This film, presented in a new 4K restoration, also screens on September 9th, 19th and 26th. You can find all the details here.
Time Out review: Although
the ending is a bit of a cop out from a feminist point of view, Martin
Scorsese's warm and witty blending of the road movie with the
conventions of the women's weepie is a delight. Ellen Burstyn is
excellent as the eponymous heroine who, following the death of a husband
she barely loved, sets off for the Monterey of her childhood with hopes
of reviving her abandoned singing career. Her encounters, and those of
her precociously witty 12-year old son, are observed with great
generosity and a raw realism, while Scorsese typically makes wonderful
use of music to underline character and situation. Bitter-sweet and very
charming. Geoff Andrew
This is part of the Claude Chabrol season at BFI Southbank with the film being introduced by critic Geoff Andrew. Other screenings of the film
(September 5th and October 4th) during the season are
detailed here.
Chicago Reader review: Claude Chabrol’s 1969 adaptation of Nicholas Blake’s thriller The Beast Must Die.
Michel Duchaussoy and Jean Yanne star in a tale of a father obsessed
with discovering and murdering the hit-and-run killer of his son. One of
Chabrol’s most affecting, and chilling, studies of middle-class guilt
and the parameters of retribution. Not to be missed. Don Druker
This 35mm screening of a superb and rarely seen western is part of the Harry Dean Stanton season and is also being shown on September 16th (details here).
Time Out review: A wonderfully quirky Western, brilliantly scripted by Thomas McGuane, which strips all the cute whimsy away from the Butch Cassidy
theme (outlaws on the run from a relentless lawman), replacing it with a
kind of pixillated terror. Playing the 'regulator' as a camp Buffalo
Bill with an Irish accent, Marlon Brando makes his entrance playing peekaboo
from behind his horse, and at one point even stalks his prey in a dress
and poke bonnet. But he is also a legalised killer, expert with a rifle
but preferring (as the flail of God) to use a harpoon shaped like a
crucifix. And as his gloating sadism shades into hints of bizarre
perversion when he dedicates a love song and a kiss to his horse, the
tone gradually darkens to a kind of horror. It's one of the few truly
major Westerns of the '70s, with a very clear vision of the historical
role played by fear and violence in the taming of the wilderness. Tom Milne
This is part of the Claude Chabrol season at BFI Southbank. Other screenings of the film
(September 10th and 29th) during the season are
detailed here.
Chicago Reader review: Yet another facet of Claude Chabrol’s view of the bourgeois life as a
facade behind which lurk extravagant, destructive, and often totally
ridiculous passions (1974). Like his idol Alfred Hitchcock, Chabrol
loves to work variations on the disintegration of an ordered world; but
unlike Hitchcock, who keeps his order and his chaos neatly separated,
Chabrol concentrates more on character, so that when the bottom drops
out, it does so precisely and inevitably. Stephane Audran and Michel
Piccoli star as adulterous lovers who never manage to realize that
there’s an easier way out of their predicament than murder. A smashing
work from a master craftsman. Dan Druker
Described by Spike Lee as "one of the most underappreciated filmmakers of his time", African-American playwright turned actor-writer-director Bill Gunn’s radical 1973 vampire movie Ganja & Hess returns as part of the Rio Forever celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the cinema in its current form.
Ashley Clark, the curatorial director at Criterion and the author of The World of Black Film: A
Journey Through Cinematic Blackness in 100 Films, will be online from New York and will be discussing Gunn’s masterpiece with local filmmaker Dionne
Edwards, who will host the screening in person.
