David Farnor | On 18, Apr 2020

MUBI might have big farewell to its new release of Bacurau (you can still rent it), but there’s more than enough to keep subscribers entertained this week, from a double-bill of Jean Renoir, one of Joseph Losey’s definitive social dramas a steamy Atom Egoyan thriller and a modern gem from Kelly Reichardt.

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

 

This week on MUBI

L’Eclisse – 18th April

Following L’Avventura & La Notte, Antonioni concludes his ‘incommunicability’ trilogy with this tale of a young woman, Vittoria, who has just put an end to a love story with an older man. After meeting Piero, a stock market trader, the two start seeing each other and wander through the deserted, modernist suburbs of Rome. Their affair, however, will soon reveals itself to be a doomed one.

Night Moves – 19th April

Jesse Eisenberg and Dakota Fanning star in Kelly Reichardt’s taut political thriller about radical environmentalists planning to commit an act of eco-terrorism. Events unfold slowly under Reichardt’s watchful eye, with a riveting drip-feed of tension leading to a major attack of guilt.

Joseph Losey: The Go-Between – 20th April

Ghost Town Anthology – 21st April

In a small remote town, a 21-year-old man dies in what seems like a car accident. From then on, amid the winter snow, a disturbing temper slowly sinks on the local inhabitants. While the victim’s family is immersed in grief and time loses all meaning, strange figures start emerging from the fog.

Jean Renoir: Grand Illusion – 22nd April

A group of French soldiers, including an aristocrat captain and a working-class lieutenant, grapple with their class differences as they are held in a WWI German prison camp. When transferred to a high-security fortress ruled by an aristocratic German officer, the men must concoct an escape plan.

Jean Renoir: Le Bete Humaine – 22nd April

On board a train bound for the port city of Le Havre, railroad stationmaster Roubard murders a man who seduced his young wife Severine. Engineer Jacques Lantier also begins a passionate affair with Severine, who takes little time in suggesting that Jacques should get rid of her controlling husband.

Chloe – 24th April

This remake of Anne Fontaine’s Nathalie follows Catherine, a successful doctor, who suspects her husband David, a handsome music professor, is cheating on her. To lay her suspicions and fears to rest, she hires an irresistible young woman, Chloe, to test David’s fidelity. But unforeseen events will start putting the family in danger. Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried bring simmering tension to Atom Egoyan’s stylish tale of desire.

What else is new? Here are the latest titles on BFI Player+ this week:

 

Other new releases on MUBI

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Set in late 18th century France, painter Marianne (Noémie Merlant) is commissioned by an affluent countess to paint the wedding portrait of her sheltered but headstrong daughter Héloïse (Adèle Haenel), in the hope it will find her a wealthy husband. Romance and art entwine in this sumptuous new masterpiece from Céline Sciamma – winner of Best Screenplay at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.

That Most Important Thing: Love

When an unhappy softcore actress (a would-be star who has only found work in cheap exploitation movies) becomes the obsession of a paparazzo, he proceeds to borrow money from his underworld employer to launch an experimental stage production for her—but it also stars a demented German actor.

Bergman: Saraband

Marianne, some thirty years after divorcing Johan, decides to visit her ex-husband at his summer home. She arrives in the middle of a family power struggle between Johan’s musician son from another marriage, whom Johan dislikes, and his cellist granddaughter, whom Johan adores.

The Grand Bizarre

A postcard from an imploded society. Bringing mundane objects to life to interpret place through materials, the film transcribes an experience of pattern, labor and alien(nation)(s).

Visitor Q

The mother is a heroin user and sex worker, beaten by her son. The father, an ex-TV reporter, sleeps with his daughter and films his son being beaten up. Into this dysfunctional family walks ‘Q’, a complete stranger, changing their lives for the better, finding a balance in their disturbing natures.

Blue Valentine

Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are astounding in this brutal drama about a marriage gone wrong.

Henri-Georges Clouzot: Le Corbeau

Remy Germain is a doctor in a French town who becomes the focus of a vicious smear campaign, as letters accusing him of having an affair and performing unlawful abortions are mailed to village leaders. The unknown writer, “le corbeau”, soon targets the whole town, exposing everyone’s dark secrets.

