David Farnor | On 15, Sep 2019

MUBI bids farewell to summer with the intensely gripping Plein Soleil, based on Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, and follows it up with a plunge to Terence Davies’ Deep Blue Sea. They kick off a week that continues MUBI’s excellent Almodovar retrospective and celebration of Martin Rejtman’s work.

Want to see something on the big screen? Use MUBI Go (which offers a free cinema ticket every week to its subscribers), to see Aleppo documentary For Sama at participating theatres.

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

 

This week on MUBI

Purple Noon – 14th September

Alain Delon is iconic in this 1960 French adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley, which brings sun-starched atmosphere to the tale of an American conman hired by a wealthy businessman to bring his son back come from Italy, who uses the opportunity to steal his identity.

The Deep Blue Sea – 15th September

Tom Hiddleston and Rachel Weisz star in Terence Davies’ romantic melodrama, which follows the wife of an upper-class judge and a free spirit, who is trapped in a passionless marriage and turns to a relationship with a young former RAF pilot.

Too Late to Die Young – 16th September

Chile in the summer of 1990. As the country comes to terms with the end of Pinochet’s dictatorship, Sofía, Lucas and Clara, a group of adolescents living in a rural commune, attempt to make sense of their own burgeoning desires and tangled relationships while preparing for New Year’s Eve.

How Fernando Pessoa Saved Portugal – 17th September

Eugene Green’s short, set during the 1920s, sees the poet Fernando Pessoa conceives an advertising slogan for the drink Coca-Louca, which panics the authoritarian government of that time.

Mobile Homes – 18th September

A young mother drifts from one motel to the next with her dangerously intoxicating boyfriend and her 8-year-old son. When a crisis tears them apart, the mother finds a mobile home community that provides the possibility of a better life.

Martin Rejtman Silvia Prieto – 19th September

MBUI continues its Martin Rejtman retrospective with this 1999 comedy-drama, which follows Silvia Prieto, who sells soap to passers-by, pores over phone books to find women who share her name, and won’t concede to settle down with either of the boyish men in her orbit. When she discovers that there are other women who share her name, she develops a bizarre obsession with the “other” Silvias.

Almodovar: The Flower of My Secret – 20th September

Leo, a middle-aged writer of popular romantic novels who writes under a pseudonym, despises her own work. At home she is also miserable. Her husband, who works overseas, is distant both physically and emotionally. Yet the appearance of a new editor offers an opportunity for Leo to reassess her life.

Other new releases on MUBI

Don’t Worry He Won’t Get Far on Foot

Joaquin Phoenix stars in Gus Van Sant’s thoroughly charming and hopeful comedy-drama celebrating the life of cartoonist John Callahan. “Read our full review

My Life as a Courgette

This delicately heartwarming study of loss, family and friendship is a tiny stop-motion masterpiece. “Read our full review

No Data Plan

Living in the United States illegally for over 20 years, Miko Revereza takes the Amtrak train from Los Angeles to New York in this critical moment of hostility against migrants in the country he has come to know as home. The journey seems daring, perhaps reckless, yet urgent and necessary.

Spoor

Janina, a crusader for animal rights, lives in a mountain village on the Polish-Czech border. One day her beloved dogs disappear. Shortly afterwards she discovers her neighbour’s corpse and, next to it, deer tracks. More men die in a similarly mysterious way. All of them were passionate hunters.

Rapado

After the theft of his motorcycle, Lucio bums aimlessly around Buenos Aires drifting from one arcade and record store to the next, indulging in short chats with friends and, more often, setting out onto the streets alone.

Joanna Hogg: Exhibition

A penetrating, impossibly elegant exploration not only of a marriage among artists but also of how your home shapes your life.

Joanna Hogg: Archipelago

Co-starring Tom Hiddleston, Archipelago sees how a family vacation pushes the limits of relationships and the spaces that define and confine them.

Viewfinder: Pig

Iranian cinema tends to be associated to the poetic realism of Abbas Kiarostami, but MUBI uncovers a different side with this priceless dark comedy by maverick auteur Mani Haghighi. An intrepid, mordant, deliriously absurd look at a film industry marked by both censorship and narcissism.

Lawless

Brutal action and brilliant performances make for a compelling gangster flick with above-average knitwear.

Straub-Huillet: The Death of Empedokles

An enemy of the priestly state, the philosopher Empedocles is cast into darkness, suffering the torments of loneliness and doubt, but finds renewed strength, even immortality, through the will of the people.

Music on MUBI: Junun

Paul Thomas Anderson joined Jonny Greenwood and Israeli musician, composer and poet Shye Ben Tzur on a trip to Rajasthan, where they were hosted by the Maharaja of Jodhpur. In the 15th-century Mehrangarh Fort, Greenwood and the musicians of the Rajasthan Express worked on Ben Tzur’s album. Read our review

Music on MUBI: Searching for Sugar Man

Though he faded into obscurity in the U.S., an early ’70s musician known as Rodriguez became a huge hit in South Africa and was widely rumoured to have died. Two obsessed fans set out to learn the man’s true fate. Read our review

Juliette Binoche: Slack Bayt

Masterful slapstick, political horror and bourgeois family drama combine in Bruno Dumont’s enjoyably unpredictable comedy that sees Juliette Binoche as you haven’t seen her before. Read our review

A Bigger Splash

Few films capture the madness of a breakup like this ground-breaking, semi-fictionalised account of Hockney’s harrowing creative process.

byNWR: Ears, Eyes and Throats: Restored Classic and Lost Punk Films 1976-1981

This collection of short films represents a hint of the tectonic shift in the underground film world in connection with the punk rock “movement.” Restored from original negatives, it showcases the reasonably well-known alongside the extremely rare, from music shorts to impressionistic documentary.

Almodovar: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Dumped by her partner, soap actress Pepa needs to track him down to deliver an important message. But her life is soon invaded by a series of distractions: Pepa’s friend Candela might have got involved in a terrorist plot, while Iván’s son, who is flat-hunting, ends up visiting Pepa’s apartment. Almodovar is at his award-winning peak with the deftly choreographed mix of farcical comedy and love letter to cinema in a post-dictatorship world.

Almodovar: Law of Desire

Pablo loves Juan but Juan is lukewarm about the relationship. Antonio becomes obsessed with Pablo after one evening intended to be a mere one-night stand. Paralleling this dangerous love triangle is the story of Pablo’s sister Tina, a transgender woman about whom Pablo is writing a play. All these lives collide in Pedro Almodovar’s 1987 outing,

Almodovar: Kika

Kika, a young cosmetologist, is called to the mansion of Nicolas, an American writer to make-up the corpse of his stepson, Ramon. Ramon, who is not dead, is revived by Kika’s attentions and she then moves in with him. They might live happily ever after but first they have to deal with some things…

Our House

There are two worlds in this house – the life of a mother and her daughter, and that of two women. As the two worlds start to merge, confusion develops. What will happen when they connect to each other?

 

A monthly subscription to MUBI costs £9.99 a month, with a 30-day free trial.

 

Last chance to stream: Titles leaving MUBI soon

Leto
Available until end of: 14th September

Elles
Available until end of: 15th September

Dark Habits
Available until end of: 16th September

The Needle
Available until end of: 17th September

Class Relations
Available until end of: 18th September

Araby
Available until end of: 19th September

Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life
Available until end of: 20th September

What Have I Done to Deserve This?
Available until end of: 21st September

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