BFI Southbank Programme Notes

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

Lux Æterna

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 20, 2022 | FOCUS ON - GASPAR NOÉ

The Incredible Shrinking Man

A landmark sci-fi classic with a superb script by Richard Matheson, this examines the protagonist’s changing relationship with his wife and his immediate environment when he starts diminishing in s...

May 19, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Grave of the Fireflies

In March 1945, as the Pacific War entered its endgame, the United States launched a concerted campaign to destroy Japan’s cities with fire. The stated aim was to cripple the country’s industrial ba...

May 19, 2022 | ANIME

Tempo

Hodges succeeded Kenneth Tynan as producer of Tempo, ITV’s arts programme. He switched its largely studio-based output to 16mm film and launched three series: Tempo Profiles; Tempo Entertainers; T...

May 17, 2022 | RETURN OF THE OUTSIDER
THE FILMS OF MIKE HODGES

Little Miss Sunshine

‘This is one of the first films I remember watching… It’s full of heart, deliriously funny, and the cast is superb’. Claire Cho, BFI member When the Hoover family discover that young Olive (Abigai...

May 17, 2022 | MEMBER PICKS

Them

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 16, 2022 | CRUEL FLESH
FILMS OF THE NEW FRENCH EXTREMITY

Modern Times

+ intro SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. This sound/silent hybrid is Chaplin’s last non-dialogue film and a farewell to the little tramp character. Its satirical ...

May 15, 2022 | SILENT CINEMA

Wolf Children

Japanese animated fantasy Wolf Children comes to Britain weeks after Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) announced his retirement from filmmaking. On the evidence of this film (bolstered by two excellen...

May 14, 2022 | ANIME

To Die For

+ intro by Hannah Strong SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Nicole Kidman plays Suzanne not merely as a bimbo, but as a woman who has concentrated down to one obsessi...

May 14, 2022 | WOMAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA

Inside

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 14, 2022 | CRUEL FLESH
FILMS OF THE NEW FRENCH EXTREMITY

Cléo from 5 to 7

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Agnès Varda came up the hard way. Starting as official photographer for the Théâtre National Populaire, she somehow managed to finan...

May 14, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Vortex

Gaspar Noé on ‘Vortex’ What was the origin of Vortex ? I’ve been wanting to make a film with elderly people for several years. With my grandparents, then with my mother, I realised that old age in...

May 13, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

Les Parapluies de Cherbourg enjoys a legendary place as an all-but-unique curiosity in French cinema – the film for which the epithet ‘bittersweet’ was invented, less a musical (though French examp...

May 13, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Frequencies

Martyrs

Ms .45

East Palace, West Palace

The Quiet Girl

Irreversible

Dandelion Dead

Lux Æterna

The Incredible Shrinking Man

Grave of the Fireflies

Tempo

Little Miss Sunshine

Them

Modern Times

Wolf Children

To Die For

Inside

Cléo from 5 to 7

Vortex

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

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