#BFI Player Classics

[dumpsterfireofsubtext]

Need help deciding what’s next for movie nite

#my bfi subscription is running out idk if I want to renew so I’m going ham on the classics #there’s more but these are top priority #polls #bfi player #films

[umniamusic]

a neurodivergent guide to patching holes in your film nerdery

Where to start, tools to use, and how to mentally approach it.

Start a letterboxd account. You can catalog reactions, date watched, and this can also be used as a place to save “to watch” lists. I use Trakt only for that final purpose because it also logs TV shows.

Anything you can think of to add to the list, start it now. Then, pick 3 people you admire. Ask them what their favorite films of all time are. You will now have an incredibly long list. Ask those same people what the biggest film they can think of from their childhood is - your list will now double. If you feel like it - go look up the 200 films you have to watch before film school. Any title that seems important, or cool to you, put it down.

Do not take on people’s reasons as to why you should watch a film - those have nothing to do with you. Even if they say they think you’ll love it - release that. This is about what YOU think, what YOU enjoy, what sparks joy for you, and not everyone is going to understand the cavernous maze of your mind.

Now, this is important - forget the list. It is there to raise your awareness of the films you may come across in the wild. Trust me - I tried using the list to decide what to watch - you will be paralyzed. You will see this entire enterprise as a chore. You will be tired. You won’t be excited. Just keep the list there, so you know when you’ve sunk a battleship, so to speak - when a film you watched was a film you intended to watch.

Keep adding to the list any time someone mentions a film. Pay attention to the titles and intriguing details each time you add it, so you’ll recognize it if it shows up again, or someone recommends it again.

Pick ONE venue (Indie Cinema nearby, BFI Player on Amazon, searching “classic” or “iconic” on Netflix). Pick ONE regular timeslot (every evening, every Friday, every Sunday morning, every time your partner and you need a break)

Go to that venue, and pick something that sparks joy (this will often be something from your list, by virtue of it being something you recognize)

Shut everything else off and vibe. It can be good to remind yourself that you’re gonna need to leave a quippy review after you watch this, or have opinions about it when asked - that allows me to relax into a “duty” to focus, without feeling like it’s a demand. You have to be able to say why you don’t like something and develop your taste by knowing why you do like something.

Repeat steps 2-8 until you feel insufferably knowledgeable about the ‘classics’. Rebel against conventional wisdom, like me, and the world becomes infinitely more exciting.

💕If you need any more specific advice, or more specific rec’s, let me know in the comments💕

Stay Safe, keep ya mask on, Free Palestine,

UMNIA💕

Easter egg for the eagle-eyed 🪺

17 obscure (!) ‘classics’ for you to add to your list, that I feel are not just worth watching but may actually be the reason the medium of cinema was invented.

Singing in the Rain

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Mary Poppins

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

The First Wives Club

The Sound of Music

The Big Lebowski

A Serious Man

Dog Day Afternoon

Night of the Hunter

Before Sunset (the entire trilogy, in order, but specifically this one)

Cabaret

All That Jazz

2001: A Space Odyssey

Bringing Out the Dead

To Wong Foo, Thanks for everything! Julie Newmar

Frances Ha

[bwthornton]

#Film Mark Kermode reviews Leviathan (2014) | BFI Player

#Film Mark Kermode reviews Leviathan (2014) | BFI Player

#film #BFI #mark kermode #Leviathan

[thechildrensfilmfoundation]

To the Rescue (1952)

A 20 minute short from 1952 To the Rescue was produced, written by and starred Richard Massingham.

Massingham's greatest fame came through the public information films he produced, wrote, and starred in throughout the 1940s, most notably the 1 minute 25 second classic Coughs and Sneezes from 1945.

However, Massingham didn't direct this little CFF curio. No, this one was directed by noted French surrealist Jacques Brunius, who also plays the cane twirling villain of the piece.

Brunius was assistant director to Luis Buñuel in the early 30s and acted for Jean Renoir and Marcel Pagnol before moving to England and taking bit parts in The Wooden Horse, The Lavender Hill Mob and others. This is light stuff, but there are definitely glimpses of Brunius' surrealist sensibility here.

Fella Edmunds makes his debut here and would be seen in a couple more CFF films, but his biggest claim to fame would be in taking a lead role as a jockey in Basil Dearden's The Rainbow Jacket 2 years later.

If you want to see a French surrealist hurl himself wholeheartedly into an English village pond, this is definitely the film for you, and you can watch it for free on the BFI Player.

