This week’s new releases on BFI Player+ (22nd May)
James R | On 22, 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 Black Narcissus, Power and Pressburger’s remarkable melodrama, starring Deborah Kerr, about a group of nuns who open a convent in the Himalayas. Kermode praises the Oscar-winning masterpiece for the stunning “technical triumph” of its production in Pinewood studios – despite being set entirely in India – and Jack Cardiff’s spectacular cinematography.
What else is available to stream? Every week, we bring you a round-up of the latest titles on BFI Player+:
Woman Under the Influence
John Cassavetes’ 1974 drama stars Gena Rowlands and the inimitable Peter Falk as a couple – Nick and Mabel – who struggle to cope with Mabel’s gradual emotional breakdown. It joins four other films in BFI Player+’s collection of the director’s work.
Spring in a Small Town
Once voted the best Chinese film ever made, Fei Mu’s 1948 drama about adultery and desire has been newly restored.
How I Ended This Summer
There aren’t enough films about Arctic meteorologists these days. Back in 2010, Alexei Popogrebski made a film with two of them – one a veteran, the other a newbie – who are thrown together at a remote outpust, where secrets and lies gradually emerge. Nominated for the Golden Bear at 60th Berlin International Film Festival.
Julius Caesar (2012)
After directing David Tennant in Richard II and Hamlet – and bringing together the BBC’s extravagant live show on 23rd April to mark the 400 years since Shakespeare’s death – Gregory Doran once again proves himself one of the most interesting adaptors of the Bard’s work around with this 2012 take on Julius Caesar, which transplants the play’s action to post-independence Africa.
Voice Over
Christopher Monger’s controversial psychological drama stars Ian McNeice as the writer of romantic radio series Thus Engaged. When grim reality violently intrudes into his live, though, he begins to find it hard to tell fact from fiction.
What Have You Done Today Mervyn Day?
Director Paul Kelly continues his trilogy of collaborations with Saint Etienne, tracing the history of Lea Valley before it was redeveloped to become the Olympic Park.
Where’s the Money Ronnie!
Go back to the beginning of Shane Meadows’ career with the director’s early short, which is inspired by Rashomon to study a Nottinghamshire robbery from four different perspectives.
A BFI Player+ subscription costs £4.99 a month with a 30-day free trial. For more information, visit http://player.bfi.org.uk.