“A streaming service? A curator? A publisher? A distributor? A cinema lover? Yes.”
This is the tagline at the head of the “about” section on MUBI’s website, a fair summation of what makes the service different to its competitors. Its curation, distribution of exclusive films and MUBI GO subscription package go beyond the traditional streaming service. The last of these offers one free cinema ticket a week to a film of the company’s choosing, available at a range of participating venues.
As for the streaming itself: it operates with a one in, one out system, introducing a new film each day after another gets taken down. Each title gets thirty days before expiring, giving subscribers enough time to watch to it but ensuring they know before it goes. Amazon Prime displays a similar “Movies with limited time on Prime” section on their homepage, whereas Netflix titles vanish without any warning.
It’s a convenience that doesn’t define MUBI. The service is most unique for its curation – as I write this, some of the featured categories are “FIRST FILMS FIRST”, “FOR EVER GODARD: A RETROSPECTIVE”, “THE INNER DEMONS OF INGMAR BERGMAN” and “DIRECT FROM ROTTERDAM”. Categories coming in February include Wong Kar Wai and Bong-Joon Ho “DOUBLE BILLS”, an “AWARDS SEASON” spotlight, and a “DEBUTS” section.
By design, the service is more systematic and organised than Prime’s or Netflix’s, even if it doesn’t advocate quite the same emphasis on original content. Regardless, it’s a reliable place for a rolling catalogue of films that invariably excite, challenge and inspire.
A short overview of January 2020’s highlights gives a flavour of precisely the kind of content on offer:
THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS (Steven Spielberg, 1974)
Released on the 3rd of January as part of the FIRST FILMS FIRST selection, Spielberg’s debut is an underseen, underappreciated work that clearly paved the way for Jaws a year later, Close Encounters three, and Raiders of the Lost Ark seven. The director quickly settled into a conveyor belt of classics, but this debut is far further from that conversation than it should be. The lovers-on-the-run conceit here isn’t as successful as Bonnie and Clyde, nor given the wilder experimental treatment of Natural Born Killers, but this true story remains an accomplished, dynamic genre piece.
From the moment our husband and wife team unclothe in a prison toilet and proceed to fumble with zippers, all while keeping the noise down so their quickie doesn’t get caught, we can’t help but enjoy their company (particularly clothed). The charm and set pieces only escalate as the hapless couple tie themselves up in more and more knots – perhaps inevitably, this road movie was a hell of a ride.
HOLY MOTORS (Léos Carrax, 2012)
Another title available for most of January was Léos Carrax’s arthouse favourite. Eight years ago, the film was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes and by the end of 2019 was a popular entry in ‘Best of the Decade’ lists. It’s arresting and unforgettable, starring frequent collaborator Denis Lavant, but including a segment in which Eva Mendes doesn’t say a word and another where Kylie Minogue gives a full musical number.
These are just two of Monsieur Oscar’s “appointments” – others include begging on the streets of Paris disguised as an old woman, dressed head to toe in mo-cap costume for a bizarre, simulated video game sex scene, and putting on a balaclava as a hitman hired to shoot his doppelganger. No matter how much or little this cinematic experiment chimed with viewers, the memory of its strangeness will surely stick. Next up for Carrax is a musical starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, so Holy Motors will prove good homework.
CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS (Andrew Jarecki, 2003)
Also appearing on the service in mid-January was Jarecki’s Sundance-winning, Academy Award-nominated true crime documentary. As MUBI’s synopsis says, “The Friedmans are a seemingly typical, upper-middle-class Jewish family” – this familiar framework is thrown out the window when father Arnold and son Jesse plead guilty to child sexual abuse in 1987. Similar to Netflix’s Tell Me Who I Am last year, the documentary is unapologetically shocking, dispelling the myth of peaceful suburban domesticity with the cynicism of a US sitcom.
Jarecki, who went on to direct All Good Things with Ryan Gosling, claims to have stumbled on the documentary subject after initial work on short film Just a Clown, a profile of children’s birthday party entertainers in New York (including Jesse’s brother David). So, a pretty radical gear change.
THREE COLOURS: RED (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1994)
Kieślowski’s ‘90s Colours trilogy has been showered in acclaim since release, and all three were available for the first couple of weeks of 2020. Each is terrific in its own right, but the popular consensus is that Red is the masterpiece. Kieślowski declared that the film would be his last, which proved to be accurate when he died two years later following a heart attack. The French-language trilogy is the perfect place to start with his filmography, collating universal tales of mourning, immigration and surveillance to three distinct colour palettes.
It was a treat and standout of offerings MUBI this month, seemingly representative of what the company stands for; bringing films celebrated by the cinephile sphere to a wider audience. Like the Juliette Binoche starring Blue and Julie Delpy’s White, Red is a testament to important filmmaking that is unrestricted and inclusive. The film resonates on a purely emotional level and is completely indelible.
Generally, MUBI doesn’t reveal what’s coming soon unless a curated season has already begun, when the other titles part of it are viewable on-site. But this month the company posted a “coming soon” video on their Facebook page, so we know some of February’s categories. Bong-Joon Ho’s DOUBLE BILL is especially exciting, seeming to comprise The Host and Mother – just two of the director’s seven acclaimed films, which are all worth anybody’s time. This alone is reason enough to open a MUBI subscription: a warm-up for the imminent release of the seventh, the absolutely incredible Parasite.
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