#Youtube #Children's Film Foundation #CFF #The Children's Film Foundation #To the Rescue #Richard Massingham #Jacques Brunius #Fella Edmunds #Fella Edmonds #BFI Player #Jacques B Brunius

[allyear-lff]

Peter von Kant

Summary: This is a Francois Ozon's film intended as a retelling of the classic "The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant" which to my shame I have not seen, but perhaps that is not necessarily a bad thing in assessing the new film, the plot revolves around a washed out film director falling for a young man leading to straining his relationships with other people that matter to him

Plot with spoilers:

So the Peter of the title is a film director that seems to be living from past glories, a recluse whose every whim is tended to by an almost mute servant, Karl, who is strangely subservient to Peter.

Peter is despairing about his next project when Amir, a young handsome man, is brought to his attention, Peter falls completely for him and seduces him while at the same time launching Amir's modelling and filming career.

A litany of characters witness this infatuation, family, friends, business partners, because they are worried about how things are developing for Peter, that is no closer to artistic relevance but that is desperate to keep Amir who has started dalliances elsewhere.

I was not particularly impressed or moved by the whole situation, all the characters, starting with Peter and Amir, seemed self serving to me and the rarified world in which they live (all "action" happens in Peter's big messy flat) seemed uninteresting and passé, the film has good moments but not so much as to make it that memorable.

Rating: 3.5/5

37 of 168

Date: 19 October 2022

Venue: BFI Player's Festival Streaming.

The list of films in the LFF 2022.

#lff2022 #lff

[streamondemand]

What to stream: 'The Underground Railroad' on Amazon, 'Those Who Wish Me Dead' on HBO Max, 'The Woman' on Netflix

What to stream: ‘The Underground Railroad’ on Amazon, ‘Those Who Wish Me Dead’ on HBO Max, ‘The Woman’ on Netflix

Here’s what’s new and ready to stream now on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, video-on-demand, and other streaming services …   “The Underground Railroad” (2021, TV-14), based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead, follows the odyssey of Cora (Thuso Mbedu), an enslaved woman on a Georgia plantation in the early 1800s who flees for freedom in the North. Whitehead’s…

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#Acorn TV #Amazon Prime Video #AMC+ #BFI Player Classics #Criterion Channel #Hacks #HBO Max #Hulu #MHz #Netflix #Peacock #Showtime Anytime #Shudder #The Underground Railroad #The Woman in the Window #Those Who Wish Me Dead #VOD

[thesmilingfish]

Does anyone subscribe to BFI Player Classics? Thoughts?

#BFI #BFI player classics

[richardhenrysellers]

Unseen for decades and described by Peter Sellers' biographer Roger Lewis as a lost classic, this gently melancholy, bittersweet character comedy sees the enigmatic Sellers in engrossing form as a poor, provincial French schoolteacher slowly corrupted by big business. A fine array of actors, including Herbert Lom, Billie Whitelaw and Leo McKern, provide support for Sellers – who also directed. Meek teacher Topaze, expertly played by Sellers at the peak of his powers, is a quiet man at the heart of a noisy film, surrounded by other characters writ large. Scripted by Pierre Rouve from a play by Marcel Pagnol, and Sellers' only credited feature as director, it was shot just as his first marriage was disintegrating. Speaking at the time to Herbert Kretzmer, who wrote the lyrics to I Like Money, the song featured in the film, Sellers confessed that it was only work keeping him going. "I've never been so low in my life. The days were all right. The days I worked. I worked non-stop. I set out to lose myself in work," he confessed. Available for the first time in decades, Sellers' performance in this unjustly neglected film certainly validates those efforts.

This film is hard to find! You can rent the film for £3.50 on BFI Player. 

“You can watch BFI Player films ONLY in the UK, because of licensor restrictions.”  :/ Well, enjoy UK fans! 

Let me know if you can find this film anywhere else, so we outside of the UK can enjoy this as well!

#Mr. Topaze #1961 #60s #Film #Rent #Only UK #Peter Sellers #Nadia Gray #Herbert Lom #Leo McKern #Martita Hunt #Michael Gough #Billie Whitelaw #Joan Sims #John Neville #John Le Mesurier

[thepeoplesmovies]

BFI Releasing St. Etienne's I’ve Been Trying To Tell You on Blu-Ray

BFI Releasing St. Etienne’s I’ve Been Trying To Tell You on Blu-Ray

Directed by the acclaimed photographer and filmmaker Alasdair McLellan to accompany Saint Etienne’s first sample-driven album since their 1993 classic So Tough, I’ve Been Trying To Tell You is a road movie like no other. After a premiere at BFI Southbank and a short exclusive run on BFI Player in September, the film will be released on Blu-ray by the BFI on 6th December, packed with extras…

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#2021 #Alasdair McLellan #BFI #I&039;ve Been Trying To Tell You #St. Etienne

