Capital Celluloid 2015 - Day 170: Fri Jun 19

The Long Good Friday (Mackenzie, 1981): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 6pm


As a precursor to the BFI Southbank's major 'London on Film season' (from July to October), the cinema have programmed an extended season featuring the restoration of this iconic and influential London gangland thriller. Full details of all the screenings here.

Tonight in NFT1 there's a special premiere screening plus a discussion with the film’s cinematographer Phil Méheux and writer Barrie Keeffe.

Chicago Reader review:
By the early 80s the British film industry was profitably turning away from the David Lean-Carol Reed “tradition of quality” to find new life in grittier styles and subjects. This transposition of an American gangster tragedy (complete with Christological references) to London's West End doesn't quite have an American drive and assurance, yet the film is fascinating for the culture gaps it opens. Bob Hoskins gives a growly, charismatic performance as the kingpin brought low by phantom forces over the course of an Easter weekend, and there's a political theme that asserts itself with nicely rising force. With Helen Mirren and Dave King; directed by John Mackenzie (1980).
Dave Kehr

Here (and above) is the trailer.

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