BFI Southbank is paying tribute to a Hollywood legend. The cinema has announced a two-month program featuring 20 films starring Joan Crawford. Kicking off August 1 and running through October 9, Fierce: The Untameable Joan Crawford spans more than 40 years of the actress’ career.
Titles set to screen include 1939’s “The Women,” a portrait of interconnected women and their love lives, and 1945’s “Mildred Pierce,” a drama about a hardworking mother and her conniving daughter. She won an Oscar for the latter and also received nods for her performances in “Possessed” and “Sudden Fear.”
Fierce: The Untameable Joan Crawford will trace the icon’s career from “her early years as a flapper during the silent era to her middle-age melodramas and late-career genre resurgence,” proving that Crawford “was a cinematic chameleon who always dominated the screen with her formidable presence.”
“Throughout her career she thrived on roles of complicated and unlikeable women, pushing the envelope as her Hollywood clout grew – and then developing roles for herself when the offers started to dry up,” BFI Southbank observes.
Crawford died in 1977.
BFI Southbank is nearing the end of a season in honor of Agnès Varda, with screenings including “The Gleaners & I” and “Cléo from 5 to 7.”
For more information on both series head to the cinema’s website.
