Francis Lacassin

Feb 29, 2024 | bfi.org.uk | Alex Ramon |Ismail Xavier |Adam Scovell |Francis Lacassin

An animated period epic and an urgent refugee crisis drama bookend this year’s vibrant celebration of Polish cinema. 29 February 2024By Alex RamonOn stage to collect a lifetime achievement award at the Polish Film Festival (FPFF) in Gdynia in September 2021, Agnieszka Holland took the opportunity to highlight the dire situation at the Poland-Belarus border.

Feb 14, 2024 | bfi.org.uk | Adam Scovell |Francis Lacassin |Rosie Bailey |Richard G. Combs

The Carry On series took its brand of innuendo and saucy slapstick across the Home Counties and London. Times have changed, but have the locations? 14 February 2024By Adam ScovellThe Carry On series was one of the longest-running and most popular film franchises in the history of British cinema. Produced by Peter Rogers and directed by Gerald Thomas, the 31 films, one television series and four Christmas specials saw a large, regular cast of familiar faces often send up popular genres of the time.

Jun 21, 2023 | bfi.org.uk | Adam Scovell |David L. Wilt |Josephine Botting |Francis Lacassin

Considering the gritty, unforgiving demeanour of Newcastle’s streets in Mike Hodges’ Get Carter (1971), it’s unsurprising that when the same director came to make a thriller set in London, his vision proved equally bleak. In Croupier (1998), a similarly sleazy, shady urban milieu dominates, with only Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels competing for sheer cockney villainy that year.

Jun 15, 2023 | bfi.org.uk | Francis Lacassin |Rosie Bailey |Richard G. Combs |Adam Scovell

In our Summer 1971 issue, Francis Lacassin spoke to and recounted the career of the pioneering female filmmaker. Updated: 9 February 2024By Francis LacassinThere are enough women filmmakers now for it to be easy to forget just how recent a phenomenon they are. Yet it was only in the Fifties, with the growth of television and the decline of the big studio monopolies, that they began to come into their own. Until 1939, there were only a dozen women directors in the world.