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An Unflinching Eye
The films of Richard Woolley

Between 1970 and 1988 British filmmaker Richard Woolley created a body of exciting and challenging work, variously seen in cinemas, on television and in international film festivals, but almost impossible to see since. These seven films have been collected together and are released in a four-disc DVD box set by the BFI on 28 March.

Tackling controversial themes, such as class, race, sexuality and the human instinct for violence, Richard Woolley directed a number of radical and uncompromising films, which explore the ways we relate to, and ultimately destroy, one another even as we strive to develop the means to better understand and communicate with those around us.

This collection, detailed below, offers the long-overdue opportunity to experience first hand the power of such extraordinary and unique films as 1976’s Illusive Crime, which caused outrage upon its release; Telling Tales, the much acclaimed soap-meets-Straub debut feature from 1978; 1981’s controversial and critically-acclaimed Brothers and Sisters, set against a backdrop of Yorkshire Ripper-style murders; and Woolley’s final film, Girl from the South (1988) which views black Britons through the prism of an interracial relationship.

- Kniephofstrasse (1973, 35 mins): Complex but compelling formalist film, which investigates the relationship between sound and image
- Drinnen und Draussen / Inside and Outside (1974, 40 mins): Experimental narrative film exploring conformity in East and West Germany
- Illusive Crime (1976, 50 mins): Uncompromising, originally structured drama in which a violent sexual act is committed
- Telling Tales (1978, 90 mins): Deft interweaving of stories, set against backdrop of failing marriage, provides platform for dissection of class and gender roles
- Brothers and Sisters (1981, 96 mins): Radical politics meet alternative thriller in the story of a prostitute’s murder in a Yorkshire city
- Waiting for Alan (1984, 45 mins): Unconventional, minutely observed domestic drama centred on ritualised boredom of a middle-class housewife
- Girl from the South (1988, 84 mins): Young girl from rich family falls in love with unemployed black boy and tries to persuade him they are equals
- New video interviews with Richard Woolley

Release date: 28 March 2011
RRP: £29.99 / cat. no. BFIV917 / Cert 15 / 4-disc box set
UK / 1973-1988 / colour, and black & white / 450 mins / English language /
4 x DVD 5 / original aspect ratios

AN UNFLINCHING EYE
The Films of Richard Woolley

Re-issued in a 4-disc DVD set on 26 July 2021

Tackling controversial themes, such as class, race, sexuality and the human instinct for violence, Richard Woolley wrote and directed a number of radical and uncompromising films in the 1970s and 80s. Variously seen in cinemas, on television and in international film festivals during that period, they became almost impossible to see afterwards. In them, Woolley explores the ways we relate to, and ultimately destroy one another, even as we strive to develop the means to better understand and communicate with those around us.

After a limited release in 2011, the BFI re-issues the films in a 4-disc DVD set on 26 July. The collection includes short films, interviews and two previously unreleased audio commentaries by the director along with a newly produced illustrated booklet.

This set offers the opportunity to experience first-hand the power of these extraordinary and unique films. It includes Illusive Crime, which caused outrage upon its release in 1976; Telling Tales, Woolley’s much acclaimed soap-meets-Straub debut feature from 1978; 1981’s controversial Brothers and Sisters, with its echoes of the fear generated by the Yorkshire Ripper murders; and Woolley’s final film, Girl from the South (1988), which views the experience of Black Britons through the prism of an interracial relationship.

Special features
• Audio commentary on Brothers and Sisters and Telling Tales (2011): never-before-released audio commentaries by director Richard Woolley
• Kniephofstrasse (1974, 24 mins): complex but compelling formalist film, which investigates the relationship between sound and image
• Drinnen und Draussen (Inside and Outside) (1974, 34 mins): experimental narrative film exploring conformity in East and West Germany
• Waiting for Alan (1984, 42 mins): unconventional, minutely observed domestic drama centred on the ritualised boredom of a middle-class housewife
• Video interviews with Richard Woolley (79 mins total): split over four discs, Richard Woolley discusses his career and films
• New illustrated booklet featuring an essay by Anthony Nield and Richard Woolley’s article ‘Writer as Director: a Case Study – Brothers and Sisters ’, originally published in the Screenwriters Research Network’s Journal of Screenwriting in 2015, notes on the special features and full credits

Product details
RRP: £24.99 / Cat. no. BFIV2126 / 15
UK / 1976-1988 / black and white, colour / 298 mins / English language with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles / original aspect ratios / DVD5 x 4, PAL, 25fps, Dolby Digital 2.0 mono audio