Hey, there; I'm Edgar Wright,
the director of "Last Night in Soho,"
and this is my favorite cinema,
the BFI Southbank in London.
I think the simplest answer
as to why I enjoy going to the cinema
is just to escape.
Being in a darkened room,
watching something literally bigger than life,
is transportive.
There's something different about just giving yourself
to a movie in the dark.
That to me is something quite magical.
First time I came to the BFI
was when I first moved to London, like 27 years ago.
I worked as a researcher
in that building next door, London Studios.
This was on my way home.
And as soon as I found this place,
I would just be here every night.
And I think the first year I was in London,
they had a Dario Argento season
and a Russ Meyer season
and a season of 3D movies.
So I would just be here all the time.
So BFI Southbank is, in simple terms,
a very special cinema.
It's dedicated to the history of cinema.
In more formal terms,
it's the UK's publicly funded national cinematheque.
And that in itself is quite a special thing
because not all countries have one of those.
Our funding enables us to take risks
that other cinemas can't take.
And therefore, you'll find in our program a kind of
much more diverse and rich offer for film lovers
and all kinds of audiences.
The great thing about the BFI is that they operate
seven days a week, 12 hours a day.
So any given day, there's 10 or 12 movies playing,
and they also just play the classics
and amazing things from the archive.
You know that what you're seeing here is gonna be
the best presentation it could possibly be
and just amazing seasons of different directors' work,
different stars' work,
different genres, different countries.
We try really hard to program across all platforms.
The process itself is based on research
and responding to what's happening in film culture now.
Filmmakers generally are film lovers.
I think filmmakers love BFI Southbank
because this is where they can come to get inspired,
to see the history of cinema on the big screen,
and that kind of dialogue
between contemporary, historical, and creators
is really, really valuable for us.
Over the years, I've done different events
with the BFI Southbank.
I've done lots of Q&As.
I've helped cohost nights.
They do an amazing thing here called "BUG,"
which Adam Buxton presents,
where they show all the best music videos of the month.
And then I've presented screenings of my movies.
Over the years, Edgar and myself have been
in a kind of dialogue.
Sometimes I go to him and say,
"Hey, Edgar, this would be cool.
"When can you come and work on the project?"
Quite often, he comes to us, puts himself forward
to program something in the cinema.
So when "Last Night in Soho" was coming out,
I spoke to the programming team here
and suggested doing something.
So this season is called "London After Dark,"
which is 10 nocturnal London films,
some horror films, some thrillers,
but some dramas and some documentaries as well.
So lots of things that either I'd seen before
that somewhat inspired the movie
or films I watched whilst I was writing the movie.
So in BFI Southbank, we have four cinemas.
Three of those cinemas are quite special.
They can project pretty much every film format
and video format known to mankind.
One of our theaters is digital-only.
We're in NFT1 now. This is our flagship cinema.
So the stage behind me has been sat upon
by pretty much every great name in cinema history
that you can think of.
When you walk in the door here,
the space has that kind of feeling
like when you go into a cathedral.
There's a presence; there's an architectural presence.
I think everybody feels that when they come into this place.
I have my rankings of which screen I like.
I like NFT1 the most. NFT3 is second.
NFT2 is maybe my least favorite of the three,
but I'm not fussy.
So we're really part of a family
of arts institutions here,
which are all national centers
for excellence in their field.
So we have the Southbank Centre next door
that does classical and popular music.
We have the Hayward Gallery that does visual arts.
Our neighbors the other side are the National Theatre.
And we are the kind of center of excellence for moving image.
Collectively, the sum of their parts
add up to something greater, and this whole area
is absolutely one of London's most vibrant areas.
It's always full of people.
It's an amazing resource for local communities.
It really is kind of buzzy, vibrant arts scene here.
I do like a cinema generally where there's somewhere
to have a drink before or afterwards, or even a coffee.
I don't really like at a multiplex
where it's get in, get out,
and you don't wanna spend any longer
in the building than you have to.
And what's great here is it's a social hangout as well.
It's not something where you have to think about,
hey, where should we get a drink before the movie?
It's like, we'll go to the BFI and have a coffee or a drink,
and then see the movie and then talk afterwards in the bar.
It's just a great place to be.
And the South Bank is so beautiful anytime of the year.
I don't know. It's somewhere I keep coming back to.
So there's two reasons why seeing films in cinemas
is really, really important.
I think all art forms should be experienced
in the way that the artists
intended them to be experienced.
And that is why this place is so special and important.
Nowhere else, really, is dedicated to showing
the history of cinema in the way
that it's intended to be experienced.
The other reason, I think, is a sense of togetherness.
Being together with an audience and just having
that human interaction after you've seen the film
is super valuable.
A lot of directors in the last 18 months have been forced
to explain why cinema is important, and to me,
it always feels like stating the obvious a little bit.
But when you go to the cinema,
it's like getting on a train to go on a journey,
because the film is starting with or without you,
and you have to be there and go on the journey with the film
like you would a train.
At home, you're in control of the movie.
So you can pause it when you wanna make a coffee.
You can pause it when you go to the bathroom.
You can pause it to take a phone call.
That's not to say that you can't enjoy a film at home,
because of course, I've watched plenty of movies on TV.
It would be wrong to say
the only way you can experience a movie
is on the big screen.
But usually, the actor's head
has to be bigger than your own.
That's my rule of thumb.
The best way to enjoy a movie is
if the actor's face is much bigger than your own.