March At MUBI Will Be 'Funky and Reflective'

Female adolescence, Chinese underground clubs and an reflective, explorative eye of the female body. March is only days away and MUBI getting ready for the new month with a programme of films that are ‘Funky and Reflective’.

After a cinematic run Sofia Coppola‘s Priscilla will be head to the channel. Along side Female Cinematographers to Suzanne Pitt animation and Ryan Gosling…

PRISCILLA

Continuing her career-long intrigue into the complexities of female adolescence, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla (2023), a brazen of Priscilla Presley’s turbulent marriage with Elvis Presley, arrives exclusively on MUBI this March.

When teenage Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny) meets Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi) at a party, the man who is already a meteoric rock-and-roll superstar becomes someone entirely unexpected in private moments: a thrilling crush, an ally in loneliness, a vulnerable best friend. Through Priscilla’s eyes, Sofia Coppola tells the unseen side of a great American myth in Elvis and Priscilla’s long courtship and turbulent marriage, from a German army base to his dream-world estate at Graceland, in this deeply felt and ravishingly detailed portrait of love, fantasy, and fame.

Priscilla (Coppola, 2023) – 1st March

THE LAST YEAR OF DARKNESS

As the city of Chengdu changes, the future of beloved club Funky Town is unclear. For a vibrant group of DJs, drag performers, lovers, ravers, and skaters, this is a sanctuary for underground partying that allows them to thrive after hours. But when the sun comes up, the friends are forced to face what brought them to the party in the first place.

Filmmaker Benjamin Mullinkosson writes a love letter to the free-spirited personalities of Chengdu’s party scene in The Last Year of Darkness (2023). Captured over 5 years, this raw, immersive and hypnotic documentary is a coming-of-age tale that celebrates the ephemerality of youth – from love to loss, from throwing up to growing up. Exclusively on MUBI.

The Last Year of Darkness (Mullinkosson, 2023) – 15th March

OUR BODY

In the gynecology ward of a Parisian public hospital, French documentarian Claire Simon, questions what it means to live in women’s bodies, filming their diversity, singularity and their beauty in all stages throughout life. Our Body (2023) is a profound, humane and comionate exploration of women’s health issues demystifying and de-objectifying the female body.

Made by an all-female crew, this critically acclaimed documentary displays Simon’s characteristic non-judgemental, deeply invested and empathetic eye. Unique stories of desires, fears and struggles unfold, including from Simon herself as she unexpectedly becomes one of her own subjects when she is diagnosed with cancer.

Our Body (Claire Simon, 2023) – 8th March

RAMONA

Victoria Linares Villegas blurs the lines of fiction and reality with Ramona (2023), her self-reflexive film which follows a young actress preparing for the role of a pregnant teenager by interviewing young women about pregnancy and motherhood. In the process, the girls candidly recount their lives and circumstances, shaping the character of Ramona and allowing her to become an ode to the power of female collaborative creativity.

Ramona (Villegas, 2023) – 8th March

CALLING THE SHOTS: WOMEN CINEMATOGRAPHERS

As women have found more equal footing in the film industry as directors, producers, and screenwriters, cinematography remains a stubborn final frontier. This month, we are spotlighting the artistic and technical work of women working behind the camera. Calling the Shots: Women Cinematographers explores some of the best and most visually stunning films of the last decades showcasing work from the very beginning of cinema to some of the best cinematographers working today.

Holy Motors (Carax, 2012) – 8th March
House of Tolerance (Bonello, 2011) – 8th March
BPM (Beats Per Minute) (Campillo, 2017) – 8th March
Thursday Till Sunday (Castillo, 2012) – 8th March
Great Freedom (Meise, 2021) – Now Streaming
Petite Maman (Sciamma, 2021) – Now Streaming
Benedetta (Verhoeven, 2021) – Now Streaming
Annette (Carax, 2021) – Now Streaming
Corpo Celeste (Rohrwacher, 2011) – Now Streaming
The Wonders (Rohrwacher, 2014) – Now Streaming
Beach Rats (Hittman, 2017) – Now Streaming
The Second Mother (Muylaert, 2015) – Now Streaming

SUZAN PITT FOCUS

Discover the dreamlike world of American independent film animator and painter Suzan Pitt through an almost complete retrospective of her visionary work – 7 short films exploring the subconscious, female sexuality, domestic life and more. A figure of underground and experimental cinema, Suzan Pitt made an impression with her striking handcrafted animated films, plunging audiences into her surrealist and psychedelic universe.

Crocus (Pitt, 1971) – 22nd March
Jefferson Circus Songs (Pitt, 1973) – 22nd March
Asparagus (Pitt, 1973) – 22nd March
Joy Street (Pitt, 1973) – 22nd March
El Doctor (Pitt, 2006) – 22nd March
Visitation (Pitt, 2013) – 22nd March
Pinball (Pitt, 2013) – 22nd March

PERFORMERS WE LOVE: RYAN GOSLING

You’d be hard-pressed to find somebody who doesn’t have a soft-spot for Ryan Gosling, and this March we are celebrating his eclectic career with three of his most iconic roles. Starting with his breakthrough role in Ryan Fleck’s Half Nelson (2006), Gosling plays Dan, an inspirational history teacher in a Brooklyn high school battling substance addiction once the school day is over. Usually capable of separating his school-life and substance addiction, his two worlds collide when a student catches him high after school–forcing the two to form an unlikely friendship.

Meanwhile in Nicolas Winding Refn’s neo-noir Drive (2011) and its spiritual successor Only God Forgives (2013), Gosling drops the amiable nice-guy act and shows his range as an elusive and aloof mobster. Both films demonstrate Gosling’s remarkable ability to play a stone-faced stoic capable of performing acts of great violence to protect the ones he loves.

Half Nelson (Fleck, 2006) – 1st March
Drive (Refn, 2011) – 1st March
Only God Forgives (Refn, 2013) – 1st March

GILDED IONS: FILMS BY MERCHANT IVORY

Adding to the lavish historical world of Merchant Ivory, MUBI is happy to announce the addition of two new James Ivory films to the Merchant Ivory Collection. The sensuous Heat and Dust (1983) follows historical researcher Anna (Julie Christie) as she becomes obsessed with uncovering the provocative past of her great-aunt after inheriting the letters of her youth. The letters lead Anna to India where remnants of her great-aunt’s scandalous affair with a prince bring the letters to life, all the while discovering ion for herself.

Maurice (1987) meanwhile follows the suppressed love affair of two men facing the puritanical values of Edwardian England. Maurice (James Wilby) and Clive (Hugh Grant) fall in love while reading at Cambridge, at a time when homosexuality was an imprisonable offence. Delicate and romantic in tone, the film celebrates their romance while also understanding the bleak compromises they must make to find happiness in an oppressive society.

Heat and Dust (Ivory, 1983) – 29th March
Maurice (Ivory, 1987) – 29th March
Quartet (Ivory, 1981) – Now Streaming
The Bostonians (Ivory, 1984) – Now Streaming
Howard’s End (Ivory, 1992) – Now Streaming

27

Alice is 27 years old today. She still lives with her parents and tends to live in her dreams to escape her dreary everyday life. After a psychedelic party on a factory roof, she has a serious drunken bike accident. Will this give her the courage to become an adult?

Winner of the 2023 Cannes Palme d’Or for Best Short Film, Flóra Anna Buda’s 27 (2023) is a playful, hallucinatory and raunchy delight. Capturing the vast gulf between imagination and reality, the vibrant, free-flowing animation is a whimsical portrait of finding oneself amid the mess of the world.

27 (Flóra Anna Buda, 2023) – 15th March