Jonathan Wakeham

Congratulations Mark! Hope premiere goes really well, looking forward to seeing it.

Peter Lorre in THE LOST ONE, lighting a cigarette in the darkness, his face sallow, his eyes hollow.

Peter Lorre’s THE LOST ONE (1951), his only film as director, is the darkest of noirs. A Nazi doctor kills his lover for her treachery, has his crime covered up by the state and, crazed with guilt, kills again. A powerful portrait of how authoritarianism corrupts, from @filmsradiance.bsky.social.

How wonderful! Congratulations, really looking forward to it.

Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis kiss passionately against a stormy blue sky in WITNESS (Peter Weir, 1985)

Peter Weir's WITNESS (1985) is not just a great thriller but a great love story: Ford and McGillis's wit, warmth & chemistry burn through the screen. And watching it this week the title felt like an exhortation: that we must all, for the good of all, bear witness and keep our eyes open to the truth.

I'm very glad you're here, even if intermittently!

I haven’t, and will! Thank you.

Yes: Lynch talks very warmly about him in this interview (at 4.44), and in the new HBO Brooks documentary too. We're so lucky that he saw the potential of Davids Lynch and Cronenberg! www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6Ao...

Freddie Jones as Bytes kidnaps John Hurt as John Merrick from his hospital room in THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980) directed by David Lynch.

Wonderful to see David Lynch's THE ELEPHANT MAN at BFI. It's a masterclass in cinematic empathy, gliding between the POVs of John Merrick's exploiters, spectators and doctors, and of Merrick himself. It dares us to look away, and asks us to keep looking, not just at John but into our own hearts.

Sheryl Lee as Laura Palmer in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME. She's a young blonde woman, lit by red light, her eyes brimming with tears.

I've never felt such silence & stillness in a cinema as I did last night at BFI's FIRE WALK WITH ME. Denounced & dismissed by many critics in 1992, it's clear now that they hated & feared it because David Lynch dared tell the truth. A powerful, beautiful, achingly sad masterpiece of domestic horror.

Eels is wonderful, and 15 mins walk from Gare du Nord: www.restaurant-eels.com

I agree! It’s an unfairly overlooked film: so rich, so original, so emotional, with terrific support from Turturro & Hulce. Weir is badly served on Blu-ray here — no Green Card or Mosquito Coast — but there’s a Warner Archive of Fearless released last year, and a beautiful new Witness from Arrow.

Jeff Bridges and Isabella Rossellini in FEARLESS

Jeff Bridges in FEARLESS, bathed in light inside the crashed plane

Jeff Bridges in FEARLESS, standing on the roof of a tower block, exhilarated

Isabella Rossellini in FEARLESS, smoking a cigarette with great style.

The great cinematographer Allen Daviau (E.T., Bugsy, Empire of the Sun) shot FEARLESS with a mission from Weir to "photograph souls". Some more of his breathtaking images here:

Jeff Bridges and Rosie Perez, in profile, in rich blue lighting, gaze into each others' eyes in Peter Weir's FEARLESS (1993)

Peter Weir's FEARLESS (1993) is a magnificent, daringly spiritual movie, from Rafael Yglesias's script. Jeff Bridges & Rosie Perez are electric as two plane crash survivors who connect as they struggle, in opposite ways, to find new meaning in life, while Isabella Rossellini shines as Bridges' wife.

Naomi Watts in Mulholland Drive. A close-up of her face, surrounded by darkness, her red lips and blue eyes shining bright.

Wonderful to see MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2001) again in BFI's David Lynch season. I keep thinking of Naomi Watts reading the script for the first time and discovering what an astonishing, multifaceted, mould-breaking role it would be: a role that darkened and deepened as Lynch expanded it from TV to film.

That’s brilliant news! Congratulations, really looking forward to reading it.

Watch The Ice Tower - Extended Q&A - BFI Player Writer-director Lucile Hadžihalilović explains how she spun her own dark fairy tale out of Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen.

Lucile Hadžihalilović's THE ICE TOWER is my favourite film from last year. You can watch it now on BFI Player alongside this really warm, generous and insightful interview with Hadžihalilović by @leighsinger.bsky.social about the film and her creative collaborators: player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/wa...

