BFI Southbank

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Former entrance area of ​​the BFI Southbank , still known as the National Film Theater in 2005

The BFI Southbank is a British Film Institute (BFI) -operated cinema located on London's South Bank . The 1952 National Film Theater entity created (NFT) is considered one of the most important cinemas in the UK . It mainly shows retrospectives of British and international film , but is also the venue for the London Film Festival and numerous other film festivals .

History of cinema

National Film Theater logo

Shortly after the founding of the British Film Institute in 1935, a film archive , today's BFI National Archive , was set up, which under its first curator Ernest Lindgren developed into a cinematheque with its own film screenings. However, these demonstrations were sporadic and took place at different locations.

The BFI only got its own movie theater in 1952 when it was able to take over the telekinema . This modern cinema was built in 1951 for the Festival of Britain on the south bank of the Thames near Waterloo station. It was designed by the Canadian architect Wells Coates , seated 410 spectators and showed 3D movies and TV shows as the main attraction during the festival .

Under the name National Film Theater , the BFI cinema developed into a crowd puller. In addition to films from its own archive, European and non-European films were shown right from the start, with retrospectives being the focus of the film program. In October 1957, the National Film Theater moved into new quarters under the southern end of Waterloo Bridge , just a few meters from the first location. The opening of the first London Film Festival was held, which has since developed into the most important British film festival.

The building was designed by the architecture department of London County Council , the architect in charge was Norman Engleback. Engleback was also responsible for the construction of other structures on the South Bank in the following years. In the late 1960s the gap between the Royal Festival Hall and the NFT was closed with the Queen Elizabeth Hall , and the Royal National Theater was built northeast of the National Film Theater in 1976 . The cultural buildings of the South Bank are considered to be outstanding examples of brutalism in Great Britain.

In 1970 the National Film Theater was expanded to include a second screening room. In 1988 the Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI) was opened in the immediate vicinity of the NFT . The National Film Theater received a third, smaller cinema hall in the premises of the Film Museum . Even after the closure of the MOMI in 1999, the cinema continued to operate. Also in 1999, just a few hundred meters southeast of the NFT, the BFI IMAX, the largest IMAX cinema in the United Kingdom, opened.

In 2002 the National Film Theater celebrated its 50th birthday. In the following years the British Film Institute pushed ahead with the construction of a more representative cinema. In a first step, the National Film Theater was renovated and expanded, the former Museum of the Moving Image was converted into the new entrance area. Associated with the renovation was the renaming of the NFT to the BFI Southbank , which opened in March 2007. In addition to the renovated cinemas, the new complex contained a new studio, a media library with access to the digitized film archive of the BFI, as well as cafes and restaurants.

According to the BFI's plans, the BFI Southbank is only an interim solution. The aim is to set up a National Film Center , which will house the National Film Archive in addition to five new cinemas. The cost of this project is estimated at £ 166 million, but a commitment from the UK government to share the cost of £ 45 million was withdrawn in 2010 in view of the financial crisis .

In 2010/2011 the BFI Southbank with its various facilities had more than 1.4 million visitors, of which around 360,000 attended a film screening. More than 1000 films are shown each year in the three cinemas of the BFI Southbank. The largest hall, NFT 1, has 450 seats, NFT 2 has 147 and NFT 3 134 seats. The studio, which was newly established in 2007, is designed for 38 spectators.

Cultural meaning

The BFI Southbank is considered the "flagship" of London's arthouse cinemas and is perceived by the public as the British Film Institute's flagship and best-known facility. It had a huge impact on the establishment of international films and filmmakers in the UK from the start. Previously little noticed film nations such as Yugoslavia were introduced to the British audience through film series.

Above all, the Asian film was promoted by the National Film Theater. So included Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and Satyajit Ray Aparajito , the second part of his Apu trilogy , the films in 1957 at the first London Film Festival were listed. In 1960, the NFT presented a comprehensive retrospective of Chinese film for the first time outside of Asia . According to film scholar John Riley, the NFT is also responsible for the renewed interest in Indian and Japanese film in Great Britain in the early 2000s .

