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 1936’s Things to Come. William Cameron Menzies’ landmark sci-fi, based on H.G. Wells’ novel, which postulates a dark and destructive century for an imagined Britain – a chilling vision of a future full of war and struggle against tyranny.

What else is new? Here are the latest titles on BFI Player+ this week:

Charlie Chaplin Shorts

After last week’s addition of Chaplin shorts, BFI continues to delve into its archive of silent comedies from the screen icon.

Behind the Screen

Chaplin sends up the movie business itself in this 30-minute short, which sees him play a scene-stealing actor, David, in constant conflict with a tyrannical studio boss called Goliath.

The Count

Chaplin plays a tailor who impersonates a nobleman at a society ball, only to discover his boss is practicing the same ruse.

The Vagabond

The Tramp rescues a girl from a band of gypsies only for her to fall for a rival.

The Floorwalker

Chaplin’s first comedy for Mutual Films features the first film use of an elevator as a source for slapstick.

She, a Chinese

British-Chinese director Xiaolu Guo’s 2009 story of a young woman’s journey from a remote Chinese village to London, in an attempt to realise the Western consumer dream.

Better Things

Duane Hopkins’ 2007 debut tells a sombre story with startling beauty, as it follows the stories of various addicts in a West Midlands town.

Hell Is a City

Stanley Baker stars as a DI trailing an escaped convict through the streets of Manchester in Val Guest’s 1959 crime thriller with a strong realist streak.

 

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

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