David Farnor | On 24, Feb 2018

MUBI brings one of 2017’s best films to its members this weekend, with the arrival of Joachim Trier’s Thelma. And, while this year’s My French Film Festival draws to a close, it brings us once last title fresh from France’s new cinema scene – and continues its build up to this year’s Oscars with more classic award-winners.

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

 

This week on MUBI

Thelma – 24th February

A college student starts to experience extreme seizures while studying at a university in Oslo in Joachim Trier’s fantastic coming-of-age psychological thriller. She soon learns that the violent episodes are a symptom of inexplicable, and often dangerous, supernatural abilities. Disturbing, beautiful and entirely absorbing.

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion – 25th February

Elio Petri won a much-deserved Best Foreign Film Oscar for this sublimely clever policier with one of cinema’s most ingenious premises: Is there such thing as a man (the great Gian Maria Volontè) so powerful he would never be suspected of guilt? With an unforgettable score by Ennio Morricone.

Going My Way – 26th February

Leo McCarey’s beloved, mega-hit Bing Crosby film swept the Oscars (Picture, Actor, Director and more) and, in true Hollywood fashion, has a sequel: The heartfelt Bells of St. Mary’s. McCarey’s casual style, with its off-hand mixture of melancholy and comedy, has rarely been more poignant—or moving.

A Film Like Any Other – 27th February

Famous for his trailblazing films in the French New Wave, Godard controversially re-invented his cinema after the failed revolution of May ’68. MUBI kicks off a new series on his radical films with Jean-Pierre Gorin and under the name Dziga Vertov Group, exploring cinema’s capacity for political engagement and change.

Wulu – 28th February

MUBI partners with the South London Gallery on South by South, a series of innovative African cinema. Coulibaly’s debut is a gripping tale of ambition that spirals into the crime and drug-trafficking underworld with surprising brio. An exhilarating take on Scarface in the streets of Bamako.

Seven Psychopaths – 1st March

Following the modern cult classic In Bruges, Martin McDonagh fully delivered on that film’s vast promise with Seven Psychopaths—a fiery genre cocktail of crime & dark comedy. Not to mention, a perfect cast (Christopher Walken? Check. Tom Waits? Check.) lead this Hollywood set symphony of psychosis. Read our full review

Captain Phillips – 2nd March

A slice of recent history gets Paul Greengrass’ docu-dramatist sense of immediacy in this breathtaking oceanic bound thriller. A US freighter turns into an apt microcosm for country relations in this unpredictable narrative game of strategy and resilience. Starring the always great Tom Hanks. Read our full review

 

Other new releases on MUBI

Moon

Winner of the BAFTA Award for Best Outstanding Debut, Duncan Jones’ sci-fi stars Sam Rockwell and, well, that’s essentially it, as his astronaut remains stuck in isolation on a moon base with only himself for company. A study of identity, humanity and home, this low-budget gem is a modern genre classic. Read our full review.

Special Discovery: Bright Nights

Berlin School veteran Thomas Arslan returns to the German festival’s competition with a majestic yet intimate father-son road movie. A father tries to rekindle his relationship with his son after years of absence and lack of communication. He takes him on a car ride across northern Norway, hoping it is not too late.

Dr. Strangelove

Too soon after Trump winning the 2016 US election? Shut out the alarming plausibility and revel in Peter Sellers’ manic triple-performance in Stanley Kubrick’s wickedly good war satire.

Plants

Amid the responsibility of taking care of her brother who is in a vegetative state, financial problems and the awakening of her sexuality, Florencia becomes obsessed with the comic “The Plants”, which is about the invasion of plant souls into human bodies during a full moon.

The Challenge

Falconry has an history of at least forty centuries. In the West, it was the favourite sport of the medieval aristocracy, and in contemporary Arab culture its prestige remains unaltered. Yuri Ancarani crosses the Persian Gulf to accompany a falconer to an important competition.

Life As a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease

MUBI’s Krzysztof Zanussi retrospective draws to a close with the story of a doctor named Tomasz who questions his beliefs, faith and morality as the end of his life is near, so he makes all efforts to find dignity in his imminent death.

An Education

Carey Mulligan stole a nation’s heart with her superb performance in this coming-of-age drama. which sees young Oxbridge candidate Jenny whisked away into a world of glamorous possibilities by the Peter Sarsgaard’s older man, David. Watch out for a scene-stealing turn by Rosamund Pike. Read our review

The Lost Weekend

The most daring portrayal of alcoholism of its time, this 4 time Academy Award winner (including Best Picture!) has aged gracefully by way of its sharp wisdom provided by one of the greatest directors of Hollywood’s golden age, Billy Wilder. An unflinching examination of the throes of addiction.

Goff in the Desert

MUBI’s “Architecture as Autobiography” series goes on an American road trip with director Heinz Emigholz to find unexpectedly shaped, beautifully lit buildings—many of which are individual houses—designed by Bruce Goff. A constantly surprising series of discoveries embedded in the landscape.

D’Annunzio’s Cave

The first half of MUBI’s Heinz Emigholz series concludes with the most unusual and—yes!—horrifying of his revelatory architectural films. It explores with morbid fascination the baroque house of the titular Italian poet, one so grotesque with ornamentation you might find it in Orson Welles’ nightmares.

