Capital Celluloid 2026 — Day 146: Tue May 26

The Cannibals (Cavani, 1970): BFI Southbank, NFT3, 6.25pm


This is the UK premiere of the 4K restoration of the film. 

BFI introduction:
The corpses of the opponents of a tyrannical regime fill the streets of Milan – left unburied by the repressive state as a warning to the population. Amid indifference, a modern-day Antigone finds help from an enigmatic stranger to bury her brother. Filmed in the revolutionary climate of post-’68 Milan by a filmmaker who made a profound mark on the history of cinema, this tale of resistance against totalitarianism revisits Greek dramatist Sophocles, resulting in a chillingly relevant and provocative work.

Time Out review:
Made directly after Galileo, whose strengths director Liliana Cavani enlarges and develops, this also postulates a primacy of human and emotional response over the nihilism of The Night Porter (made four years later). In this modern day reworking of Antigone, Cavani's striking visual sense illuminates her subject sufficiently to overcome doubts about some of the '60s conceits. Where she manages to evoke her Fascist state as exceptionally normal, the film works exceptionally well.
Verna Glaesner

Here (and above) is the trailer.

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