Blonde Crazy Season

at the BFI

BFI Southbank, 1 - 17 March

From silent stars such as sassy-dame Phyllis Haver and cute comedienne Marion Davies to ice queen Kim Novak and sex-bomb Marilyn Monroe – this programme certainly illustrates the range of iconic blondes throughout film history.

Get your tickets here

  • I'm No Angel

    NFT1, March 1, 8.50pm & NFT2, March 5, 6.20pm

    Dir Wesley Ruggles, USA 1933, 86 min
    With Mae West, Cary Grant and Gregory Ratoff

    Bottle-blonde West stars as Tira, a dancer-cum-lion-tamer, who bags the man of her dreams by using her ample talents.

  • Becky Sharpe

    NFT2, Sun March 7, 6.20pm & NFT2, Tue March 9, 6.20pm

    Dir Rouben Mamoulian, USA 1935, 84min
    With Miriam Hopkins, Amelia Sedley, Billie Burke

    Based on Vanity Fair, Hopkins stars as the sinfully seductive lower class girl who insinuates herself into an upper class family.

  • To Be Or Not To Be

    NFT1, Sun March 7, 4.10pm & NFT1, Sun March 14, 8.20pm

    Dir Ernst Lubitsch, USA 1942, 99min
    With Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack

    1939 Poland. An egotistical troupe of actors team together to help the Polish resistance.

  • I Married a Witch

    NFT2, March 11, 8.40pm & NFT1, March 14, 6.30pm

    Dir Rene Clair, USA 1942, 76min
    With Veronica Lake, Fredric March, Susan Hayward

    Lake stars as a 17th-century witch who falls for the ancestor of the man who burned her at the stake.

  • Casque D'or

    NFT3, Sat March 13, 3.50pm & NFT3, Tue March 16, 6.10pm

    Dir. Jacques Becker, France 1952, 97min
    With Simon Signoret, Serge Reggani, Claude Dauphin, Raymond Bussières

    Gangster’s moll and sometimes-prostitute, Marie (Signoret) falls in love with Manda (Reggabi) in a perfect coup de foudre.

  • It Should Happen To You

    NFT3, March 2, 6.30pm & NFT2, March 3, 2.30pm NFT3 & March7, 8.30pm

    Dir. George Cukor, USA 1953, 85 min
    With Judy Holliday, Jack Lemmon, Peter Lawford

    Holliday plays Gladys Glover, a kooky blonde who schemes a way of getting her name in lights.

  • Imitation Of Life

    NFT1, March 14, 3.50pm & NFT3, March 15, 8.30pm

    Dir. Douglas Sirk, USA 1934, 125 min
    With Lana Turner, Sandra Dee, Susan Kohner, Juanita Moore

    ‘I want to have everything’ says Lora Meredith (Turner). Passions run high in this classic Sirk melodrama.

  • Yield To The Night

    NFT2, March 3, 6.10pm & NFT3, March 7, 6.15pm & NFT2, March 11, 2.30pm

    Dir J. Lee Thompson, UK 1956, 95min
    With Diana Dors, Michael Craig, Yvonne Mitchell

    Inspired by the tragic life and death of Ruth Ellis, this was ‘the Siren from Swindon’s’ bid for a serious acting career.

  • Wild Strawberries

    NFT1, March 10, 8.45pm & NFT1, March 17, 9.00pm

    Dir Ingmar Bergman, Sweden 1957, 91min
    With Bibi Anderson, Ingrid Thulin, Victor Sjöström

    Two Bergman blondes in this sublime masterpiece about an elderly doctor reflecting on his life.

  • Le Mepris

    NFT1, March 5, 8.45pm & NFT1, March 6, 3.30pm

    Dir Jean-Luc Goddard, France/Italy 1963, 102 min
    With Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, Jack Parlance, Fritz Lang

    Existential malaise against beautiful scenery – although blonde goddess Bardot is the real spectacle.

  • Marnie

    NFT1, March 8, 8.20pm & NFT2, March 17, 6.00pm

    Dir Alfred Hitchcock, USA 1964, 130 min
    With Tippi Hedren, Sean Connery

    Compulsive thief and icy blonde Marnie (Hedron), is forced to unearth her traumatic past.

    The 8th screening sees a special talk on the Hitchcock Blonde from journalist Laura Mulvey.

  • Belle De Jour

    NFT1, March 11, 6.20pm & NFT1, March 13, 8.45pm

    Dir. Luis Bunuel, 1967, France/Italy 1967, 99min.
    With Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Michel Piccoli

    Sèverine (Deneuve) is a bourgeois surgeon’s wife who works in a brothel by day to indulge her masochistic desires

  • Gloria

    NFT1, March 13, 6.15pm & NFT1, March 15, 6.30pm

    Dir John Cassavettes, USA 1980, 116 min
    With Gena Rowlands, John Adames, Buck Henry

    Rowlands plays Gloria the straight-shooting, fast-talking ex-moll in a perfect noir homage.

  • Basic Instinct

    NFT3, March 14, 8.30pm & NFT2, March 16, 8.30pm

    Dir Paul Verhoeven, USA 1992, 127min
    With Sharon Stone, Michael Douglas

    When a former rock-star is butchered with an ice-pick, all the clues point towards hard-as-steel Catherine Tramell (Stone).

  • Red Dust

    NFT2, March 4, 6.20pm & NFT2, March 6, 8.50 pm

    Dir Victor Fleming, USA 1932, 80min
    With Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Mary Astor, Gene Raymond

    Dennis Carson (Gable) battles with the elements on his rubber plantation in Indochina. Enter blonde bombshell Vantine (Harlow).

  • Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

    NFT3: Thu March 4, 6.30pm, 8.30pm; Fri March 5, 2.30pm, 8.30pm; Sat March 6, 6.10pm, 8.30pm; Mon March 8, 8.30pm; Tue March 9, 8.30pm; Wed March 10, 6.10pm, Thu March 11, 8.30pm; Fri March 12, 2.30pm, 6.10pm, 8.45pm NFT1: Sun March 7, 8.20pm

    Dir Hawks, USA 1953, 91 min
    With Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell

    Singers/showgirls on a transatlantic cruise, Lorelei and Dorothy are enjoying the company of any eligible men they meet on their way to Paris.