David Farnor | On 17, Nov 2018

MUBI unleashes Luca Guadagnino’s remake of Suspiria in UK cinemas this week, and MUBI GO (which offers a cinema ticket every week to its subscribers) is offering the chance to see it free at participating cinemas. (Read our review here.) MUBI’s paving the way perfectly online with Dario Argento’s original classic available to stream, as well as diving back into Luca and Tilda Swinton’s past with their collaboration I Am Love.

For non-horror fans, there’s the ongoing retrospective for punk poet and musician F.J. Ossang, a string of restorations of work by Guru Dutt, and a weekend double-bill of Sex and Lucía director Julio Medem, one of the most singular figures of Spanish cinema for more than two decades.

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

 

This week on MUBI

Julio Medem Double: Lovers of the Arctic Circle – 17th November

As kids, Otto and Ana become best friends, leading to the marriage of Ana’s mother to Otto’s father. When they become teenagers, they begin a sexual relationship, which they hide from their parents. The two fall in love, but their bond is tested when Otto’s mother dies and they are separated.

Julio Medem Double: Room in Rome – 18th November

A hotel room in the heart of Rome. Two young women who have only just met travel together on an intimate, passionate journey that will deeply mark their bodies and souls. Delving deeper into Medem’s exploration of fate and identity, Room in Rome dissects a transformative one night encounter between strangers.

Guru Dutt: Chaudhvin Ka Chand – 19th November

After the perceived failure of Kaagaz Ke Phool, Guru Dutt made his comeback in the role of actor-producer with this melodrama of mistaken identity. Featuring the first use of color photography in Hindi cinema, this is an enlightening—at turns devastating—fable of friendship and intercultural love.

F.J. Ossang: The Case of the Morituri Divisions – 21st November

This counter cultural epic follows the quest for survival fought by a collective of punk-youths in the gladiatorial arena of futurist Europe. One of them, Ettore, has become a star of this underworld yet soon revolts against the powers that be.

 

Other new releases on MUBI

Senna

A documentary about arguably the greatest Formula 1 driver of his generation, and undoubtedly the fastest, Brazil’s most famous racing son Ayrton Senna. Compiled of archive footage, it follows the driving superstar’s characteristically speedy rise from the go-kart circuit to his deadly crash – all directed with sensitive, nail-biting skill by Asif Kapadia.

Guru Dutt: Paper Flowers (Kaagaz Ke Phool)

The final film in Guru Dutt’s directing career, Kaagaz Ke Phool is a sweeping romantic voyage into both the brightest and darkest corners of a love shared by two artists divided by their society and careers. A haunting cinematic premonition of Dutt’s own personal demise—a misunderstood masterwork.

Bright Young Things

Stephen Fry’s adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s novel Vile Bodies takes us into the lives of a young novelist, his would-be lover, and a host of young people who beautified London in the 1930s. His star-studded cast are perfectly chosen, from Emily Mortimer and Simon McBurney to James McAvoy.

F.J. Ossang: Dharma Guns

Emerging from a coma after a water ski accident in which his girlfriend Délie was killed, Stan van der Decken is informed that he is the heir of the mysterious Professor Starkov. He then embarks on a trip to the village of Las Estrellas.

Suspiria

Before MUBI releases the remake in UK cinemas, revisit Dario Argento’s original candy-coloured nightmare, which follows American ballet-dancer Suzy Bannion, who arrives in Freiberg, Germany, to attend the prestigious Tans Academy – and immediately senses that something horribly evil lurks within the walls of the age-old institution.

Hellzapoppin’

A broadway musical 80 years old yet still ahead of its time, this madcap, fourth-wall breaking comedy sensation finds Ole and Chic trying to organise a musical show at a lavish estate. They run into problems when the show’s producer, Jeff, falls in love with estate resident Kitty and has to compete with her fiancé.

I Am Love

Before Suspiria, Luca Guadagnino and Tilda Swinton teamed up for this lavish revival of 50s melodramas. Set in Milan in and around the stately home of a wealthy Italian family, it follows the adulterous relationship between Emma Recchi, the Russian wife of textile manufacturer Tancredi, and Antonio, a talented young chef—an affair that sends the family into upheaval.

F.J. Ossang: 9 Fingers

Magloire is smoking in an abandoned train station when the police show up to check IDs. He starts running until he meets a dying man from whom he inherits a fortune. Magloire is now pursued by a gang. He becomes their hostage, but accomplice too, as he doesn’t have anything to lose.

The Ides of March

Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Paul Giamatti and Philip Seymour Hoffman are on remarkable form in this cynical, gripping thriller about the theatre of politics, adapted by Beau Willimon from his own play. Read our full review.

