Tag Archives: bfi
Jodie Foster on why The Silence of The Lambs is a perfect film
I recently wrote about why the 1990s was such an amazing time to be a young woman. Jodie Foster confirmed the sense of a breakthrough at a screening of The Silence of The Lambs on Friday night at the BFI … Continue reading
Posted in Crime and Justice, Film
Tagged 90s, anthony hopkins, bfi, cinema, feminism, film, Hollywood, jodie foster, jonathan demme, the silence of the lambs
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Johnny Guitar? You probably think this film is about you.
This is the text of an introduction I gave at a re-release screening of Johnny Guitar at the British Film Institute on May 6th 2016 I saw Johnny Guitar for first time here at the BFI to whom I”ll always … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 50s, bfi, Bigger Than Life, cinema, feminism, film, Hollywood, James Mason, Joan Crawford, Johnny Guitar, mercedes mccambridge, Natalie Wood, Nicholas Ray, Rebel Without A Cause, westerns
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The search for TV’s first interracial kiss and why it matters
This is the story behind the BFI’s news today that it may have found the earliest TV interracial kiss. Though in response there are already suggestions that it may not be the first. A few months ago the team behind It … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, History, Media, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 60s, adrian lester, art malik, bfi, culture, emergency ward 10, gurinder chadha, joan hooley, lalita ahmed, love, media, peter cellier, race, tv
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A brief encounter with Richard Attenborough & his best friend Bryan Forbes
When the British Film Institute ran a Richard Attenborough retrospective back in the early 2000s, Sir Richard came to introduce every screening. The gesture seemed to capture his enthusiasm, modesty, kindness and warmth for cinema and audiences. At the screening … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Uncategorized
Tagged bfi, british cinema, Bryan Forbes, cinema, FTW, Richard Attenborough, seance on a wet afternoon
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Alan Bennett: On the art of the monologue & being teenage “jailbait”
To mark Alan Bennett’s 80th birthday, this is an updated post based on an In Conversation with the playwright, diarist and screenwriter  at the British Film Institute in March last year. It was focussed on his skills with the monologue, as part … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Comedy, Cowboys!, Sport, Uncategorized
Tagged Alan Bennett, bfi, kenneth more, michael gambon, monologues, talking heads
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How RBS bankers wiped The Life of Brian rushes: Stories from Missing Believed Wiped
TV archiving is, it turns out, a lot like classic archaeology. “What archaeologists want to find most is the midden – [the dump] full of waste, and ephemera which tell you the most about a society.” Chris Perry ofKaleidoscope … Continue reading
Posted in Comedy, Culture, Film, History, Media, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 60s, BBC, bfi, Chris Perry, culture, Dick Fiddy, Doctor Who, Joy Whitby, Kaleidoscope, media, satire, Small Films, Steve Bryant, Sue Malden, Terry Jones, tv
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From Ealing to Four Lions: How to fund a great British film.
BAFTA Nominations were out today. When I remarked on Twitter yesterday that the Golden Globe winning, now much BAFTA nominated, Oscar hopeful The King’s Speech had been funded via the scrapped UK Film Council I was flagging up the difficulty … Continue reading
Posted in Business/Economics, Culture, Film, Politics, Uncategorized
Tagged 60s, 80s, bfi, cinema, culture, eady levy, four lions, islamist, politics, terrorism, uk film council
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