Passport to Cinema | National Film and Television School

Open to the public and NFTS students alike, our programme of screenings at the BFI Southbank, London, is brought to you by the NFTS.

There's a screening most Monday evenings, and occasional Tuesday evenings and you can find out what's showing month by month by viewing the schedule below. Designed to give a continuous and comprehensive overview of every facet of cinema, from its beginnings to the present day, the programme showcases key films from the classic, mainstream and avant-garde of European, American and world cinema, mixing the familiar with the experimental and rediscovering forgotten gems. Guest speakers introduce each programme and there's often a lively discussion in the café after the film. For current ticket prices, reservations and further information, call the BFI Southbank box office on Tel 020 7928 3232 or visit the BFI website - www.bfi.org.uk. BFI Southbank: Belvedere Road, South Bank, London SE1 8XT.

Summer 2013 Programme

BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD

Irish blessing: “May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead”. Or your agent, or your producer, or the critics. This season is a celebration of the last – or late-in-the-day – works of film-makers, representing a culminating vision (L’Argent, Moonrise, Lilith), grand or lyrical gestures (Ran, Playtime, A Prairie Home Companion), a whimsical send-off (Family Plot), an actual Testament (Cocteau), or an end that took them as much by surprise (Eyes Wide Shut) as hopefully it did the devil. Also Sidney Lumet’s film which inspires our title, and one from not-yet-dead Alain Resnais.

In most cases screenings will be accompanied by an introduction, and selected films will be accompanied by a short animation programmed by Clare Kitson to complement the feature. We look forward to seeing you at the screenings.

Passport to Cinema Schedule

May

Le Cercle rouge

Monday, 27 May, 2013

France | 1970 | d. Jean-Pierre Melville.

No introduction. Melville’s penultimate film is as taut and spare as any film in his career. Alain Delon’s professional thief, Corey, teams up Gian Maria Volonté and Yves Montand for a carefully executed jewel heist. As always, Melville’s career criminals are as concerned with a code of honour as much as gain. Featuring a stunning thirty-minute robbery sequence, Le Cercle rouge is a perfect distillation of Melville’s lean, taciturn art.

Duration:

2:20:00

Screening Time:

5:40

June

Playtime

Monday, 3 June, 2013

France/Italy | 1967 | d .Jacques Tati

Introduced by Richard Combs. Playtime is Jacques Tati’s grand statement and its ambition almost ended his career. To realise his vision Tati created his own world, a miniature Paris constructed on an area of waste ground in Vincennes. Tati’s parallel city of glass and steel (nicknamed Tativille) was designed to enable him to control every aspect of the filming. Tati set out to show the excesses of modern architecture, but paradoxically Playtime’s dazzling visuals also show us its beauty.

Duration:

2:04:00

Screening Time:

6:10

Moonrise

Tuesday, 4 June, 2013

USA | 1948 | d. Frank Borzage

Introduced by Philip Kemp. Frank Borzage’s last masterpiece, Moonrise, was released when the director’s work of one of the masters of silent and early sound cinema was largely forgotten. Like Charles Laughton’s similarly out of time Night of the Hunter, Moonrise recalls the poetics of early cinema. While the film noir overtones of the narrative - a young protagonist fearing arrest for murder - would seem unfamiliar territory for Borzage, its belief in the redemptive power of love serves as a reaffirmation of themes implicit in the director’s greatest work.

Duration:

1:30:00

Screening Time:

6:10

Eyes Wide Shut

Monday, 10 June, 2013

UK/USA | 1999 | d. Stanley Kubrick.

Introduced by Dominic Power. Kubrick’s final film returned to an idea that had considered in the sixties, an adaptation Arthur Schnitzler’s 1926 work Traumnovelle. Eyes Wide Shut is a study of sex, sensuality and power transposed from Vienna to New York. The result is an ornate, disturbing masked ball, a journey through a secretive world, where an orgiastic freemasonry lurks beneath the surface of modern life. Released after Kubrick’s death, it has puzzled and divided critics and audiences ever since.

Duration:

2:39:00

Screening Time:

5:40