MUBI Blog

AUGUST OFFERINGS

As we study the lineups for Venice and Toronto and prepare to dispatch our correspondents, we’re also keeping an eye on Locarno, which has opened this week with Benoît Jacquot’s Deep in the Woods. But cinephiles cannot view by festivals alone, so here’s what else is going on at MUBI and The Auteurs…

LARS VON TRIER’S THE KINGDOM

In the mid-90s, Lars von Trier wrote and directed The Kingdom, a miniseries for Danish television that “may be the most purely entertaining and frivolous undertaking of his career, a delirious genre-jumping fusion of soap opera, horror, and farce, with a dash of social commentary thrown in for good measure,” as Scott Tobias wrote, inducting it into his “New Cult Canon” at the AV Club. Now we’re making it available throughout much of the world so you can take in its 9-plus hours at your leisure.

FARE THEE WELL

In the past week, we’ve had to say our goodbyes to the legendary Suso Cecchi d’Amico, who wrote over 110 screenplays for the likes of Luchino Visconti, Michelangelo Antonioni, Vittorio De Sica and Franco Zeffirelli; production designer Robert F Boyle, who also worked with a slew of directors but will be most remembered for his collaboration with Hitchcock on North by Northwest; and Tom Mankiewicz, son of Joseph L and nephew of Herman J who wrote the screenplays for such James Bond films as Diamonds are Forever and The Man with the Golden Gun.

IF YOU ONLY SEE ONE MOVIE THIS WEEK

New Yorkers might opt for Isabel “Coca” Sarli, Manoel de Oliveira, Howard Hawks or Lou Ye. As for the rest of us, Samuel Maoz’s Lebanon begins its rollout across the country this week. It’s “not just the year’s most impressive first feature but also the strongest new movie of any kind I’ve seen in 2010,” writes J Hoberman in the Voice. “Blunt, clamorous, and harrowing, Lebanon is also a formalist tour de force.”

1000 WORDS

Have you been keeping up with Daniel Kasman’s Images of the Day? It’s not just that they’re stunning on their own; they’re also often peppered with succinct commentary and links to further online gazing and viewing.

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