This August BFI Southbank will celebrate the work of one the best-loved British actors of all time – the legendary CARY GRANT. Grant will be the subject of a two month retrospective during August and September that illustrates his phenomenal acting range, from classic screwball comedies like His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940) and The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1941) to Hitchcock thrillers Suspicion (1941) and Notorious (1946), the latter of which will be re-released in selected cinemas by the BFI on Friday 9 August.
Film previews in August will include Pedro Almodóvar’s new film Pain and Glory (2019), starring frequent collaborator Antonio Banderas as a filmmaker confronting age-related anxieties, in one of the director’s most personal works. Almodóvar will take part in a Q&Afollowing a preview on Friday 9 August, with Pain and Glory then opening on extended run from Friday 23 August. Other film previews will include The Last Tree (2019) with director Shola Amoo on stage on Friday 2 August, Christian Petzold’s Transit (2018), and Mark Jenkin’s Bait (2019), which will be released in cinemas across the UK by the BFI on Friday 30 August.
There will be two high-profile TV previews in August; firstly, on Tuesday 27 August, Sanditon (Red Planet Pictures/ITV/MASTERPIECE, 2019), the new ITV adaptation of Jane Austen’s unfinished novel. Adapted for television by Andrew Davies, the screenwriter of numerous Austen adaptations including Pride and Prejudice (BBC, 1995) Northanger Abbey (ITV, 2007) and Emma (ITV, 1996), the preview of Sanditon will be followed by a Q&A with Davies, executive producer Belinda Campbell and members of the cast (to be announced). Also being previewed will be The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (Louis Leterrier, 2019), Netflix’s hotly-anticipated return to the world of Jim Henson’s beloved 1982 movie. As well as a special preview of the series on Thursday 22 August (followed by a Q&A), there will also be a free exhibition in the Mezzanine Gallery of BFI Southbank. The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Exhibition will be an immersive exhibit showcasing puppets and props among the stunning sets from the series and will run from Thursday 22 August – Sunday 8 September.
Completing the line-up of events for August will be BFI Southbank’s annual Programme Launch for the BFI London Film Festival, exclusively for BFI Members on Thursday 29 August, and the inaugural SOUL Fest, a two-day celebration of black British talent in film running from Friday 30 – Saturday 31 August, showcasing new features and shorts and allowing audiences the opportunity to see a diverse representation of black Britain.
