BFI Southbank Programme Notes

The Northman

The word ‘visionary’ has been grossly devalued in the world of cinema. For a long time, ‘visionary director’ has pretty much meant anyone with an excitable publicist, a sturdy CGI budget and a know...

April 22, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

Firebird

Peeter Rebane came across the story of Firebird seven years ago, through the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. There, he spoke with film critic and actor, Sergei Lavrentiev who gave him a copy of...

April 22, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

Ennio

During the five years of filming Ennio, director Giuseppe Tornatore travelled across the globe to interview over 70 renowned filmmakers and musicians about the life and work of Ennio Morricone, fro...

April 22, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

Saraband

Three decades after Scenes from a Marriage (1973), Saraband – which Ingmar Bergman has declared will be his final work – stages a rematch between that film’s stars, Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson...

April 19, 2022 | LIV ULLMANN - FACE TO FACE

I Confess

Set and filmed largely in Quebec, and exploiting the city’s architectural atmosphere, rich in the traditions of French Catholicism, I Confess is the Hitchcock film which treats most fully the relig...

April 17, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Sebastiane

The mid-1970s were not an auspicious time to launch into feature film production. In 1975 the British film industry was collapsing fast. Cinema admissions had been falling rapidly since the 50s (in...

April 16, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

The Emigrants

+ pre-recorded intro by Sarah Lutton, season programmer Lots of films purport to show us what the past was like. Jan Troell’s magnum opus invites us to live there, so all-encompassing is its inves...

April 16, 2022 | LIV ULLMANN - FACE TO FACE

Playground

Director Laura Wandel on ‘Playground’ Playground, the debut feature by Belgian writer-director Laura Wandel, was one of the discoveries of 2021, winning the Fipresci Award for the Un Certain Regar...

April 15, 2022 | NEW RELEASES

Patlabor 2

It’s 2002, three years after the events of the original film, and national stability is threatened when Tokyo is placed under martial law amid tensions between the Japanese armed forces and police....

April 15, 2022 | ANIME

The Last Temptation of Christ

Scorsese on ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ Barbara Hershey, who plays Magdalene, gave you a copy of The Last Temptation of Christ in 1972. Did you read it then and know immediately you wanted to ...

April 15, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Cowboy Bebop – The Movie

It’s 2071 and Earth has been abandoned for settlements on different moons and planets in the solar system. The spaceship Bepop is home to a group of bounty hunters who are seeking a terrorist threa...

April 14, 2022 | ANIME

Patlabor - The Movie

In a speculative 1999, and facing an oncoming typhoon, the Tokyo police force finds itself caught up in a mysterious plot involving a suicide and the suspicious reprogramming of thousands of Labors...

April 13, 2022 | ANIME

Benedetta

Paul Verhoeven interviewed by Kleber Mendonça Filho When I visited the Benedetta shoot almost four years ago in Italy, on a very hot day, the scene I saw being shot was part of the insurrection at...

April 13, 2022 | PREVIEW

The Year of the Sex Olympics

The Year of the Sex Olympics was first broadcast as part of BBC2’s Theatre 625 and provides an excellent example of writer Nigel Kneale at his most imaginative but downbeat. His earlier work, Quate...

April 12, 2022 | NIGHTMARES & DAYDREAMS
A CENTENARY CELEBRATION OF SCREENWRITER NIGEL KNEALE

Royal Space Force
The Wings of Honneamise

Contains explicit imagery of sexual violence. In an alternative world we follow a would-be astronaut as he joins a small, disenfranchised group, the Royal Space Force. Known as much for its troubl...

April 12, 2022 | ANIME

Quatermass and the Pit

The third series – and perhaps the best – featuring Nigel Kneale’s hugely successful creation, the steadfast scientific genius Professor Bernard Quatermass, Quatermass and the Pit (BBC) was also th...

April 11, 2022 | NIGHTMARES & DAYDREAMS
A CENTENARY CELEBRATION OF SCREENWRITER NIGEL KNEALE

The Gospel According to Matthew

Although Pier Paolo Pasolini’s film The Gospel According to Matthew (Il Vangelo secondo Matteo) is habitually praised as a key work both of the director’s oeuvre and of world cinema as a whole, sma...

April 11, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Worzel Gummidge Restoration Screening

We are delighted to announce that the guests at this event will include actors Mike Berry, Lorraine Chase and Jeremy Austin Bullock. With renewed interest in Worzel Gummidge thanks to Mackenzie Cr...

April 10, 2022 | IN PERSON & PREVIEWS

Scenes from a Marriage

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Originally a six-part TV miniseries, Scenes from a Marriage was subsequently edited into this feature-length cinema version. Created...

April 10, 2022 | LIV ULLMANN - FACE TO FACE

The New World

This singular vision of early 17th-century America from Terrence Malick is a work of astounding elemental beauty, a poetic meditation on nature, violence, love, and civilisation. It reimagines the...

April 10, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

The Northman

Firebird

Ennio

Saraband

I Confess

Sebastiane

The Emigrants

Playground

Patlabor 2

The Last Temptation of Christ

Cowboy Bebop – The Movie

Patlabor - The Movie

Benedetta

The Year of the Sex Olympics

Royal Space Force The Wings of Honneamise

Quatermass and the Pit

The Gospel According to Matthew

Worzel Gummidge Restoration Screening

Scenes from a Marriage

The New World

FEATURED TAGS

Royal Space Force
The Wings of Honneamise