David Farnor | On 09, Sep 2017

MUBI goes back to school this week, with a hand-picked selection of classroom gems old and new, from Palo Alto to Peggy Sue Got Married. There’s also a chance to learn more about a new rising talent, Oliver Laxe, who has only made two films, but is already making an impact, with the visually stunning, transcendent western, Mimosas, now available exclusively on MUBI, as well as in cinemas. You can read our interview with director Oliver Laxe here – or catch up with his debut below too.

When it comes to lessons, though, MUBI’s top marks are in history, and in September, it kicks off the academic year with a look back at Maurice Pialat, the great Anti-New Wave French filmmaker, who won his first and only Palme d’Or for the controversial Under the Sun of Satan in 1987. “I shall not fail to uphold my reputation. I am particularly pleased by all the protests and whistles directed at me this evening, and if you do not like me, I can say that I do not like you either,” he said in his Cannes acceptance speech. And so MUBI begins to write a love letter every week to the filmmaker who didn’t want to be loved.

What’s new, coming soon and leaving soon on the subscription service? This is your weekly MUBI Digest:

 

This week on MUBI

The Mouth Agape – 8th September

MUBI’s Maurice Pialat retrospective continues with his third film, where he dissects human selfishness and vulnerability with a surgeon’s precision. Monique is dying. Around her gather her unfaithful husband, her son, who is like his father, and her daughter-in-law. We observe them playing with life as she dies.

Palo Alto – 9th September

Based on the novel by James Franco, Palo Alto sees Franco play a soccer coach who hits on one of his young students. Gia Coppola’s film, though, opens up the ensemble drama to create an affecting, sincere portrait of youth in California, with a cast that includes Jack Kilmer, Nat W

The Graduation – 10th September

A plunge into one of today’s most prestigious schools of cinema: La Fémis in Paris.

You All Are Captains – 11th September

A European director is making a film with children from a social centre in Tangiers. Because of his methods, his relationship with the children during shooting degenerate and transform the evolution of the project.

Graduate First (Passe Ton Bac D’abord) – 12th September

The world sometimes seems divided into two camps: those who recall their teenage years as having been an exhilarating dream, and those who remember them as having been an infernal, nightmarish hell…

Peggy Sue Got Married – 13th September

Peggy Sue faints at a high school reunion. When she wakes up she finds herself in her own past, just before she finished high school.

 

Other new releases on MUBI

Mimosas

MUBI exclusively presents Mimosas simultaneously with cinemas. Laxe’s latest film finds the director entering genre territory and pushing its boundaries. A spiritual western, a desert odyssey and a daring invitation to jump into the unknown. Read our interview with Oliver Laxe.

The Sky Trembles and the Earth Is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers

Oliver Laxe’s debut is described by MUBI as a “beguiling collaboration with Ben Rivers —half behind-the-scenes of Laxe’s Mimosas, half delirious journey into the abyss of creation”.

We Won’t Grow Old Together

MUBI begins its close-up on Maurice Pialat’s work and a celebration of his uncompromising vision with this portrait of an on-again, off-again affair: Jean (Jean Yanne) and Catherine (Marlène Jobert) are a couple whose every move charts an advancement deeper into an internal war zone. Theirs is the classic and the tragic case of an emotional abuse centred around a perplexing, but powerful, interdependency.

La Leon

This visually stunning feature debut perfectly captures the misty waterways and solitary lives of a Northern Argentinean community. Armed with sumptuous black-and-white photography and an affectionate and sensual sensibility, Santiago Otheguy’s film is a key work from the New Argentine Cinema.

Stockholm My Love

Fresh from its theatrical release, MUBI presents the first foray into fiction of Mark Cousins, who teams up with cinematographer Christopher Doyle and singer Neneh Cherry for a city symphony that delves into grief and trauma. Read our full review.

La Soledad

MUBI & ICA join forces to release Jorge Thielen Armand’s vibrant and vital film, which captures the lives of real people in Venezuela’s current social and political climate. The movie follows José, a young father who discovers that the dilapidated mansion he occupies is soon to be demolished. Desperate to save his family from homelessness, José begins a search for a cursed treasure that has long said to be buried in the house.

Hostel

Decried as gratuitous torture porn upon release, Eli Roth’s Hostel has outlived those reactionary assessments and stands today as a critique of American exceptionalism.

Love Torn in A Dream

Raúl Ruiz on inventive top form, including narrative games about making a feature about pirates; old religious opinions; retired nuns who run a brothel.

In a World…

Lake Bell’s writing and directing debut is a brilliant indie gem set in the tough world of voiceovers. Read our full review.

The Romance of Astrea and Celadon

Eric Rohmer’s swansong is a tale of longing and cross-dressing in the 17th century, which follows a young shepherd, Céladon, who is being rebuked by his fiancée, Astrée, who suspects that he is cheating on her. Through utter desperation he throws himself into a roaring torrent river sweeps him away… Eric Rohmer’s vision of doubt, hazard and love.

Castro

MUBI’s New Argentine Cinema season continues with an Alejo Moguillasky triple-bill. This cockeyed semi-comedy’s unlikely basis is Samuel Beckett’s 1938 novel Murphy, but it preserves only the book’s central conceit: a set of characters constantly in pursuit of the title character ready to check out of the rat race and sever all ties with his past.

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

 

Last chance to stream: Titles leaving MUBI soon

The Human Surge
Available until end of: 9th September

The Romance of Astrea and Celadon
Available until end of: 10th September

In a World…
Available until end of: 11th September

Castro
Available until end of: 12th September

The Parrot and the Swan
Available until end of: 13th September

City of Pirates
Available until end of: 14th September

Brooks, Meadows and Lovely Faces
Available until end of: 15th September

La Sentinelle
Available until end of: 16th September

My Sex Life… Or How I Got into an Argument
Available until end of: 17th September

Ostende
Available until end of: 18th September

Dog Lady
Available until end of: 19th September

 

Add to Watchlist