Wild at Heart

Shot simultaneously with Twin Peaks’ first season, David Lynch’s camp, funny and violent comedy is Bonnie and Clyde meets The Wizard of Oz, with Laura Dern and Nic Cage starring as lovers on the run.

The Constant Factor

MUBI’s Krzysztof Zanussi retrospective moves into the 1980s with one of his most acclaimed films and the winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Through its hero’s eyes—and the travails of a righteous and honest man—we see, at the end of the 1970s, what’s become of the Communist dream.

Wings of Desire

An angel overlooking the divided city of Berlin makes a wish to become a human mortal when he begins falling in love with a beautiful French trapeze artist in Wim Wender’s classic.

Special Discovery: Untitled

“The most beautiful film I could imagine is one which would never come to rest,” said Michael Glawogger of this epic, free-floating documentary project — but malaria struck him down during shooting. Monica Willi, his and Haneke’s editor, crafted the final, global vision, made of extraordinary footage. Read our review

Birdy

Two friends arrive back from Vietnam, scarred in different ways. One has physical injuries, the other has mental problems that make him yearn to be a bird, a subject he has always been fascinated with. Nic Cage and Matthew Modine star in Alan Parker’s nuanced 1984 drama.

Sullivan’s Banks

This film shows the last eight buildings Louis H. Sullivan designed and furnished at the end of his career. From one building to the next, both inside and out, he varied and perfected his modular ornamental design in brick, steel, terracotta, glass, ceramics, mosaic, marble, and many more materials.

Maillard’s Bridges

This film explores 14 works that the Swiss artist, civil engineer and legendary bridge builder Robert Maillart designed between 1910 and 1935. Maillart revolutionized with his functional reduction of material the work of bridge building and created his own world of forms.

Six Shooter

With Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri receiving no fewer than seven Oscar nominations, go back to Martin McDonagh’s debut, a deliciously dark short film. Brendan Gleeson delivers a hulkingly sad performance as a man who goes to see the body of his recently deceased wife, then takes the train back home. Sincerity, profound tragedy and a wicked sense of humour? This is McDonagh distilled into a concentrated shot of brilliance.

Dazed and Confused

Among the best teen films ever made, Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused eavesdrops on a group of seniors-to-be and incoming freshmen. A launching pad for a number of future stars, Linklater’s first studio effort also features endlessly quotable dialogue and a rocking rock and roll soundtrack. Read our review

Camouflage

In the cinema of Krzysztof Zanussi, livingly embodied & taut with the internal debates of a transforming society, the clash of Polish generations reaches its pinnacle in this richly erudite drama of debate. His usual university-educated protagonists are under his microscope — a microcosm of a nation.

Sampha: Process

Set for release on March 17, the accompanying film of the new Sampha’s album PROCESS is directed by Lemonade’s Kahlil Joseph. (Pictured above.)

Illumination

Krzysztof Zanussi’s groundbreaking film chronicles a decade in the life of a young physics student whose absolute faith in the primacy of rationality and science is shaken by tragedy and affairs of the heart.

A MUBI Release: Lover for a Day

MUBI exclusively premieres Philippe Garrel’s new film. After a bad breakup, the only place 23-year-old Jeanne has to stay in Paris is the flat of her father. But when Jeanne arrives, she finds that his new girlfriend has moved in too: Arianne, a young woman her own age. Each is looking for their own kind of love in a city filled with possibilities. Read our full review.

Not One Less

Set in the People’s Republic of China during the 1990s, the film centers on a 13-year-old substitute teacher, Wei Minzhi, in the Chinese countryside. Called in to substitute for a village teacher for one month, Wei is told not to lose any students…

The Road Home

Zhang Yimou offers a romanticism both complicated and affectionate in this study of the role of love in rural working class life. An essential transitional work despite compromise by state censors.

MyFrenchFilmFestival: In Bed With Victoria

While the American tradition of the romantic comedy has waned in recent years, Justine Triet’s portrait of a woman at a crossroads in the courtroom and bedroom proves the beloved genre is alive and well in France. A feminist revision of the rom-com—proving the familiar can still be unpredictable. Read our full review.

MyFrenchFilmFestival: Before Summer Ends

Halfway between fiction and documentary, this is an astute, warm portrait of masculinity by Goormaghtigh—also the film’s cinematographer—shedding a new light on the Iranian male and the buddy movie tropes. Read our full review.

MyFrenchFilmFestival: Swagger

A teen-movie documentary, Swagger carries us in the midst of the astonishing minds of eleven teenagers growing up in one of the most underprivileged neighbourhood in France.

 

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Last chance to stream: Titles leaving MUBI soon

A Decent Woman
Available until end of: 24th February

Not One Less
Available until end of: 25th February

The Road Home
Available until end of: 26th February

Before Summer Ends
Available until end of: 27th February

In Bed with Victoria
Available until end of: 28th February

Illumination
Available until end of: 1st March

Sampha: Process
Available until end of: 2nd March

Lover for a Day
Available until end of: 3rd March

Birdy
Available until end of: 4th March

 

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