Actualités

Throughout September, the British Film Institute (BFI) is celebrating the transnational life and work of Anna May Wong, highlighting both her collaborations with and her lasting influence on Asian diasporic communities. From silent cinema to multi-language talkies, vaudeville to television, and Hollywood to Europe and beyond, Wong continuously reinvented herself—even while being routinely typecast in roles shaped by racist and sexist stereotypes.

Most recently, she inspired Li Jun Li’s character in Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon”, and her enduring legacy offers rich material for discussion. Season curator Xin Peng may be available to contribute to a piece, alongside other participants in the programme, including Wong’s niece Anna Wong and film historian Pamela Hutchinson.

Events will include the illustrated discussion Introduction To Anna May Wong’S Reinventions on 8 September, led by season curator Xin Peng and featuring Wong’s niece Anna Wong, author Katie Gee Salisbury and film historian Pamela Hutchinson,...

Classic horror film lovers get excited, as Turner Classic Movies just unveiled its movie lineup for the Halloween season. I’d run through and list all the classics that will be popping up throughout the month, but there’s just too many to list. This is Turner Classic Movies after all. Check out the full lineup below, and let us know if you’re excited for any of these! (via Bloody Disgusting)

Wednesday October 3, 2018

8:00 Pm The Unknown (1927) Dir: Tod Browning

9:00 Pm The Phantom of the Opera (1925) Dir: Rupert Julian

10:45 Pm The Monster (1925) Dir: Roland West

Thursday October 4, 2018

12:30 Am The Penalty (1920) Dir: Wallace Worsley

2:15 Am The Unholy Three (1925) Dir: Tod Browning.

4:00 Am He Who Gets Slapped (1924) Dir: Victor Seastrom

Saturday October 6, 2018

2:00 Am Deadly Friend (1986) Dir: Wes Craven

3:45 Am Demon Seed (1977) Dir. Donald Cammell

Sunday October 7, 2018

8:00 Pm The Mummy’s Hand (1940) Dir: Christy...

Launching at this year's London Film Festival, a new restoration of The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands recreates two of the key naval battles of the first world war. Directed by Walter Summers and originally released in 1927, the BFI's archive gala screening of the restoration will feature a live score performed by 24 members of the Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines. The screening takes place on 16 October Continue reading...

Browse all the sections of the 58th London Film Festival (Oct 8-18) including the galas, competition titles and individual sections.

Alphabetical list of titles by section including feature premiere status

Wp = Wp

Ep = European Premiere

IP = International Premiere

UK = UK Premiere

Opening Night

The Imitation Game (UK-us)

dir. Morten Tyldum

Closing Night

Fury (Us)

dir. David Ayer

GalasTitlePremFoxcatcher (Us)

dir. Bennett MillerUKWhiplash (Us)

dir. Damien ChazelleUKMen, Women And Children (Us)

dir. Jason ReitmanEPWild (Us)

dir. Jean-Marc ValleeEPTestament Of Youth (UK)

dir. James KentWPMr. Turner (UK)

dir. Mike LeighUKThe Battles Of Coronel And Falkland Islands (UK)

dir. Walter Summers Rosewater (Us)

dir. Jon StewartEPMommy (Can)

dir. Xavier DolanUKA Little Chaos (UK)

dir. Alan RickmanEPWild Tales (Arg)

dir. Damián SzifrónUKThe Salvation (Den)

dir. Kristian Levring The White Haired Witch Of Lunar Kingdom (Chi)

dir. Jacob CheungIPWinter Sleep (Tur)

dir. Nuri Bilge CeylanUKBjork: Biophilia Live (UK)

dir. Nick Fenton, Peter StricklandUKSong Of The Sea (Ire)

dir. Tomm MooreEPOfficial...

A new restoration of British silent film The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands (1927) has been selected as the London Film Festival Archive gala screening.

The virtually unknown film charts two key battles faced by the Royal Navy in the early days of the First World War.

Directed by Walter Summers, filming took place in the open seas around Malta with the Scilly Isles standing in for the Falklands.

The restoration was carried out by the BFI National Archive team and Deluxe Digital.

The film had suffered extensive wear and tear during its 86-year history with damage in some key shots as well as some missing inserts, including letters and telegrams.

The incomplete main titles containing the credits for the producer and director have been recreated from single frames containing a faint shadow.

The restoration has been created in digital and 35mm.

The film, which will screen on October 16, 2014 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, will also have...

Genuinely fascist films made in democratic countries are agreeably scarce, although Gregory La Cava's Gabriel Over the White House (1933)—or President Jesus Hitler as a friend dubbed it—could certainly qualify, even if it does veer around a lot, almost as if a Hollywood film were trying to avoid committing itself politically. Nominations for other fascist films will be gratefully considered.

Bulldog Drummond was featured in ten novels by a pseudonymous character called "Sapper," (to sap: to slug over the head, British slang). Drummond, an ex-soldier bored by civilian life, advertises for adventure and finds it, as detailed in 1929 Bulldog Drummond with Ronald Colman. This movie largely avoids the racism and jingoistic fervor of the source novels, and seems to play the more brutal moments for laughs, as when Colman exchanges sweet nothings with Joan Bennett while cheerfully throttling Lionel Atwill.

The books' biggest influence in an indirect one:...

Funny faces to lost gems, war horses to strange censorship, silent film is a wondrous way to immerse oneself in history

A trip to the British silent film festival is a unique opportunity to wallow in some unfamiliar waters. Four days immersed in silent cinema is time spent in the company of many films that have been forgotten or misremembered, films that have only been seen before by archivists and researchers, and that may never get a public airing again. Some of these films are great, but even those that aren't are fascinating, as cinema history, and as a glimpse of what it was like to live in Britain 100 years ago.

1. "They didn't need dialogue, they had faces"

We're all familiar with Gloria Swanson's famous line in Sunset Boulevard, but she was talking about the blandly beautiful people of Hollywood. The faces of British silent cinema may not be attached to famous names,...