James R | On 02, Apr 2022

BFI Player 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.

Here’s what’s coming to BFI Player’s subscription service in April 2022:

Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn – 1st April

Emi, a school teacher, finds her career and reputation under threat after a personal sex tape is leaked online. Forced to meet the parents demanding her dismissal, Emi refuses to surrender to their pressure in this comedy drama.

Nymphomaniac Vol I and II – 4th April

The wild and poetic story of a woman’s journey from birth to the age of 50 as told by the main character, the self-diagnosed nymphomaniac, Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg). On a cold winter’s evening the old, charming bachelor, Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård), finds Joe beaten up in an alley. He brings her home to his flat where he cares for her wounds while asking her about her life. He listens intently as Joe over the next 8 chapters recounts the lushly branched-out and multifaceted story of her life, rich in associations and interjecting incidents.

The Quatermass Xperiment – 7th April

Hammer’s adaptation/spin-off of the BBC series jettisons some of the original threads of Nigel Kneale’s original – even truncating its title to mirror the ‘X’ certificate the studio craved. Film noir fixture Brian Donleavy stars alongside Jack Warner, but acting honours go to Richard Wordsworth as the tortured spaceman, Victor Carroon.

Quatermass II – 7th April

Strange metallic meteorites rain down over Winnerden Flats, an eerie new town in the vicinity of a highly guarded chemical plant. Professor Quatermass (Brian Donlevy) is intrigued to discover that contact with the meteorites causes an unusual infection, and is astonished to find that the chemical plant appears to be modelled after his own design for a moonbase – a design that enables life to thrive in an artificial atmosphere. Quatermass’s investigation uncovers a sinister conspiracy that extends from government level to the zombie-like workers who will stop at nothing to protect the plant.

The Abominable Snowman – 7th April

Two men with opposing views undertake a dangerous trip to the Himalayas in search of the Yeti. Although Nigel Kneale and Rudolf Cartier’s 1955 TV drama The Creature hasn’t survived, this Hammer version (scripted by Kneale) is remarkably faithful to the original, albeit on a grander scale and budget. It also boasts the small-screen’s top actor of the 1950s, Peter Cushing, recreating his TV role.

The Seventh Seal – 14th April

Vividly recreating a medieval world tormented by plague and superstition, Bergman’s allegorical drama – centred on a knight (Max von Sydow), returned from the Crusades, who challenges Death to a game of chess in order to postpone his demise – remains fascinating (and finally rather touching) as a study of faith in crisis. Packed with powerful images, it punctuates its bleakness with moments of wry humour. A Jury Prize winner at Cannes upon its release, the film remains one of the must-see masterworks of world cinema.

Wild Strawberries – 14th APril

Opening with a starkly symbolic dream sequence, Wild Strawberries follows Professor Isak Borg as he journeys by car in the company of his daughter-in-law to collect an award from his former university. The trip occasions a series of reminiscences and reveries, as the ageing Borg revisits the scenes of his youth and reflects on an unhappy marriage.

KINOTEKA Polish Film Festival – until 7th April

The festival returns for the 20th time with its annual offering of Poland’s diverse film culture both in cinemas and online. This selection of 20th-century Polish film showcases well-established classics such as The Maids of Wilko (1979) and How to Be Loved (1963) alongside the likes of Sexmission (1984) and Pigs (1992), cult films in Poland that have only had a limited overseas release. The importance of Poland’s women directors is also foregrounded, with Agnieszka Holland’s lesser-known sophomore feature Fever (1981) and the outstanding but underappreciated Barbara Sass’s debut Without Love (1980). The films are:

WORLD OF THE WORLDS: NEXT CENTURY (1981)
Polish authorities exploit an alien invasion to increase their power, manipulate the media and provide populist entertainment in this philosophical sci-fi that draws on the themes of H G Wells’ novel.

FEVER (1981)
A series of interwoven stories focusing on the Polish resistance to Russian forces at the time of the 1905 Revolution.

ON THE SILVER GLOBE (1988)
Andrzej Żuławski’s uncompromising sci-fi observes a new society growing on an alien planet and explores the dangers of polarised politics.

HOW TO BE LOVED (1963)

An actress struggles to reconcile the choices of her past as she travels from Warsaw to Paris in this distinct depiction of the German Occupation from a female perspective, from director Wojciech Jerzy Has (The Saragossa Manuscript).

IDENTIFICATION MARKS: NONE (1965)
As he prepares to join the army, having given up his studies and left his girlfriend, Polish student Andrzej spends his last day re-examining his life.

THE BEADS OF A SINGLE ROSARY (1980)
Retired miner Karol Habryka fights to retain his family home, shunning the concrete tenements that are rising up outside his door.

THE MAIDS OF WILKO (1979)
Exquisite period tale of a young man who re-visits the idyllic rural estate where he used to summer before the war, only to discover just how much things have changed.

WITHOUT LOVE (1980)
Ruthless young journalist, Ewa, is forced to reflect on her behaviour when a young woman’s life is put at risk in this tough and uncompromising slice of social realism.

SEXMISSION (1984)
Two men wake up from hibernation in 2044, decades later than expected, to find themselves emerging in an underground post-nuclear world of women.

PIGS (PSY) (1992)

Ex secret police officer, Franz Maurer, is ‘downgraded’ to an ordinary policeman and life on the streets proves brutal as he adjusts to his new status in this gritty urban thriller.

 
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