Rarefilmm is the finest site to stream obscure movies

Tonight for surea soft-core comedy directed by Francis Ford Coppola ten years earlier The Godfather.
Photo: Premier Pictures

A classic like The Godfather can be easy enough to find on streaming or Blu-ray, but if you want to watch Tonight for surea softcore comedy directed by Francis Ford Coppola a decade earlier, about two men who plot to blow up a burlesque nightclub, you can find it on a small, free website called Rarefilmm. Run by archivist Jon Whitehead, who created it in 2014 with the aim of preserving hidden gems, the site now has about 3,000 titles and calls itself “the cave of forgotten films”.

To give you an idea of ​​the site’s scope, its many obscurities include a 1983 documentary exploring sex and intimacy in the disabled community, a TV drama starring a 15-year-old Adrien Brody, and a 1972 Italian documentary Tarzan imitation called — what else? — Karzan, Lord of the Jungle. Rarefilmm is perfect for anyone who wants to learn more about peplum, the subgenre of Italian mythological and historical epics, or is interested in Eurospy, the 1960s films and parodies that capitalized on the popularity of James Bond, or any other very specific subgenre of the visual past. Whitehead was inspired to start it after stumbling upon rare and little-known films on online forums reserved for guests. “I started looking for a blog that published them, and I couldn’t find anything,” he explains. “I thought, Why not share all these beautiful and unknown films with the world instead of keeping them secret?

Curious about his curiosities, we tested Rarefilmm and have some ideas on how to get the most out of the site, with navigation tips and other viewing recommendations.

Rarefilmm doesn’t have an app, but you can access it on desktop and mobile browsers. Its homepage is simple, without the flashy carousels or annoying autoplays that characterize most popular streaming services these days. It lists the most recent additions to the site with genre, release date, upload date, and a synopsis. When you click on the “Browse” tab, you’ll find the site’s library divided into 40 genres, including arthouse, giallo, and blaxploitation, as well as formats like documentaries, shorts, and made-for-TV movies. You can find films cataloged by decade, from the 1910s to the 2000s, or by the awards they’ve won, from the Academy Awards to the Chicago International Film Festival’s Gold Hugo. Another category divides films according to their country of origin: at last count, films from 73 countries are present on Rarefilmm.

Whitehead also lists movies by month and year of upload, so you can stay up to date with his finds, which is part of the fun of diving into the site. If you’re looking for a specific movie, the “Movie Index” tab will provide you with a list of movies listed alphabetically. Clicking on a movie will reveal not only data like category, credits, year, and country of origin (some of which is crowdsourced or refined by the site’s subscribers), but also the quality of its available copy.

Movies can be watched directly on the site or downloaded. If you’re not sure what to watch, the comments section under each movie and the Rarefilmm chat room can be useful resources, letting you know what other viewers thought. You can also see each title’s rating out of five and how many site users voted.

Thanks to these users and Whitehead’s stewardship, Rarefilmm remains vibrant and alive, unlike other streaming sites. It’s a true community, even if its features and offerings are limited. There are no “watchlists,” but the chat hosts an ongoing discussion about films and digital preservation. While some films have limited language options, and some categories or countries, such as Albania, have relatively few offerings, Rarefilmm users still appreciate the hard work that goes into getting these works out there.

Presenting all this cinema independently poses legal and logistical challenges. Whitehead wrote on the site that he sources his films from private collectors. An earlier “Requests” section detailed the criteria he followed for uploads, but it has since been removed; a new “DMCA” section states that Whitehead will remove any title upon request from the copyright holder within 72 hours. Last year, Rarefilmm lost most of its catalog after the Czech platform that hosted the site’s films banned file sharing in the wake of the European Digital Services Act.

This isn’t the first time Whitehead has had his archive deleted, and reuploading can be demoralizing when he’d rather surface new titles, but he persists. “It’s worth it because I know how heartbreaking it can be to find a dead download link, and I don’t want people to feel that way when they’re browsing Rarefilm,” he says. Whitehead has since reactivated the old uploads, but these days he’s taking requests for films via DM X at his own pace and has asked people to request no more than two at a time.

Given these obstacles, it’s remarkable that Whitehead’s archive is still online after a decade, thanks to donations and volunteers. And he hopes it will expand and eventually hire staff, such as translators and people who can provide subtitles. Film buffs would benefit: You can’t find an Oscar-winning 1980 animated short film made entirely from the perspective of a fly everywhere. “Rarefilmm isn’t going away anytime soon,” Whitehead says. “The best is yet to come.”

The three-minute short film, which features a soundtrack of buzzing sounds and an insect’s eyes, takes place in a garden and inside a house as the insect tries to escape an attack. The film won Best Animated Short Film at the 54th Academy Awards.

A wealthy horse breeder hires a couple to help him run his farm, but they gradually reveal themselves to have more sinister intentions. This episode directed by Sam Peckinpah is part of the anthology Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre. Whitehead got it from an acquaintance on Facebook. The quality of the video isn’t great, but, as he explains on the site, of the show’s hundred episodes, only a handful are still available.

Brad Pitt plays an American soldier who unknowingly ventures into enemy territory and is spotted by an Arab soldier (Elias Koteas). The two men become reluctant allies in order to survive. The 27-minute film was nominated for an Oscar in 1993.

As reporters interview Marlon Brando about his 1965 film, Death, In this short documentary, he answers their questions with warmth and humor. What begins as a promotional exercise turns into a charming portrait of a megawatt celebrity.