Guru Dutt: Pyaasa

MUBI kicks off a trio of restorations of three films by the director of Indian classic cinema with 1057’s The Thirsty One. Vijay writes unpopular poems about the destitute and poor. Ridiculed by his brothers and scorned by publishers, Vijay finds encouragement in a woman, Gulabo, who helps him to try and get his poems published.

The Wanderers

Released the same year as The Warriors, Philip Kaufman’s film did not receive the same level of cult infamy yet is as imaginative in its youthful vision of New York’s underworld. Filled to the brim with the greatest hits of 50s Rock n’ Roll, The Wanderers is a wormhole to the Bronx, circa 1963.

The Dead Nation

Romanian auteur Radu Jude turns his inquisitive eye to the history of his country revealed through portraits. From seemingly innocuous photographs we find powerful traces of a historical rise in nationalism and anti-semitism.

Mike Leigh Double: Vera Drake

In 1950s London, Vera Drake goes on her way, bustling cheerily around, cleaning for the upper classes, looking after her family and friends and helping young women to end unwanted pregnancies. Her lifestyle is modest but happy ‹until the police begin to close in.

Mike Leigh Double: Another Year

Over the course of four seasons, Another Year explores the life of a sublimely happy older married couple, Tom and Gerri, and their various friends and family members, who struggle to find the happiness that Tom and Gerri have cultivated.

MUBI Exclusive: Touch Me Not

Billed as the most controversial Berlinale Golden Bear in history, Adina Pintilie’s fearless investigation of intimacy and sexuality persuasively invites the spectator to participate in its exploratory narrative. A treatise on bodies and our perception of the Other that won’t leave you indifferent. Read our full review

Johnny Mad Dog

Immersing one deep into the inner world of a group of child soldiers in an unspecified African region, Johnny Mad Dog trades a sociological focus for a visceral, experiential approach. With style to spare, this is an undeniably powerful cinematic reckoning with human crises and global politics.

byNWR:Wild Guitar

An aspiring teen pop singer lands in L.A. to try make it big, and is swallowed up by the evils of showbiz in this low-budget musical from underground filmmaker Ray Dennis Steckler, restored by Nicolas Winding Refn’s byNWR initiative and streaming platform.

“A gorgeous new restoration from the original negative, this film had long been plagued by ghastly sound and multi-generation video copies. It can now be seen in its original carefully-shot B&W detail—L.A. architecture buffs will be thrilled by the rare views of the Sunset Strip in its heyday.” —NWR

Halloween Horrors: Village of the Damned

John Carpenter reinterprets a classic of genre in this 1995 remake. An American village is visited by some unknown life form which leaves the women of the village pregnant. Nine months later, the babies are born, and they all look normal, but it doesn’t take the “parents” long to realise that the kids are not human or humane.

Halloween Horrors: We Are What We Are

This loose reinterpretation of Mexican horror film Somos lo que hay reset to upstate New York focuses on a demented patriarch and his family to tell a tale of evil of immeasurable proportions. Overwhelming dread guides this slow churn of gothic horror and familial bonds to an unforgettable finale.

Halloween Horrors: The Babadook

Jennifer Kent’s film astutely unites the wry, modern storybook incarnation with the genre’s disturbing past. The result is one of the horror movies of recent years.

Halloween Horrors: Season of the Witch (1972)

Best known for ushering in the modern idea of zombies, the late George A. Romero applied an incisive level of social commentary in his underrated—even forgotten—non-undead films. Thus, the stellar Season of the Witch takes aim at the nuclear family and invokes witchcraft as an attractive answer.

London Film Festival: Yours in Sisterhood

More than looking for one definition of feminism, Irene Lusztig’s deceptively simple, wonderfully polyhedral doc embraces all feminisms. Building a bridge between the 70s and today’s world, this modern take on the epistolary genre is an affecting celebration of womanhood and the act of listening. Read our full review

MUBI Exclusive: The Apparition

After the success of Marguerite, Xavier Giannoli returns in top form for a gripping religious thriller meets Vatican exposé that sinuously delves into the mystery of faith. Vincent Lindon—in glorious Bogart mode—gives a miraculous performance as a man of reason confronting the elusiveness of truth. Read our full review

 

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Last chance to stream: Titles leaving MUBI soon

The Wolf House
Available until end of: 17th November

It Follows
Available until end of: 18th November

Yours in Sisterhood
Available until end of: 19th November

Episode of the Sea
Available until end of: 20th November

Trees Down Here
Available until end of: 21st November

The Curse of Frankenstein
Available until end of: 22nd November

Spicebush
Available until end of: 23rd November

The Apparition
Available until end of: 24th November

Village of the Damned
Available until end of: 25th November

 

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