[bwthornton]

#Film Mark Kermode reviews Ida (2014) | BFI Player

#Film Mark Kermode reviews Ida (2014) | BFI Player

#bfi #mark kermode #film #review #ida

[deadlinecom]

[sachwlang]

BFI Cultural Programme highlights available online during January 2021 - Film News | Film-News.co.uk

BFI Cultural Programme highlights available online during January 2021 – Film News | Film-News.co.uk

The BFI today announces more brilliant films and one-off events for audiences all over the UK to enjoy online from the safety and comfort of their own homes. The online programme includes new releases, classic films and film festivals to rent or subscribe to on BFI Player as well as a free virtual events programme on BFI YouTube. January highlights will include two exclusive subscription releases…

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#BFI #cultural #film #FilmNewscouk #highlights #January #news #online #programme

[chasenews]

the BFI continues to offer audiences a rich cultural programme

the BFI continues to offer audiences a rich cultural programme

As BFI Southbank closes today, due to new government restrictions, the BFI continues to offer audiences a rich cultural programme of films and events to enjoy from their own homes, including new and classic films on BFI Player, and expertly curated BFI Player collections such as BFI JAPAN. BFI Southbank seasons and events originally planned for November and now available to enjoy from home…

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[lukejmcgrath]

Napoleon (1927)

In which we follow the rise and rise of a commander with a fondness for headwear. 

Where to begin with Napoleon when it feels like a film that has no end for much of its almost six-hour runtime. That’s not to say it drags, more than it beats on ceaselessly from the past, going through event after event from Bonaparte’s life in great and epic detail.

Initially envisaged as the first in a six-film series that would follow the course of Napoleon’s career from school days to his eventual death in exile on the island of Saint Helena, plans were cancelled on completion on this first entry. It’s no surprise as this single film is one of the grandest visions ever released by a director. 

The film, which is presented in two parts on the BFI Player where I watched it, tracks Napoleon from his youth at a military school, where he finds he doesn’t fit in with his fellow students but does gain the confidence of at least one of his teachers. A decade later he finds himself in the midst of the French Revolution and leads a rebellion against the Corsican President. Bonaparte rises through the ranks of the military, winning an unexpected victory at the siege of Toulon against superior numbers of British and Spanish soldiers.

The revolutionary leaders are wary of the man now promoted to Brigadier General and try to have Napoleon executed for failing to obey them. The tide swiftly turns, and the leaders are themselves ousted, with Napoleon next elevated to General in Chief of the Army. With his stock ever rising, he marries and almost immediately leaves on a campaign to invade Italy. Arriving to meet his ragtag troops, Napoleon soon stirs them and leads them forwards into visions of victories set against the billowing blue, white a red flag of France. 

The film’s title card reads “Napoleon as seen by Abel Gance” and it’s certainly the director Gance’s vision on display. The title character is heroic from the outset as he defeats his schoolyard bullies then later finds himself thrown out of the school only to lie on a canon with his eagle at his side. He’s often shot in close up, positioned as a commanding leader and filmed as if he’s constantly posing for his portrait. These close images also serve to highlight Napoleon’s isolation and status as an outsider, fighting only for France, while those around him often fight for themselves.

Aside from Gance’s clear love for his character, his vision is brought to life by the revolutionary camera and editing techniques used throughout the film. In an era marked by stationary set pieces, Gance hurls his lens wherever he can. We move with horses, take on character’s points of view and even head underwater as a storm batter’s the hero’s tiny boat intercut with scenes of revolution. 

Most impressive is the final act’s use of widescreen, decades before the practice become common in cinema. By planting three cameras side-by-side then stitching the film together, Gance creates an incredible panorama for the final battle scenes which serves to end the movie on a suitably epic note.

I could write almost unendingly about Napoleon, its music is as exceptional as its direction and lead performance. Aside from the film itself is the wonderful story of the decades spent by film historian Kevin Brownlow who slowly rebuilt the film into the epic we can watch today. 

There are some caveats to my praise, as no technical brilliance can overcome the six-hour runtime of this film. Though designed as a complete biography with five more parts to follow, as a single movie Napoleon can feel cold and repetitive. Scenes of battles and revolutionary meetings seem to come and go, come and go, only to return. They’re no doubt accurate and show the rise of the great General, but some variation would go a long way, it’s perhaps for this reason that the final widescreen act stands outs so brilliantly as visually distinct from everything that has come before.

I’d still of course recommend watching Napoleon, it’s a masterpiece of silent cinema. Watch in in its four acts over four nights to pace yourself to avoid the fatigue of hours three onwards. From the first playground snowball fight, you’ll be engrossed in the epic life of the young Paille-au-nez.

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