The Weekly MUBI Digest | 23rd December
David Farnor | On 23, Dec 2017
This weekend sees MUBI premiere its latest exclusive acquisition – Ava – but there’s a typically diverse selection to accompany it, from Alain Gomes’ stunning Felicite (read our full review here) to Sidney Lumet’s The Anderson Tapes.
What’s new, coming soon and leaving soon on the subscription service? This is your weekly MUBI Digest:
This week on MUBI
Ava – 22nd December
A young woman finds out she is condemned to gradually lose her sight while spending her summer vacation at a beach resort. While her mother Maud has vowed to make Ava’s month of holidays an unforgettable experience, Ava decides to take a another route.
The Anderson Tapes – 23rd December
A thief just released from ten years in jail, takes up with his old girlfriend in her posh apartment. He makes plans to rob the entire building. What he doesn’t know is that his every move is recorded on audio and video tape, although he is not the subject of any surveillance.
Other new releases on MUBI
Felicite
Félicité, free and proud, is a singer in the evenings in a bar in Kinshasa. Her life changes when her 14-year-old son is the victim of a motorcycle accident. To save him, she begins a frantic race through the streets of an electric Kinshasa, a world of music and dreams. Winner of Berlin’s Silver Bear, Alain Gomes’ fantastic film is the latest to be snapped up exclusively by MUBI. (Read our full review.)
A Master Builder
Jonathan Demme passed away earlier this year, and to honour his humanist cinema, MUBI offers this underrated 2013 effort—which reconnected My Dinner with Andre stars (and adapters!) Wallace Shawn & Andre Gregory for a follow-up Henrik Ibsen adaptation.
Spotlight on a Murderer
The fame of auteur Georges Franju popularly rests mainly on the haunting Eyes without a Face, yet his filmography is full of such films as this one: thrilling, lyrical, and with a conceptual audacity unafraid of silliness. Starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and written by the team behind Vertigo.
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
It’s rare to describe a film as “mouth-watering”, but this one definitely fits the bill! A crowd-pleasing documentary hit with a surprising depth of soulfulness, it explores food-as-art with a perfectionist at the core. It follows 85-year-old master sushi chef Jiro Ono, paying homage to the process of preparing the artisan sushi that earned Ono’s esteemed Sukiyabashi Jiro restaurant three Michelin stars.
Tokyo Godfathers
Satoshi Kon is one of the great animators of cinema but, after only four movies, died at the too young age of 46. MUBI celebrates his work with a double-bill, beginning with this quasi-remake of John Ford’s 3 Godfathers.
Paprika
Satoshi Kon’s final feature is a reminder of his genre and reality-bending ambition and imagination. Paprika follows a research psychologist, who begins using a revolutionary new technology to enter the dreams of her psychiatric patients in order to help them. But when a prototype is stolen, it could spell disaster.
The Age of Innocence
Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder lead Martin Scorsese’s resplendent adaptation of Edith Wharton’s classic novel.
Cilaos
After launching Restrepo’s Impression of a War this summer, MUBI presents his micro-scaled musical diptych. The A-side is Cilaos, a film shot to look like a 1970s blaxploitation, and founded in the religious and cultural practices of the French island of Réunion…
La Bouche
… and the B-side is its spiritual sequel, which continues Restrepo’s exploration of identity and heritage. Inhabited by ghosts of a colonial past, this is a bewitching, rabid chant for justice — a film about death that premiere at this year’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.
Donnie Darko
Richard Kelly’s enigmatic, mind-bending fusion of teen movie, horror flick and sci-fi thriller is an instant cult classic, boasting a bold screenplay, a great performance by Jake Gyllenhaal and a man in a giant rabbit shot called Frank.
Radio Mary
MUBI premieres a new independent gem from Gary Walkow, 1987 winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize. Adapted from his own novel, this eerie, beguiling ghost story stars Kate Lyn Sheil as a woman haunted by a Mephistophelian mystery man and newfound telepathic powers.
It Felt Like Love
With Beach Rats now in cinemas and on VOD, MUBI takes us back to director Eliza Hittman’s debut, It Felt Like Love. 14-year-old Lila is experiencing an ennui-filled Brooklyn summer playing third wheel to Chiara, her more experienced friend, and Chiara’s boyfriend, Patrick. Determined to have a love interest of her own, a bravado-filled Lila pursues Sammy and manipulates herself deeper into his world.
As a Man
With the superb Félicité out now, MUBI looks back at Gomis’ impressive debut. Winner of Locarno’s Silver Leopard, As A Man poses razor-sharp questions around the notion of exile, investigating what it means to be trapped between two worlds yet feel like an outsider in both.
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Last chance to stream: Titles leaving MUBI soon
Wet Woman in the Wind
Available until end of: 23rd December
It Felt Like Love
Available until end of: 24th December
LA Confidential
Available until end of: 25th December
Yumeji
Available until end of: 26th December
Fatal Assistance
Available until end of: 27th December
Murder in Pacot
Available until end of: 28th December
We Were Here
Available until end of: 29th December
The Sunchaser
Available until end of: 30th December