David Farnor | On 14, May 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 I Am Divine, Jeffrey Schwarz’s 2013 documentary about Harris Glenn Milstead – AKA Divine, the infamous drag queen and star of John Waters’ filthy oeuvre.

“Leave the outrage to Pink Flamingos; I Am Divine’s biggest asset is to remind that, however controversial the public mask, it’s what’s behind that matters,” we wrote in our review of the 2013 film.

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

Straight to Hell

What do Dennis Hopper, Courtney Love, Grace Jones and Joe Strummer all have in common? They were all in the eye-catching cast for Alex Cox’s homage to the spaghetti western.

Stromboli, Land of God

Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergnan’s first film together, Stromboli stars the legendary actress as a young woman who marries an Italian fisherman to escape from a refugee camp. The promised paradise, though, turns out to be far from it, as the locals do not accept the outsider to their way of life – reinforced by Rossellini’s use of non-professional actors on location.

This Sporting Life

Rugby, eh? It’s not the glamorous life you’d expect – at least, not if you’re Richard Harris’ player in Lindsay Anderson’s 1963 drama, which follows his attempts to express himself away from the brutal playing field.

La Regle du Jeu

Renoir’s depiction of an intransigent society teetering towards disaster was derided upon release and only later acclaimed as one of cinema’s all time greats.

Late Chrysanthemums

Mikio Naruse’s 1954 film follows four ageing geishas trying to make ends meet in post-war Japan.

Ikiru

BFI Player+’s collection of Kurosawa continues to grow with this story of a bureaucrat diagnosed with cancer. Takashi Shimura plays the bureaucrat, while the film’s message is summed up by its title: “To Live”.

Germany, Year Zero

Still craving more neorealism after Stromboli? BFI have got you covered with the addition of Rossellini’s concluding entry in his War Trilogy: Germany, Year Zero.

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