In their seminal, intersectional first feature, directors Maureen Blackwood and Isaac Julien incisively interrogate Black British experience, fusing dramatic scenes of family life with documentary and mystical elements, to give richly imaginative witness to a ‘post-colonial’ identity that encompasses generational, class, sexual and gender differences. Vividly manipulated footage of urban unrest, police brutality, gay rights marches and the miners’ strike, alongside chopped-up sequences showing a buzzing London night life, are intertwined, creating a penetrating example of Sankofa’s disruptive critique of 1980s Britain. And it looks fantastic. The film screens in a simultaneous transatlantic premiere with the New York Film Festival.
(London Film Festival)
An epicene angel flutters its wings and smokes a cigarette in this ejaculatory study of frustration, torment, stupidity and insolence. With Cerith Wyn Evans as the angel and music by Michael Nyman. Made at the Royal College of Art in 1985.
New York. Desperate for work, Christine takes a job selling tickets at the Variety, a sex cinema. This somewhat alienates her boyfriend Mark, who is investigating a story about union links with the Mob at the wholesale fish market. Christine finds herself drawn towards events on-screen, and also follows one of the customers, Louie, when he enters a sex shop, apparently on business. Louie, who is clearly both wealthy and powerful as a result of his shady activities, takes her to a ball game at Yankee Stadium. When he is suddenly called away, she again follows him and observes him at work.
Variety inverts the traditional narrative structure of cinema – whereby a man watches and a woman is watched – without showing, and thus flaunting, the object of female desire. Creating a counter-narrative to Hollywood, Bette Gordon asks the same question formulated by Teresa de Lauretis in “Oedipus Interruptus”: “How did Medusa feel upon seeing herself in Perseus' mirror just before being slain?”
Official Selection Berlinale 2019 - Forum Archival Constellations
A vicarious night out lived through an animated sketchbook, laid down to a hypnotic post-punk beat performed by the filmmaker himself.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2017 - Create Strand - Restoration World premiere
Two British track athletes compete in the 1924 Olympics. Harold Abrahams, a Jew, spurred by prejudice, and Eric Liddell, a devout Christian, spurred by his love of God. Fired by their own purpose and inspired by their own dreams, both won gold.
Official Selection Cannes Film Festival 2017 - Cinéma de la Plage
A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man who is mistreated while scraping a living as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of kindness, intelligence and sophistication.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2019 - Treasures Strand - Restoration World premiere
George Purse is the gamekeeper for the duke's estate, a role he takes seriously. His position gives him a certain status, but he has an uneasy relationship with some of the locals, not least those who turn to poaching.
A film to restore your faith in the world, with a tale of quiet charm and astonishing depth from industry veteran Alison De Vere.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2017 - Create Strand - Restoration World premiere
Roman Polanski’s gorgeous, sweeping version of Thomas Hardy’s classic novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles returns in a glorious new digital restoration.
A rural clergyman in 19th Century England tells Durbeyfield, a simple farmer, that he is descended from the illustrious d'Urberville family - now extinct. Or maybe not. Durbeyfield sends his daughter,Tess, to check on a family named d'Urberville living in a manor house less than a day's carriage ride away. Alec d'Urberville is delighted to meet his beautiful 'cousin' and seduces her with strawberries and roses. Actually Alec has gotten his illustrious name and coat of arms by purchasing them. Tess too takes up the game of illusion when she finds, loses and finds again her true love, Angel.
Terry Gilliam’s first feature as a solo director, here gloriously restored, is a riotous tale of monsters, true love and medieval manners. Sometimes seen as a companion to 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail', 'Jabberwocky' is pure, undiluted Gilliam. The most Python touch is the presence of Michael Palin – playing put-upon medieval peasant Dennis Cooper, who is forced to seek his fortune in a land of mud, gore and historically authentic junk food, whilst he is menaced by the hideous dragon ‘Jabberwock’. Riotously funny, the film is also a fascinating signpost to its director’s future – Dennis a definitive Gilliam hero, the little man terrorised by bureaucracy. For Gilliam, the road to 'Brazil' well and truly began here.
The restoration of the film, overseen by Terry Gilliam gives the chance to delight anew in the rich colours of Medieval life. Particularly the mud. (LFF brochure)
Restored by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2017 - Laugh Strand - 4K Restoration World premiere
Alan Parker's classic New York, 1929-set musical, sees a war raging between two rival gangsters, Fat Sam and Dandy Dan. Dan is in possession of a new and deadly weapon, the dreaded 'splurge gun'. As the custard pies fly, Bugsy Malone, an all-round nice guy, falls for Blousey Brown, a singer at Fat Sam's speakeasy. His designs on her are disrupted by the seductive songstress Tallulah, who, wants Bugsy for herself. How is Bugsy to get the girl and help Fat Sam defend his business against the deadly Dan and his dastardly tricks?
Official Selection Cannes Film Festival 2017 - Cinéma de la Plage
Crash-landing on Earth from his dying planet, an alien humanoid travelling by the name of Thomas Jerome Newton (David Bowie) uses his superior intelligence to build a vast business empire. As he takes on, and beats, every US corporation people can only guess his true purpose – to save his dying world from agonizing death by drought. Newton’s ageless fall from grace, as he becomes prey to lust, alcohol, business rivals, and the US Government, makes 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' not only a bitingly caustic indictment of the modern world but also a poignant commentary on the loneliness of the outsider. A science-fiction cult classic.
Official Selection Berlinale 2016 - Berlinale Special – Tribute to David Bowie
