Too Much

Melodrama on Film

A new season in collaboration with the BFI

October – December 2025

“Cinema is, by nature, melodramatic.

Beautiful people perform impossible stories, hearts on sleeves as they dance through an artificial world. In a passionate purge of emotion, melodrama employs exaggerated staging, score and performance to create the ultimate spectacle. The stories it tells are intimate and familial, but stakes are high, and characters rarely behave rationally. They are human, after all.

Despite (or because of) its popularity, melodrama has repeatedly been dismissed by critics. They find sincerity confronting, a lack of restraint distasteful. As women through the ages have been told: it’s not right to be so hysterical.

The rare cinematic form concerned with women’s inner lives, these films span infidelity, motherhood and exploitation to capture our hearts and evoke our empathy. The legacy of early ‘women’s pictures’, created for female audiences with their favourite female stars, echoes across generations and around the world. As in life, these women do not always triumph. Imperfectly feminist yet endlessly relatable, their sensationalist struggles carry searing social commentary beneath their glossy veneer.

In the coming months we will embrace the vivid visual language and heightened dramatics of melodrama, inviting you to leave your cynicism at the door and feel something.

Don’t forget your tissues.”

– from the official BFI season page, October 2025

Films in this season

Talk: Melodrama on Film 15
Mon 27 Oct 19:00
Join us for an introduction..

Letter from an Unknown Woman U
Mon 27 Oct 20:00
A pianist about to flee..

The Swimmer PG
Wed 29 Oct 20:30
A man spends a summer..

The Phantom of the Opera PG
Sun 9 Nov 16:00
Aspiring young opera singer Christine..

How Green Was My Valley U
Mon 17 Nov 11:00
A man in his fifties..

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul 12A
Tue 18 Nov 20:30
An unlikely couple fall in..

Volver 15
Sat 22 Nov 17:30
Ghosts haunt the colourful streets..

Brief Encounter PG
Sun 23 Nov 14:00
When two strangers strike up..

Mamma Roma 15
Mon 24 Nov 20:30
A former sex worker is..

Romeo + Juliet 12A
Fri 28 Nov 18:00
In director Baz Luhrmann's contemporary..

Floating Clouds 12A
Sat 29 Nov 15:00
Mikio Naruse’s undisputed masterpiece charts..

Victims of Sin TBC
Mon 1 Dec 18:15
In México City, a Cuban..

All That Heaven Allows U
Sun 7 Dec 15:00
Two social classes collide when..

Far from Heaven 12A
Tue 9 Dec 18:00
In 1950s Connecticut, a housewife's..

...

Phantom of the Opera Soirée

Phantom of the Opera Soirée

Sunday 9 November 2025, 18:00 – £34 per head

We invite you to step into the candlelit grandeur of the Paris Opera House for a night of dining and classic silent cinema at our Phantom of the Opera Soirée

Following your descent into the shadows of the 1925 classic The Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney and with a live score from composer Paul Robinson of HarmonieBand, join us in our restaurant to indulge in a three-course meal, where the evening’s menu will be a feast of rich, elegant flavours.

Join us for an atmospheric evening celebrating one of cinema’s great melodramas. Dinner and film tickets are sold separately — book both to complete your experience.

Phantom of the Opera Soirée Menu£34 per head

Starter

Choice of:

  • Roasted Pear and Blue Cheese
    with cranberries and walnuts
  • Shallot Tatin
    with mixed leaves (vegetarian)

Mains

Choice of:

  • Pan Roasted Duck Breast
    with pommes purée, carrots, green beans
  • Mushroom Bourguignon
    with pommes purée (vegetarian)

    Dessert 

    • Dark Chocolate Fondant
      with white chocolate mousse
    Please note: this menu is subject to change at our discretion. Vegan options available on request.

     

    How to book:

    To book your place at our Phantom of the Opera Soirée, please use the ResDiary booking widget:

    1. Set the date to Sunday 9 November
    2. Choose your party size
    3. Enter your booking details
    4. Enter your payment details
    5. You will recieve two emails – one confirming your booking, and one asking you to make a choice for your main course. Please put your orders in as soon as possible to assist our kitchen with their preparation for the evening.