Programme Notes

BFI Southbank

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

Laika + intro

+ Q&A with Asif Kapadia Walking beneath the graffitied railway arches where the smell of spray paint lingered in the damp air on the way to the London Film Festival’s VR venue at Leake Street,...

May 12, 2022 | BFI EXPANDED

Playing with Reality + panel

+ panel discussion Co-curated by ANAGRAM and Mind in Camden With support from BFI Expanded This evening is a companion event to the UK premiere of Goliath: Playing with Reality, a powerful virtu...

May 11, 2022 | BFI EXPANDED

Vortex + intro

+ intro by Gaspar Noé Françoise Lebrun on ‘Vortex’ Do you know why Gaspar Noé called you in? Yes! He saw The Mother and the Whore and he loves that film, it really moved him. But we didn’t talk m...

May 10, 2022 | PREVIEWS

The Long Day Closes

Terence Davies wrote in the introduction to the published script for Distant Voices Still Lives that he was ‘trying to create ‘a pattern of timeless moments’.’ Yet that picture has stronger dramati...

May 9, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

High Tension

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 9, 2022 | CRUEL FLESH
FILMS OF THE NEW FRENCH EXTREMITY

Enter the Void

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 8, 2022 | FOCUS ON - GASPAR NOÉ

Syndromes and a Century

Considering the challenges it poses, Syndromes and a Century is an exceptionally easy and pleasurable watch. Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s earlier features Blissfully Yours (2002) and Tropical Malady...

May 7, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Raça

+ Q&A co-hosted by Victor Fraga, DMovies This documentary focuses on Brazil’s struggle for civil rights through the life and campaigns of men and woman from different walks of life: Paulo Paim...

May 7, 2022 | AFRICAN ODYSSEYS

In My Skin

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 7, 2022 | CRUEL FLESH
FILMS OF THE NEW FRENCH EXTREMITY

The Velvet Queen

High up on the Tibetan plateau. Amongst unexplored and inaccessible valleys lies one of the last sanctuaries of the wild world, where rare and undiscovered fauna lives. Vincent Munier, one of the w...

May 6, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

Romance

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 6, 2022 | CRUEL FLESH
FILMS OF THE NEW FRENCH EXTREMITY

Morons from Outer Space

I first saw Morons from Outer Space at the ABC cinema in Oxford on its release in 1986. I went with my family and I remember two things. That the cinema was basically empty and that I laughed harde...

May 6, 2022 | RETURN OF THE OUTSIDER
THE FILMS OF MIKE HODGES

Vampyr

The premiere of Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr took place in Berlin in May 1932 almost exactly four years after the first showing of his previous film, The Passion of Joan of Arc. After so long a wa...

May 5, 2022 | RE-RELEASES

Pola X

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 5, 2022 | CRUEL FLESH
FILMS OF THE NEW FRENCH EXTREMITY

I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Mike Hodges on ‘I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead’ The press notes describe I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead as ‘An exploration of family revenge an...

May 5, 2022 | RETURN OF THE OUTSIDER
THE FILMS OF MIKE HODGES

Pulp

Mike Hodges on ‘Pulp’ Since I first went to the cinema in the early 1950s I was always partial to B-movies. They were short, fast, black and white in every sense, and often better than the ‘A’ fil...

May 4, 2022 | RETURN OF THE OUTSIDER
THE FILMS OF MIKE HODGES

Millennium Actress

Satoshi Kon and screenwriter Sadayuki Murai on ‘Millennium Actress’ Who is Chiyoko and how did you come up with this idea that the heroine’s desperately determined wish makes her transcend time an...

May 4, 2022 | ANIME

Everything Everywhere
All at Once

+ Q&A with writer-directors Daniels Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as Daniels, Everything Everywhere All at Once is a hilarious and big-hearted sci-fi action ...

May 4, 2022 | PREVIEW

Croupier

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. To see Croupier as more writer Paul Mayersberg’s work than director Mike Hodges’ is a powerful temptation. But as Get Carter reminds...

May 4, 2022 | RE-RELEASES

FEATURED TAGS
Drama Comedy Documentary Horror Thriller Period Crime Animation Romance Sci-Fi Talks Fantasy Experimental Music Musical Adventure Talk Action Shorts Television War Biopic Western Film Noir Children Mystery Satire Melodrama Silent Gangster Sport Events Art Family Martial Arts Essay Films Road Movies Short Biblical Cinema Dance Essay Film Factual Film Martial Art Multimedia Performance Political Sci-fi Sex TALK VR