Tag Archives: BFI

Pete’s Peek | Ken Russell’s film of The Devils rises again in a 40th anniversary DVD release

Posted on 14 March 2012 by peter

Probably the most talked about DVD release of 2012 must be Ken Russell’s Film of The Devils, which is finally becoming available in the UK some 40-years after it first caused shock, outrage and a censorship controversy which has lasted … Continue reading →

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Pete’s Peek | Tommy and Mahler – Ken Russell’s wild excursions into the minds of musical genius

Posted on 21 February 2012 by peter

Love him or loathe him, British director Ken Russell, who died last November at the age of 84, was a true maverick. His canon of films – the most well-known being 1969′s Women in Love, 1971′s The Devils and The … Continue reading →

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Pete’s Peek | ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ – Pasolini’s Medea is a timeless visual triumph

Posted on 5 December 2011 by peter

The cinema of Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini is not to everyone’s taste, being a dense fusion of the poetic, the political and the polemic. While the dozen features the Marxist and avowed atheist made between 1961 and 1975 might … Continue reading →

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Pete’s Peek | Love and drugs are a deadly cocktail in More and The Panic in Needle Park

Posted on 21 September 2011 by peter

When it comes to movies about the grim reality of addiction, Trainspotting is usually the drug film choice for most film fans, but here’s two classics – re-mastered and re-issued – that are worth seeking out. First up is Barbet … Continue reading →

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Pete’s Peek | Turning back the clock to 1960s London in John Mortimer’s Lunch Hour

Posted on 11 June 2011 by peter

Before he found fame with 1966′s Born Free, James Hill was a jobbing director doing trade films, documentaries and TV plays like this little gem from the pen of John Mortimer from 1961, starring Shirley Anne Field and Robert Stephens. Women’s … Continue reading →

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Pete’s Peek | Exploring Barbet Schroeder’s 1970s road movie The Valley on Blu-ray

Posted on 19 February 2011 by peter

Thanks to cheap air travel, an ever-shrinking world, and our spirit for adventure, many of us have the opportunity to escape our humdrum lives – either briefly or for extended periods. But, on seeing this allegorical tale about a woman’s … Continue reading →

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The Great White Silence – Herbert Ponting’s classic documentary about Captain Scott’s doomed expedition to the South Pole

Posted on 25 October 2010 by Jason Best

Forget 3D. For a fully immersive cinematic experience it’s hard to improve upon the London Film Festival’s Archive Gala screening of The Great White Silence – Herbert Ponting’s stunning documentary about Captain Scott’s ill-fated Polar Expedition of 1910-12. First, a … Continue reading →

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Pete’s Peek | The BFI unearths Tony Scott’s debut, Loving Memory

Posted on 28 August 2010 by peter

Now here’s one for any budding film student out there. We all know director Tony Scott for his big-budget Hollywood films, Top Gun and Enemy of the State (though his 1980′s horror The Hunger remains my favourite), well here’s a … Continue reading →

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Pete’s Peek | Flipside presents The Party’s Over and The Pleasure Girls

Posted on 17 May 2010 by peter

‘Life is a cocktail all ready to mix… Live for the moment and drain every drop. When you’re really living, who knows when to stop’. So sings Annie Ross over the closing credits of 1963′s The Party’s Over, the first … Continue reading →

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Why do I have mixed feelings about this Film Festival?

Posted on 17 March 2010 by Beth Williams

Calling all movie-loving Londoners! Are you going to the exciting film festival that’s opening on the South Bank today? Taking place at the BFI Southbank, this colourful movie gala, apparently the UK’s third largest film festival, will be showcasing hundreds … Continue reading →

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