LA TERRA TREMA (1948), dir Luchino Visconti
WE ARE THE LAMBETH BOYS (1958), dir Karel Reisz
PATHER PANCHALI (1955), dir Satyajit Ray
LES QUATRE CENT COUPS (1959), dir François Truffaut
L'AVVENTURA (1960), dir Michelangelo Antonioni
TRIUMPH OF THE WILL (1936), dir Leni Riefenstahl
LA REGLE DU JEU (1939), dir Jean Renoir
A WOMAN OF PARIS (1923), dir Charlie Chaplin
LE NOTTI DI CABIRIA (1957), dir Federico Fellini
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974), dir Tobe Hooper
I first made my way under Waterloo Bridge in 1951. It wasn't called the National Film Theatre then. It was the Telekinema, and part of the Festival of Britain. I am still here, and so is this cocooned art-house cinema, the festival's only remnant, showing (sometimes) "the best of world cinema". It's arguably the one part of the South Bank that may escape the rebuilders' wrecking ball: it should.
The NFT has survived much: temporary transfer to the Vickers Building (a disaster), red ink on the balance sheet (a reprieve) and the politicking (a threat) that the BFI bureaucracy uptown has always inflicted on the NFT's dedicated and meanly rewarded staff.
It would be foolish of me to try to list the programmes that introduced new directors to us in Britain: they are too many. Some of the most successful have been those dedicated to Third World countries where possession of a movie camera is more often a reason for arrest than acclaim.
