New releases and coming soon to MUBI UK (27th May 2017)
David Farnor | On 27, May 2017
As MUBI’s Cannes Takeover draws to a close with some more classics from the French fest, things continue in classy style with a new season devoted to film noir, as the streaming service takes us from the steamy Gilda to the shocking The Hitch-Hiker.
In the meantime, with Un Certain Regard winner The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki still available to stream exclusively on MUBI, don’t forget you can read our interview with star Jarkko Lahti here.
Here’s what’s new, coming soon and leaving soon on the subscription streaming service. This is your weekly MUBI Digest:
This week on MUBI
Time of the Gypsies – 27th May
In this luminous tale set in the area around Sarajevo and in Italy, Perhan, an engaging young Romani (gypsy) with telekinetic powers, is seduced by the quick-cash world of petty crime, which threatens to destroy him and those he loves.
Sex, Lies, and Videotape – 28th May
A multiple prize winner at both Cannes and Sundance, Steven Soderbergh’s feature debut concerns a man who films women discussing their sexuality on camera and his relationship with two very different sisters who are both sleeping with the same man.
The Wind of Night – 29th May
A wayward young man (Xavier Beauvois) finds himself involved with two mysterious people of a previous generation. After an affair with the married Hélène (Catherine Deneuve), the young man tries to escape her obsessions on a road trip with Serge (Daniel Duval), a taciturn relic of the 60s.
Gilda – 30th May
“Gilda, are you decent?” A woman’s face appears from the bottom of the screen, throwing her hair back. “Me? Sure. I’m decent.” It’s one of the most memorable entrances an actress could ask for, and boy, did Rita Hayward know how to use it. When Charles Vidor’s film noir was first released in 1946, the posters rushed to proclaim that there was no other woman like her. And they were right. A classic femme fatale, she smouldered like no one else in what is quite possibly the sexiest film ever made.
The Hitch-Hiker – 31st May
Actress-turned-director Ida Lupino helms this indie thriller about two middle-aged travellers, who make the mistake of their lives when they pick up a mysterious and psychotic hitch-hiker who never closes his right eye — even when he sleeps. One of the era’s most shocking renegade thrillers, is this the first major noir directed by a woman?
Nightfall – 1st June
Jacques Tourneur’s 1957 film noir follows Jim Vanning, who is hiding out in Los Angeles while waiting for the Wyoming snow to melt. The previous winter, Vanning and a friend were camping in the Tetons and encountered a pair of fleeing bank robbers who killed Vanning’s friend. They fled, leaving their loot behind and believing Vanning to be dead.
In a Lonely Place – 2nd June
A potentially violent screenwriter is a murder suspect until his lovely neighbour clears him. But she begins to have doubts. MUBI’s The American Noir series continues with Nicholas Ray’s 1950 Hollywood classic.
Other new releases on MUBI
The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki
The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki is a portrait of real life Finnish boxer Olli Maki, which won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes 2016. That should give you a hint that this isn’t your usual boxing movie – and not just because it’s in Finnish and black-and-white. Jarkko Lahti is fantastic as the fighter, his face channeling both optimism and failure, while director Juho Kuosman shoots in monochrome 16mm, giving everything the feel of a newsreel. Laugh-out-loud funny and shot through with the romance of defeat, this is truly knock-out stuff. Read our full review.
Over the Years
Acclaimed documentarian Nikolaus Geyrhalter returned to Waldviertel for 10 years to film this sprawling portrait of a region transformed year after year by economic turmoil.
After The Battle
Once a member of the notorious groups that were coerced by the Egyptian government to attack the protestors in Tahir Square in 2011, Mahmoud has since lost his job and been ostracized by his own community. A chance encounter with a secular young divorcee will change both of their lives forever.
Salvo
With their new film opening the Semaine de la Critique, Grassadonia and Piazza’s Salvo comes to MUBI. A hitman for the Sicilian Mafia, Salvo is solitary and ruthless. When he sneaks into a house to eliminate a man, he discovers Rita, a young blind girl who powerlessly stands by while her brother is assassinated. Salvo tries to close those disturbing eyes, when something impossible happens…
Eyes Wide Open
A gay love story in the heart of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Jerusalem. The enormous pressure created by the community around the men triggers an irreversible act.
The Birth of Love
MUBI’s Philippe Garrel retrospective continues with this 1993 study of two friends who seem only vaguely aware that their time has past. What follows is a search to return to the purity of their cherished ideals—a desire to overcome the complacency of ageing and familiar comfort in order to recapture their passion.
The Taste of Money
Desire, sex and murder in a conglomerate-owning family. Newly-hired gofer Young-Jak Joo becomes a key pawn in a powerful South Korean corporate-crime family obsessed with sex, money, and intrigue.
Tip Top
Bright interior, dark outside. Two women, struggling against external hostility and internal demons. Playing with the mood of Alfred Hitchcock’s Trouble With Harry, Serge Bozon invites us in an exhilarating and recreational English crime comedy style.
Rififi
After making such American noir classics as The Naked City and Brute Force, blacklisted director Jules Dassin went to Paris and embarked on a tale of four ex-cons who hatch one last glorious robbery in the City of Lights. The result is a noir caper featuring one of the greatest heists you’ll ever see.
Hellboy
When the Nazis open a paranormal portal, an infant demon named Hellboy is the result. Raised by the Allies, he becomes the world’s unlikeliest – and reddest – superhero. Ron Perlman is perfectly cast as the demonic good guy, teaming up with Guillermo del Toro to make one of the best, and underrated, comic book movie double-bills.
The Lady from Shanghai
MUBI marks Orson Welles’ birthday with his classic noir from 1947. It stars Rita Hayworth as a femme fatale who catches the eye of an Irish sailor. He soon finds himself implicated in a murder, despite his innocence. Based on the 1938 crime novel If I Die Before I Wake by Sherwood King, the film climaxes with one of the iconic moments in cinema history.
Homo Sapiens
Following its nationwide screening at Picturehouse cinemas last month, MUBI teams up with the intriguing new programming collective Misc. Films to stream Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s documentary, which explores places that have been forgotten or abandoned by their builders, from Fukushima to Bulgaria. Expect stunning things.
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Last chance to stream: Titles leaving MUBI soon
Laurel Canyon
Available until end of: 27th May
Man at Bath
Available until end of: 28th May
Battle Royale
Available until end of: 29th May
Le Revelateur
Available until end of: 30th May
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Available until end of: 31st May
Homo Sapiens
Available until end of: 1st June
Christine (1983)
Available until end of: 2nd June
Starman
Available until end of: 3rd June
The Lady from Shanghai
Available until end of: 4th June
Buffalo ’66
Available until end of: 5th June
The Virgin’s Bed
Available until end of: 6th June
The Assassin
Available until end of: 7th June