In their sophomore feature BLACKBIRD BLACKBIRD BLACKBERRY, Georgian-born filmmaker Elene Naveriani tells the story of a middle-aged virgin in a small Georgian town who dares to start living the life she feels like leading — gossips and the patriarchy be damned. Naveriani tells host Rico Gagliano about the movie’s big little moments, its “instinctive feminist” hero, and what powdered soap says about Georgian society. Every May, the population of sleepy Cannes, France triples — as film pros...

L.A. filmmaker Weston Razooli’s debut feature RIDDLE OF FIRE is like if THE GOONIES were directed by Francois Truffaut — a tale of three modern kids on an old-fashioned adventure in the woods, facing down a family of witches. Razooli tells host Rico Gagliano about his D&D-soaked childhood in Utah, how he cast the kids… and the afterparty following the film’s Cannes premiere, which sounds as magical — and kinda dangerous — as his movie. Every May, the population of sleepy Cannes, France...

Quebecois actor and director Monia Chokri is a Cannes regular — who in her films, regularly returns to her favorite themes: Very smart women having a very hard time figuring out relationships. Host Rico Gagliano stole a few minutes with her at this year’s Cannes to try and figure out why — and to learn about her charmer of a dramedy THE NATURE OF LOVE, one of the hits of the festival. MUBI Podcast Season 4 — Conversations At Cannes: Every May, the population of sleepy Cannes, France triples...

In 2019, Brazil's Kleber Mendonça Filho won the Jury Prize at Cannes with his co-directed movie BACURAU.  This year he returned to the fest to premiere a documentary about movies.  Or more specifically, about the places we watch them. In the second installment of our mini-season of conversations taped on location at Cannes '23, Filho tells host Rico Gagliano about PICTURES OF GHOSTS.  It's his look back at the movie palaces in his home town of Recife, and how he's come to terms with how they...

To kick off our mini-season of conversations taped on location at the 2023 Cannes film festival, host Rico Gagliano meets up with legendary director Wim Wenders (Buena Vista Social Club; Paris, Texas). The subject of their conversation: Wenders' new 3D documentary Anselm, which plunges the audience into the work of German fine artist Anselm Kiefer.  Wenders explains why he loves making art about artists, and how Kiefer’s dark, often confrontational pieces...are actually childlike. Every May,...

We wrap up our season on great needle drops with an interview mixtape. Host Rico Gagliano talks to three legendary music supervisors about their iconic pairings of music and image...a bunch of which likely provided the soundtrack to some part of your life. Featuring Randall Poster (KIDS, THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, SUMMER OF SOUL), Margaret Yen (JUNO), and the late John Hughes's go-to music guy Tarquin Gotch—who helped FERRIS BUELLER twist and shout on his infamous day off. The third season of...

In his gritty ’55 flick BLACKBOARD JUNGLE, director Richard Brooks introduced a wide audience to Sidney Poitier, the harsh world of inner-city schools...and a genre of music called "rock ‘n’ roll." Host Rico Gagliano tells the story of Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock"—cinema's first rock needle drop—with the help of music detective and author Jim Dawson, film writer Anna Ariadne Knight, and actor Peter Ford...the Hollywood kid who may have accidentally started the rock-n-roll era. The...

Shot on a shoestring in six wild weeks, CHUNGKING EXPRESS is the movie that put legendary Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar Wai on the international map—along with his star, pop diva Faye Wong...and her Cantonese cover of The Cranberries's hit "Dreams." Host Rico Gagliano learns how the song, the director, and the singer all came together to capture Hong Kong at a moment of anxiety and hope—and how the tune still unites people in karaoke bars across Asia. Featuring Cranberries guitarist Noel...

In his Oscar-nominated CLOSE, filmmaker Lukas Dhont uses the sparest dialogue, the gentlest music, and the most pastoral of images...to tell a shattering story about the brutal ways society turns boys into men. We're taking a mid-season break from our series on movie music to bring you this candid interview with Dhont—in which he tells host Rico Gagliano how he writes like a dancer, why this quiet film is intended as a loud political statement, and what it has in common with James Cameron's...

In 1972, director Perry Henzell set a gritty crime thriller in Jamaica's exploding, politically charged music scene, and came up with THE HARDER THEY COME—the cult-movie spark  that started reggae music's slow burn around the world. Host Rico Gagliano tells the story of a film and a soundtrack that inspired rebels and rockers from the Clash to Willie Nelson. Guests include Henzell's daughter Justine, UK music writer Lloyd Bradley, and Paul Douglas—drummer and bandleader of reggae legends The...

In 2001, writer/director Richard Kelly's genre-busting rookie feature DONNIE DARKO crashed and burned at the box office. But it almost immediately rose from the ashes to become one of the first cult hits of the 21st century...and it took the music of '80s band Tears for Fears along for the ride. Host Rico Gagliano tells this twisty tale with the help of Kelly, star Jena Malone (THE HUNGER GAMES), and the film's composer Michael Andrews—whose stripped-down cover of Tears's "Mad World" became...

In 1968, Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi epic 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY pushed movies light years into the future. It pioneered the use of special effects, makeup, sound design…and needle drops. For the season debut of our audio documentary series, host Rico Gagliano tells the story of the now-legendary classical tracks Kubrick dropped into his space movie—something the director did against the advice of just about everybody, and to the detriment of at least two composers’ mental and physical health....

