David Farnor | On 02, Apr 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 Prick Up Your Ears, Stephen Frears’ celebration of British playwright Joe Orton, starring Gary Oldman and Alfred Molina. Written by Alan Bennett, the tragicomedy is a tale of “prison, sexual politics and a potential dalliance with The Beatles”, with Kermode convincingly arguing it to be one of Frears’ best – not only because of its surprising list of cameos, which includes Derek Jarman, Wallace Shawn and Julie Walters.

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

Hors Satan

Bruno Dumont’s 2011 film sees a mysterious figure stroll around a French seaside town offering a path to salvation – one that’s as violent as it is disturbing.

Silence

Sound can be a powerful tool in cinema – and, as Berberian Sound Studio demonstrated, can also make for a fascinating subject. Pat Collins’ 2011 film, as its title suggests, has acoustics on the brain: it follows a sound recordist around Ireland, as he searches for a space untouched by artificial, man-made sound.

Private Road

Withnail and I’s Bruce Robinson stars in this tale about one man’s struggle for freedom in 1970s London. He plays a young writer, whose rural life of sex and drugs shock the parents of his partner, a receptionist named Ann.

Time Is

Don Levy’s experimental collage film examines the scientific problems connected with the nature of time.

Turksib

Viktor Turin helms this account of the epic project to build a railway between Turkestan and Siberia in 1920s USSR. People coming together. Modern engineering conquering nature. As the BFI puts it, “a striking example of Soviet filmmaking”.

David

This 1951 drama-documentary, the first film produced by the BFI, charts the everyday life of a Welsh caretaker and ex-miner. It’s directed by Paul Dickson, spans 38 minutes, and is available to watch for free.

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