Uncommon Threads: how a new BFI Player collection celebrates time on the sofa
From The Handmaiden to Frances Ha, a new collection on BFI Player – curated in partnership with Sofas & Stuff – draws together the ’uncommon threads’ that make festive season special.
“Between Christmas and New Year is one of the few times that Lou and I truly get to relax for a week,” says musician Rohan Heath, “when we sit on the sofa for more time than at any time during the rest of the year.”
Of course, a key part of that seasonal ritual is watching films. “Movies are key to Christmas,” he says, “like playing games or eating or playing music.”
Rohan Heath and singer-songwriter Lou Rhodes, who collaborate together as Kiiōtō, are two of the creatives working with Sofas & Stuff, who have selected some of their favourite films for a new collection on BFI Player as part of a partnership with the BFI.
Under the title Uncommon Threads, the selection – which also includes choices from actor and poet Greta Bellamacina and floral designer Milli Proust – brings together a wide variety of viewing experiences, from traditional favourites to great after-dinner movies. Whit Stillman’s witty Jane Austen adaptation Love & Friendship (2016) is there next to Ang Lee’s resplendent wuxia epic Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000). Park Chan-wook’s sumptuous period romance The Handmaiden (2016) sits alongside Joanna Hogg’s seductive rites-of-passage drama The Souvenir (2019).
“Two of my favourite films are Frances Ha (2012) and Paris, Texas (1984),” says Rhodes. Of Wim Wenders’ 1984 Palme d’Or winner Paris, Texas, he says: “A lot of it’s about the acting of Harry Dean Stanton. The music of Ry Cooder. The mood of that huge Texan landscape. It’s like a meditation.”
“The way you slowly get into the minds of these people and the music draws you in. Wim Wenders’ films are just amazing.”
Noah Baumbach’s stylish indie Frances Ha, about a 27-year-old dancer moving to New York City, provided a breakout moment for star and co-writer Greta Gerwig in 2012. It’s a fresh discovery for Rhodes. “Frances Ha I watched for the first time recently. It was Lou that introduced me to the film. It’s one of those films that you discover later on, years after it’s come out. You think, how did I miss it?”
For Greta Bellamacina, Christmas means “being with family, being cosy, locking the doors to the world, spending time together”. “It’s about making the house full of magic,” she says, “making small ceremonies together.”
“I think movies add an extra layer of magic and nostalgia at Christmas,” she says.
“I’m recently really into Mia Hansen Løve films. Bergman Island (2021) and her latest film, One Fine Morning (2021).”
She too loves Frances Ha, as well as Gerwig’s opulent 2019 adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women – “one of my ultimate favourites”. “And for the costumes, Jean Cocteau’s La Belle et la Bête (1946) is a must.”
As for Christmas Day itself, the celebration is “centred around watching old musicals, anything with song and dance. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), Mary Poppins (1964), those kinds of things.”
Movies are all part of the festivities for Milli Proust too. ”We have loads of loved ones and we really love hosting,” she says. “So a game at Christmas is seeing how many people can squeeze into the home. And obviously the sofa is the most coveted spot.”
“I love cinema so much,” she continues. “I trained as an actor so I’ve always had this love affair with storytelling and the cinema.”
“And being able to have the down moment on Christmas Day or Boxing Day where we just kick back and watch some films is always one of my favourite bits.
“We love old films and anything that is light-hearted or romantic. Or we watch documentaries on Christmas Day as well.”
“One of my favourite films to watch is Jules et Jim (1962),” says Proust, speaking up for François Truffaut’s classic French New Wave tale of a woman (Jeanne Moreau) embarking on a romance with two male friends in the early 20th century. “I just love the nostalgia and the excitement and the love affair.”
“And then The Eternal Daughter (2022),” she says of Joanna Hogg’s haunting seasonal drama, set at a wintry hotel. “I love Joanna Hogg as the director. And Tilda Swinton is just sublime.”
As for documentaries, Proust is excited to catch up with Wilding, David Allen’s 2023 film about the rewilding project Knepp Wilding in West Sussex, which is not far from her own home and shares her vocational interest in “letting nature come back in a bit more”.
In partnership with Sofas & Stuff