Time Out review: Bill Gunn's film maudit was the most
ambitious 'black movie' of its day and a milestone for indie film-making
in the US. Opening captions explain that academic Dr Hess Green (Duane Jones,
Night of the Living Dead) has been invulnerable and addicted to
blood since being stabbed (in a parody of Catholic dogma) with a dagger
from 'the ancient Black civilisation of Myrthia'. Affluent and (thanks
to discreet raids on a local blood-bank) comfortable, he avoids
murdering for sustenance until stuck with a new assistant (Gunn), who
turns out to be a suicidal alcoholic. Deliberately fragmented and
punctuated with disquieting cutaways to art works, the film charts his
growing sense that he is afflicted with a curse, across his marriage to
his assistant's widow Ganja (Marlene Clark) and his provision of a stud-victim
to feed her 'hunger'. Theological musings jostle with sexual-visceral
imagery in a mix which is still very potent. Tony Rayns
Lost Reels All Day Film Event: Women on the Edge, Cinema Museum, 12.30pm-10.30pm 12:30pm: Butterfly Kiss (1995) dir. Michael Winterbottom + Q&A with producer Julie Baines
A one-of-a-kind serial killer lesbian love story set in the anonymous
motorways and service stations cafés of Northern England. A heady
cocktail of road movie, psychodrama, black comedy, and religious
allegory as we follow unpredictable schizophrenic Eunice (Amanda
Plummer) wandering through petrol stations in search of a mysterious
woman named Judith. Miriam (Saskia Reeves), her hard of hearing and
hopelessly in love companion, joins her on the road, becoming her lover,
caretaker, and murderous assistant. Compared to Thelma and Louise and Natural Born Killers,
Michael Winterbottom’s debut feature is a dreamlike, downbeat British
film – a jarringly uncomfortable ride through a British landscape rarely
travelled.
********************************************************************* 2.50pm: Safe (1995)35mm dir. Todd Haynes
A Todd Haynes masterpiece about middle-class suburban housewife Carol
(Julianne Moore), who contracts a mystery illness and gradually
descends into sickness and possibly madness. Described by Haynes as a “horror movie of the soul,” Carol’s
unexciting passionless existence is disrupted when she becomes
increasingly afflicted by the sounds, odours, and chemical substances of
her contemporary Los Angeles life. Haynes tracks her degeneration in
calmly distanced, perfectly composed scenes, recalling the work of
Stanley Kubrick. In Safe, everything is open to interpretation.
The ambiguous nature of Carol’s affliction and lack of concrete
solutions slowly increase our uncertainty and horror.
************************************************************************** 6pm: Girlfight (2000)35mm dir. Karyn Kusama + online Q&A with Karyn Kusama
Karyn Kusama’s debut feature follows a rebellious Latina teenager (a
star-making turn for Michelle Rodriguez) who channels her aggression
into boxing. It successfully combines urban social drama, romance,
coming-of-age, and sports action to create a rewarding, uplifting, and
emotionally satisfying whole. Inner-city locations and boxing sequences are shot with gritty
authenticity, based on Kusama’s own experiences. The performances are
first rate, particularly Rodriguez (who at times resembles a young
Brando) and Jaime Tirelli as her trainer and surrogate father, Hector. ************************************************************************** 8.30pm: Kissed (1996)35mm dir. Lynne Stopkewich + Guest Introduction
A hauntingly beautiful and breathlessly romantic film about
necrophilia is a tricky proposition, but that’s exactly what
writer-director Lynne Stopkewich delivers. The film concerns a young woman, Sandra (Molly Parker) who is
fascinated by death. As a child she dances around the bodies of dead
animals and as an adult studies biology, taking a job at a funeral home
to be near the recently deceased. She studies embalming, eventually
consummating her forbidden passion. Sharing her secret with Matt (Peter
Outerbridge), they embark on a doomed romance. Kissed is filled with jaw-dropping surprises among them a squirm-inducing embalming session with her creepy mortician boss.
A one-off event this one even for the most committed James Bond fan.
Event introduction: Following the recent celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of GoldenEye, and as Casino Royale
celebrates its landmark 20th anniversary, there has never been a more
fitting moment to celebrate the extraordinary filmmaker responsible for
introducing not one, but two James Bonds to the world.
