David Farnor | On 02, Apr 2021

BFI Player, the BFI’s streaming platform, is a gateway to global film, offering a collection of arthouse and world cinema to subscribers, alongside its pay-per-view rental releases and free archive titles and silent movie shorts.

If last month was all about the BFI Flare festival, this month is about catching up with one of its highlights, the Fassbinder biopic Enfant Terrible, plus offerings from some of Europe’s other most distinctive auteurs, including Lars Von Trier, Roy Andersson and Ruben Östlund.

Here’s what’s coming to BFI Player’s subscription service in April 2021:

The Great White Silence (1824) – Out now

One of the jewels in the crown of the BFI National Archive, given a stunning tinted and toned restoration with a new score by electronic musician Simon Fisher Turner. The official film record of the British Expedition of 1910-13 led by Scott was reworked by photographer Herbert Ponting to tell the tragic tale, but it is the beauty of the images of Antarctica’s frozen landscapes in this film that linger.

Susan Wokoma introduces Prevenge – Out now

 
Introductions by exceptional women working across the film industry to spotlight the Woman with a Movie Camera film collection in Subscription. The third in the series is by Susan Wokoma (Truth Seekers, Enola Holmes) who selects Prevenge, a riotous tale of a pregnant serial killer, hellbent on revenge, directed by and starring Alice Lowe.

 

BFI at Home: Romeo & Juliet – Out now

BFI Player continues to provide a space for Q&As with stars and filmmakers during the coronavirus pandemic. This month, BFI at Home shines a spotlight on the National Theatre’s innovative new take on Romeo & Juliet, interviewing Josh O’Connor, Jessie Buckley, Lucian Msamati and Simon Godwin about the 90-minute interpretation of Shakespeare’s classic, after the planned stage production was cancelled. Romeo & Juliet will premiere on Sky Arts at 9pm on Sunday 4th April.
 

Enfant Terrible – 2nd April

After streaming at BFI Flare: 2021, BFI Player exclusively presents this biopic of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, one of the defining names in the New German Cinema movement of the 1960s and 70s. The director’s life and loves are laid bare in the unconventional film starring Oliver Masucci. A heady evocation of an artist fuelled by addiction, this portrait balances his undeniable genius matched only by his cruelty to those around him. (See also the Rainer Werner Fassbinder collection on BFI Player.)
 

Babette’s Feast – 9th April

 
When Babette, a beautiful and mysterious French refugee, arrives in a remote Danish town, the tight-knit, puritanical community begrudgingly let her in, providing her with shelter and work. But after the town patriarch passes away and Babette insists on preparing a feast in his honour, a magical world of sensory revelations is thrown open to the villagers, changing their lives forever… Winner of the 1988 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film
 

Antichrist – 9th April

A grieving couple retreat to ’Eden’, their isolated cabin in the woods, where they hope to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage following the death of their son. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse. As shocking as it is stunning, Lars von Trier’s Antichrist is one of the most controversial films ever to be shown in cinemas in the UK.
 

Lydia West introduces Second Coming – 14th April

 
The fourth in the series of introductions by women working across the film industry is by actor Lydia West (It’s a Sin) who selects Second Coming, starring Idris Elba, a though-provoking drama that asks: what if an immaculate conception took place in a South London household?

You, the Living – 16th April

 
The hilarious film from Roy Andersson features an assortment of washed out interiors that provide the backdrop for a motley crew of characters: a stout depressive and her long-suffering husband; a young girl with an unrequited crush on a rock musician; an Arab barber taking sweet revenge on a racist customer; couples with too much to say, or too little; and a diligent tuba player…

Force Majeure – 16th April

 
A model Swedish family – handsome businessman Tomas, his wife Ebba and their two beautiful children – are on a skiing holiday at a high-end resort in the French Alps. The sun is shining and the slopes are spectacular, but during lunch at a mountainside restaurant, an avalanche suddenly bears down on the happy diners. With people fleeing in all directions and his wife and children in a state of panic, Tomas makes a decision that will shake his marriage to its core and leave him struggling to reclaim his role as family patriarch. Ruben Östlund’s modern classic went on to inspire the US remake Downhill.

 

 

A BFI Player subscription costs £4.99 a month, with a 14-day free trial.

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