MUBI Weekly Digest | 27th March 2021
David Farnor | On 27, Mar 2021
MUBI continues two of its most interesting retrospectives this week, focusing on Hungarian filmmaker Márta Mészáros and Hou Hsiao-Hsien, but also gives a chance to revisit some of the most divisive or controversial cult films from the past couple of decades in the form of The Fountain and The Audition, plus a look back at Nicolas Winding Refn’s Pusher.
Before the end of the month, three classics from FW Murnau and a trio of titles from this year’s MyFrenchFilmFestival depart, while the beginning of April marks your last chance to catch a host of Indian gems from filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray.
What’s new, coming soon and leaving soon? Read on for your weekly MUBI Digest. For our guide to the best films in MUBI Library, click here.
This week on MUBI
The Fountain – 27th March
A doctor’s endless search for a cure to his wife’s cancer spans centuries in Darren Aronofsky’s ambitious, divisive sci-fi, as she writes the tale of a 16th Century conquistador looking for eternal life.
Audition – 28th March
Widower Shigeharu seeks advice on how to find a new wife from a colleague. Taking advantage of their position as a film company, they stage an audition. Interviewing a series of women, Shigeharu is enchanted by the quiet Asami. But soon things take a twisted turn as Asami isn’t what she seems to be in Takashi Miike’s controversial thriller.
Binding Sentiment – 29th March
Edit lives a wealthy life until she becomes a widow and has to face her past. Her son István blames her intention to give up her luxurious life on hysteria. He has his mother watched by Kati, his fiancée. Although Edit is too weak to change, Kati is astonished by István’s limitless brutality. MUBI’s Márta Mészáros spotlight continues with this 1969 drama.
Hou Hsiao-Hsien: The Boys From Fengkuei – 30th March
A trio of young men, bored of living in the middle of nowhere, move from their small island of Fengkuei to the port of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan to look for work. There they wander aimlessly without a clear sense of purpose, and face some harsh realities about growing up.
Edvard Munch – 31st March
This biopic of Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch focuses on the influences that shaped his art, his devastating affair with a married woman that will haunt him for the rest of his life, and his time in Berlin, where he fled to after being viciously attacked by critics and public alike.
Pusher – 2nd April
As a heroin dealer in Copenhagen, Frank is far from the top but earns good money pushing with a friend. When he decides to up the ante, Frank goes to Milo, a drug lord—except he doesn’t have enough money for the heroin. Instead, Milo fronts him the goods upon the condition of immediate repayment. Kim Bodnia and Mads Mikkelsen star in Nicolas Winding Refn’s 1996 thriller.
Other new releases on MUBI
Tigerland
1971. A nation is divided over the Vietnam war. Thousands of young Americans lie dead on foreign soil. The spectre of combat hangs over the men of A-Company, who train for the battlefield. Each man looks at the prospect in his own way. One man’s defiance, however, stirs every member of the platoon. Colin Farrell makes his first lead performance in Joel Schumacher’s 2000 drama, inspired by co-writer Ross Klavan’s experiences in Vietnam.
Jacques Audiard: Dheepan
Jacques Audiard’s study of immigration and identity is a movingly unpredictable drama.
The Girl
A lonely working-class girl has grown up in a Hungarian state orphanage. On receipt of a letter from her mother, the girl decides to embark on a trip to visit her, only to find out the woman has married and wishes to pass her daughter off as her niece.
Oleg
Oleg, a young Latvian butcher, arrives in Brussels in the hope of getting a better salary in a meat factory. His experience turns short after being betrayed by a colleague. Alone in a country where he doesn’t belong, he quickly falls under the yoke of Andrzej, a Polish criminal.
Gushing Prayer
High-school students Yasuko, Yôichi, Kôichi and Bill join together to liberate themselves from a corrupt adult society.
South
What kind of power is accessible through the discovery of a voice? Morgan Quaintance’s 2020 short interlinks two anti-racist and anti-authoritarian liberation movements in South London and Chicago’s South Side with his own biography to explore what happens when speech is ignored, and the voice fades.
That Cold Day in the Park
Robert Altman’s suspenseful 1969 drama sees a young, wealthy spinster Frances Austen invite a mute teenager into her apartment after finding him freezing in the park next to where she lives. Despite her best efforts, their lack of communication only increases her sense of loneliness, as her possessiveness spirals into frightening new realms.
Computer Chess
Andrew Bujalski black-and-white oddity is a hilarious, profound and eccentric tribute to social awkwardness.
Mommy
Xavier Dolan’s hugely emotional drama is a stunning tale of troubled youth, motherly love and the music of Oasis.
A Colony
Introverted teenager Mylia feels lost between the uncertainty in her family life, the superficial atmosphere at her new school, and her first experiences at house parties. But one day Mylia meets Jimmy. The boy from the nearby Abenaki reserve is different and he encourages her to break free.
