James R | On 01, Dec 2018

It’s all about Jean-Luc Godard on MUBI this week, as MUBI exclusively releases his Cannes-winning experimental documentary The Image Book both in cinemas and online. While they’re shining a light on the latest effort by a legend, Nicolas Winding Refn’s byNWR also returns to MUBI this week to release his newly restored forgotten oldie – and, for those who can’t make it see The Image Book on the big screen, MUBI Go (which offers a cinema ticket every week to its subscribers) is giving you the chance to see Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s The Wild Pear Tree free at participating cinemas.

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

 

This week on MUBI

byNWR: House on Bare Mountain – 1st December

Exploitation film maven Bob Cresse goes full drag as the matriarch of “Granny Good’s School for Good Girls” in this 1962 “nudie cutie”, which Nicolas Winding Refn has rescued from a closed film lab and restored. The result blends monster movie, lowbrow comedy, rock & roll and peep shows in bright candy colours.

Godard: Breathless – 2nd December

Before The Image Book arrives, go back to Godard’s most iconic work, which follows petty thug Michel, who panics and impulsively kills a policeman while driving a stolen car. On the lam, he turns to his aspiring journalist girlfriend Patricia, hiding out in her Paris apartment. When Patricia learns that Michel is being investigated for murder, she begins to question her loyalties.

Godard: The Image Book – 3rd December

After screening in cinemas on Sunday 2nd December, MUBI exclusively releases The Image Book online. Jean-Luc Godard returns with a bracing, beautiful and confrontational essay film. Splicing together classic film clips and newsreel footage, often stretched, saturated and distorted almost beyond recognition, The Image Book interrogates our relationship with film, culture and global politics. Read our full review

F.J. Ossang: Doctor Change – 6th December

MUBI concludes its close-up on F. J. Ossang with this feverish film noir-meets-road movie across the Atacama desert, starring Marisa Paredes and Joe Strummer as lovers on the run.

 

Other new releases on MUBI

Walkabout

MUBI pays tribute to Nicolas Roeg with one of his most iconic triumphs: right from its dreamy opening and its irrationally terrifying plunge, Walkabout is a hallucinatory, mysterious, timeless masterpiece.

A Star Is Born

Before Bradley Cooper’s awards contender came several other versions of the star-crossed Hollywood romance. William Wellman’s vision of the timeless story and its tangling of romance and art, shot in early Technicolor, is a classic melodrama and a telling watch compared to Cooper’s modern take.

Patience (After Sebald)

MUBI marks the 20th anniversary of Patience, based on The Rings of Saturn by German writer W.G. Sebald. Grierson Award-winning director Grant Gee (Joy Division) ventures to East Anglia to craft this film about landscape, art, history, life and loss, featuring contributions from Tacita Dean, Iain Sinclair and other major artists.

In the Shadow of Women

Shot on monochrome 35mm, the second instalment in Garrel’s Trilogy of Love is a light romantic drama of marriage and doubled infidelity, starring Stanislas Merhar and Clotilde Coureau.

Cronenberg Double: Cosmopolis

Robert Pattinson continues his interesting series of choices post-Twilight with this turn in Cronenberg’s odyssey, which sees a young billionaire riding across Manhattan in a limo to get a haircut. Over the course of his journey, intimate encounters, grid-locked traffic and the death of a rap star contribute to his reality melting away.

Cronenberg Double: Maps to the Stars

How do you spot an Oscar nominee? They look just like all the others. Following his indictment of capitalism in Cosmopolis, Cronenberg sets his sights on Hollywood with this piercing look into celebrity culture, which rams home its venomous cliques with a queasy authenticity.

Like Father, Like Son

A clever story of two boys switched at birth allows Japan’s gentle maestro Hirokazu to explore nature, nurture and the nuances of parenthood in this subtle, moving masterpiece. Read our full review

Female Human Animal

A retrospective of surrealist painter Leonora Carrington is the gateway to the fantasies of its curator, novelist Chloe. Inebriated by the mystery of the work and fed up with the world and the men around her, Chloe’s life soon becomes a dark and obsessive psychosexual nightmare.

Antonia.

Antonia Pozzi was born in 1912, the daughter of a Milanese lawyer, and began writing poetry at the age of sixteen. The film describes her family environment, her infatuation with one of her teachers at school, and her ties with young Milanese radicals during the fascist years.

Julio Medem Double: Lovers of the Arctic Circle

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

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.

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.

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: Treasure of the Bitch Islands

MUBI’s F.J. Ossang retrospective journeys further into the underground with an awesome punk sci-fi revision of The Odyssey. An entrancing journey alongside a group of madcap scientists to the darkest reaches of humankind’s fate, Treasure of the Bitch Islands is a molotov cocktail of anarchic beauty.

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.

F.J. Ossang: The Case of the Morituri Divisions

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.

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.

IMAG PAPER FLOWERS

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.

Guru Dutt: Chaudhvin Ka Chand

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.

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

 

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Last chance to stream: Titles leaving MUBI soon

IMAGE VERA

Touch Me Not
Available until end of: 1st December

Vera Drake
Available until end of: 2nd December

Another Year
Available until end of: 3rd December

Pyaasa
Available until end of: 4th December

The Ides of March
Available until end of: 5th December

The Dead Nation
Available until end of: 6th December

The Wanderers
Available until end of: 7th December

9 Fingers
Available until end of: 8th December

Senna
Available until end of: 9th December

 

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