Classic film fans have a new reason to cheer: FilmStruck is teaming up with Warner Bros. Digital Networks to expand its library to include hundreds of films from Golden Age Hollywood. Beginning today, subscribers to Turner Broadcasting’s streaming service will have access to films from the Warner Bros. catalogue including Singin’ in the Rain, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, The Thin Man and A Night at the Opera—many of which have never been available on a subscription video-on-demand platform before.
FilmStruck describes itself as “classic movies for film lovers, by film lovers” and it’s become a one-stop shop for art house, cult and independent films from around the world. Part of the reason I was delighted when it launched in 2016 was that it also featured a significant collection of older films. Streaming has revolutionized the way we watch movies: goodbye Friday nights at the video rental shop; hello evenings on the sofa with apps. Everything is at our fingertips. Well, not quite. The general streaming platform preference for the new has slowly narrowed viewers’ selections. Take Netflix. When I first signed up in 2013, I was pleasantly surprised to find so many old films there. Not just big-budget Hollywood productions like Three Coins in the Fountain, but also sixties Marcello Mastroianni comedies and quiet British gems like The Clairvoyant and A Place of One’s Own. Then one by one they vanished, leaving me bereft. Now, a film made before 1970 popping up is a rarity and I monitor the few left in my queue anxiously, lest they disappear too.
So there was never any question of me getting a FilmStruck account. It was worth it just for the enormous Criterion Collection library, which migrated over from Hulu (incidentally, the Collection was the main reason many classic film fans signed up for Hulu in the first place). Besides Criterion, FilmStruck’s main strength has proved to be its programmers’ wonderfully eclectic tastes. Interested in seeing singers in acting roles? FilmStruck is happy to oblige.
The addition of hundreds of films from the Warner Bros. library only makes FilmStruck more exciting. There’s already a new feature, TCM Select, a group of iconic Classical Hollywood films with introductions by TCM host Ben Mankiewicz, plus collections celebrating neo-noir, Bette Davis and Rogers and Astaire.
If you love classic films and you’re not on FilmStruck, what are you waiting for?
Leave a Reply