The Legend of the Stardust Brothers
A shady music mogul brings together two wannabe stars—punk rock rebel Kan and new-wave crooner Shingo—and transforms them into the Stardust Brothers, a girl-friendly, silver-jumpsuited, synth-pop sensation. Along with their #1 fan, who herself dreams of a music career, the duo rockets to stardom.
Sonita
Sonita is a talented teenage rapper and an indomitable force in spite of her conservative family. She is, however, an undocumented Afghan refugee in Iran, and her family has other plans for her. Her dream of living abroad is about to come true just as her family wants to send her back home to marry.
Gianfranco Rosi: Notturno
Shot in Iran, Kurdistan, Syria and Lebanon over the course of three turbulent years, it is an intimate and devastating depiction of the civilian populations who have no choice but to live on the frontlines. Told with compassion, grace and humanism, this is a breathtaking cinematic journey.
Gianfranco Rosi: El Sicario, Room 164
In room 164 of a grubby hotel near the Mexican-American border, a man with a black cloth over his head starts talking about the life he has lived. He provides full details on his 20 years of work for a Mexican drugs baron, shading light on how thoroughly corrupt the local authorities are.
Gianfranco Rosi: Fire at Sea
A daring and virtuosic exploration of a modern humanitarian crisis. Read our full review
Gianfranco Rosi: Sacro Gra
Gianfranco Rosi’s snapshot of life in Rome drifts round ring road GRA to capture lives that have come to a halt on the fringes of a society that races on.
Gianfranco Rosi: Below Sea Level
During a five year period, Gianfranco Rosi documents the world of down-on-their-luck individuals who live in a Californian desert, about 200 miles southeast of Los Angeles and 20 feet below sea level. They have turned their backs on society, and want to be left alone.
Legend
Three years after his iconic Blade Runner, prolific British filmmaker Ridley Scott directed this high-budget, special-effects extravaganza starring Tom Cruise – but it’s Tim Curry as the Lord of Darkness who’s really worth tuning in for.
Jacques Audiard: A Prophet
Unnerving and gripping, A Prophet’s ambition matches its ruthless lead.
A Month of Single Frames
In 1998 lesbian experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer took part in a one-month residency at a Cape Cod dune shack without running water or electricity, where she shot film, recorded sound and kept a journal. In 2018 she gave all of this material to Lynne Sachs and invited her to make a film with it.
Vever (for Barbara)
A cross-generational binding of three filmmakers seeking alternatives to the power structures they are inherently a part of. Shot during a motorcycle trip Hammer took to Guatemala in 1975, the film is laced through with Maya Deren’s reflections of failure, encounter and initiation in 1950s Haiti.
Los Conductos
Medellin, Colombia. Pinky is on the run after freeing himself from the grip of a religious sect. He finds a place to squat, but misled by his own faith, he questions everything. As he tries to put back together the pieces of his life, violent memories return to haunt him, and ask for revenge.
Catch Me Daddy
The Wolfe brothers establish themselves as a major new talent with this stunning kitchen sink drama.
The Imperialists Are Still Alive!
Asya, an artist of French-Middle Eastern descent, lives the glamorous life in Manhattan. At a benefit event, she learns that her childhood friend Faisal has been detained by US officials on charges of suspected terrorism. That same night, Asya and her entourage go to an exclusive downtown bar…
Inflatable Sex Doll of The Wastelands
A private detective is hired to find a woman who has apparently been murdered in a snuff film. It turns out the woman’s not dead, but very much alive, and he gets sucked into a torrid affair with her that leaves him questioning his sense of reality.
Beyond Clueless
Charlie Shackleton’s essay dissecting high school movies is a smart, entertaining ode to the teen movie legacy. Read our full review
The King of Comedy
Robert De Niro is disturbingly cheerful in Scorsese’s twisted satire of celebrity culture. Read our full review
Cold Meridian
A beguiling new short film from Peter Strickland, shot on black and white Super8 and 16mm film. Originally commissioned by the London Short Film Festival to wriggle inside the ASMR phenomenon, it follows the repeated rituals of an online performer and the transfixing, hypnotising effects she has on her viewers.
The Sky Is on Fire
A hypothetical digital ruin of a virtual Miami street is the backdrop for the monologue of a Miami resident who reflects on the desire for immortality that drives our need to capture everything in an image.
Alex Ross Perry: Queen of Earth
Elisabeth Moss is incredible in this absorbing study of a toxic friendship.
Alex Ross Perry: Listen Up Philipy
Jason Schwartzman is impeccable in Alex Ross Perry’s obnoxious, awkward and highly, highly amusing comedy about a self-important writer.
