MUBI Podcast

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 h...

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...

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...

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 HUNGE...

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 jus...

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 St...

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 t...

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 ins...

"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...

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 understandin...

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 Yor...

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...

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 f...

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 hi...

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 BR...

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 remaini...

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...

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 af...

China’s Lunar New Year movie season is like America’s summer blockbuster season… on steroids.  And it got that way thanks to THE DREAM FACTORY — a wry 1997 comedy directed by Feng Xiaogang, who’d come to be known as “the Chinese Spielberg.”  Host Rico Gagliano gets a crash course on the movie from experts on Chinese cinema, including City University of New York’s Ying Zhu and UCLA’s Michael Berry....

The biggest box office hit in the history of the Soviet Union was an early 1970s Mexican romance so obscure in its home country that even many experts on the era haven’t heard of it.  Host Rico Gagliano talks with several who have, including esteemed cinema historian Ian Christie, Concordia University’s Masha Salazkina, and actress Emoé de la Parra, the daughter of the hugely successful author Yol...

One of the world’s most prolific film industries was founded on the success of a direct-to-video film distributed on VHS cassettes.  Host Rico Gagliano learns the history of LIVING IN BONDAGE — the indie project that launched Nigeria’s “Nollywood.”  Featuring interviews with the movie’s writer/producer Okey Ogunjiofor and director Chris Obi-Rapu. Our first season, titled “Lost in Translation,” spo...

In the mid-70s, in the midst of a military dictatorship, a Brazilian filmmaker barely out of his teens brought a beloved magical realist story about food, sex and happy compromises to the screen... and nearly blew JAWS out of Brazil’s box office waters.  Featuring interviews with the film’s director Bruno Barreto and Kleber Mendonça Filho, co-director of the Cannes-winning BACURAU. Our first seaso...

The longest-running film in Bollywood history, 1995's DILWALE DULHANIA LE JAYENGE (aka DDLJ) caught the imagination of a country in transition and practically created a new Bollywood subgenre. