TEST Programme Notes TEST

BFI Southbank

Scarface

‘What is a cult film? A cult film is one which has a passionate following but does not appeal to everybody. Just because a movie is a cult movie does not automatically guarantee quality. Some cult ...

The Ear

The main Cannes Film Festival competition line-up in 1990 was somewhat unusual in that not everything in it was brand new. Or rather, while two films were receiving public premieres, they were deci...

The California Dolls (aka ...All the Marbles)

The screening on Wednesday 23 July will be introduced by season curator and Moviedrome’s producer Nick Freand Jones ‘What is a cult film? A cult film is one which has a passionate following but do...

Boogie Nights

Paul Thomas Anderson on ‘Boogie Nights’ One of the things that’s interesting about Boogie Nights is its tone shifts, for instance between dramatic and comic/parodic. There are two answers to that...

Witchfinder General

‘What is a cult film? A cult film is one which has a passionate following but does not appeal to everybody. Just because a movie is a cult movie does not automatically guarantee quality. Some cult ...

Two-Lane Blacktop

The screening on Wednesday 9 July will be introduced by season curator and Moviedrome’s producer Nick Freand Jones ‘What is a cult film? A cult film is one which has a passionate following but doe...

Get Carter

‘What is a cult film? A cult film is one which has a passionate following but does not appeal to everybody. Just because a movie is a cult movie does not automatically guarantee quality. Some cult ...

Alphaville

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Alphaville is the story of special agent Lemmy Caution, played by American actor and naturalised noir icon Eddie Constantine, who ha...

Walker

The screening on Saturday 5 July will be introduced by filmmaker and Moviedrome presenter Alex Cox ‘What is a cult film? A cult film is one which has a passionate following but does not appeal to ...

Welcome to the Moviedrome

Moviedrome began on BBC2 at a time when there were just four TV channels in the UK, satellite broadcasting was in its infancy and streaming was decades away. It offered audiences a portal into the ...

The Swimmer

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. A contemporary review Leaves rustle and twigs snap, sending a rabbit scurrying to its burrow and a deer into the foliage, as a man t...

Happy End

Michael Haneke on ‘Happy End’ The gap between Amour and Happy End was the longest between any of your films. Was that because Happy End was a long time gestating? No, it was simply because in the...

Funny Games U.S.

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. Michael Haneke on ‘Funny Games U.S.’ Do you think that cinema, and particularly attitudes to violence in cinema, have changed over ...

Bread & Roses

Bread & Roses offers an unflinching look at the lives of Afghan women following the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul in 2021. Co-produced by Jennifer Lawrence and Malala Yousafzai and directe...

Time of the Wolf

Michael Haneke on ‘Time of the Wolf’ How dramatically has Time of the Wolf changed in the ten years since you wrote the script? The script didn’t change at all. The one thing that did change is t...

The Rain People

Francis Ford Coppola on ‘The Rain People’ How did The Rain People originate? I had originally written The Rain People in 1960 in college. I could never get on top of it. It was first called Echoe...

Benny's Video

SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot. A skilfully made and disquieting film, Benny’s Video is also unusually oppressive. Director Haneke has described the trilogy of whic...

Vagabond

Most animals do not walk on their hind legs; humans are anomalous, unwieldy columns. Maybe because of this, we experience an existential loss of footing when we fall over. What made us so sure of o...

Amour

Michael Haneke on ‘Amour’ When we spoke about The White Ribbon in 2009, you were writing a film about old age, but you later put it aside because of another film on the subject. So is Amour differ...

The Red House

A BFI member since 1967, Ray Deahl served as a BFI Member Governor twice, from 1996 to 2002. For over 50 years, Ray was a constant presence at BFI Southbank, sharing his deep passion for cinema and...