Programme Notes

BFI Southbank

L'Argent

Where L’Herbier’s L’Argent began with the stock exchange, Bresson’s starts from the very opposite end of the financial spectrum: with a schoolboy who gets too little pocket money, whose father is t...

June 5, 2022 | OF SIN AND SALVATION
THE CINEMA OF ROBERT BRESSON

A Man Escaped

The subject is simple. It comes from an escape story by a member of the French secret service called André Devigny. In 1943 he was arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo at Lyons. He made an atte...

June 4, 2022 | OF SIN AND SALVATION
THE CINEMA OF ROBERT BRESSON

Au hasard Balthazar

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Contemporary reviews After the impurities and simplifications of Proces de Jeanne d’Arc, Au hasard Balthazar is a welcome return to ...

June 4, 2022 | OF SIN AND SALVATION
THE CINEMA OF ROBERT BRESSON

The Wizard of Oz

What’s it about? Our Judy Garland season provides us with the perfect opportunity to travel with Dorothy, somewhere over the rainbow, from monochrome Kansas to the multi-coloured land of Oz. With t...

June 3, 2022 | BFI FAMILIES

Mouchette

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. After the manifold splendours of Balthazar, Mouchette seems an altogether thinner experience, exquisite but frail, as though Bresso...

June 3, 2022 | OF SIN AND SALVATION
THE CINEMA OF ROBERT BRESSON

Meet Me in St. Louis

The closer you look at most famous Hollywood productions, the harder it is to see how they turned out all right – let alone to believe that anyone was in charge. Just as on any set the crew trusts ...

June 3, 2022 | JUDY GARLAND - A STAR IS REBORN

The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty

Sent off during a match in Vienna, a German goalkeeper (Arthur Brauss) leaves the stadium, wanders around the city, visits a cinema and ends up committing a wholly unexpected murder… Wenders – a Br...

June 3, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Les Dames
du Bois de Boulogne

Based on an anecdote in Denis Diderot’s novel Jacques le fataliste, this tale of sexual rivalry and revenge boasts glittering dialogue by Jean Cocteau and a magnificent performance by Maria Casarès...

June 3, 2022 | OF SIN AND SALVATION
THE CINEMA OF ROBERT BRESSON

Les Anges du péché

Les Affaires publiques Please note: The film author asks you to excuse the fact that he agreed to cut certain scenes from this film. It was his first film. Three songs were judged to be too extrav...

June 3, 2022 | OF SIN AND SALVATION
THE CINEMA OF ROBERT BRESSON

Ivan's Childhood

Tarkovsky’s first feature – about a Soviet teenager engaged in espionage missions on the German front during World War Two – is also one of his finest: visually impressive, emotionally direct, esch...

June 2, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Diary of a Country Priest

This portrait of an ailing young curate haunted by his perceived failures in saving human souls is something of a transitional work; the literary script (from a novel by Georges Bernanos) is played...

June 2, 2022 | OF SIN AND SALVATION
THE CINEMA OF ROBERT BRESSON

The Merchant of Four Seasons

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Fassbinder was influenced by a range of aesthetic practices, but this chronicle of the downward spiral of a would-be-engineer-turned...

June 1, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Judy Garland
20th Century Icon

Launching our Judy Garland season, this illustrated talk by season programmer Emma Smart – followed by a panel of guest experts – will take you through the films selected, exploring Garland’s extra...

June 1, 2022 | JUDY GARLAND - A STAR IS REBORN

Frequencies

+ intro and discussion. This enigmatic sci-fi is set in an alternative reality where frequencies emitted by the human brain determine future outcomes. The very existence of free will is question...

May 30, 2022 | RELAXED SCREENING

Martyrs

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 28, 2022 | CRUEL FLESH
FILMS OF THE NEW FRENCH EXTREMITY

Ms .45

After being sexually assaulted twice in one day, Thana, a non-speaking seamstress, is left terrified and traumatised. Arming herself with the .45 caliber pistol of her second attacker, Thana soon e...

May 27, 2022 | TERROR VISION

East Palace, West Palace

+ intro by Chris Berry, Professor of Film Studies, King’s College London Zhang Yuan on ‘East Palace, West Palace’ Zhang Yuan isn’t gay, but he’s been planning to make a ‘gay film’ for some time. H...

May 27, 2022 | QUEER EAST

The Quiet Girl

This sensitive adaptation of Claire Keegan’s acclaimed short story ‘Foster’ follows a quiet, neglected girl as she’s sent away from her dysfunctional family to live with foster parents for the summ...

May 21, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

Irreversible

In his introduction to the Edinburgh screening of Irreversible, writer/director Gaspar Noé told the audience that certain scenes may prove unwatchable, but asked them to stick with it, joking that...

May 21, 2022 | CRUEL FLESH
FILMS OF THE NEW FRENCH EXTREMITY

Dandelion Dead

Mike Hodges: I agreed to do Dandelion Dead because of the script – it’s witty, wicked and black. Reading a script is one thing, shooting it is another. I am a fast director but I had to be faster ...

May 21, 2022 | RETURN OF THE OUTSIDER
THE FILMS OF MIKE HODGES

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