BFI Southbank Programme Notes

Saint Maud

+ Q&A with director Rose Glass To really tap into the deeper anxieties of modern life, an inward journey is needed, an introspective examination of what it means to be human, to be desperate, ...

September 2, 2021 | NFTS AT 50

Double Indemnity

‘It has all the characteristics of the classic forties film as I respond to it. It’s in black and white, it has fast badinage, it’s very witty, a story from the classic age. It has Edward G. Robins...

September 2, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

The Stranger

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away the film’s ending. The ugly duckling of Orson Welles’ wayward career, The Stranger was the director’s attempt to prove to increasingly sceptical paym...

September 1, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Prisoners

A critical and commercial success, Prisoners saw Denis Villeneuve bring his taut, powerful storytelling style to Hollywood. Detective Loki (Gyllenhaal), who prides himself on never leaving a case u...

September 1, 2021 | DENIS VILLENEUVE
THE PATH TO DUNE

Enemy

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. ‘Chaos is order yet undeciphered.’ Spoken in a conversation that is otherwise not included in Denis Villeneuve’s deeply beguiling ad...

September 1, 2021 | DENIS VILLENEUVE
THE PATH TO DUNE

Sapphire

Reuniting Cameron with director Basil Dearden after Pool of London, and hastened into production following the Notting Hill riots of summer 1958, Sapphire continued Dearden and producer Michael Rel...

August 28, 2021 | EARL CAMERON

Souad

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Movies about suicide too often make it seem as if their protagonists’ every action leads inevitably toward that end, as if they’re n...

August 27, 2021 | NEW RELEASES

Stand Clear of the
Closing Doors

Before the films Benjamin Brown, series curator, will introduce the programme and pre-recorded introductions from the directors. Showing the city through a documentary-like lens, the film follows ...

August 24, 2021 | RELAXED SCREENING

Souad

+ pre-recorded Q&A with director Ayten Amin SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Movies about suicide too often make it seem as if their protagonists’ every action ...

August 24, 2021 | WOMAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA
POWERED BY JAGUAR

The Nanny

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. It would not be too fanciful to see The Nanny as Hammer’s horror version of Mary Poppins (1964). Its eponymous heroine is actually ...

August 24, 2021 | BETTE DAVIS – HOLLYWOOD REBEL

Vigil

+ Q&A with cast Suranne Jones and Shaun Evans, and writer and creator Tom Edge. Hosted by broadcaster Edith Bowman. When a crew member is found dead on board the Trident nuclear submarine HMS ...

August 23, 2021 | BFI & RADIO TIMES TELEVISION FESTIVAL PRESENTS
TV PREVIEW

The Watcher in the Woods

What’s it about? Disney’s supernatural family thriller sees an American family move into a manor in the English countryside. The owner (Davis) now lives in a house next door and notices a resemblan...

August 22, 2021 | BFI FAMILIES

Cinema Paradiso

Over the years, it became commonplace for Morricone’s scores to be the best thing about a film or programme, whether it was the delicate ‘Chi Mai’ for Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s Maddalena (1971) or the p...

August 21, 2021 | MORRICONE

Ailey

+ pre-recorded Q&A with director Jamila Wignot The multi-hyphenate dancer, choreographer, director Alvin Ailey gets the documentary treatment from director Jamila Wignot. Premiering at S.O.U.L...

August 21, 2021 | S.O.U.L. FEST 2021

Rebel Dread

+ Pre-recorded Q&A with Don Letts S.O.U.L Fest 2021 are proud to present the first UK festival screening of Rebel Dread, the story of Don Letts, the iconic cultural mover and shaker, filmmaker...

August 20, 2021 | S.O.U.L. FEST 2021

Dead Ringer

A pair of estranged identical twins reunite after 18 years apart, having both fallen out over the same man. One is wealthy and the other is financially struggling, but any hope of a reconciliation ...

August 20, 2021 | BETTE DAVIS – HOLLYWOOD REBEL

Censor

Censor has its roots in the 2015 short Nasty, which Prano Bailey-Bond pitched to the BFI Short Film Fund as a pilot for her feature. The BFI funding never came through, but the short progressed non...

August 20, 2021 | NEW RELEASES

Big Wednesday

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Near the conclusion of Big Wednesday, an awed young surfer stares out at a fearsome swell – waves like crumbling tower blocks. ‘It’...

August 19, 2021 | BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

Once upon a Time in America

In between shooting Once upon a Time in the West (1968) and A Fistful of Dynamite (1971), Leone fell in love with a 400-page novel about Jewish gangsters, The Hoods. Harry Grey, the author’s pseudo...

August 17, 2021 | MORRICONE

Great Noises That Fill the Air

Tonight’s DVD launch event will include a post-screening conversation between cultural producer, writer and musician Chardine Taylor Stone and journalist, broadcaster and author Kevin Le Gendre. T...

August 16, 2021 | DVD LAUNCH

Saint Maud

Double Indemnity

The Stranger

Prisoners

Enemy

Sapphire

Souad

Stand Clear of the Closing Doors

Souad

The Nanny

Vigil

The Watcher in the Woods

Cinema Paradiso

Ailey

Rebel Dread

Dead Ringer

Censor

Big Wednesday

Once upon a Time in America

Great Noises That Fill the Air

FEATURED TAGS

Stand Clear of the
Closing Doors