MUBI Podcast

Writer/Director Coralie Fargeat's Cannes-winning body-horror blitz THE SUBSTANCE features Demi Moore as an aging star who turns to a mystery drug in hopes of becoming a better, younger version of herself. Fargeat tells host Rico Gagliano about casting Moore, why blood and guts are great metaphors, and the pain of makeup removal. THE SUBSTANCE comes to theaters in the US, UK, Latin America, Ge...

Oscar-winning actor/producer Riz Ahmed (SOUND OF METAL) and acclaimed UK director Yann Mounir Demange (’71, TOP BOY) tell host Rico Gagliano about treading the line between truth and fiction in DAMMI—Demange’s semi-autobiographical short about an angry young man trying to come to terms with his identity, his dad, and his birthplace: Paris. DAMMI is now streaming exclusively on MUBI worldwide. More...

With Cannes 2024 underway, host Rico Gagliano takes a tour of the less-known corners of the legendary film festival—avoiding red-carpet glamour to bring you tales of spiritual seekers, aspiring filmmakers on the street, and the ongoing drama of the fest’s favorite dive bar. Featuring on-location conversations with Wim Wenders, UK critic Anna Bogutskaya, ecumenical jury member Jane Stranz, and a bu...

Legendary filmmaker Wim Wenders returns to the show to tell host Rico Gagliano about his Cannes-winning, Oscar-nominated PERFECT DAYS—the story of a Tokyo toilet cleaner who finds joy in routine. They also get into a few of Wenders’s favorite things: Japan, travel, Nina Simone, and having time on his hands. PERFECT DAYS will stream exclusively on MUBI in the UK, India, Turkey, and Latin America st...

Superstar fashion designer John Galliano wrecked his career when he was caught on video in a drunken, antisemitic rant circa 2011. Now, in a new documentary, Oscar-winning documentarian Kevin Macdonald (WHITNEY, ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER) asks audiences to gaze into Galliano’s eyes and decide for themselves if he deserves a second act. On this special episode, Macdonald tells host Rico Gagliano about c...

In a wide-ranging interview, Sofia Coppola tells host Rico Gagliano all about the making of her new Priscilla Presley biopic—from the Kubrick flick that inspired her opening sequence...to picking the soundtrack full of pop tunes by just about everyone except Elvis. It's a follow-up to last week's career-spanning look at the themes threaded through Coppola's films and fashions—and a...

There’s maybe no working filmmaker more associated with film fashion than Sofia Coppola. But in this brief history of her super-stylish body of work, we figure out the thematic stitching inside those perfect fits. Host Rico Gagliano talks with Coppola, her brother (and collaborator) Roman, and her award-winning costume designers past and present, to learn how the director depicts her characters’ s...

Spike Lee’s masterwork DO THE RIGHT THING is an incendiary look at racial tension, an empathetic portrait of a community...and one of the flyest-ever distillations of street style as the ’80s gave way to the ’90s. Host Rico Gagliano learns how double Oscar-winner Ruth E. Carter (BLACK PANTHER) used bright color, afro-consciousness, and a whole lot of Nike sneakers to build a look as complex and po...

In 1979, at the tail end of the punk era, Franc Roddam’s QUADROPHENIA helped convince a certain crew of UK kids to favor sharp suits over bondage gear. Host Rico Gagliano tells the twisty story of the movie, the ‘60s mod subculture it celebrates, and the mod revival it fueled.  Guests include Roddam himself, superstar fashion designer Anna Sui, mod historians Paolo Hewitt and Eddie Piller…and a ca...

In 1959, a brash critic-turned-filmmaker named Jean-Luc Godard cast movie star Jean Seberg in his first film, BREATHLESS. You probably know it revolutionized movies, but it also had a big impact on fashion, onscreen and off—by seeming like it wasn’t even trying. With the help of historians and critics, host Rico Gagliano decodes Seberg’s “French Girl” style…and also gives you a peek into his ’70s...

The Cannes-winning HOW TO HAVE SEX tracks a trio of UK women on a non-stop clubbing holiday...that goes disturbingly off the rails. In this special episode, writer/director Molly Manning Walker tells host Rico Gagliano about the highs and lows of party culture, why consent should be more than a word, and how she prefers her roller coasters. HOW TO HAVE SEX will stream exclusively on MUBI in the UK...

As the “Hot Labor Summer” of union strikes rolls into autumn, legendary British director Ken Loach sits down with host Rico Gagliano to look back on a long career spent telling the stories of working people…and why it might end with THE OLD OAK: a call for solidarity in a northern industrial town. THE OLD OAK releases in cinemas in the UK and Ireland on September 29 and will come to US theaters in...

Sundance favorite Sebastián Silva tells host Rico Gagliano about his self-described "misanthropic comedy" ROTTING IN THE SUN—the satirical story of a happy hedonist and a not-so-happy filmmaker who end up in the middle of a Hitchcockian mystery. Silva dishes on how he teamed up with superstar Instagrammer Jordan Firstman, the importance of self-mockery, and the film's already-infamo...

"Let's just say I wanted to make a liberated film. I felt like...am I allowed to say 'f*** it?' Like, 'f*** it.'" So says legendary indie filmmaker Ira Sachs about PASSAGES, his seriously sexy Sundance hit about an insatiable artist in a messy modern love triangle. In this special episode, Sachs tells host Rico Gagliano how his all-star cast (Ben Whishaw, Franz R...

Oscar-nominated Hungarian filmmaker Ildiko Enyedi is celebrated for her bold, unclassifiable features (like the Cannes-winning sci-fi MY 20TH CENTURY).  But at this year’s Cannes she trained her eye on smaller-scale visions: She helmed the jury picking the festival’s best short films. Enyedi tells host Rico Gagliano about her own whimsical shorts, her optimism for the future of the form, and fangi...

At Cannes, celebrated Portuguese directing duo Filipa Reis and Joao Miller Guerra debuted LEGUA — a movie about a housekeeper tending to an empty country estate… and the sacrifices she’s willing to make for work and friendship. Reis tells host Rico Gagliano about turning the camera on her own privilege, the joys and challenges of tag-team directing, and an ’80s Portuguese pop track that’s one of t...

Filmmaker Joanna Arnow’s shorts and docs are funny, fearless looks at people at their most excruciatingly vulnerable — especially herself.  In her debut feature THE FEELING THAT THE TIME FOR DOING SOMETHING HAS PASSED, she ratchets up the deadpan humor to tell the story of a woman navigating the alternately mundane and surreal worlds of work, family…and BDSM relationships. Arnow sits down with hos...

Belgian rapper-turned-auteur Baloji was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo —  where for some, his name literally means “demon.”  So it’s no surprise that his mind-bending first feature OMEN is all about characters society considers cursed. Baloji tells host Rico Gagliano about this kaleidoscopic debut, the pressures of competition at Cannes, and the scene in PULP FICTION that broke his brain...

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 abou...

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 ma...

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...

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...

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 ar...

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...

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 writ...