This week’s new releases on BFI Player+ (19th August 2017)
David Farnor | On 19, Aug 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 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.
What else is new? Here are the latest titles on BFI Player+ this week:
Trans-Europ-Express
Alain Robbe-Grillet directs this cult erotic thriller from the 1960s, which stars icons of the French New Wave Jean-Louis Trintigant and Marie-France Pisier.
Innocence of Memories
Cities are funny things. On the surface, they’re a web of zig-zagging lines that have names and labels. But once full of people, they take on another life entirely, as each resident or tourist attaches their own experiences to objects or landmarks. Based on Orhan Pamuk’s best-selling novel The Museum of Innocence, Innocence of Memories tells the story of a doomed affair between Kemal and Fusun. Now, though, years after he was set to marry someone else, he still lingers on thoughts of her. Closer to documentary than drama, this experimental film takes us on a tour of the city of Istanbul, while Pamuk narrates the emotional fallout over the top. Read our full review
Bad Timing
Nicolas Roeg’s complex erotic thriller starring Theresa Russell and Art Garfunkel is a cult classic that’s still shocking today.
Radio On
Chris Petit’s blend of mystery and existential road movie follows a young London DJ heading to Bristol to investigate the death of his brother. Depicting a Britain on the cusp of Thatcherism and cultural change, with a soundtrack that includes Bowie, Kraftwerk and Ian Dury, Radio On has become a cult classic since its 1979 release. Not bad for a directorial debut.
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog
Hitchcock’s silent thriller is one of his first and one of his best, starring Ivor Novello as a strange lodger who may be behind a number of Jack the Ripper-style killings.
Stockholm My Love
Neneh Cherry, director Mark Cousins and cinematographer Christopher Doyle’s exquisite love song to the Swedish city, also available to watch in UK cinemas. (Read our full review.)
A BFI Player+ subscription costs £4.99 a month with a 30-day free trial. For more information, visit http://player.bfi.org.uk.