This November BFI Southbank will host a retrospective of Bong Joon-Ho’s feature films and shorts, and will include a preview of the director’s highly acclaimed new film Mother Madeo (2009). The BFI are also delighted to present an exclusive In Conversation to follow the preview screening and to complement the London Korean Film Festival 2009.

Bong Joon-Ho made his first film short, White Man in 1993, the year that South Korea moved from military to civilian governments. Very soon afterwards the country’s cultural isolation came to a crashing end and world cinema arrived on Korean screens. Serious film magazines and international film festivals were founded, and there was a massive renewal in Korea’s own film industry, linked in the popular mind with tumultuous social and political changes. This was the context in which Bong set about learning his craft and discovering his art.

Korean movie-mania has calmed down since then, but Bong has carved his own niche: two of his four features to date, Memories of Murder (Sarin ui Chi-eok 2003), based on the hunt for Korea’s first serial killer, and the monster movie The Host (Goe-mool 2006), have been all-time domestic box-office champions, while the man himself has won both critical respect and a large degree of personal celebrity. He has done better than any of his contemporaries in finding a middle ground between the art-house and the multiplex; his delicately twisted sense of humour lends itself equally to small-scale, personal projects and blockbusters.

He writes and storyboards his own films, giving all of them a distinct style, achieved by his infamous eye for detail and evident both in his shorts, such as Influenza (2004) and Sink & Ride (2004), and in his features, including Tokyo! (2008), made with Michel Gondry and Leos Carax. They display a delight in visual storytelling, not to mention lessons learnt from older films and reflections of disturbing facts in Korea’s recent history (such as the underlying trial of Korea’s own authoritarian past in Memories of Murder). And whether he is creating profound characters, commentating on social and political climates or trying out some new CGI technology, he always arms himself with a wry, sardonic grin.

Preview: Mother Madeo
Quack herbalist and acupuncturist Hye-Ja (Kim Hye-Ja in the role of her career) lives for her retarded son. When a sexually precocious girl is murdered, evidence found at the scene incriminates him – and so his mother undertakes an investigation to prove his innocence. A startlingly original account of maternal feelings in all their terrifying intensity, blackly comic and exquisitely shot.

South Korea 2009 With Kim Hye-Ja, Won Bin, Jin Goo 129min EST

Followed by Bong Joon-Ho in Conversation The first time Korea’s young maverick director visited us a decade ago, he shared a stage with Chinese newcomer Jia Zhangke. Following a screening of his blackly comic and exquisitely shot new film Mother, we welcome him back as a ‘star’ in his own right. In prospect: a mixture of cinephile reflections, offbeat humour and insights into the ups and downs of Korean cinema in the 2000s. Chaired by Tony Rayns.  Sat 14 Nov 18:20 NFT3, Tickets £15.50, concs £11.15 (Members pay £1.40 less)

Without doubt the finest British television drama has usually emerged from those writers seeking to challenge the prevailing establishment view, explore the inequalities within society or push at the boundaries of morality and taste – the so called “radical” dramatists.

This season examines the changes in “Radical” drama as renowned writers and producers reacted to the Thatcherite revolution and explored the divisions underpinning British society since the 1960s – a timely way to mark the 30th anniversary of Margaret Thatcher coming to power.

Beginning in the 1960s, United Kingdom! looks at the roots of the radical TV drama movement, its consolidation in the 70s and examines the challenge of responding to Margaret Thatcher’s prevailing right wing orthodoxy.

From Up the Junction to United Kingdom, Part One of the season, which runs throughout November, offers a chance to see the very best in radical drama across three decades before and during the Thatcher years, and to assess the impact the Thatcher government had on television drama.

November highlights include a focus on some of the early productions of the 60s by Ken Loach, Tony Garnett, and Dennis Potter, finishing in the mid 80s with works by Stephen Poliakoff and Alan Bleasdale and culminating in the debate TV Sold to the Highest Bidder – Thatcher’s Television Revolution, a panel discussion focusing on how Thatcher changed the television industry and the consequences for radical TV drama. On the panel will be Michael Grade, Tony Garnett, David Rose and Alasdair Milne, all of whom experienced at first hand the changes the Thatcher government imposed on broadcasters, particularly with regards to perceived hostility to the BBC and the restructure of the ITV franchises.

There will also be an illustrated lecture in November, with film and television historian John Hill considering how television drama responded to the industrial conflicts of the late 1960s and early 1970s – through an examination of The Big Flame and Leeds United!

The season continues in December (United Kingdom! Part 2: Radical TV Drama, Thatcher and Beyond) by looking at Thatcher’s legacy and the way television drama responded to Britain at war (The Falklands Play and Tumbledown). It moves on to examine the mistrust and cynicism engendered by the reaction to New Labour and the sense of betrayal as evidenced in The Deal and The Government Inspector. One of the highlights of December will be After Thatcher: The New Radical Drama, a panel discussion examining the response of radical dramatists to the rise of New Labour and the changing definition of what it means to be a “radical” TV dramatist now. On the panel will be writer Paul Abbott, director Peter Kosminsky, Head of Drama Channel 4 Liza Marshall, Producer Kenith Trodd, and the writer/creator of Skins, Brian Elsley.