This is wonderful! Congratulations, thanks so much for sharing it.

I'm hugely enjoying your Bond series and would listen to more: le Carré would be great. I'd prefer you to keep the book club separate to WoF as it's a different format and tone. Looking forward to more of both. I'd also welcome some book club eps on classic film books e.g. Lumet, Mackendrick etc.

Past Times by Kerry James Marshall: a group of Black people picnic, play and waterski on a lake in Chicago in summertime.

It's the last week of Kerry James Marshall's marvellous, monumental THE HISTORIES at the Royal Academy of Arts. Do go if you can: it's a thrilling, challenging, beautiful show and the perfect antidote to the bleakness of both the weather and the times.

Jean-Louis Trintignant and Françoise Fabian in MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S, standing in profile in the snow. He's in a stylish sheepskin jacket, she's wearing a gorgeous white furry hat.

Marie-Christine Barrault in profile in MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S. She has blonde hair tucked back with an Alice band. She's at church.

Marie-Christine Barrault and Jean-Louis Trintignant in MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S. He's gazing at her intently, she's looking away.

Jean-Louis Trintignant and Françoise Fabian in MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S. She's in her nightclothes, pushing him away when he tries to kiss her.

Here's some more of Néstor Almendros's breathtaking cinematography in MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S. Every frame of the film vibrates with emotion and meaning.

Françoise Fabian as Maud in MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S, sitting on her bed smoking a cigarette looking both melancholy and cool.

Wonderful to see Éric Rohmer's MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S (1969) at BFI last night. Maud (Françoise Fabian) is one of cinema's greatest characters and performances: funny, flirtatious, worldly and wise, giving Rohmer's philosophical dialogue insouciance and swing. A rich, funny, melancholic masterpiece.

Jim Carrey in THE TRUMAN SHOW (1998) discovering the television light fallen from the sky that provides the first gap in his reality.

One of the joys of revisiting great films is that the brilliance of the directing, acting & writing doesn't change, but their meaning or metaphor can. Peter Weir's filmography is full of films with that quality (PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK, THE MOSQUITO COAST) & THE TRUMAN SHOW is one of his finest.

Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank climbing a set of steps in an artificial sky, in THE TRUMAN SHOW (Peter Weir, 1998)

In 1998 Peter Weir's dazzling THE TRUMAN SHOW (1998) felt like a satire of TV. Rewatching it last night it felt more like a prediction of today's rabbit hole radicalisation: the plausible, paranoid worlds that people can build around themselves, almost wilfully ignoring the clues to the contrary.

Robert Sean Leonard playing Puck in a theatre production with a crown of twigs, in DEAD POETS SOCIETY (Peter Weir, 1989)

I'm having a Peter Weir rewatch before hosting a screening of WITNESS (1985). I first saw DEAD POETS SOCIETY (1989) as a teenager and thought it was a film to inspire young people. Watching it now, it feels like a prayer to parents, to help their kids to follow their own path, not the expected one.

Sending all best thoughts to both of you: I'm so sorry to hear this, but glad she's in good hands, and good spirits.

Renate Reinsve in SENTIMENTAL VALUE. She's lying on a bed, a little tearful, speaking to her sister. The subtitle reads "Why didn't our childhood ruin you?"

What a marvel Renate Reinsve is! A reminder that the true subject of cinema is human faces and feelings, which no AI will ever replace. SENTIMENTAL VALUE (Joachim Trier, 2025) is wonderful: such a rich, kind, complex story, rooted in the world of film but with dynamics that are universal & timeless.

Congratulations! Just ordered mine, really looking forward to seeing them all: he’s so underseen in UK.

YouTube video by Warner Bros. They Will Kill You | Official Trailer

I am very much on board for Zazie Beetz killing bad guys in a posh apartment building.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqNF...

And to you, Shelley! Wishing you many happy adventures.

YouTube video by HighQualityMusic Rhythm of Life: Sir George Martin & Brian Wilson in the Studio [previously unreleased]

George Martin would have been 100 today. I love this clip of him visiting Brian Wilson and remixing God Only Knows.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRb_...