Jan Asante

Jan 13, 2025 | bfi.org.uk | Jez Stewart |Alex Barrett |Adam Scovell |Jan Asante

The evening of 13 January 1955 was bitterly cold with blustery snow. It was a hardy crowd that gathered at the Ritz cinema in London for the first UK showing of Animal Farm, a feature-length animated adaptation of George Orwell’s novella. The book was first published a decade previously, a political ‘fairy story’ of animals taking over a farm from its cruel human owner, only to succumb to worse treatment under the tyranny of rule by pigs.

Jan 10, 2025 | bfi.org.uk | Alex Barrett |Adam Scovell |Jan Asante |Alex Ramon

In the years since his death in 1968, an aura of austere Christianity has surrounded the reputation of the Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer, and his late masterpiece Ordet is central to this mystique. Premiered 70 years ago in January 1955, the film focuses on the rivalry between two Christian factions – the lively followers of Grundtvig (or “Glad Christians”, as Dreyer called them) and those of the dour Inner Mission (“the sour-faced ones”).

Jan 7, 2025 | bfi.org.uk | Adam Scovell |Jan Asante |Alex Ramon |Josephine Botting

Richard Linklater’s ‘Before trilogy’ is concerned with walking and talking. Following many years in the lives of Parisian Céline (Julie Delpy) and American Jesse (Ethan Hawke), the three films show the ups and downs of a relationship as well as how such relationships interact with the exploration of places on foot.