MUBI Blog

Zhou Hao’s Using (China 2007)

Ou Ning’s Meishi Street (China 2006)

Zhao Liang’s Crime and Punishment (China 2007)

Yang Jin’s Er Dong (China 2008)

Ying Liang’s The Other Half (China 2006)

Yang Heng’s Betelnut (China 2006)

See the dGenerate Films distributor page for a look at all the films available.

Claudia Llosa’s The Milk of Sorrow (Peru / Spain, 2009)

Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s Still Walking (Japan, 2008)

Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo’s The Night of the Sunflowers (Spain / France / Portugal, 2006)

Jasmila Žbanić’s Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams (Austria / Bosnia / Germany, 2006)

Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank (United Kingdom / Netherlands, 2009)

Wang Quanan’s Tuya’s Marriage (China, 2006)

Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon (Germany / Austria / France / Italy, 2009)

We’ve teamed up with the Melbourne International Film Festival in Australia to present some of its competition films online. During Melbourne IFF, July 22nd – August 8th, 2010, three films from their competition program will be available to watch for free online to the first 300 viewers in Australia after their official Premiere at the festival.

Ilisa Barbash & Lucien Castaing-Taylor’s Sweetgrass (United States / France / United Kingdom, 2009)

Christopher Chan Fui Chong’s Karaoke (Malaysia, 2009)

Ben Russell’s Let Each One Go Where He May (United States, 2009)

A selection of films from Flicker Alley are now available to watch online with more then half of them available for free.

Flicker Alley was born out of a passion for cinematic history and a desire to bring filmmakers and films from out of the past to new audiences and renewed recognition. The company was started in 2002 by Jeffery Masino who drew on a lifelong enthusiasm and fascination with silent, classic, and independent cinema as well as on many years of experience in film and television production and post-production.

Auguste Lumière & Louis Lumière’s Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (France, 1895)

Georges Méliès’ Excelsior! Prince of Magicians (France, 1901)

Dave Fleischer & Max Fleischer’s Cartoon Factory (United States, 1924)

Dave Fleischer’s Ain’t She Sweet (United States, 1933)

Dudley Murphy’s Black and Tan (United States, 1929)

Phillips Smalley & Lois Weber’s Suspense (United States, 1913)

See the rest of the Flicker Alley selections here.

Andrei Tarkovsky’s Nostalghia (Italy/USSR, 1983)

Derek Jarman’s Caravaggio (United Kingdom, 1986)

Alejandro Amenábar’s Abre los ojos (Spain/France/Italy, 1997)

Luchino Visconti’s L’innocente (Italy/France, 1976)

Roland Joffé’s The Mission (United Kingdom, 1986)

Claude Chabrol’s The Cry of the Owl (France/Italy, 1987)

Patrice Leconte’s The Perfume of Yvonne (France, 1994)

Roman Polanski’s Tess (France, 1980)

Andrzej Wajda’s Ashes and Diamonds (Poland, 1958)

Paolo & Vittorio Taviani’s Padre padrone (Italy, 1977)

Shohei Imamura’s Ballad of Narayama (Japan, 1983)

For the first time, Karlovy Vary in Czech Republic is teaming up with MUBI to show some of its competition films online. During Karlovy Vary, July 2nd to 10th, 2010, 4 films from their competition program will be playing for free on the site.

Films in the online program from the Karlovy Vary Film Festival include:

Czech film competition available (almost) everywhere but Czech Republic

3 Seasons in Hell, Dir. Tomáš Mašín, 110min, Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia, 2009 
1947. Nineteen-year-old Ivan is the embodiment of the dreams and ideals of the period. The self-satisfied and confrontational poet finds understanding with freethinking Jana, and together they experience the end of hope: after February 1948, the Communist regime reveals its repressive side…. Tomáš Mašín’s debut feature is loosely inspired by the autobiography of leftist underground guru Egon Bondy. The artistically striking retro film took three Czech Lions: Best Camera, Sound, and Actor (Kryštof Hádek)

Dreamers (Zoufalci), Dir. Jitka Rudolfová, 97min, Czech Republic, 2009 
Now in their thirties, the film’s six protagonists, who left northern Bohemia for Prague after graduating from high school, are taking stock of their lives. Is it too soon for a change? Or perhaps it’s too late because it’s hard to jump off a moving train. Jitka Rudolfová’s debut is a generational statement that perceives the relationship problems of today’s 30-somethings with understanding and ironic detachment.

International competition available only in Czech Republic

Lebanon, Dir. Samuel Maoz, 94 min, Israel, France, Germany, Lebanon, 2009
An Israeli tank crew hits the ground hard during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon in this claustrophobic, visceral look at the Middle East conflict. Winner of the Venice Film Festival’s prestigious Golden Lion for Best Film, this Das Boot in a tank follows four luckless young men as they roll through a Lebanese town to separate civilians from the PLO, with predictably chaotic results. At first few villains, and fewer heroes, are in sight, with the only constant being the oppressive heat and sweat-laden interior of the tank. When something goes dangerously wrong, however, the situation escalates beyond all control and all reason. Joining a body of work that includes Waltz with Bashir and Beaufort, Lebanon addresses the madness of the Lebanon War through a first-person account. Writer/director Samuel Maoz was a naïve young recruit when he was sent to the same war, and his experiences there traumatized him for years afterwards. Placing viewers directly into the action, uncertain of what’s going on around them, surrounded by the noise and chaos of the outside world yet with literally no “viewpoint” out of the little box in which they find themselves, Maoz’s Lebanon creates a pointed metaphor for not just the Lebanon War but many other wars and conflicts. Alex Claude’s sound design of mechanical drones and muted explosions and a rumbling, sinister score by Nicolas Becker add to the film’s memorable, unsettling effect and turn Lebanon into a key work of an emerging Israeli new wave.

