Henry Barnes

Nov 18, 2024 | bfi.org.uk | David West |Henry Barnes |Anton Bitel |David WestInterviews

“Kick me,” says Bruce Lee, dappled by the light of a tree while giving a martial arts lesson in an idyllic garden. The nervous teenager standing opposite kung fu’s greatest icon in Enter the Dragon (1973) is Stephen Tung Wai, who was brought on to the production by his former Peking Opera school classmate, the stuntman Lam Ching-Ying, who would later star in Tung’s directorial debut Magic Cop (1990).

Nov 7, 2024 | bfi.org.uk | George Bass |Sam Wigley |Billie Walker |Henry Barnes

In the aftermath of Halloween, horror fans grown tired of slashers and ghost stories can see something truly chilling: high-definition cartoon rabbits. Restored in 4K for release on Blu-ray and UHD, back in cinemas for the first time in 46 years and upgraded from a U rating to a PG, Martin Rosen’s Watership Down (1978) certainly contains some unconventionally dark moments for an animated family feature. Warnings from the rabbit god of a coming apocalypse.

Nov 1, 2024 | bfi.org.uk | Sam Wigley |Billie Walker |Henry Barnes |Anton Bitel

Where’s it on? Cinemas nationwideWith a sad lack of fanfare, the 40th feature film directed by Clint Eastwood is here. Not too long ago, this would have been considered a prime joint: it’s a handsomely mounted courtroom drama in the John Grisham vein, in which Nicholas Hoult plays the conflicted juror on an apparent open-and-shut murder trial in Alabama.

Oct 31, 2024 | bfi.org.uk | Billie Walker |Henry Barnes |Anton Bitel

Long before we picked up film cameras to tell stories, gothic literature employed the trope of the found document to imply a validity to their terrifying narratives. Often regarded as the first gothic novel, Horace Walpole’s 1764 book The Castle of Otranto is written in the form of a 16th-century manuscript – purporting to be a rediscovered artefact from a Catholic family – with the intention of offering authenticity to its supernatural tale.

Oct 30, 2024 | bfi.org.uk | Anton Bitel |Carmen Gray |Henry Barnes |Elena Lazic

By the 1980s, everybody knew what an action movie was. They had their own section in the video shop. And on the video box or the poster, there were star names written in a font nearly as big as the title’s. What kind of movies did Arnold Schwarzenegger make? Action movies. How about Sylvester Stallone or Jackie Chan or Jean-Claude Van Damme? Also action movies.