007GB – The British James Bond Fan Club is absolutely delighted to welcome in person at OPERATION: ROYALE, acclaimed director Martin Campbell as the 2026 recipient of a Bond & Beyond Lifetime Achievement Award, recognising his outstanding contribution not only to the James Bond franchise, but to cinema as a whole.
Exclusive access to “In Conversation with Martin Campbell” and audience Q&A
Presentation of a Bond & Beyond Lifetime Achievement Award
Martin Campbell introducing a special 20th anniversary screening of Casino Royale
Screening of Casino Royale in Olympic Studios’ luxurious screening room
Complimentary popcorn and bottled water provided at each seat
Exclusive Champagne & Canapé reception following the screening (included in ticket price)
Guest stars in attendance
Opportunity to meet fellow James Bond enthusiasts from across the UK and beyond
Limited professional red carpet photo and autograph opportunities available as paid add-ons
Associated fundraising activities in support of UNICEF
Indicative timeline:
12:00pm – Guest arrival & registration opens
12:30pm – Guests begin taking their seats
1:00pm – Martin Campbell: In Conversation
2:00pm – Bond & Beyond Lifetime Achievement Award presentation
2:30pm – Casino Royale 20th Anniversary Screening, introduced by Martin Campbell
5:00pm – Champagne & Canapés Reception (included in ticket price)
5:15pm – Pre-booked Red Carpet Photo Opportunities
6:30pm – Autograph Signing Session
8:00pm – Charity Raffle & Auction in support of UNICEF
9:00pm – Social Bonding continues & opportunity to mingle with Martin Campbell, special guests and fellow Bond enthusiasts
11:30pm – Event Close
Time Out review: Bond: ‘A vodka martini, please.’ Casino barman: ‘Shaken or stirred?’
Bond: ‘Do I look like I give a damn?’ It’s a sharp and knowing line –
probably penned by Paul Haggis, the talented, final scriptwriter of this
highly enjoyable ‘back-to-basics re-boot’ of the 007 franchise – that
not only simultaneously acknowledges and confounds audience
expectations, but also neatly confirms that Daniel Craig’s intriguing and charismatic tyro agent is cut from quite different cloth to his Savile Row-tailored predecessors. Ian
Fleming’s titular 1953 Cold-War source novel presented a proto-Bond;
and it’s interesting how much licence Martin Campbell’s confidently directed
action thriller takes with it. Gone is the RN commander; as the jagged,
handheld, monochrome opening sequence of Craig drowning his first ‘kill’
in a blood-strewn public toilet shows, this Bond’s a tough,
no-nonsense, Mondeo-driving product of the ‘who dares wins’ SAS school
rather than the snobby naval wardroom, and he has some of the social
contempt as well as the pumping thighs, bulging pecs and inflated ego to
prove it. Cobra-baiting in Madagascar, car-chases in Nassau,
Montenegro, Miami – there’s enough globe-trotting to please the purists.
But, notwithstanding the fine CGI/special effects, best used in the
climactic set-piece involving a disintegating Venetian palazzo, Campbell
has cut down the gadgets and gizmos (not to mention ‘Q’) to inject some
needed ‘realismo’ back into the action sequences, steering a neat line
between romance and thrills. Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd – a government accountant assigned to keep an eye on the millions Bond stakes in the crucial poker game with Mads Mikkelsen’s
pleasingly sadistic terrorist-banker, Le Chiffre – proves a sexy
sparring equal to the increasingly smitten and vulnerable Bond, having
been donated an audacious amount of screen time. The politics are coy,
David Arnold’s score is maybe underwhelming and Phil Meheux’s
cinematography merely efficient, but otherwise ‘Casino Royale’ kicks new
life (literally as well as metaphorically) into the ageing hero. Wally Hammond
This digital restoration is the centrepiece of the Claude Chabrol seasonOther screenings of the film, which is on an extended run during the season, are
detailed here.
