David Farnor | On 26, May 2018

MUBI kicks off a new collaboration with Asian cinema magazine NANG this week, with a selection of films dedicated to “filmmakers in transit” under the title of IN & OUT. That, in itself, is reason to intrigue, but it arrives hot on the heels of a wide-reaching range of Cannes classics, both old and new, cementing the subscription service’s position as a leading curator of the world cinema gems you haven’t seen yet. As for the ones you have, watch out, too, for the timely addition of David Fincher’s The Social Network.

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

 

This week on MUBI

Two Friends – 26th May

Philippe Garrel’s son Louis picks up the camera for this, his debut feature as a writer-director. It follows Clément, a film extra who is madly in love with Mona, a salesgirl in a sandwich bar. Mona has a secret that makes her elusive. When Clément is desperate to win her heart, Abel, his best and only friend, comes to the rescue. The two friends set off in the adventure of conquering her.

The Social Network – 27th May

There has never been a more relevant time to re-watch David Fincher’s masterpiece, which charts the founding of Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg).

The Lady Without Camelias – 29th May

A small movie role for shopclerk Clara (Lucia Bosé) develops into a full-blown career as a screen siren. Tension erupts when her husband can no longer tolerate watching her frivolous cinema escapades, and pushes her into a “serious, artistic” production of the life of Joan of Arc.

Il Grido – 30th May

In a rare male melodrama, a mechanic facing the end of an affair with a married woman wanders across the Italian countryside from the arms of one woman to another looking for satisfaction. Antonioni connects Italian neorealism with the director’s famous works of the 1960s.

Waste Land – 31st May

Lives are transformed when international art star Vik Muniz collaborates with garbage pickers in the world’s largest landfill in Rio de Janeiro.

 

Other new releases on MUBI

Behind the Candelabra

Michael Douglas shines in this laugh-out-loud but warm comedy about Liberace, with Matt Damon equally impressive as young assistant, Scott Thorson. With cinematography and direction by Steven Soderbergh, music by the late Marvin Hamlisch and small roles for Dan Aykroyd and Debbie Reynolds, Behind the Candelabra premiered on HBO – but it is very much an A-List movie. Rob Lowe as a plastic surgeon, meanwhile, waltzes away with the whole show. Read our full review

Stand by Me

Rob Reiner’s take on Stephen King’s The Body, which sees four boys seeking adventure in the woods while looking for a missing teenager’s dead body, is nothing less than a masterpiece.

Imitation of Life

MUBI’s Douglas Sirk retrospective concludes with the director’s last movie in Hollywood, and last commercial picture — a coldly brilliant weepie, a tale of two intertwined families in which the materialist optimism is continually counterpointed by an emphasis upon racist tension and the degeneration of family bonds.

Come to Me, Paradise

In this sci-fi documentary, a drone spirit is summoned to the heart of Hong Kong where Filipina migrant workers gather and make public space their own.

New Jerusalem

An Evangelical Christian and a vet returning from Afghanistan work together at a tire shop. With little to do during their empty days, they dance around their inner conflicts and cultural differences.

The Comedy

Indifferent even to the prospects of inheriting his father’s estate, Swanson, a desensitized, ageing Brooklyn hipster, strays into a series of reckless situations that may offer the promise of redemption or the threat of retribution.

Broken Flowers

Jim Jarmusch’s bittersweet comedy-drama sees an old man revisit his former lovers after an anonymous letter tells him he has a son. Released in 2005, it formed a double-bill with Lost in Translation that introduced a more melancholic, understated side to Bill Murray.

Cannes Classics: The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki

The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki is a portrait of real life Finnish boxer Olli Maki, which won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes 2016. That should give you a hint that this isn’t your usual boxing movie – and not just because it’s in Finnish and black-and-white. Jarkko Lahti is fantastic as the fighter, his face channeling both optimism and failure, while director Juho Kuosman shoots in monochrome 16mm, giving everything the feel of a newsreel. Laugh-out-loud funny and shot through with the romance of defeat, this is truly knock-out stuff. Read our full review.

Cannes Classics: Lost River

Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut follows Billy, a single mother of two, who is swept into a macabre and dark fantasy underworld in a vanishing city, while her teenage son discovers a secret road leading to an underwater town. Both Billy and Bones must dive deep into the mystery if their family is to survive. Read our full review/

Cannes Classics: The Bridges of Sarajevo

Exclusive to MUBI’s Cannes Takeover is this ambitious, talent-stacked omnibus exploration of Sarajevo. With diverse contributors including Godard, MUBI retrospective subject Angela Schanelec, and Romanian New Wave luminary Cristi Puiu, its diversity stands testament to the fierce history of the city.