Many screenings will include talks by writers, producers and directors such as Ken Trodd, Colin Welland, Peter Flannery and Margaret Matheson.

Events:

Panel Disscussion & Q&A: TV Sold to the Highest Bidder – Thatcher’s Television Revolution. 75 min

In the 80s the BBC was accused of left wing bias and the licence fee itself was questioned, whilst ITV saw its whole franchise system change. An eminent panel working in broadcasting at that critical time – Michael Grade, Exec Chairman ITV; Alasdair Milne, Former DG BBC TV; Tony Garnett, Producer; David Rose, former Head of Drama BBC Birmingham – examine the impact of Thatcherism on the TV industry and radical drama in particular. Chairperson Raymond Snoddy.
Wed 18 Nov 20:45 NFT1

John Hill: From The Big Flame to Leeds United!

In this illustrated lecture, film and television historian John Hill (from Royal Holloway, University of London) will consider how television drama responded to the industrial conflicts of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Drawing on programme clips, Hill will discuss how these two productions promoted a radical political perspective, provoked controversy and proved a headache for the establishment.
Thu 19 Nov 18:30 Studio
This lecture will be followed by a repeat screening of The Big Flame at 20:45 NFT2

To mark the 175th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the BFI will in November 2009 present Of Dreams and Cities – Architecture and Film at BFI Southbank and in the BFI Mediatheques at BFI Southbank, QUAD in Derby and the new Cambridge Central Library.

Architects and architecture have featured in a variety of ways in the cinema, and Of Dreams and Cities – Architecture and Film offers a wide range of films, from expressionist silent drama to contemporary documentary, from vintage Hollywood studio fare to European auteur classics and highly personal ‘essay films’.

No film season about architecture should omit The Fountainhead (1948), perhaps the most famous depiction of an architect – one whose Le Corbusier-like vision is of a future where skyscrapers rule. Other classics with an important if often overlooked architectural component include Murnau’s Sunrise (1927), with its evocation of the modern metropolis; Paul Strand’s poetic Manhattan (1921); and Jacques Tati’s comic fable Playtime (1967). Citizen Kane (1941), Orson Welles’s dark masterpiece, is rightly famous for its many impressive sets, not least Xanadu, the lavish palace of Charles Foster Kane. Citizen Kane will be re-released on an extended run to coincide with the season.

We also feature film as architectural document in lesser known but fascinating works like Proud City: A Plan for London (1946), Twelve Views of Kensal House (1984) or A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba (2006). Terence Davies’ Of Time and the City (2008), meanwhile, includes a passionate commentary on the consequences of urban planning. Perhaps no other medium is as adept at capturing the essence of a building, rendered all the more poignant when the original has disappeared or been altered beyond recognition.

A special selection of rare British films and TV documentaries from the BFI National Archive is available to view free of charge in the Mediatheques, including László Moholy-Nagy’s New Architecture at the London Zoo, and The Ten Year Plan, in which Carry On’s Charles Hawtrey gamely promotes the post-war prefab.

SOUTHBANK PROGRAMME…Some Key Events:

From Chartres to Xanadu (via Citizen Kane)

Throughout his illustrious career, Orson Welles made highly imaginative use of buildings and sets as a means of enriching not only the moods but the meanings of his films. As part of our ‘Of Dreams and Cities…’ season, and tying in with our re-release of Citizen Kane, Geoff Andrew, Head of Film Programme at BFI Southbank, will give an illustrated talk that explores Welles’ use of architecture as a fertile source of cinematic metaphor in all his work, but with special reference to Citizen Kane.
Mon 2 Nov 18:30 NFT3 Tickets £5

A Convenient Truth followed by RIBA Panel Discussion USA 2006. Giovanni Baz del Bello. 52min. EST

For 40 years the city of Curitiba has transformed problems into solutions. This inspirational documentary shares ideas for cost effective environmental changes in cities worldwide based on the Curitiba model that has transformed the city into one of the world’s most liveable urban spaces. Following the screening we welcome Jaime Lerner, urban planner and three-times mayor of Curitiba and (hopefully) the film’s makers into a discussion hosted by Peter Jenkinson OBE of CrunchLab.
Wed 4 Nov 18:30 NFT1

RIBA Building Futures ‘This House Believes We Have Lost Sight of the Future.’

Directors have the art of visualising the future nailed. Film can instantly make the utopian tangible, but why has the popular future become such an unobtainable place? Architects once aligned themselves with the future, fusing their visions to political ideals and ambitions for a bolder tomorrow, but where is our contemporary vision coming from? RIBA Building Futures with WIRED magazine host a multidisciplinary evening fusing film, architecture and debate to reveal our ambitions for tomorrow.
Tue 17 Nov 18:30 NFT1 Tickets £5