAFTA nominated writer...

December 7, 2021 | TV PREVIEW

Tim Burton's The Nightmare before Christmas

Director Henry Selick on ‘The Nightmare before Christmas’ The film has been marketed as Tim Burton’s The Nightmare before Christmas , but you’re the director. What do you think is distinctively yo...

December 7, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

The Mezzotint

+ Q&A with director Mark Gatiss and cast members Frances Barber, Robert Bathurst and Nikesh Patel. Hosted by Matthew Sweet. ‘For sale: Interesting mezzotint: View of a manor-house, early part...

December 7, 2021 | TV PREVIEW

Titane

+ pre-recorded Q&A with director Julia Ducournau In Titane we meet Alexia (Agathe Rousselle), a showgirl who performs ferociously sexual dances at a motor show and who has a strange, erotic co...

December 6, 2021 | PREVIEW

Scrooge

Although there will always be dispute over which is Alastair Sim’s finest screen performance, there’s little doubt as to which is the best known. His 1951 characterisation of Charles Dickens’ notor...

December 6, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Doctor Who
City of Death

We are delighted to welcome actor Julian Glover, who will be joining us for a Q&A and will be doing a signing after the screening. David Fisher had impressed producer Graham Williams with his ...

December 5, 2021 | IN PERSON & PREVIEWS

A Christmas Tale

Arnaud Desplechin on ‘A Christmas Tale’ Arnaud Desplechin’s new film A Christmas Tale is another addition to the currently burgeoning French family-drama cycle, assembling a heavyweight cast whi...

December 5, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Aimee Victoria + The Multi

+ Q&A Aimee Victoria is a deaf queer love story created entirely remotely during the height of lockdown in 2020. No members of the cast or crew met in person. One of the first films to feature...

December 5, 2021 | BUSTING THE BIAS

Love + Q&A

The creative team behind Love will be discussing disability, inclusivity and diversity within the film landscape and opening up the conversation about normalising creative support throughout the in...

December 4, 2021 | BUSTING THE BIAS

It's Personal + Q&A

It’s Personal Kyla requires 24 hour care with everything from making artwork to having a wee; struggling with a care shortage during the pandemic, she asks filmmaker friend Lou to swap cameras for ...

December 4, 2021 | BUSTING THE BIAS

The Innocents

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. ‘This perfectly independent and irresponsible little fiction,’ Henry James wrote in his preface to The Turn of the Screw, ‘this so f...

December 4, 2021 | A CLASS OF HIS OWN
THE FILMS OF JACK CLAYTON

Black Rain

Masuji Ibuse’s novel, published in 1966, is doubtless the most sophisticated of the many attempts by Japanese artists to come to terms with the experience and effects of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki ...

December 4, 2021 | JAPAN 2021
100 YEARS OF JAPANESE CINEMA

Terry Pratchett's The Abominable Snow Baby

What’s it about? When a great blizzard descends on the small town of Blackbury, home to Albert and his granny, it appears to have brought a 14-foot tall Abominable Snow Baby with it! Where the loc...

December 4, 2021 | BFI FAMILIES
FUNDAY TV PREVIEW