James R | On 10, Dec 2016

Not getting your arthouse fix from Netflix? Wish there were more indie films on Amazon Prime Video? Every week, we round up the new releases on MUBI, the subscription VOD service that hand-picks new and old classics from around the world.

This week, MUBI lines up an impressive run of films, from Films about Films (and Almost Films) to a double-bill of psychosexual thrillers.

Here’s what’s new and coming soon to MUBI:

 

This week on MUBI

Love Crime – 10th December

Dangerous Liaisons meets Working Girl in Alain Corneau’s deliciously caustic tale of office politics. Starring Kristin Scott-Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier as mentor and ingénue respectively, Crime d’amour is a remorseless clash of two competing egos.

Passion – 11th December

The rivalry between the manipulative boss of an advertising agency and her talented protégée escalates from stealing credit to public humiliation to murder in Brian De Palma’s 2012 thriller.

Films About Films: Room 237 – 13th December

Rodney Ascher’s documentary, Room 237, fuses fact and fiction to tell the story of ardent fans, scholars, and conspiracy theorists who are convinced they’ve decoded the secret messages of The Shining.

Films About Films: Lost in La Mancha – 14th December

It’s been years and there’s still no sign of Terry Gilliam’s long-awaited film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Get a taste of the frustration and misfortune that has plagued the director and his passion project with the next best thing: a documentary on the production and its subsequent abandonment. A not-making-of film, if you will.

Films About Films: This Is not a Film – 15th December

A day of the life of an Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, before the celebration of the new Iranian year.

 

Other new releases on MUBI

King of Devil’s Island

Stellan Skarsgard is formidable in this bleak drama about the true story of a rebellion in a boys’ home on a Norwegian island in the early 20th century – a string of events that are kick-started by the arrival of new inmate Erling, who is not cowed by the firm discipline of housefather Brathen.

Melancholia

An untold number of persons have disappeared in the Philippines over the years, before, during and after the Marcos dictatorship. MUBI continues its Lav Diaz retrospective with a film devoted to the grief and search for meaning over such disappearances, told across a vivid array of Philippine society.

The Cove

Closer to a thriller than a talking heads piece, this Oscar-nominated documentary follows a group of activists exposing animal abuse in a cove near Taijii, Japan.

Dean Spanley

The late Peter O’Toole added yet another good role to his CV with this 2008 drama about an estranged father and son trying to find common ground through spiritualism.

Hard to Be a God

An Earth scientist is sent to a planet that resembles our own during the Middle Ages in Aleksei German’s epic — and he must not interfere in the planet’s political or historical development. Treated by the planet’s natives as a kind of divinity, he is both godlike and impotent in the face of chaos and brutality.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

David Fincher’s adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is proof that American adaptations of Scandi tales can not only be brilliant, but can even be better than the original. Rooney Mara is fantastic as hacker Lisbeth Salander, who finds herself caught up in journalist Mikael Blomkvist’s (Daniel Craig) investigation into an old disappearance in a wealthy Swedish family. Dark, disturbing secrets are revealed, with Fincher keeping a crisp, chilled and classy atmosphere throughout.

I, Olga Hepnarova

What makes a murderer? This Berlinale opener, directed by Tomás Weinreb & Petr Kazda and snapped up by the subscription VOD service earlier this year, follows the deeply troubled Olga (Michalina Olszanska), in the build-up to a calmly-executed act of mass homicide. Unsettling and chillingly logical, this is compelling, provocative viewing. (Read our full review)

I Am Cuba

MUBI marks the passing of Fidel Castro with this four-episode chronicle of Cuba’s rise from colonialist degradation and totalitarian rule to a revolution that spreads across the country’s class and regional lines. Originally commissioned as propaganda, it fell into obscurity until Coppola and Scorsese rediscovered it.

London to Brighton

Paul Andrew Williams’ gripping thriller is one of the best British films of the last decade.

The Station Agent

Thomas McCarthy’s heartfelt signature is all over this delightful 2003 drama about a bunch of outcasts who come together, after Peter Dinklage’s downcast recluse moves to New Jersey, where he has inherited a train depot.

 
A monthly subscription to MUBI costs £5.99 a month, with a 30-day free trial.

 

Last chance to stream: Titles leaving MUBI soon

Ghost World
Available until end of: 10th December

Fried Green Tomatoes
Available until end of: 11th December

The Runaways
Available until end of: 12th December

Heremias (Book One: The Legend of the Lizard Princess)
Available until end of: 13th December

The Others
Available until end of: 14th December

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Available until end of: 15th December

Iris
Available until end of: 16th December

I, Olga
Available until end of: 17th December

54
Available until end of: 18th December

The Big Mouth
Available until end of: 19th December

Three on a Couch
Available until end of: 20th December

 

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