The Weekly MUBI Digest | 11th November
David Farnor | On 11, Nov 2017
MUBI turns up the Heat this weekend, as Michael Mann’s classic crime drama arrives on the streaming service. Things are already pretty hot, though, as MUBI’s partnership with Nicolas Winding Refn has gifted us two restored classics, including low-budget exploitation flick The Nest of the Cuckoo Birds and 1967’s Hot Thrills and Warm Chills.
If this isn’t epic enough, Miguel Gomes’ Arabian Nights trio is on the way (read our interview with the director here), alongside MUBI’s exclusively acquired On Body and Soul, which recently hit cinemas.
What’s new, coming soon and leaving soon on the subscription service? This is your weekly MUBI Digest:
This week on MUBI
Heat – 11th November
Robert De Niro. Al Pacino. Michael Mann. Three icons of cinemas combine for his seminal crime drama, which sees a determine cop and an equally ruthless criminal in a cat-and-mouse game in a nocturnal Los Angeles caught with cool intensity by Mann’s deep-focused camera. A modern classic.
The Fountain – 12th November
A doctor’s endless search for a cure to his wife’s cancer spans centuries in Darren Aronofsky’s ambitious, divisive sci-fi, as she writes the tale of a 16th Century conquistador looking for eternal life.
Zigeunerweisen – 13th November
Winner of multiple Japanese Academy Awards, Zigeunerweisen tells of two intellectuals and former colleagues from military academy who involve their wives in a series of dangerous sexual games.
Arabian Nights Vol. I – 14th November
In Portugal, over 600 shipyard workers are being laid off. An apiarist fights off an invasion of foreign bees. An African wizard creates an aerosol spray that cures impotence in world leaders and IMF financiers. A judge puts a cockerel on trial for crowing too early. (Read our interview with Miguel Gomes.)
Arabian Nights Vol. II – 15th November
An elderly criminal becomes a folk hero as he successfully evades hordes of police; a stern judge oversees a case involving 13 stolen cows, mail-order brides, a genie and a machete-wielding human lie detector; a Maltese poodle shuffles between households in a recession-stricken estate. (Read our interview with Miguel Gomes.)
Arabian Nights Vol. III – 16th November
Scheherazade, the daughter of the grand vizier, weaves tales to please the king and stay her own execution. Realising she will soon run out of stories to tell, she hatches a plan to escape the palace. Meanwhile, finch hunters offer a musical analogy for Portugal’s 21st-century woes. (Read our interview with Miguel Gomes.)
On Body and Soul – 17th November
When a man and woman who meet at work begin to know each other, they discover that they have the same dreams at night, and they decide to make them come true. Subtly moving and brutally raw, read our full review of Ildikó Enyedi’s first feature since the 90s.
Other new releases on MUBI
NWR: The Nest of the Cuckoo Birds
An undercover agent is sent to infiltrate bootleggers in the Florida Everglades, but winds up lost in the swamps and stuck in a decrepit hotel with a few of peculiar inhabitants. Bert Williams’ 1965 flick starts off as a police actioner, but quickly morphs into an unholy fairy tale of Southern Gothic melodrama and horror. Read our full review.
NWR: Hot Thrills and Warm Chills
Rita Alexander stars as the towering gang leader of a trio of hoodlum gals looking to make one last big score, run away with a mess of diamonds and live the dream in paradise. Dale Berry’s eccentric 1967 gem from Texas wildcard director Dale Berry, underscored by a relentlessly brilliant Perez Prado soundtrack.
Dead or Alive
MUBI kicks off a triple-bill of Takashi Miike’s Dead or Alive films. A yakuza of Chinese descent and a Japanese cop each wage their own war against the Japanese mafia. But they are destined to meet. Their encounter will change the world.
Dead or Alive 2
Miike returns to his world of violence, masculinity, and pop surrealism with this sequel, as two contract killers cross paths in the middle of the same job and realise they are childhood friends. Together, they take a break from killing and visit the small island they once called home.
Dead or Alive: Final
The ace cop of a totalitarian police force and a drifting android play their parts in a post-apocalyptic society. They are destined to fight. Their encounter will change them forever.
Terri
If you saw Sky Living’s endearingly low-key, true to heart Doll & Em you already know the great vibes produced by indie director Azazel Jacobs (son of the great experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs). His generous sensitivity is showcased in this down to earth school dramedy with John C. Reilly.
Historic Centre
Pedro Costa, Manoel de Oliveira, Aki Kaurismaki and Victor Erice all join forces to direct parts of this toured through modern Guimarães, the founding city of Portugal.
Postcards From The Zoo
Little Lana was three years old when she was abandoned, alone in the Zoo. Raised by a giraffe trainer, the Zoo is the only world she knows. Until one day, a charming magician arrives and Lana finds her love, for she is ready to leave.
The Cut
The Cut tells the story of a father and a daughter, whose relationship fluctuates between proximity and detachment, at the moment of a haircut.
Under Electric Clouds
A work of epic ambition, this vision of near-future Russia consists of seven vignettes centred on an unfinished building whose architect perhaps went mad.
Tripoli Cancelled
Fresh from its premiere at the London Film Festival is this challenging experiment. A metaphorical take on the physical and mental isolation of the migrant, the film is inspired by director Naeem Mohaiemen’s father, who was trapped in Greece’s Ellinikon Airport without a passport in 1977. The film follows a week in the life of a man who has been living in limbo at an airport for a decade.
Bobbi Jene
MUBI’s next pick from the BFI London Film Festival is a love story, portraying the dilemmas and inevitable consequences of ambition. It is a film about a woman’s fight for independence, a woman trying to succeed with her own art in the extremely competitive world of dance.
The Club
Four men and the woman who tends to their needs live in a secluded house. All former priests, they’ve been sent to this quiet exile to purge the sins of their past. Their stability is disrupted by the arrival of an emissary from the Vatican who seeks to understand the effects of their isolation.
Neruda
Chile, 1948: Senator Pablo Neruda, diplomat and future Nobel Prize-winning poet, accuses the government of betraying the Communist Party and is swiftly impeached. Pursued by the police, Neruda and his artist wife are forced into hiding and an intimate game of cat and mouse begins in Pablo Larraín’s decidedly unconventional biopic.
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Last chance to stream: Titles leaving MUBI soon
One Floor Below
Available until end of: 11th November
Rainy Dog
Available until end of: 12th November
All That Jazz
Available until end of: 13th November
The Club
Available until end of: 14th November
Homeland (Iraq Year Zero)
Available until end of: 15th November
Housekeeping
Available until end of: 16th November
White Ant
Available until end of: 17th November
Drinking Buddies
Available until end of: 18th November
Ley Lines
Available until end of: 19th November