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Nov 29, 2024 | 
bfi.org.uk | Craig Mann |Adam Scovell |Lisa Kerrigan |Kevin Lyons
On 15 April 2022, former heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience, a podcast on which it is not uncommon for guests to indulge in wild conspiracy theories. In keeping with the show’s reputation, Tyson shared an earnest belief that someone, somewhere has hunted a human being for sport – and, specifically, that a cabal of powerful elites regularly kidnap the vulnerable, traffic them to isolated locales and prey on them like animals.
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Nov 26, 2024 | 
bfi.org.uk | Adam Scovell |Lisa Kerrigan |Kevin Lyons |Jacob Heayes
Part of a golden age of (often landscape-infused) adventure tales published for younger readers, Richard Adams’ 1972 novel Watership Down defined many a 1970s childhood in Britain. But Martin Rosen’s subsequent film adaptation of it in 1978 arguably terrified the same generation as much as it thrilled it, with a notoriously dark, occasionally violent, saga realised through innovative animation.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
bfi.org.uk | Lisa Kerrigan |Charles Fairall |Kevin Lyons |Jacob Heayes
Our Mediatheque at BFI Southbank provides access to the digital collections of the BFI National Archive, enabling viewers to travel back in time to other televisual eras. 21 November 2024In 1996 the United Nations declared 21 November as World TV Day in recognition of the influence of the medium, and the power it had in global communications.
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Nov 15, 2024 | 
bfi.org.uk | Jacob Heayes |Adam Scovell |Lisa Kerrigan |Kevin Lyons
“Rise and shine, Mr Freeman.” Half-Life 2 players are first greeted not with a tutorial nor text, but with a command and a piercing gaze. As far as overtures go, the opening minute of Valve’s legendary game more closely evokes the uncanny horror of Bergman’s Persona (1966) than the pleasantries of Super Mario Bros. Opening with such a suffocating close-up doubles as a declaration of intent on developer Valve’s part: you are not a spectator of this world but a participant.
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Nov 12, 2024 | 
bfi.org.uk | David Parkinson |Craig Mann |Philip Strick |Lisa Kerrigan
Louis Feuillade is not an easy sell. A Catholic monarchist with a military background, he had championed bullfighting as a journalist before becoming a screenwriter at Gaumont. Here, he quickly rose to succeed Alice Guy-Blaché as artistic director in 1907 and transformed the company’s fortunes with a string of hit crime serials. Unpersuaded by the merits of stylistic experimentation, Feuillade was convinced that cinematic truth was best conveyed by melodrama.
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Nov 8, 2024 | 
bfi.org.uk | Craig Mann |Philip Strick |Lisa Kerrigan |Lara Callaghan
It’s fair to say that the mainstream action film as it is typically thought of today – the kind of narratives in which musclebound action heroes single-handedly take on entire armies of bad guys – was forged during a particularly conservative period in American history. Following Ronald Reagan’s victory over Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election, the nation lurched to the right politically, socially, culturally and economically.
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Nov 7, 2024 | 
bfi.org.uk | Lisa Kerrigan |Michael Norman |Chantelle Lavel Boyea |Xavier Alexandre Pillai
In 2022, the BFI National Archive announced a partnership with Netflix for a selection of their shows to be preserved as part of the national collection. Two years on, we look at highlights from the selections so far, and the technology behind preserving them. 7 November 2024Television has been transformed in the last decade.
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Dec 4, 2023 | 
bfi.org.uk | Kieron Corless |Isabel Stevens |Lisa Kerrigan
It’s been another strong year for DVD/Blu-ray releases, as evidenced by our top ten list and the full submissions below it, attesting to what has most excited our contributors this year. If there’s a sense of buoyancy in the industry in terms of continued quality of output, that’s not to say there aren’t problems and issues I often hear raised.
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Nov 27, 2023 | 
bfi.org.uk | Michael Brooke |Paul Cuff |Lisa Kerrigan |Nasheed Qamar Faruqi
As his first film in six years, Fallen Leaves, touches down in cinemas, we plot a beginner’s path through the beguilingly bleak and droll universe of Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki. 27 November 2023By Michael BrookeHe’s slowed down lately, with just five post-2000 features, but in the 1980s and 90s Aki Kaurismäki was one of the most prolific filmmakers in Europe – indeed, he and his older brother Mika were once responsible for one-fifth of the Finnish film industry’s annual feature output.
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Nov 27, 2023 | 
bfi.org.uk | Georgia Korossi |Michael Brooke |Paul Cuff |Lisa Kerrigan
After a first half weighted towards the industry and networking opportunities around the film market hub Agora, the appearance of glittering Italian star Monica Bellucci at this year’s Thessaloniki rewarded the patience of festival crowds eager for some glamour.