The multiple-Oscar-nominated psychodrama TÁR is the story of a compulsive, privileged leader who abuses her power. In this special episode of the MUBI Podcast, writer/director Todd Field tells host Rico Gagliano why he set that story in a concert hall instead of the halls of politics. Also up for discussion: Cate Blanchett’s small miracles, why Field prefers marathons to sprints, and his mentor Stanley Kubrick’s biggest fear. TÁR is now showing in theaters in many countries and is available...

Charlotte Wells's wildly acclaimed feature-length debut AFTERSUN follows a father and daughter on a vacation where much is implied but little is said...unless you listen close to the soundtrack. In this special bonus episode, Wells tells host Rico Gagliano about the '80s and '90s-era needle drops that pepper the film, from Bran Van 3000 to the accidental discovery of a Queen track that suddenly spoke volumes. They also dive into the movie’s subtle performances, and try to unpack why this...

In 1972, a lush pop ballad called "The Mist" swirled out of radios all over South Korea. Fifty years later, master auteur Park Chan-wook has taken it as the main inspiration for his celebrated new thriller-romance DECISION TO LEAVE. In this special episode of the award-winning MUBI Podcast, Park tells host Rico Gagliano about the song's influence on the film, unveils the musical inspiration for a possible future project...and explains why his action sequences always seem to leave his...

"Only in Theaters" concludes with the cautionary tale of the Majestic. Africa's island region of Zanzibar used to be movie crazy — but today just one cinema remains: The Majestic, a 1950s-era building with roots that go back even further. Host Rico Gagliano speaks to folks around the world about the wild glory days of Zanzibar's cinema culture, why it's now on the brink of extinction...and then takes hope from an itinerant film programmer 6000 miles away in Amsterdam. Featuring celebrated...

This week, we have a special bonus episode courtesy of our Latin American podcast MUBI Podcast: Encuentros. To celebrate the exclusive release of MEMORIA on MUBI in many countries, we're excited to share this discussion between Tilda Swinton and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Swinton and Weerasethakul reunited in Colombia for MEMORIA's release and talked about the importance of understanding that you’re not in control and how cinema is an attempt to put what’s inside one’s head on screen,...

For the first half-century of cinema, most movies were made and printed on nitrate film. Problem: it easily decomposes, it's easily combustible, and once it's on fire, you can't put it out.  Only a few theaters on Earth can safely screen nitrate prints...and only one has an annual festival dedicated to the format: The George Eastman Museum's Dryden Theatre in Rochester, New York with its Nitrate Picture Show. To understand why it's important to screen these original treasures in an age of...

In the grey Thatcher-era England of the '80s, a romantically dilapidated London movie palace called The Scala beckoned to England's subcultures — and influenced filmmakers from Christopher Nolan to Steve McQueen. Host Rico Gagliano learns the wild, seedy, and ultimately poignant history of what John Waters called, "A country club for lunatics." Special guests include directors Mary Harron (AMERICAN PSYCHO), Peter Strickland (BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO) and Prano Bailey-Bond (CENSOR), plus film...

Hal Ashby's HAROLD AND MAUDE debuted to generally poor reviews, and worse box office.  But in suburban Minneapolis, a humble second-run neighborhood theater called The Westgate found the film an audience...and helped turn it into one of the biggest cult hits of all time. Host Rico Gagliano gets the story from HAROLD AND MAUDE producer Charles Mulvehill — one of the few living members of the film's creative team — and an endearing cast of local characters who, back in 1972, found themselves...

In 1970, a scruffy repertory theater — led by the visionary Ben Barenholtz — quietly placed a print ad in the Village Voice, advertising midnight screenings of a Spanish-language western they claimed was "too heavy to be shown any other way."  The movie was Alejandro Jodorowsky's EL TOPO, and it'd kick off the "Midnite Movie" craze that changed moviegoing. Hear the history of the Elgin Theater and its legendary, weed-soaked screenings of  EL TOPO, featuring commentary from ex-Voice critic J...

In 1940s France, a little 50-seat cinema opened that would launch one revolution on international movie screens...and arguably a second one in the streets of Paris. Host Rico Gagliano delves into the wild history of the Cinémathèque Française and its legendary founder, Henri Langlois. Featuring interviews with directors Barbet Schroeder (BARFLY, REVERSAL OF FORTUNE) and Luc Moullet (BRIGITTE ET BRIGITTE), plus New Yorker writer Louis Menand, Amy Nicholson of the podcast "Unspooled" and many...

On this special episode, host Rico Gagliano talks to Cannes-winning filmmaker Mahamat-Saleh Haroun about his latest film LINGUI, THE SACRED BONDS — the story of a mother trying to secure an abortion for her daughter...in Chad, a country where abortion is illegal. Haroun opens up about the movie's real-life inspirations, the collective power of women, and about his homeland's last remaining movie theater — the palace where he learned to tell stories. LINGUI, THE SACRED BONDS is now streaming...

In this special episode, acclaimed filmmaker Joachim Trier tells host Rico Gagliano about how and why he made his tender look at messy modern romance, THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD—from constructing its Oscar-nominated screenplay to casting his star Renate Reinsve (who went on to win Best Actress at Cannes for the role). He also reflects on the dangers of nostalgia and then indulges in some of his own, looking back on the movies—and movie theaters—that shaped him. THE WORST PERSON IN THE...

The MUBI Podcast returns this week with a special episode. Host Rico Gagliano speaks with Oscar-winning filmmaker Andrea Arnold (AMERICAN HONEY, FISH TANK) about COW — her gripping debut documentary chronicling the life of a single dairy cow. In the interview, Arnold opens up about the deeply personal interpretations audiences have brought to the nearly dialogue-free film, and how making it has affected her own interactions with creatures great and small. Fresh off receiving a BAFTA...