Back to Black sets itself up as a celebration of Amy Winehouse’s genius, but falls short of the filmmaker’s aspirations to focus on the music.

Rebecca Harrison reviews. bfi.org.uk/sight-and-soun…

NEW Sight and Sound magazine available at QFT bar 🫶

Asif Kapadia’s heartbreaking documentary about Amy Winehouse presents a complex picture of someone who is both more canny and more intimidated than we could ever have imagined. Nick James spoke to the director for our July 2015 issue buff.ly/49xTLu7

Read Geoff Andrew’s incisive interview with Víctor Erice in our new issue, out now

Get your copy: shop.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-soun…

I just watched The Conversation. Or, rather, only half of it so far. I kept having to stop. It was so good, I couldn't take it all in at once. Here's some context.

An idealistic maths teacher is pushed to the edge by an incident at her school in Ilker Çatak’s anxiety-inducing classroom thriller.

Catherine Wheatley reviews The Teachers’ Lounge. bfi.org.uk/sight-and-soun…

Delighted to be given the opportunity by @sightsoundmag to explore many of the fascinating facets of 1974 at the movies, in a monthly column starting this issue.

Fifty years on, Jessica Kiang looks back at American cinema’s banner year, in the first of a new series of columns bfi.org.uk/sight-and-soun…

We're excited to announce the acquisition of the Chantal Akerman film collection, including Sight and Sound magazine's 2022 Greatest Films of All Time Poll winner, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. theb.fi/3xuSs1F

“The unfussy elegance of Erice’s filmmaking remains as fresh and clear as ever.”

Leigh Singer reviews Víctor Erice’s Close Your Eyes, in cinemas this Friday. bfi.org.uk/sight-and-soun…

Despite having had its funding pulled and its production halted, Víctor Erice’s tantalising, incomplete 1983 film El sur is still regarded by many as a masterpiece buff.ly/3IliVBy

A disgruntled heckler hijacks a play in Quentin Dupieux’s wry comedy exploring the divisions between audience and artist.

John Bleasdale reviews Yannick, now streaming on MUBI UK & Ireland. buff.ly/3W8OG8H

They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They? have released the results for their ‘Beyond the Sight and Sound Canon’ poll

It asked voters for the greatest films which received ZERO votes in our 2022 poll – 14,558 films received at least one vote theyshootpictures.com/beyondtheSScan…

Films made for children are too often treated as an inevitably candy-coloured, emotionally simplified toy version of the real thing, but the best filmmakers know that children are quick-witted, dark and complicated creatures – and they make movies to match buff.ly/4aILbK3

Out now for subscribers 🩷

Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s follow up to Drive My Car, the hypnotic eco-drama Evil Does Not Exist, “reconfirms Hamaguchi’s talents as one of today’s greatest dramaturges”.

Nicolas Rapold reviews Evil Does Not Exist, in cinemas now. bfi.org.uk/sight-and-soun…

Two Senegalese teenagers embark on a dangerous journey across Africa toward the Mediterranean Sea in Matteo Garrone’s Homeric migrant drama.

Jason Anderson reviews Io Capitano, out now. buff.ly/3PRZ0xB

“We will never see that Hollywood again”

In 1971, we heard from grande dame of cinema Bette Davis as she reflected on a life in the movies, and how the Golden Age Hollywood she knew had gone forever buff.ly/43PJJ6w