BFI Flipside

BFI Flipside is a series of Dual Format Editions (DVD and Blu-ray released together) which was launched in May 2009 and is published by the British Film Institute's Video label. The series so far features a total of 65 feature and short films, as well as 10 archive interviews with the likes of Spike Milligan, Peter Cook and Richard Lester. The BFI Flipside charts "the untold history of British film", and includes performances by such celebrated actors as John Hurt, Jane Asher, Ian McNeice, Richard O'Brien, Tom Bell, Peter Cook, Barry Evans, Denholm Elliott and Judy Geeson in films directed by the likes of Clive Donner, Richard Lester, Barney Platts-Mills, John Irvin, Stuart Cooper, Guy Hamilton, Peter Watkins and James Hill. Each BFI Flipside edition includes a feature film presentation that is complemented by additional film content (sometimes a second feature film by the same director, or a selection of short films which are related to the main feature by subject, era, actor or director). Each release is packaged in distinctive artwork which carries the volume number on the spine, and with a comprehensive booklet containing informative essays, full cast and credit information, original film reviews and reproductions of original promotional material. The Flipside is dedicated to releasing British film titles which have never been available on any home video format before (though some exceptions have been noted by the label's founder and programmer), and all films are newly mastered to High Definition from the best available film materials from the BFI National Archive or from the collections of filmmakers. Each title was originally released on both DVD and Blu-ray, but since The Pleasure Girls in a dual format release.