Alex Ross Perry: The Color Wheel
JR, an aspiring news-anchor, forces her younger brother Colin to embark on a road trip to move her belongings out of her professor-turned-lover’s place. Traveling through New England, they uncomfortably run into old school-mates or revisit familial history from which they have long since diverged.
A Family Tour
After directing the film The Mother of One Recluse, director Yang Shu has been forced to live in exile in Hong Kong. But when her mother has to undergo a serious operation, the two women plan to meet in Taiwan where Yang will be attending a film festival with her husband and son.
Berlinale: Bad Tales
The summer heat beats down on a residential estate in the suburbs of Rome. There is a sense of unease that can explode at any moment. Parents are frustrated because they are not from a better suburb, but their children are the protagonists of the shock wave that propels the estate towards collapse.
Berlinale: The Twentieth Century
Toronto, 1899. Mackenzie King dreams of becoming Canada’s Prime Minister. In his quest for power he faces his Mother, a war-mongering Governor-General. When the run for leadership leads to a battle between good and evil, King learns that disappointment is the only way to survive the 20th century.
Berlinale: Digger
When Jonny visits his father Nikitas in his cabin in the woods after 20 years, the hermit ignores him. But to prevent the muddy ground from being pulled out from under their feet for reasons of profit, father and son must dig deep into it.
Berlinale: Uppercase Print
The story of Mugur Calinescu, a Romanian teenager who wrote graffiti messages of protest against the regime of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and was subsequently apprehended, interrogated, and ultimately crushed by the secret police.
Hou Hsiao-Hsien: Cute Girl
Wenwen, a young woman from a well-to-do family, has been promised to a man currently studying in France. While waiting upon his return, Wenwen’s parents prepare the wedding, but Wenwen starts to have doubts. She decides to go visit her aunt in the countryside, where she falls for a land surveyor.
Hou Hsiao-Hsien: The Green, Green Grass of Home
A substitute teacher from Taipei arrives in a country village where he meets his mischievous students. There, he begins a romance with a fellow teacher, and gradually begins to enjoy his life in the countryside. But his city girlfriend comes to drag him back.
Fight Club
David Fincher’s adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel is a thriller about masculinity and nihilism, as a depressed man (Edward Norton) suffering from insomnia meets a strange soap salesman named Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and soon finds himself setting up an underground movement.
Song Without a Name
Peru, at the height of the political crisis of the 1980s. Georgina is an indigenous woman from the Andes whose newborn daughter is stolen at a fake health clinic. Her desperate search for the child leads her to the headquarters of a major newspaper, where she meets Pedro Campos, a lonely journalist.
Dead Pigs
The fates of an unlucky pig farmer, a feisty home-owner defending her property, a lovestruck busboy, a disenchanted rich girl, and an American expat pursuing the Chinese Dream converge and collide as thousands of dead pigs are found floating down the Huangpu River, towards a modernizing Shanghai. Don’t miss the rare chance to catch this Sundance-winning debut from Birds of Prey director Cathy Yan. Read our full review
Stump the Guesser
He works at the fairground as “Stump the Guesser”, who can guess anything for a fee. But suddenly his tricks stop working. Then, he falls in love with his sister whom he believed to be lost. He sets out to scientifically disprove the theory of heredity and marry his beloved as soon as possible.
If It Were Love
1990s rave culture was a chance to let go of oneself. If It Were Love explores such dimension through the eyes of artist Gisèle Vienne: young dancers dissolve into a community on stage, where their bodies move in graceful slow motion. Performance and reality flow together into an artistic whole.
Lucky
Harry Dean Stanton delivers a wonderful penultimate performance in this delightful, low-key indie drama. Read our full review – and our interview with director John Carroll Lynch.
Heat
Robert De Niro. Al Pacino. Michael Mann. Three icons of cinemas combine for his seminal crime drama, which sees a determine cop and an equally ruthless criminal in a cat-and-mouse game in a nocturnal Los Angeles caught with cool intensity by Mann’s deep-focused camera. A modern classic.
Once Upon a Time in America
The final film by Sergio Leone finds the maestro audaciously and ambitiously going beyond his Spaghetti Western roots for a sprawling, multi-decade New York crime epic. Robert De Niro leads a production at once resplendent and gritty—a familiar setting given operatic majesty and force by Leone. De Niro. James Woods. Leone. What more do you need?
The Painted Bird
A young boy journeys through a Second World War landscape in Václav Marhoul’s harrowing odyssey.
About Some Meaningless Events
In Casablanca, a group of filmmakers conduct discussions with people about their expectations of, and aspirations for, the emerging Moroccan national cinema. When a disgruntled worker kills his superior accidentally, their inquest shifts focus, and they begin to probe the motives of the killing.