Chicago Reader review: Claude Chabrol’s richly ironic 1969 melodrama, in which it is shown that
nothing revitalizes a dried-up marriage quite like murder. Not the
least of the ironies is that the point is made sincerely and
responsibly: when the film’s smug, tubby hero kills his wife’s lover, he
genuinely becomes a richer, worthier individual. The observation of
bourgeois life (as practiced in France, where it was perfected) is so
sharp and funny that the film often feels like satire, yet its
fundamental seriousness emerges in a magnificent last act, and an
unforgettable last shot. Dave Kehr
This is part of the Claude Chabrol season and features an introduction
by season curator Catherine Wheatley. Another screenings of the film (on September 19th) during the season is detailed here.
Time Out review: Here Claude Chabrol inaugurates a new genre, the theological thriller. Charles
(Anthony Perkins at his most charismatically unstable) wakes from a dream of
Creation to find himself with blood on his hands. He turns for help to
his erstwhile professor of philosophy (Michel Piccoli), and persuades him back
to the Van Horn country estate to use his 'Logic of Science' in sorting
out the family mess. The estate is a 1925 dream engineered by Charles'
adoptive father Theo Van Horn (Orson Welles), who is worshipped by his
child-bride (Marlene Jobert), and sculpted as Jupiter by the awed Charles.
Chabrol's movies, echoing Fritz Lang's, have long been edging towards a
confrontation with the theme of Fate. This is it. Theo Van Horn chooses
to play God, creating his own world, dictating the behaviour of those he
places in it, taking care to add flaws to his creation to keep it
breathing. But God hasn't reckoned with his own capacity for
imperfection, for such shining qualities as jealousy, hatred, revenge;
so he comes to his own grief, faced with the lonely fact that his
creation is a nine-day wonder... Chabrol's movies grow less and less
like anyone else's; this is one worth seeing again and again. Tony Rayns
This is part of the Claude Chabrol season and features an introduction by season curator Catherine Wheatley. Other screenings of the film (September 21st and 25th and October 4th and 6th) during the season are detailed here.
Time Out review: Classically simple but relentlessly probing thriller, set in a French village shadowed by the presence of a compulsive killer. Some lovely Hitchcockian games, like the strange ketchup that drips onto a picnic hamburger from a clifftop where the latest victim has been claimed. But also more secretive pointers to social circumstance and the 'exchange of guilt' as Stephane Audran's starchy schoolmistress finds herself irresistibly drawn to the ex-army butcher she suspects of being the killer: the fact, for instance, that alongside the killer as he keeps vigil outside the schoolhouse, a war memorial stands sentinel with its reminder of society's dead and maimed. With this film Claude Chabrol came full circle back to his first, echoing not only the minutely detailed provincial landscape of Le Beau Serge but its theme of redemption. The impasse here, a strangely moving tragedy, is that there is no way for the terrified teacher, bred to civilised restraints, to understand that her primeval butcher may have been reclaimed by his love for her. Tom Milne
Marking the reopening of the refurbished Ciné Lumière under the
auspices of its figurehead, Kristin Scott Thomas, and the 30th
anniversary of the release of The English Patient, the
screening on 8 Sept at 18.30 will be preceded by an extended
introduction by lead actors Kristin Scott Thomas and Ralph Fiennes.
