Wednesday, 30 August 2017

The BFI Thriller Season: October-December 2017



The British Film Institute – where your correspondent did time both as a student and employee – is a colossal force for film culture in the UK and beyond, and in recent years it’s come to specialise in extended, ambitious big-theme seasons unspooling at their South Bank base and venues countrywide. In 2013 they treated The Gothic, a project to which I was very pleased to contribute. This autumn, from October to December, they are doing Thrillers – a vast, twisty, engrossing subject that surely offers something for everyone.

To coincide with the season, the BFI will publish a BFI Thriller Compendium with contributions from writers including Jake Arnott and Lee Child. I was delighted to be asked to do the chapter on political thrillers, dealing especially with themes of conspiracy and paranoia, from The Manchurian Candidate through The Parallax View and All the President’s Men to Syriana and more. There's a lot to be said on the subject, and I hope it will be part of a great big diverse conversation stirred up by the season. See you there maybe?

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