BFI Southbank Programme Notes

Aguirre, Wrath of God

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. All Werner Herzog’s fictions evince a fascination with the mechanisms of human madness – especially those engendered by the will to ...

April 2, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

A Night of Knowing Nothing

Winner of the Golden Eye for Best Documentary at Cannes 2021, A Night of Knowing Nothing is the bold and distinctive feature debut from acclaimed shorts filmmaker Payal Kapadia. Framed by fictional...

April 1, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

Cries and Whispers

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. The first voices to be heard in Cries and Whispers are those of an army of clocks, muttering and chiming in a litany of comment at t...

April 1, 2022 | RE-RELEASES

Babette’s Feast

Towards the end of Isak Dinesen’s story, when the two Puritan sisters realise that the magnificent meal they have just been seduced into enjoying has cost the unheard of sum of 10,000 francs, that ...

April 1, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Belle

The roots of Belle, Mamoru Hosoda’s electrifying tale of human connection in an increasingly online world, can be traced back almost 30 years. Animation can be a punishing profession, and a young H...

March 31, 2022 | ANIME

When Marnie Was There

Joan G. Robinson’s 1967 children’s classic When Marnie Was There – the story of a solitary and brooding London orphan called Anna who is sent to stay with family friends for a summer on the north N...

March 29, 2022 | ANIME

Persona

What is emotionally darkest in Bergman’s film is connected particularly with a sub-theme of the main theme of doubling: the contrast between hiding or concealing and showing forth. The Latin word p...

March 29, 2022 | LIV ULLMANN - FACE TO FACE

Oska Bright Lights

Learning-disability film culture is rich with ideas, stories and imagination. But with less than 5% of disabled people working in the UK film industry, getting the work made and seen is a challen...

March 29, 2022 | RELAXED SCREENING

Lourdes

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. ‘You have to remember it’s a fairytale,’ says Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner about her new feature Lourdes. It’s a disarming rem...

March 29, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Hive

Hive is a powerful drama based on the true story of Fahrije (Yllka Gashi) who, like many of the other women in her patriarchal village, has lived with fading hope and burgeoning grief since her hus...

March 29, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

The Worst Person in the World

Joachim Trier on ‘The Worst Person in the World’ What is the genesis for this film? My previous film, Thelma, was a genre movie, which had more to do with suspense and the supernatural and about ...

March 28, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

Spirited Away

Spirited Away, a Japanese animated fantasy about a little girl’s adventures in a realm of gods and monsters, invites comparisons to the Alice books, The Wizard of Oz and even Harry Potter. First a...

March 28, 2022 | ANIME

Paris, 13th District

Jacques Audiard is often thought of as making very male films; he’s also widely considered a quintessentially French director (which is sometimes more or less equivalent to saying: a white one). Bu...

March 28, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

Olga

Director Elie Grappe on ‘Olga’ Late 2015, after directing a short film on ballet dancing, I co-directed a documentary on an orchestra, being familiar with the world of the Conservatoire (music aca...

March 28, 2022 | PREVIEW

Léon Morin, prêtre

Between Le Silence de la mer and Léon Morin, prêtre, Melville’s career had had its ups and downs. Quand tu liras cette lettre… had done well commercially but not critically, Bob le flambeur and Deu...

March 28, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Hostile

+ director Sonita Gale in conversation with musician and Executive Producer Nitin Sawhney Hostile is first-time filmmaker Sonita Gale’s exploration of the ‘hostile environment’ policy, offering a ...

March 15, 2022 | THE CAMERA IS OURS
BRITAIN’S WOMEN DOCUMENTARY MAKERS

The Phantom of the Open

+ Q&A with director Craig Roberts and writer Simon Farnaby At the age of 46, happy-go-lucky crane operator and all-round lovable family man Maurice Flitcroft (Mark Rylance) feels it’s time to ...

March 14, 2022 | PREVIEWS

From Birth-Day to Something Nice to Eat
Restoration Programme 2

Introduced by BFI curator Ros Cranston. Please note: Birth-Day includes dialogue that reflects harmful racist views. There’s some splendid ‘mansplaining’ in Birth-Day, a public information film b...

March 14, 2022 | THE CAMERA IS OURS
BRITAIN’S WOMEN DOCUMENTARY MAKERS

Somersault

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Although its story of a troubled young girl looking for intimacy through sex is familiar, Cate Shortland’s first feature is distingu...

March 11, 2022 | SEEN & HEARD

The Hermit of Treig

We are delighted to welcome director Lizzie MacKenzie for a Q&A hosted by Jane Ray, Artistic Director for The Whickers and a multi-award winning documentary maker and executive producer in radi...

March 11, 2022 | THE CAMERA IS OURS
BRITAIN’S WOMEN DOCUMENTARY MAKERS