Features and reviews

Discover the latest from the BFI, the UK’s lead organisation for film, television and the moving image.

Obituaries

Simon Field obituary: adventurous British film programmer, producer and festival director

With influential posts leading the ICA and the Rotterdam International Film Festival, and as producer on the films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Field devoted his life to discovering, supporting and championing boundary-pushing filmmaking from around the world.

By Geoff Andrew

Simon Field obituary: adventurous British film programmer, producer and festival director

Features

Bugsy Malone at 50: original drawings and cartoons from the making of Alan Parker’s kids-with-splurge-guns classic

By Sarah Bemand

Bugsy Malone at 50: original drawings and cartoons from the making of Alan Parker’s kids-with-splurge-guns classic

Finest hours

Finest hours: Danny Glover as the malevolent charmer in To Sleep with Anger

By Alex Ramon

Finest hours: Danny Glover as the malevolent charmer in To Sleep with Anger

Features

Bryan Forbes at 100: remembering the Whistle down the Wind and The Stepford Wives director on his centenary

By Josephine Botting

Bryan Forbes at 100: remembering the Whistle down the Wind and The Stepford Wives director on his centenary

Features

All-out puppet attack! The monster puppetry in Ishiro Honda’s kaiju classics

By Steven Sloss

All-out puppet attack! The monster puppetry in Ishiro Honda’s kaiju classics

From the Sight and Sound archive

The misfits of Zwigoff: a visit to the set of Ghost World

By SF Said

The misfits of Zwigoff: a visit to the set of Ghost World

Features

How Sam Neill’s 1990s documentary Cinema of Unease reckoned with New Zealand’s film history

By Carmen Gray

How Sam Neill’s 1990s documentary Cinema of Unease reckoned with New Zealand’s film history

Features

Chronically online criticism: how we’re archiving the video essay boom

By Sidonie Bassaisteguy

Chronically online criticism: how we’re archiving the video essay boom

Features

“He rendered the foreign familiar without ever stripping it of its soul”: Wong Kar Wai, Bong Joon Ho and more on Tony Rayns

By Bong Joon Ho, Wong Kar Wai and others

“He rendered the foreign familiar without ever stripping it of its soul”: Wong Kar Wai, Bong Joon Ho and more on Tony Rayns

From the Sight and Sound archive

Lonesome tonight: Tony Rayns and Edward Yang on A Brighter Summer Day

By Tony Rayns

Lonesome tonight: Tony Rayns and Edward Yang on A Brighter Summer Day

Object of the week

How to train a kestrel: the original notes from the making of Kes

By Melanie Williams

How to train a kestrel: the original notes from the making of Kes

Rarities of British cinema

Three weeks, two lovers, one shelved film: Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier’s forgotten blackmail drama 21 Days

By Josephine Botting

Three weeks, two lovers, one shelved film: Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier’s forgotten blackmail drama 21 Days

Features

Sumitra Peries’s The Girls: how a landmark Sri Lankan film captures the agony of girlhood

By Uditha Devapriya

Sumitra Peries’s The Girls: how a landmark Sri Lankan film captures the agony of girlhood

From the Sight and Sound archive

God’s lonely man: Amy Taubin on Taxi Driver

By Amy Taubin

God’s lonely man: Amy Taubin on Taxi Driver

Object of the week

The back room from Dead of Night: the production design for a dusty hiding place

By Melanie Williams

The back room from Dead of Night: the production design for a dusty hiding place

Features

BFI Flare: through the years

BFI Flare: through the years

Finest hours

Finest hours: Robert Walker as the charm-school sociopath in Strangers on a Train

By Chloe Walker

Finest hours: Robert Walker as the charm-school sociopath in Strangers on a Train

Black Film Bulletin

Excavating legacies: Euzhan Palcy interviewed by June Givanni

By Abiba Coulibaly

Excavating legacies: Euzhan Palcy interviewed by June Givanni

Then and now

75 years of The Lavender Hill Mob: how the London locations look today

By Adam Scovell

75 years of The Lavender Hill Mob: how the London locations look today

Black Film Bulletin

The monster and the mirror: Black resistance humour in cinema

By Artel Great

The monster and the mirror: Black resistance humour in cinema

Object of the week

Object of the week: Costume designs for Julie Christie in the swinging 60s drama Darling

By Melanie Williams

Object of the week: Costume designs for Julie Christie in the swinging 60s drama Darling

Then and now

Amélie’s Paris: how the locations look, 25 years later

By Adam Scovell

Amélie’s Paris: how the locations look, 25 years later

From the Sight and Sound archive

Death becomes Visconti

By Michael Wood

Death becomes Visconti

Object of the week

Object of the week: Pre-Python promotional shots for 60s ITV sketch show Do Not Adjust Your Set

By Lisa Kerrigan

Object of the week: Pre-Python promotional shots for 60s ITV sketch show Do Not Adjust Your Set

Then and now

30 years of Mike Leigh’s Secrets & Lies: how the London locations look today

By Adam Scovell

30 years of Mike Leigh’s Secrets & Lies: how the London locations look today

Object of the week

Inside a 1959 fan magazine for Marilyn Monroe

By Tamar Jeffers-McDonald

Inside a 1959 fan magazine for Marilyn Monroe

Features

The film that fate helped make a classic: The Misfits

By Geoff Andrew

The film that fate helped make a classic: The Misfits

Features

Reservoir Cops: Quentin Tarantino on The Rip

By Quentin Tarantino

Reservoir Cops: Quentin Tarantino on The Rip

Features

The Marilyn moment: Monroe at 100

By Farran Smith Nehme

The Marilyn moment: Monroe at 100

Object of the week

Emeric Pressburger’s screening room pass for the UFA film studios in pre-Nazi Germany

By Melanie Williams

Emeric Pressburger’s screening room pass for the UFA film studios in pre-Nazi Germany