Henri-Georges Clouzot:Quay of the Goldsmiths

Jenny Lamour sings in a music hall in postwar Paris, accompanied by her jealous husband Maurice Martineau on piano. He is blamed for murder when a lecherous movie producer who was flirting with his wife turns up dead. Enter Inspector Antoine, whose seasoned instincts lead him down a circuitous path.

Henri-Georges Clouzot: Woman in Chains

Stanislas, the owner of an art gallery, is friend and patron to Gilbert, a creator of progressive artworks. His wife, Josée, is intrigued by Stanislas, who is also a photographer. But amongst his large collection of images, he keeps a series of photographs that reveal a disturbed character…

My Blueberry Nights

Following a nasty breakup, Elizabeth leaves her memories behind as she chases her dreams across the country. Picking up a series of jobs to support herself along the way, the myriad of lost souls she meets help her to understand the journey as part of a greater exploration within herself.

Coffee and Cigarettes

Bill Murray, Steve Coogan, Jack White, and Iggy Pop all feature in Jim Jarmusch’s anthology of comic vignettes, which sees unlikely pairs of celebrities sit down to talk about everything from Tesla coils to jukeboxes to long-lost relatives to the dentist. The conversations are separate in time and place, but they all have two things in common: coffee and cigarettes.

Southland Tales

With the U.S. under the threat of nuclear attack, several people’s lives converge. Movie star Boxer plans his next film with the help of porn actress Krysta and policeman Roland. Meanwhile, Marxist revolutionaries, corporations, and government agencies pursue their agendas among a paranoid populace.

The Whalebone Box

Some time ago, a whalebone box that was found washed up on a remote beach was given to writer Iain Sinclair. Once touched the box can change lives. In 2018 filmmaker Andrew Kötting, photographer Anonymous Bosch and Sinclair take the box on a reverse pilgrimage from London back to the Isle of Harris.

Sisters

Danielle is a model separated from her Siamese twin, Dominique. When her neighbour, an intrepid reporter, suspects Dominique of a brutal murder, she becomes dangerously ensnared in the sisters’ insidious sibling bond, and hires the help of a private detective to seek out the truth.

Joseph Losey: Accident

Vain and insecure Oxford don Stephen’s life is thrown into turmoil when he falls in love with one of his students, Anna. But she has also attracted the attention of William, a wealthy student, and Charley, a colleague of whose professional success and self-confidence Stephen is profoundly envious.

Joseph Losey: Eva (1962)

Writer Tyvian Jones seems to have it all—an international best seller, an apartment in Rome, a gorgeous fiancé—but he’s bitter anyway. He meets his existential match in the mod seductress Eve. An emotional tyrant, her casual maneouvering forces Baker to confront his past and his weaknesses.

Joseph Losey: The Servant

Hugo Barrett is a servant in the Chelsea home of indolent aristocrat Tony. All seems to go well until the playboy’s girlfriend Susan takes a dislike to the efficient employee. Then Barrett persuades Tony to hire his sister Vera as a live-in maid, and matters take another turn for the worse…

Bruce Lee and the Outlaw

Director Joost Vandebrug has been working in Bucharest’s Ceaușescu-built tunnels since 2011, forming deep relationships with its inhabitants: homeless kids struggling with addiction. Maintaining an attentive eye on his surroundings, this is a remarkably compassionate look at life in the underworld.

Nona, If They Soak Me, I’ll Burn Them

After an act of vengeance on the home of her ex-lover, Nona, 66, flees to her summer house on the Chilean coast. There, forest fires are spreading, but her home is undamaged. While houses go up in flames, Nona displays different sides of her character: the grandmother, the friend, the anarchist…

Bergman: From the Life of the Marionettes

Ingmar Bergman’s only German production is a surprising spin-off of Scenes from a Marriage that gives center stage to that film’s couple, revealing their relationship’s secrets in a more extreme filmmaking style.

 

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Last chance to stream: Titles leaving MUBI soon

Lady Vengeance
Available until end of: 18th April

Le Cercle Rouge
Available until end of: 19th April

Autumn Sonata
Available until end of: 20th April

The Daughters of Fire
Available until end of: 21st April

The Blood of a Poet
Available until end of: 22nd April

Testament of Orpheus
Available until end of: 23rd April

Pharos of Chaos
Available until end of: 24th April

Primer
Available until end of: 25th April

Un Flic
Available until end of: 26th April

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