David Farnor | On 24, Jul 2016

Heard of BFI Player? Well, there’s also BFI Player+, a subscription service that offers an all-you-can-eat selection of around 300 hand-picked classics.

Every Friday, Mark Kermode highlights one of the collection’s titles with a video introduction. This week, it’s Jacques Rivette’s Celine and Julie Go Boating.

Kermode describes the bewitching mystery, about two young women who visit a strange parallel reality, as the director’s “most endearing, enduring and weirdly influential” film, likening it to later works by David Lynch and Susan Seidelman.

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

 

The Birth of a Nation

DW Griffith’s silent epic about the American Civil War and its aftermath is as controversial as it is important, thanks to its positive portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan and its pioneering use of cinematic devices such as the flashback and cross-cutting.

Young Soul Rebels

Isaac Julien’s feature debut sees the Queen’s Silver Jubilee beat to the sounds of Funkadelic, Sylvester and the O’Jays. The part-thriller, part-gay love story, set in 1977 London before the big celebrations, see the life of pirate DJs Chris and Caz shattered when a close friend is killed while cruising the local park.

Twinky

Richard Donner may be most associated with The Omen and Superman, but before then, he made Twinky, which follows the unlikely romance between the 38-year-old writer of erotic novels (Charles Bronson) and a 16-year-old schoolgirl (Susan George).

Before Stonewall

DIrector Greta Schiller captures the testimonies of those who dared to challenge the world and help create the modern gay community, before the riots took place at the Stonewall Inn in New York in 1969. Allen Ginsberg, Audre Lorde, Barbara Gittings, Harry Hay and Ann Bannon join the group of interviewes.

Two in the Wave

Emmanuel Laurent’s 2009 film chronicles the friendship between two legendary French directors – Jean Luc-Godard and Francois Truffaut – their subsequent break-up and the birth of a cinematic movement that has since swept the world.

The Day the Earth Caught Fire

The BFI Restoration of Val Guest’s classic sci-fi sees life in a busy newspaper office turned upside down when escalating global freak weather conditions lead to the discovery that nuclear testing has knocked the Earth off its axis – and it’s heading closer to the sun.

Of Good Report

Unrated by the BBFC, this controversial South African film screened at the London Film Festival in 2013. It follows a newly hired teacher of “good report” and his fling with an under-age pupil in his class, giving us an insight into the mind of a disturbed man.

 

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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