Time Out review: Tuscany, as the Allies pursue the Germans north at the end of WWII:
traumatised by loss and carnage, Canadian nurse Hana (Juliette Binoche) decides
to stay behind in an abandoned, bombed monastery and care for her dying
patient (Ralph Fiennes). He seems to recall little of his life, but when
Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe), a vengeful, morphine-addicted thief, turns up and
quizzes him over past dark secrets, and as Hana reads from his beloved
Herodotos, memories return of the pre-war years when, as an
archaeologist/cartographer in the Sahara, he had a passionate affair
with Katharine (Kristin Scott Thomas), wife of a British colleague. Though Anthony Minghella's
adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's novel simplifies, jettisons and
changes certain elements of the original story, it remains a rich,
complex, entrancing piece of work. Part poignant romance, part
suspenseful adventure, part enigmatic mystery, it's essentially a study
in different responses to love and war, honour and betrayal, nationality
and identity, falsehood and forgiveness, which sounds subtle echoes as
the narrative flashes to and fro between two main time frames. Needless
to say, the performances are flawless; more surprising is the fluency,
poetry and scale of Minghella's direction (John Seale's sensuous desert
photography is superb), equally eloquent whether depicting boudoir
intimacies, bomb-disposal skills, drunken dementia or a deadly
sandstorm. Geoff Andrew
Chicago Reader review: Along with The Man Who Would Be King and The Dead, this is
arguably John Huston's best literary adaptation, and conceivably his
very best film—a very close rendering of Flannery O'Connor's remarkable
first novel about a crazed southern cracker (a perfectly cast Brad
Dourif) who sets out to preach a “church without Christ,” and winds up
suffering a true Christian martyrdom in spite of himself. The period,
local ambience, and O'Connor's deadly gallows humor are all perfectly
caught, and apart from the subtle if highly pertinent fact that this is
an unbeliever's version of a believer's novel, it's about as faithful a
version of O'Connor's grotesque world as one could ever hope to get on
film, hilarious and frightening in equal measure. O'Connor conceived her
novel as a parody of existentialism, and Huston's own links with
existentialism—as the director of the first U.S. stage production of No Exit, as well as Sartre's Freud
script—make him an able interpreter. With Harry Dean Stanton, Amy
Wright, Daniel Shor, Ned Beatty, and Huston himself as the hero's
fire-and-brimstone grandfather. The producer is Michael Fitzgerald,
whose family's friendship with O'Connor guaranteed the fidelity and
seriousness of the undertaking. Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader review: Chris Marker’s 1982 masterpiece is one of the key nonfiction films of
our time—a personal philosophical essay that concentrates mainly on
contemporary Tokyo but also includes footage shot in Iceland,
Guinea-Bissau, and San Francisco (where the filmmaker tracks down all
the locations from Hitchcock’s Vertigo). Difficult to describe
and almost impossible to summarize, this poetic journal of a major
French filmmaker radiates in all directions, exploring and reflecting
upon many decades of experience. While Marker’s brilliance as a thinker
and filmmaker has largely (and unfairly) been eclipsed by Godard’s,
there is conceivably no film in the entire Godard canon that has as much
to say about the state of the world, and the wit and beauty of Marker’s
highly original form of discourse leave a profound aftertaste. A film
about subjectivity, death, photography, social custom, and consciousness
itself, Sans Soleil registers like a poem one might find in a time capsule. Jonathan Rosenbaum
Time Out review: An accomplished film of Ronald Harwood's theatrical two-hander, animated
by two gigantic performances. Albert Finney, grossly Shakespearean as Sir, the
imperious, declamatory actor-manager with a Moses-like command of his
company and inanimate objects ('St-o-o-p th-a-a-a-t tr-ai-ai-n!' he
bawls, bringing British Rail to its knees), is fully matched by Tom Courtenay's pantomime poof Norman, Sir's devoted dresser: mincing,
nagging, but the only one able to reach to the furthest depths of Sir's
hair-tearing madness and coax him into the costumes and roles that have
by wicked irony destroyed him. Especially pleasing, then, that in the
final act it is the quiet craft of an actress - Eileen Atkins as the
long-suffering, love-lorn stage manageress - that rises above
constrictions of plot and thankless part to upstage them.
This 35mm screening in the 'Projecting the Archive' strand features a Q&A with actors Hayley Mills, Diane Poole and Alan Barnes.
BFI introduction: When a stranger appears in their barn, three siblings care for him in
the belief that he’s Jesus returned to Earth. Forbes shot his
directorial debut on location in rural Lancashire with a cast of local
children, who give performances of astonishing wit and candour. A film
about childhood that avoids sentimentality, it has enchanted audiences
across the generations.
