Blockbuster BFI Season: Love

Each year, the BFI launches their major season, which examines and celebrates a single cinematic theme. This annual fixture provides an unparalleled opportunity to catch up on recent masterpieces as well as classics, or under-appreciated rediscoveries. In recent years, we've had Gothic, we've had sci-fi- but this year's offering is just a little bit sweeter. Welcome to the BFI Love Season.

BFI LOVE Season

From October to December, the British Film Institute have a programme of films, which all say, in their different ways, I love you, I need you, I miss you, I want you; indie, classic, avant-garde 'films to fall in love with, films to break your heart'. This is no Rom-Com marathon, it's a serious study.

Welcome to the BFI Love Season, an October-December programme to pull on the sturdiest of heartstrings.

(Oh, and in the spirit of things, we've bought you a pair of tickets to one of three films in the Blockbuster Season: Brief Encounter, True Romance and Doctor Zhivago, on the evenings of 13, 20 and 28 November respectively: click here to request your exclusive tickets.)

BFI LOVE Programme

Launching a blockbuster collection entitled the BFI LOVE season boasts a host of screenings and Q&As from the likes of Stephen Frears (My Beautiful Laundrette, Dangerous Liaisons) to Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and BAFTA winner Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

Kicking off the season, the BFI celebrates tumultuous passion and the pain of lost love with 'The Power of Love': a collection dedicated to romantic epic on screen. At its centre comes the newly remastered Dr Zhivago, starring Julie Christie and Omar Sharif as star-cross'd lovers in the midst of the Russian Revolution. This vast and moving saga goes down as a true piece of cinematic history: they just don't make them like this any more. Watch the BFI's newly cut trailer:

Next in the romantic epic season comes Noël Coward and David Lean's classic Brief Encounter. A rigid love affair in that memorable train station, cinema doesn't get more British than this. Brief Encounter nonetheless remains as tragic as ever and now reaching its '70th birthday, serves as a reminder of how times have changed. Casablanca and Gone With The Wind also make the cut in this swooning collection of historical epic and fantastical melodrama: lazy Sunday afternoon cinema at its most indulgent.

Fatal Attractions

The next collection in the BFI LOVE season celebrates what happens when love leads to strife. With Tony Scott and Quentin Tarantino's badland Hollywood classic True Romance heading up the BFI's 'Fatal Attractions' collection, here is love at its coolest. Followed up with the likes of Dangerous Liaisons, Last Tango in Paris, and Wings of Desire – no gushing romantics here, but danger in droves.

Fools for Love

A season dedicated to love would be nothing if the classic romantic comedies didn't make an appearance. Queue Richard Curtis: Four Weddings and a Funeral rounds off the season, with other highlights including A Room with a View and Woody Allen's cult classic Annie Hall.

There's more than just movies: with a UK wide Jane Austen day and anniversary screenings of Brief Encounter, from silent era movies to modern day classics, there's something for even the most stoical of romancers.

Public booking opens at 11.30am on 6 October

Exclusive discount:

Culture Whisper members can enjoy an exclusive 2 for 1 tickets on all films in the LOVE season every Monday in November. To redeem, simply quote “lovemondays” when booking on line, in person or over the phone 020 7928 3232.

Your exclusive free ticket:

Culture Whisper members can enjoy a pair of complementary tickets to one of three films in the Blockbuster Season: Brief Encounter, True Romance and Doctor Zhivago, on the evenings of 13, 20 and 28 November respectively: click here to request your exclusive tickets.