Releases

#	Title	Director	Year	Release Date	Notes
001	The Bed-Sitting Room	Richard Lester	1969	25 May 2009 (Blu-ray) 24 October 2011 (Dual format)	Includes original trailer and archival interviews with Richard Lester (1967, 17 minutes), Spike Milligan (1967, 40 minutes) and Peter Cook (1967, 30 minutes)
002	London in the Raw	Arnold L. Miller	1964	25 May 2009 (Blu-ray) 24 October 2011 (Dual format)	Includes an alternative more explicit version of the feature, the original trailer, and three 1960s "London Sketches": Pub (Peter Davis, 1962, 15 mins); Strip (Peter Davis, Staffan Lamm, Don DeFina, 1965, 26 mins); Chelsea Bridge Boys (Peter Davis, Staffan Lamm, 1966, 28 mins)
003	Primitive London	Arnold L. Miller	1965	25 May 2009 (Blu-ray) 24 October 2011 (Dual format)	Includes English and French language versions of the feature and original trailer, Carousella (John Irvin, 1966, 26 mins): a dramatised documentary on the lives of a group of striptease artistes, and interviews with Stuart McCabe (strip club owner) (1968, 15 mins), Shirley (stripper) interview (1968, 6 mins) and Al Burnett (nightclub owner) interview (1967, 17 mins)
004	Herostratus	Don Levy	1967	24 August 2009 (Blu-ray) 24 October 2011 (Dual format)	Includes alternative 1.33:1 full frame presentation,Blu-ray only a rare audio interview with Don Levy from 1973, Ten Thousand Talents (1960): Levy's student film, a wry look at Cambridge life, featuring the voice of Peter Cook, Time Is (1964): Levy's remarkable science documentary, and Five Films (1967): Levy's hypnotic experiments in film editing techniques.
005	All the Right Noises	Gerry O'Hara	1971	24 August 2009 (Blu-ray) 24 October 2011 (Dual format)	Includes Bernard Braden's Now and Then interview from 1967 with Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting and O'Hara's The Spy's Wife (1972): a rare and little-seen short starring Tom Bell and Ann Lynn.
006	Man of Violence (aka Moon)	Pete Walker	1969	24 August 2009 (Blu-ray) 24 October 2011 (Dual format)	Includes additional 68-minute feature The Big Switch (aka Strip Poker) from 1968 (with a 77-minute alternative export cut on Blu-ray), and original trailers for both films.
007	Privilege	Peter Watkins	1967	25 January 2010 (Blu-ray) 24 October 2011 (Dual format)
008	That Kind of Girl	Gerry O'Hara	1963
009	Permissive	Lindsay Shonteff	1970	25 January 2010 (Blu-ray) 24 October 2011 (Dual format)
010	The Pleasure Girls	Gerry O'Hara	1965
011	The Party's Over	Guy Hamilton	1965
012	Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush	Clive Donner	1967	13 September 2010	Includes Complete uncensored presentation of main feature (DVD and Blu-ray); Alternative censored version (Blu-ray only, 96 mins); Alternative censored sequences (DVD only, 10 mins); Because That Road is Trodden (Tim King, 1969, 23 mins): dream-like confessional concerning the fantasies of a public schoolboy; Stevenage (Gordon Ruttan, 1971, 21 mins): documentary celebration of Britain's first New Town and Fully illustrated booklet with contributions from Steve Chibnall, Hunter Davies, Vic Pratt and William Fowler
013	Bronco Bullfrog	Barney Platts-Mills	1969
014	Private Road	Barney Platts-Mills	1970
015	Duffer	Joseph Despins, William Dumaresq	1971
	The Moon Over the Alley	Joseph Despins, William Dumaresq	1975
016	Joanna	Mike Sarne	1968
017	Lunch Hour	James Hill	1962
018	Requiem for a Village	David Gladwell	1975
019	Deep End	Jerzy Skolimowski	1970
020	Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs	Stuart Cooper	1974	24 October 2011	Includes Original Little Malcolm trailer; Put Yourself in My Place (Francine Winham, 1974, 25 mins): fraught gender relations trigger a startling role reversal in this polemical comedy starring Judy Geeson (Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush); The Contraption (James Dearden, 1977, 7 mins): in a final act of defeat or defiance, a man (Richard O'Brien) builds a sinister contraption; Fully illustrated booklet featuring original artwork and contributions by Yvonne Tasker, John Hurt, Stuart Cooper and Mike Leigh.
021	Voice Over	Christopher Monger	1980
022	Her Private Hell	Norman J. Warren	1967	20 February 2012
023	Nightbirds	Andy Milligan	1970	21 May 2012
024	The Black Panther	Ian Merrick	1977	21 May 2012
025	You're Human Like the Rest of Them	B. S. Johnson	1967	15 April 2013
026	Captured	John Krish	1959	15 April 2013
027	Sleepwalker	Saxon Logan	1984	23 September 2013
028	Schalcken the Painter	Leslie Megahey	1979	18 November 2013
029	That Sinking Feeling	Bill Forsyth	1979	21 April 2014	Includes the Original Glaswegian Dialogue track as well as the alternative dubbed dialogue track; Audio Commentary by Bill Forsyth and critic Mark Kermode; Interview with actor Robert Buchanan; Kermode Uncut film from 2012 which Mark Kermode discusses the budget for That Sinking Feeling with Bill Forsyth; KH-4 (1969) and Mirror (1970), two short films directed by John Schorstein starring Forsyth; Glasgow 1980 (1971), a documentary by Oscar Marzaroli, edited by Forsyth; Islands of the West (1972) a promotional film directed by Forsyth; Bill Forsyth's Lifetime Achievement Film, the short acceptance film made for BAFTA.
030	Beat Girl	Edmond T. Gréville	1959	25 April 2016	Newly remastered in 2K and presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition, Original theatrical version (87 mins): from the negatives preserved by the BFI National Archive, Alternative version (92 mins, Blu-ray only), Alternative sequences (3 mins, DVD only), An Interview with Gillian Hills (2016, 25 mins): the film's star recalls her experience of working on Beat Girl, Cross-Roads (John Fitchen, 1955, 20 mins): supernatural short starring Christopher Lee, Beauty in Brief (c.1955, 4 mins) & Goodnight with Sabrina (c.1958, 3 mins).
031	Expresso Bongo	Val Guest	1959	25 April 2016	Newly remastered in 2K and presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition, Full-length theatrical version (111 mins): DVD and Blu-ray premiere of the original long cut from 1959, 1962 re-issue version (106 mins, Blu-ray exclusive): shorter alternative cut which removed a number of songs, Audio commentary for the 1962 re-issue version featuring Val Guest, Yolande Donlan and film historian Marcus Hearn, Alternative sequences from the 1962 cut (2 mins, DVD only): the scenes which were added to replace cut songs, Expresso Bongo Gallery: a selection of promotional material, including stills, theatrical posters and lobby cards, Original theatrical trailer (3 mins), Youth Club (Norman Prouting, 1954, 17 mins): COI documentary about dealing with juvenile delinquency & The Square (Michael Winner, 1957, 16 mins): Michael Winner's debut, long-thought lost
032	Symptoms	José Ramón Larraz	1974	25 April 2016
033	Psychomania	Don Sharp	1973	26 September 2016	Newly remastered in 2K from preservation negatives and presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition, Return of the Living Dead (2010, 25 mins): featuring interviews with stars Nicky Henson, Mary Larkin, Denis Gilmore, Roy Holder and Rocky Taylor, Sound of Psychomania (2010, 9 mins): interview with soundtrack composer John Cameron, Riding Free (2010, 7 mins): interview with 'Riding Free' singer Harvey Andrews, An interview with Nicky Henson (2016, 14 mins): the star of Psychomania recalls his time on the film, Hell for Leather (2016, 8 mins): documentary about the company who supplied the film's costumes, Remastering Psychomania (2016, 2 mins), Discovering Britain with John Betjeman: Avebury, Wiltshire (1955, 3 mins): the celebrated British poet narrates this travelogue about the Avebury stone circle and nearby burial grounds, Roger Wonders Why (1965, 19 mins): a church-made amateur film which sees two Christian biker youths visit the legendary 59 Club, where they meet its founder, Reverend Bill Shergold, Original theatrical trailer, Wilson Bros Trivia Track (2016, onscreen text): a newly-produced subtitle trivia-track by the horror aficionado siblings, Fully illustrated booklet with new writing by Vic Pratt, William Fowler and Andrew Roberts; and full film credits.

A budget-priced DVD sampler entitled Kim Newman's Guide to The Flipside of British Cinema (2010), spine number "000", features a documentary in which the UK's leading cult film expert introduced and contextualized the first nine releases in the series, and also included three complete short films as extras - John Irvin's Carousella (1966), Gerry O'Hara's The Spy's Wife (1972), and a short travelogue Tomorrow Night in London (1969, exclusive to the release).

External links

Official site