Game news Tired of paying for Netflix, I have great evenings with these free services
If your wallet is too light to stay subscribed to Netflix, these free alternatives still promise you to have a great time in front of your TV. For me, it worked.
Opinion post
This article is an opinion post. It is by nature subjective and therefore does not represent the opinion of the JV editorial staff.
A new year begins and with it, the good resolutions that we will soon forget in a few weeks, but which we still persist in conscientiously establishing every January 1st. One of mine is to watch more feature films to expand my cinematic culture a little as well as my personal journal on my Letterboxd account. Problem is, I also aim to limit my spending on monthly subscriptions, which naturally concerns my usual VOD platforms, like Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+. Bye-bye to the film catalogs of which I barely use a tenth, I am now turning to less expensive alternatives until the available content runs out. And for now, it is clear that the process is rather facilitated at the start of the year by the excellent initiatives taken by certain platforms. In fact, the writing of this post is largely motivated by my desire to share with you these few nuggets unearthed on free online platforms.
Is happiness at France tv?
Since January 5, you can findr every Friday on the France tv site a new film taken from a selection of the best productions of Alfred Hitchcock. The marathon began with The Man Who Knew Too Much, then the 5th Column, and continues on January 19 with my little favorite, The Rope, a fake sequence shot of exciting intensity. Each film is then accompanied by an episode of the cult series that is Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and which is, for fans of period thrillers, a real treat to savor for around twenty minutes.
I also watched on the platform Midnight Silence, a Korean thriller by Oh-Seung Kwon released in 2021 which focuses on the escape of a deaf mother and daughter while a serial killer is on their trails. A success which still inherits the perfect score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. In the genre, the platform also offers the popular Dahmer, Bone Collector, City of Lies, or even Summer of 84 and Une Affaire Privée. And as a bonus to a handful of other award-winning feature films, it is also animation that has made France TV shine in recent weeks. For a while now, we have been able to watch the absolute masterpiece that is Your Name, but also the animated film adaptation of Cowboy Bepop, one of Wes Anderson’s best works which is none other than Fantastic Mr. Fox, Miss Hokusai, Maraï my little sister, Amer Béton and so on . Add to that a myriad of documentaries to occupy your Sunday afternoons. In short, the platform certainly does not offer major exclusives or freshly released blockbusters, but it still has a generous free catalog in very good taste that it would be a real shame to miss.
And the others
When it comes to cult films, ARTE is absolutely perfect to complement your consumption, although its offering will amaze the most purists more. You can currently watch 9 short films pre-selected for the 2024 Césars, discover ten films in restored version by director Yasujiro Ozu or even browse the wide selection of noir films. On January 25, note that the platform will also offer Rocky first of the name, an unmissable worn by Sylvester Stallone. And then there is no need to mention the abundant ARTE documentaries on the site, whose reputation is clearly well established. I could also tell you about TF1+, brand new SVOD service which displays no less than 15,000 hours of free content. A colossal catalog that includes a slew of blockbusters like the Hobbit saga, a few feature films by Luc Besson (clearly not the least worst), Gladiator, Taxi or even Bandidas which will probably find their audience, but not necessarily my interest.
Obviously, I also indulge in some pleasures, but always while taking advantage of good deals. That’s how I jumped on the one month free offer from the MUBI platform, specialist in cinema buffs and indie films. The opportunity to discover one of their best exclusives: Shiva Baby, as well as a nice handful of classics that I could never have found elsewhere. The offer having been completed, I have now set my sights on the Univers Ciné site which, for barely one euro, offers me access for a month to a wide variety of long and short films that I also had difficulty finding elsewherelike The City of Lost Children.