Tyrel
After playing at the Glasgow Film Festival in 2019, Sebastián Silva’s latest (currently available with Amazon Prime) gets a wider showcase. It follows Tyler, who joins a friend on a birthday weekend away with several people he doesn’t know. As soon as he gets there, it’s clear that he’s the only Black guy. Although welcomed, Tyler can’t help but feel uneasy. As the testosterone and alcohol gets out of hand, his precarious situation becomes nightmarish.
Metropolitan
Whit Stillman burst onto the American cinema scene with this ferociously funny look at the “urban haute bourgeoisie” in New York.
About Endlessness
Roy Andersson’s supposed swan song is a greatest hits remix of absurd humanist melancholy.
The Small Town
This stunning exploration of the life of a rural family marks Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s highly personal debut feature. Shot in poignant black-and-white cinematography, and starring members of his own family, The Small Town is a low-budget, minimalist ode to the slow rhythms of life in the countryside.
My Sister’s Good Fortune
With her I Was at Home, But… helmed as one of last year’s best arthouse movies, we look back at German auteur Angela Schanelec’s first leap into feature filmmaking. An unusual take on desire and its ambiguous nature, this ethereal drama is filled with powerful, skilfully-crafted observation.
August 32nd on Earth
Prior to making some of the biggest sci-fi blockbusters of the 21st century, Denis Villeneuve directed this French New Wave-influenced drama.
All is Forgiven
Debuting at the Quinzaine in 2007, Mia Hansen-Løve’s debut announces what we have come to appreciate in her cathartic cinema. All is Forgiven ambitiously embeds in its structure (and in this way, successfully grasps) all that is lost, gained, and transmitted through the persistent passage of time.
A monthly subscription to MUBI costs £9.99 a month, with a 30-day free trial. A MUBI Go subscription costs £14.99 a month.
Last chance to stream: Titles leaving MUBI soon
Fire Will Come
Available until: 27th March
Barbs, Wastelands
Available until: 29th March
The Haunted Castle
Available until: 30th March
Nosferatu
Available until: 30th March
Tomboy
Available until: 30th March
Citadel
Available until: 30th March
Tartuffe
Available until: 30th March
Beautiful New Bay Area Project
Available until: 30th March
The Hands of Orlac
Available until: 30th March
Josep
Available until: 31st March
Home
Available until: 31st March
Enormous
Available until: 31st March
Chinese Puzzle
Available until: 31st March
Heroes Don’t Die
Available until: 31st March
Gumnaam
Available until: 31st March
Catch Me Daddy
Available until: 2nd April
The Stranger
Available until: 2nd April
An Enemy of the People
Available until: 2nd April
Duvidha
Available until: 2nd April
27 Down
Available until: 2nd April
The Seventh Horse of the Sun
Available until: 2nd April
Don’t Cry for Salim
Available until: 2nd April
The Home and the World
Available until: 2nd April
Party
Available until: 2nd April
Our Daily Bread
Available until: 2nd April
Naseem
Available until: 2nd April
The Crossing
Available until: 2nd April
Mirch Masala
Available until: 2nd April
The Guerrilla Fighter
Available until: 2nd April
Om Dar-B-Dar
Available until: 2nd April
Nazar
Available until: 2nd April
Suddenly, One Day
Available until: 2nd April
Ek Doctor Ki Maut
Available until: 2nd April
Tahader Katha
Available until: 2nd April
Anhey Ghohrey da Daan
Available until: 2nd April
Mammo
Available until: 2nd April
Death of Kamla
Available until: 2nd April
One Day Before the Rainy Season
Available until: 2nd April
Kali Salwar
Available until: 2nd April
Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro
Available until: 2nd April
Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastaan
Available until: 2nd April
Sati
Available until: 2nd April
Antareen
Available until: 2nd April
Gaman
Available until: 2nd April
Pestonjee
Available until: 2nd April
Four Chapters
Available until: 2nd April
Rudaali
Available until: 2nd April
Ek Ghar
Available until: 2nd April
Massey Sahib
Available until: 2nd April
Kasba
Available until: 2nd April
Miss Beatty’s Children
Available until: 2nd April
Diksha
Available until: 2nd April
The Making of the Mahatma
Available until: 2nd April
Uttoran
Available until: 2nd April
Thodu
Available until: 2nd April
Dharavi
Available until: 2nd April
Antarjali Yatra
Available until: 2nd April
Triyacharitra
Available until: 2nd April
Adi Shankaracharya
Available until: 2nd April
Sanshodhan
Available until: 2nd April
Godam
Available until: 2nd April
Dance Like a Man
Available until: 2nd April
Bioscope
Available until: 2nd April
Tok Jhaal Mishti
Available until: 2nd April
Rui Ka Bojh
Available until: 2nd April