David Farnor | On 03, Feb 2018

MUBI continues its selection from this year’s My French Film Festival, hand-picking highlights of new and old French cinema as part of the month-long event. Then, it’s time to journey around the world to admire buildings from the 20th century’s most important architects through the work of preeminent documentarian Heinz Emigholz. His films use the camera to reveal the structures that define their art – from the churches of Bruce Goff, to the villas of Gabriele D’Annunzio and the bridges of Robert Maillart.

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

 

This week on MUBI

Birdy – 3rd February

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 – 5th February

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 – 6th February

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 – 7th February

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.

 

Other new releases on MUBI

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.

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.

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.

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…

Family Life

This intense chamber drama centers on an ambitious young industrial designer who is summoned home to help his father and sister. Both the aristocratic family he fled in shame and scorn, and their dilapidated country estate, bathed in an oppressively nostalgic light, prove ultimately inescapable.

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: Struggle for Life

Mark Chestnut, intern at the Ministry of the Standard, is sent to Guyana to the compliance with EU standards of construction GUYANEIGE: Amazon first indoor ski slope intended to boost tourism in Guyana. Also, he’s gonna have to work with a teammate. Bad luck she’s a pin-up. Worse, she has character.

MyFrenchFilmFestival: Man Bites Dog

Belgian cinema has always been overshadowed by their French neighbours’ remarkable film tradition, but Man Bites Dog is one of the most surprising films of the 90s. Highly controversial at the time of release, its shocking take on violence and unwavering dark humour have earned it cult status.

MyFrenchFilmFestival: Willy 1er

In collaboration with My French Film Festival, throwing a spotlight on new French cinema, MUBI presents this inspired Gallic version of an indie movie. It’s a simple but eloquent character study, starring non-professional playing (almost) himself, and strikes a sweet, deadpan, oft-melancholic tone.

A Decent Woman

A housemaid working in an exclusive gated community on the outskirts of Buenos Aires embarks on a journey of sexual and mental liberation in a nudist swinger-club boarding the high security walls.

Drive, He Said

Jack Nicholson’s enormously irreverent directorial debut, Drive, He Said, free-spirited and sobering by turns, is a sketch of the exploits of a disaffected college basketball player and his increasingly radical roommate.

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover

Set almost entirely in a French restaurant, this bold, controversial film utilizes follows the exploits of a ruthless British gangster whose long suffering wife forges a relationship with one of the restaurant’s patrons behind his back.

REY

Available on MUBI at the same time in cinemas, Rey follows a French adventurer, who, in the nineteenth century, sets off to establish a kingdom in the inhospitable South of Chile, uniting the feared Mapuche under him. The response of the Chilean army is devastating. An intricately designed adventure film as well as powerful textural experiment.

The Structure of Crystal

The protagonists of Krzysztof Zanussi’s 1969 drama are two talented physicists – one of them leaves the city for the countryside and becomes a meteorologist, the other establishes a brilliant career in science. Both are bombarded by moral dilemmas regarding their choice in life.
A monthly subscription to MUBI costs £5.99 a month, with a 30-day free trial.

 

Last chance to stream: Titles leaving MUBI soon

Being John Malkovich
Available until end of: 3rd February

Reprise
Available until end of: 4th February

The Pleasure of Being Robbed
Available until end of: 5th February

REY
Available until end of: 6th February

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child
Available until end of: 7th February

A Spectre Is Haunting Europe
Available until end of: 8th February

Self-Criticism of a Bourgeois Dog
Available until end of: 9th February

Drive, He Said
Available until end of: 10th February

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
Available until end of: 11th February

 

Add to Watchlist