80 Egunean (For 80 Days), Dir. Jon Garaño and José Mari Goenaga, 105 min, Spain, 2010 
The theme of love among old people, neglected by the film world as elsewhere and viewed out of perspective, is seldom treated on the big screen. Axun and Maite met at secondary school during a repressive era that never allowed their relationship to go beyond friendship. Later on, their paths led them apart: Axun got married and moved out to the country to live on a farm, while Maite travelled the world, clarified her sexual orientation in her own mind, and now, having had a successful career as a piano teacher, she has returned to San Sebastian to take up her retirement. Fifty years on, Axun and Maite, now both seventy, meet up by chance while visiting patients in hospital. At first, they don’t recognise one another, but soon long- suppressed feelings begin to emerge once more with the same intensity, and Axun is aware for the first time of her chance to start something entirely new. Feelings once illicit which, fifty years ago, she was unable and forbidden to identify, force her to reassess her marriage and to embark on a journey of self-knowledge. When Maite invites her to the island of Santa Clara, Axun has to decide whether to obey her heart, or her reason…

See the Karlovy Vary Film Festival Cinema on MUBI.

George Sluizer’s The Vanishing (Netherlands/France, 1988)

Juzo Itami’s Tampopo (Japan, 1985)

Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls (United States/France, 1995)

Pedro Almodóvar’s All About My Mother (Spain/France, 1999)

For the first time, Libertas in Croatia is teaming up with MUBI to show a selection of its short films online. During the Libertas Film Festival, June 25th-July 6th, 2010, 13 films from their short program will be playing for free on the site. Have your own little Libertas Film Festival at home!

Films in the online cinema include:

Edge of the Desert, Dir. Lea Nakonechny, 17 min, Canada
One hot August morning, best friends Josie and Natasha skip school and hitch a ride with two oilfield workers into the Great Sand Hills. In the dream-like desert landscape something happens that changes their friendship forever.

Mesecina, Dir. Sofia Exarchou, 30 min, Greece
An ill teenager believes that he can live normally. He meets a girl. They are both fans of the music group ‘Mesecina’.

Schizofredric, Dir. Andy Poyiadgi, 17 min, UK
Fredric has lost the fire in his belly and wants it back. After signing up for an unorthodox self-improvement program, Fredric is trapped outside of his own life, while a new improved version takes over…

Svarttaxi (Illegal Taxi), Dir. Adi & Mak Omanovic, 30 min, Sweden
Marko is a caring family father trying to earn his living by driving illegal taxi during late nights. Business is good until a policeman in civilian clothes takes a seat. The policeman just happens to know about a robbery earlier the same day and Marko just happens to be sitting in the suspected getaway car from the very same robbery.

Extinction - Quadrature of the Circles, Dir. Fernando Usón, 11 min, Spain
A married couple dresses up to attend a ceremony.

8:00AM, Dir. Pablo Ortega, 10 min, Spain
What would you do if your life is centered around a relationship where your partner has forgotten why you are together?

In My Head an Angel, Dir. Dario Juričan, 25 min, Croatia
Art student in search for his angel.

Guliver, Dir. Zdenko Bašić, 8 min, Croatia
Gulliver, standing still in a center of the Universe, is a sign of awe for Lilliputians who approach him slowly to start building their civilization by using his tied body as a back bone. He is still and silent while enduring the burden of negligence the Lilliputians. Until one day the ties brake.

The Magic of J-Mac, Dir. Pete Radovich, 13 min, USA
In 2006 High School senior Jason McElwain, an autistic team manager for his school’s basketball team, had the night of his life, scoring 20 points in his team’s final home game, vaulting him to celebrity status. Three years later, two boys from high schools a mere 20 miles apart in Maine, would get the same opportunity. Film and Television star, and Autism activist Joe Mantegna narrates this inspiring story of these boys’ determination.

Igra Tucanja (The Fucking Game), Dir. Ivan Livaković, Hungary
During one night, a couple goes on an imaginary journey that will take them through an entire life span. Reality and illusion, highs and lows of human existence, moments of great tenderness and moments of sheer cruelty become interchangeable.

See the Libertas Film Festival Shorts Cinema on MUBI.

Julio Medem’s Sex and Lucía (Spain, 2001)

Agnès Jaoui’s Look at Me (France, 2004)

Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid (US, 1921)

Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator (US, 1940)

Adina Pintilie’s Don’t Get Me Wrong (Romania, 2007)

Abel Gance’s classic silent epic Le roue (France, 1923)

Joshua Safdie’s We’re Going to the Zoo (United States, 2006)

Joshua Safdie’s I Think I’m Missing Parts (United States, 2007)

Benny Safdie’s The Acquaintances of a Lonely John (United States, 2008)

Gus Van Sant’s Elephant (United States, 2003)

Jacques Audiard’s The Beat That My Heart Skipped (France, 2005)

Barbet Schroeder’s Terror’s Advocate (France, 2007)

Pedro Almodóvar’s Labyrinth of Passion (Spain, 1982)

Hong-jin Na’s The Chaser (South Korea, 2008)

Ryan Fleck’s Half Nelson (United States, 2006)

Jia Zhangke’s Still Life (China, 2006)