New releases and coming soon to MUBI UK (18th February 2017)
David Farnor | On 18, Feb 2017
After a week dedicated to romantic comedies from aroundd the world, MUBI spends the rest of February celebrating another shared love of many film fans: the Oscars. Building up to the 2017 Academy Awards on Sunday 26th February, MUBI charts a course through the golden statue’s history, from Gandhi and Ang Lee to Jiří Menzel’s Czech New Wave winner Closely Watched Trains.
And, if you can’t find it in a cinema near you, there’s still the chance to see Damien Manivel’s The Park on MUBI, the first of its series of exclusive Discoveries from some of cinema’s hottest new filmmakers.
Here’s what’s new, coming soon and leaving soon on MUBI:
This week on MUBI
The People vs Larry Flynt – 18th February
As the 67th Berlinale draws to a close, MUBI takes us back to Milos Forman’s classic, which took home the festival’s top prize in 1996. Larry Flynt is the hedonistically obnoxious, but indomitable, publisher of Hustler magazine. The film recounts his struggle to make an honest living publishing his porn magazine and how it changes into a battle to protect the freedom of speech for all people.
Oscars Week: Gandhi – 19th February
MUBI kicks off a week dedicated to the Oscars with Richard Attenborough’s landmark historical biopic. As intimate as it is epic, the film presents the major turning points in the life of beloved Indian leader, played by Ben Kingsley, whose protest against British rule over his country became internationally renowned.
Oscars Week: The Greatest Show on Earth – 20th February
When circus manager Brad Braden engages The Great Sebastian, his girlfriend Holly is knocked from her starring trapeze spot. And so begins a dangerous game of one-upmanship in the ring. Cecil. B Demille’s 1952 showbiz epic is the stuff that Hollywood magic is made of, with its daring set-pieces and sweeping romanticism, not to mention its cast of names, from Jimmy Stewart and Gloria Grahame to Charlton Heston.
Oscars Week: Investigation of a Citizen Above Superstition – 21st February
A chief of detectives, homicide section, commits a murder and deliberately leaves clues to prove his own responsibility for the crime in Elio Petri’s Oscar-winning drama, which asks a daring question: is there such thing as a man so powerful he would never be suspected of guilt? Come for the answer, stay for Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack.
Oscars Week: Kramer vs Kramer – 22nd February
Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. It might be easier to count the Oscars that Robert Benton’s film didn’t win. Dustin Hoffman plays Ben, an ad man with a perfect life in New York – until his wife, Joanna (Meryl Streep), says that he’s leaving him, putting their son, Billy, and us in the middle of the fallout. This moving classic is the quintessential portrait of American divorce in the 1970s.
Oscars Week: Closely Watched Trains – 23rd February
Jiří Menzel’s Czech New Wave masterpiece won the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award in 1968. But this is an understated affair miles away from the grandeur of the Oscars, as it follows a bumbling dispatcher’s apprentice at a village railway station in occupied Czechoslovakia, who longs to liberate himself from his virginity.
Oscars Week: Sense and Sensibility – 24th February
Ang Lee’s take on Sense and Sensibility features a stellar script from Emma Thompson, who also joins an impressive cast that includes Kate Winslet, Tom Wilinson, Hugh Grant and – most importantly – Alan Rickman in a hat as Colonel Brandon.
Other new releases on MUBI
Shampoo
Lovers undo a hairdresser from Beverly Hills around 1968 Election Eve in Hal Ashby’s 1975 comedy. The young and beautiful Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn, with the late Carrie Fisher appearing in her first screen role. The result is a hilarious sex farce, with Beatty on gorgeous form. “I don’t fuck anybody for money,” he says at one point. “I do it for the fun.”
The King of Escape
Armand Lacourtade, a 43-year-old farm equipment salesman, can no longer bear his homosexual bachelorhood. When he meets Curly, a plucky teenage girl, he changes orientations in this 2009 film from Alain Guiraudie.
The Awful Truth
Unfounded suspicions lead a married couple to begin divorce proceedings, whereupon they start undermining each other’s attempts to find new romance in Leo McCarey 1930s screwball romance.
Petty Romance
Nothing says Valentine’s Day like Kim Jeong-hoon. A box office smash in South Korea back in 2010, the comedy follows a comic artist and an unemployed sex columnist, who are trying to work together in order to win a lucrative comic-book competition.
My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend
Éric Rohmer’s witty, breezy comedy sees Blanche and Lea meet and become friends – only for the pair to meet each other’s partners, Fabien and Alexandre. A love triangle soon begins to form.
Yossi
The sequel to Yossi and Jagger follows Yossi, a closeted gay man living a solitary existence in Tel Aviv. A chance encounter with a group of soldiers ignites Yossi’s desire to live an open, fulfilling life.
Modern Romance
Albert Brooks directs himself as a successful film editor with far too many issues that affect the relationship between he and his remarkably patient girlfriend.
The Park (Le Parc)
Summer time. A teenage boy and girl have their first date in a park. Hesitant and shy at first, they soon discover each other, get closer as they wander, and end up falling in love. But as the sun goes down, it is time to part… And a dark night begins. MUBI’s exclusive acquisition is in cinemas as well as on MUBI.
The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears
MUBI begins a Giallo weekender dedicated to the yellow-backed pulp thrillers of Italy, which inspired a horror genre in the 1960s and 70s. Belgian duo Hélène Cattet and Burno Foranzi pay homage to the genre with a reboot for modern times, as their 2013 horror sees a woman vanish. Her husband begins to investigate the strange circumstances of her disappearance. Did she leave him, or is she dead?
Deep Red
MUBI’s Giallo / Meta-Giallo double concludes with – who else? – Dario Agento. His 1975 horror follows an English pianist living in Rome, who witnesses the brutal murder of his neighbour, a psychic. With the help of a tenacious young reporter, he tries to discover the killer using unconventional methods, and the two are soon drawn into a shocking web of dementia, savagery and violence.
Picnic at Hanging Rock
When it comes to dramas about disappearing people, Peter Weir’s 1975 is an unrivalled classic. Eerie and understated in equal measure, the film follows a party of girls from a strict boarding school, who go on an outing to nearby landmark Hanging Rock on a St. Valentine’s Day – only for part of the group vanish without explanation.
Groundhog Day
Harold Ramis’ comedy about a weatherman who finds himself reliving the same day over and over again is funny, sweet, profound and features a superb central turn from Bill Murray. A verifiable classic that gets better every time you watch it. (Read our full review)
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Last chance to stream: Titles leaving MUBI soon
The Doom Generation
Available until end of: 18th February
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Available until end of: 19th February
Capturing the Friedmans
Available until end of: 20th February
Portrait
Available until end of: 21st February
Battle in Heaven
Available until end of: 22nd February
Romance
Available until end of: 23rd February
Anatomy of Hell
Available until end of: 24th February
California Split
Available until end of: 25th February
The Last Vacation
Available until end of: 26th February
Rachel Getting Married
Available until end of: 27th February
Factory
Available until end of: 28th February
Bunny Lake Is Missing
Available until end of: 29th February
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Available until end of: 30th February