This week’s new releases on BFI Player+ (2nd September 2017)
David Farnor | On 02, Sep 2017
Heard of BFI Player? Well, there’s also BFI Player+, a subscription service that offers an all-you-can-eat selection of hand-picked classics.
Every Friday, Mark Kermode highlights one of the collection’s titles with a video introduction. This week, it’s A Hijacking. Captain Phillips made waves in cinemas, but this similar Danish gem, released in the same year, deserves not to be overlooked. Tobias Lindholm’s thriller delivers the story of a company trying to negotiate the release of its cargo and crew from pirates with gut-churning realism. Its quiet, natural approach suggests a fly-on-the-wall documentary rather than a piece of fiction, making powerful points about globalisation while never losing sight of the personal stakes. Read our full review.
What else is new? Here are the latest titles on BFI Player+ this week:
The Valley (Obscured by Clouds)
Barbet Schroeder’s 1972 film, which boasts a score by Pink Floyd, follows a bored diplomat’s wife as she ventures into the rainforest, only to meet a tribe, shed her inhibitions and, ultimately, head to The Valley – but is it the paradise people say it is?
Blancanieves
After Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman, you couldn’t be blamed for being sick of Snow White and her seven flipping dwarves. But Blancanieves is Snow White like you’ve never seen it: it’s Spanish. And silent. And black-and-white. And it features a chicken called Pepe. In short, it’s fantastic. Read our full review.
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
John Cassavetes’s uncompromising character study of a gangster, with Ben Gazzara as the small-time club owner whose life begins to spin out of control.
The Goob
Rural Norfolk provides the atmospheric backdrop to this accomplished debut about a teen trying to find love and escape the influence of his mother’s controlling boyfriend.
Stromboli, Land of God
In her first collaboration with Roberto Rossellini, Ingrid Bergman stars as a refugee who marries a fisherman and moves to a barren island.
Fear
Roberto Rossellini’s film with Ingrid Bergman exploring the inner turmoil of a woman pushed to the edge through the guilt of her infidelity.
Journey to Italy
The always-excellent Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders star in Roberto Rossellini’s moving drama about a couple going through a marital crisis.
A BFI Player+ subscription costs £4.99 a month with a 30-day free trial. For more information, visit http://player.bfi.org.uk.