Cannes Classics: Refugiado

Matias and his mother Laura, find themselves forced to hurriedly abandon the house they live in to escape another outburst of violence from Fabian. Matias is 8 and Laura is newly pregnant. Thus they begin a wandering journey in search of a place they can feel safe and protected.

Cannes Classics: Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai Du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

Whether seen as an exacting character portrait or one of cinema’s most hypnotic and complete depictions of space and time, Jeanne Dielman is an astonishing, compelling movie experiment, one that has been analyzed and argued over for decades.

Cannes Classics: The Ballad of Narayama

Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival, Shohei Imamura explores the role of tradition and legacy across generations in an impoverished 19-century mountain village in this pastoral drama evoking the dark side of folklore.

Cannes Classics: Slack Bay

Northern France, 1910. The bourgeois Van Peteghem family return to their towering mansion above ‘Slack Bay’ every summer. An unlikely romance blossoms between the mischievous Bille Van Peteghem and local mussel-gatherer, ‘Ma Loute’. Meanwhile, a series of mysterious disappearances are taking place. Read our full review.

Cannes Classics: The Other Side

Disarmed veterans, taciturn adolescents or drug addicts live in an invisible territory at the margins of society, at the border between anarchy and illegality, trying to respond to a threat: of being forgotten by political institutions and having their rights as citizens trampled.

Cannes Classics: The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things

An adaptation of one of the most controversial books of our time, Asia Argento’s sophomore feature realizes JT Leroy’s account of her troubled childhood. Whether its inspiring text is to be taken as truth or performance art—Argento’s star-studded film is a gamut of pure emotion & raucous sincerity.

Cannes Classics: Beyond My Grandfather Allende

“Salvador Allende, the first democratic-socialist president elected was also my grandfather. Thirty-five years after Pincohet’s coup, I return to Chile searching for Chicho- his family nickname – wishing to leave behind his iconic image and bring back images and memories of him and our family.”

Touch of Evil

Orson Welles’ 1958 classic isn’t just a technical masterpiece, but a dark slice of thrilling noir to boot, featuring an explosive opening scene (shot in one take) that is worth watching for alone.

Angela Schanelec: The Dreamed Path

Theres and Kenneth are young, when they first meet in their summer holidays in Greece. They fall in love with each other but can’t prevent the forthcoming separation. Thirty years later, in another country – another couple. Ariane leaves her husband David, because she doesn’t love him anymore.

byNWR: Night Tide

MUBI’s partnership with byNWR continues with Curtis Harrington’s 1961 fantasy horror, starring a young Dennis Hopper as sailor on shore leave, who becomes fascinated by a woman posing as a mermaid in an oceanfront carnival. As their relationship blossoms, Johnny realises that Mora is more than a sideshow illusionist.

Remembering Miloš Forman: Audition

This mix of documentary and fiction offers a humorous look at different kinds of competitions and the motivations of their talented (and less-talented) participants. Set to a wonderful, diverse soundtrack of Czech music, Forman’s first major work is both light and passionate in tone.

Remembering Miloš Forman: Loves of A Blonde

From the first pangs of romance to its inevitable disappointments, Loves of a Blonde immediately became a classic of the Czech New Wave and earned Miloš Forman the first of his Academy Award nominations.

Douglas Sirk: The Tarnished Angels

In this spectacular adaptation of Faulkner’s Pylon, Roger Shumann is a disillusioned WWI ace seeking out a living as a barnstorming pilot/parachutist during the early 30s. New Orleans newspaperman Burke Devlin meets Shumann at a two-bit carnival and becomes fascinated with his fall from grace.

Douglas Sirk: A Time to Love and a Time to Die

Based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque after the success of All Quiet on the Western Front‘s film adaptation, Sirk’s penultimate Hollywood picture follows a German soldier on furlough who finds fleeting love amid the rubble-strewn remains of his hometown. A haunting, existential romance.

 

A monthly subscription to MUBI costs £7.99 a month, with a 30-day free trial.

 

Last chance to stream: Titles leaving MUBI soon

The Squid and the Whale
Available until end of: 26th May

Husbands and Wives
Available until end of: 27th May

The Awful Truth
Available until end of: 28th May

There’s Always Tomorrow
Available until end of: 29th May

Night Tide
Available until end of: 30th May

Half a Life
Available until end of: 31st May

In the Intense Now
Available until end of: 1st June

The Dreamed Path
Available until end of: 2nd June

Closer
Available until end of: 3rd June

Touch of Evil
Available until end of: 4th June

 

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