BFI Southbank Programme Notes

The Prestige

Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman play rival master magicians on the late-19th-century stage, each competing to outdo the other both professionally and in their private lives. Director Christopher No...

January 1, 2022 | BOWIE
STARMAN AND THE SILVER SCREEN

La Grande illusion

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Truffaut considered Renoir the world’s greatest filmmaker and wrote that this classic – about WWI prisoners of war – dealt with ‘wag...

January 1, 2022 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

2001 - A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick’s cosmic sci-fi masterpiece was cited by Bowie as the inspiration for ‘Space Oddity’, his first hit. Opening with the dawn of man before voyaging to the limits of the known universe...

January 1, 2022 | HOOKED TO THE SILVER SCREEN
BOWIE AT THE MOVIES

The Shout

Jeremy Thomas on ‘The Shout’ I came back to England via a short stay in America, and a friend called Michael Austin, who has since written screenplays for Fred Zinnemann and the script of Greystok...

December 30, 2021 | TERROR VISION

Shall We Dance?

Despite having a wife, a daughter and a successful career, Shohei Sugiyama (Yakusho) is depressed. But the sight of a beautiful woman through a window inspires him to embrace a new hobby: ballroom ...

December 21, 2021 | JAPAN 2021
100 YEARS OF JAPANESE CINEMA

Fire Festival

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Mitsuo Yanagimachi is the foremost independent director of his generation in Japan, coming midway between the last of the industry-t...

December 20, 2021 | JAPAN 2021
100 YEARS OF JAPANESE CINEMA

Memento Mori

This was Jack Clayton’s last film, his first comedy, and his most critically acclaimed work since his sensational 1959 feature-film debut, Room at the Top. That same year, Muriel Spark had publishe...

December 19, 2021 | A CLASS OF HIS OWN
THE FILMS OF JACK CLAYTON

Moving

Moving talks about present-day problems in Japan. The story takes place in the town of Kyoto, a town where the richness of traditional language and a certain way of thinking in relation to human em...

December 18, 2021 | JAPAN 2021
100 YEARS OF JAPANESE CINEMA

The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On

It is tempting to annex The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On to Shohei Imamura’s filmography. Imamura suggested the project in the first place, and effected Kazuo Hara’s introduction to Kenzo Okuzak...

December 18, 2021 | JAPAN 2021
100 YEARS OF JAPANESE CINEMA

Swan Song

Writers, artists, and filmmakers have long considered the massive implications of being able to replace human life with a facsimile but while others have gone down dark alleys, Benjamin Cleary saw ...

December 17, 2021 | NEW RELEASES

After Love

Aleem Khan’s debut feature After Love scrutinises bereavement as a mental health disorder, diving into not just the sorrow but the derangement of grief. As newly widowed Mary, Joanna Scanlan offers...

December 17, 2021 | NEW RELEASES

Bridget Jones's Diary at 20

+ Q&A with director Sharon Maguire A contemporary review Bridget Jones’s Diary begins with its heroine (Renée Zellweger) casually dropping coins in a homeless couple’s cup on her way to work....

December 16, 2021 | WOMAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA
POWERED BY JAGUAR

Carol

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 lesbian love story Carol, originally a pseudonymously published million-selling pulp fiction, The Price of...

December 15, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

The Black Balloon

Today’s screening will have a pre-recorded introduction by autistic actor Jules Robertson (Holby Cit and star of new short film Love). Actor Jules Robertson (Holby City) selects this coming-of-a...

December 14, 2021 | RELAXED SCREENING

Tampopo

+ intro by Catherine Wheatley, King’s College London (Monday 13 December only) Juzo Itami and Nobuko Miyamoto talk about sex, food and death Juzo Itami was born in Kyoto in 1933. His father Mansak...

December 13, 2021 | JAPAN 2021
100 YEARS OF JAPANESE CINEMA

Philosophical Screens
Tampopo

Our regular Philosophical Screens series, which explores cinema through a philosophical lens, returns this month with a focus on one of the most genre-bending films about noodles. Join our regular ...

December 13, 2021 | JAPAN 2021
100 YEARS OF JAPANESE CINEMA

Muddy River

+ intro by season co-programmer Alexander Jacoby (Saturday 12 December only) Kôhei Oguri’s debut is a deliberately nostalgic evocation of the world of classical filmmakers such as Ozu and Shimizu....

December 12, 2021 | JAPAN 2021
100 YEARS OF JAPANESE CINEMA

It's a Wonderful Life

David Mamet on ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ In Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life the screenwriters warp an old-world vision into a populist myth. The old-world vision is Charles Dickens’ A Christmas C...

December 12, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

1970s Odd Pop and Rare Rock

The Precious Things season gives us the perfect opportunity to pore through the deeper alcoves of the archives to liberate material that would often otherwise lay unseen for decades. Today’s compil...

December 11, 2021 | THE PRECIOUS THINGS

The Great Gatsby

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Jack Clayton active involvement with The Great Gatsby began in the autumn of 1971, though his interest goes a long way further back....

December 11, 2021 | A CLASS OF HIS OWN
THE FILMS OF JACK CLAYTON