David Farnor | On 14, Aug 2016

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 Hadewijch. Bruno Dumont’s film about a young girl cast out from a nunnery who becomes attracted to the ideas of radical Islam was controversial and highly divisive, taking several years to find distribution in the UK – it was eventually released in 2012. Comparing it to Stations of the Cross and Ordet, and other movies that examine personal conflicts of faith, Kermode warns that the elliptical narrative is “not for everyone”, but the result remains a “challenging, arresting and thought-provoking affair”.

What else is available to stream? Every week, we bring you a round-up of the latest titles on BFI Player+:

The Great Game

BFI Player+ continues on from last week’s sporting theme with this 1952 drama starring Thora Hird, which chronicles corruption in the glamorous world of the football league.

Stroszek

Bruno S. leaves Berlin for the bleak trailer parks of Wisconsin in Herzog’s study of Americana. Written specifically for actor, who starred in Herzog’s The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, the result is a bizarre mix of American poverty and unusual humour – also, chickens.

B. D. Woman

Inge Blackman’s documentary explores the hidden histories of black lesbians, primarily focusing on 1920s Paris. It runs for just 20 minutes, but that doesn’t stop the film cramming in sex and style.

That Hamilton Woman

Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier? Those names alone make Alexander Korda’s 1941 drama eye-catching, let alone its intriguing story of the ill-fated love affair between Lord Nelson and Emma Hamilton in the midst of political turmoil – a film reportedly ordered by Churchill as a call to arms against the Nazis.

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

A widowed Ginza hostess struggles to remain faithful to the memory of her husband, despite constant pressure to comprise her honour. Mikio Naruse’s most famous film is a classic example of post-war Japanese cinema.

92 in the Shade

THomas McGuane’s 1975 thriller stars Peter Fonda, Warren Oates and Harry Dean Stanton in a tale of warring Florida fishing gangs. A rare chance to see this in the UK.

Young and Innocent

This 1937 Hitchcock flick is another trend-setting piece for the director, as he establishes his man-on-the-run motif with the story of a witness to a murder, who is accused of the crime, leading him to evade arrest to find the real culprit.

 

A BFI Player+ subscription costs £4.99 a month with a 30-day free trial. For more information, visit http://player.bfi.org.uk.

Add to Watchlist