MUBI Blog

OUR BELOVED MONTH OF AUGUST

May we recommend it? If for no other reason than the most obvious? Here’s a bit of what’s going on at MUBI and The Auteurs…

WHO IS ANDREI KONCHALOVSKY?

You may know him as the friend of Tarkovsky who co-wrote the screenplays for early works such as Andrei Rublev. Or as the older brother of Nikita Mikhalkov. As a director himself, his work ranges “from cinéma vérité-inspired The Story of Asya Klyachina (1966) to the epic Siberiade (1979), from the road movie Homer and Eddie (1989) to TV mini-series The Odyssey (1997),” notes Anna Nieman, introducing her fascinating interview just posted in the Garage.

“I’VE HAD A LOVELY TIME”

This week saw the loss of Bruno S., a painter, musician and actor best known for his performances in Werner Herzog’s The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) and Stroszek (1977). And Patricia Neal, whose performance as a weary housekeeper in Hud (1963) won her an Oscar, who fell for Gary Cooper while standing in for Ayn Rand in The Fountainhead (1949), who saved the planet in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and who made a media phenomenon out of Andy Griffith in A Face in the Crowd (1957), died over the weekend and the remembrances have been pouring in ever since.

IF YOU ONLY SEE ONE MOVIE THIS WEEK

If you’ve been avoiding the romping, stomping action flicks of summer, this may be the weekend you’ll have to give in. You do have an excuse: The alternatives just aren’t all that enticing. You might try Scott Pilgrim vs the World (after all, Shaun of the Dead was pretty fun, right?) or go all out with Stallone and the Testosterone Gang: The Expendables.

MOVIE POSTERS OF THE WEEK

Little wonder that Adrian Curry’s “Movie Poster of the Week” is one of our most popular features. The man has an eye and a talent for explicating what it sees. His most recent entry is not only a must-see but also a must-read as he tracks two prevailing trends in contemporary poster design.

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