In addition to the presentation of non-European films, the National Film Theater became an important sponsor of young British filmmakers. When the NFT was founded, the British Film Institute set up an Experimental Film Fund with which numerous film projects were financed. Under the title Free Cinema , a program with three documentary films was shown in February 1956. By 1959, five more film programs followed under this name; the free cinema movement led to the British New Wave and founded the careers of directors such as Tony Richardson , Lindsay Anderson and Karel Reisz , who was the first curator of the NFT in 1952.

In 1970 the first international film festival for underground films took place in the National Film Theater. With the establishment of regional film centers modeled on the NFT in the 1970s, independent directors were to be further promoted, but many of these art house cinemas were closed again after a short time. The NFT in London thus remained the defining body for non-commercial screenings in the UK.

In 1977 the NFT first presented a program of films with homosexual content. In 1986 another film series was started under the title Gay's Own Pictures , from which two years later the first London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (LLGFF) developed. It is now the third largest film festival in the UK. In addition to the London Film Festival and the LLGFF, other film festivals take place in the cinemas of the BFI Southbank. The BFI Southbank participates in the London Short Film Festival , the London Independent Film Festival , the women's film festival Birds Eye View and the UK Jewish Film Festival .

In addition to the film programs, interviews and discussions are held regularly at the BFI Southbank . The John Player Lectures took place from 1968 to 1973 , in which filmmakers talked about their work and answered questions from the audience. These events were recorded by the BBC and broadcast on its television program. In 1980, the series was revived as The NFT / Guardian Interview in collaboration with the daily newspaper The Guardian .

literature

  • Ivan Butler: "To encourage the art of the film": The story of the British Film Institute . Hale, London 1971, ISBN 0-7091-2409-0 .
  • Brian McFarlane (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of British Film . 3rd edition. Methuen, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-413-77660-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christophe Dupin: The origins and early development of the National Film Library: 1929–1936 . In: Journal of Media Practice , Vol. 7, No. 3, 2008, pp. 199-218.
  2. ↑ Sarah Easen: Film and the Festival of Britain . In: Ian MacKillop, Neil Sinyard (Eds.): British cinema of the 1950s: a celebration . Manchester University Press, Manchester 2003, ISBN 0-7190-6488-0 , p. 53.
  3. ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner , Bridget Cherry: London Vol 2: South . Penguin, Harmondsworth 1973, ISBN 0-14-071047-7 , p. 349.
  4. ↑ BBC News : £ 6m London film venue is unveiled , March 6, 2007. Accessed July 31, 2011.
  5. ^ The Guardian : Government withdraws £ 45m pledge to BFI Film Center , June 17, 2010. Retrieved July 31, 2011.
  6. ↑ BFI Annual review 2010/2011 (pdf; 1.6 MB). Retrieved August 12, 2012.
  7. ^ BFI Southbank venue hire , bfi.org.uk. Retrieved August 12, 2012.
  8. ↑ Charlie Godfrey-Faussett: Footprint England . Footprint, Bath 2004, ISBN 1-903471-91-5 , p. 130.
  9. ↑ Ivan Butler: "To encourage the art of the film": The story of the British Film Institute , p. 97.
  10. ^ Allen Eyles: Cinemas & Cinemagoing: Art House & Repertory . BFI Screenonline. Retrieved July 31, 2011.
  11. ↑ a b Derek Malcolm: In the hot seat . The Guardian , September 20, 2002. Retrieved July 31, 2011.
  12. ^ John Riley: National Film Theater . In: The Encyclopedia of British Film , p. 531.
  13. ^ Jörg Helbig: History of British Film . JB Metzler, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01510-6 , pp. 203-206.
  14. ^ William Fowler, Multiple Voices: The Silent Cry and Artists' Moving Image in the 1970s . In: Paul Newland (ed.): Don't Look Now: British Cinema in the 1970s . Intellect, Bristol 2010, ISBN 978-1-84150-320-2 , p. 73.
  15. ^ Vincent Porter: Alternative Film Exhibition in the English Regions during the 1970s . In: Paul Newland (ed.): Don't Look Now: British Cinema in the 1970s . Intellect, Bristol 2010, ISBN 978-1-84150-320-2 , pp. 57-69.
  16. ↑ David Benedict: London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival Has Fake Cary, Thai Boxer . Bloomberg , March 29, 2005, accessed July 31, 2011.

Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 25.9 ″  N , 0 ° 6 ′ 56.5 ″  W.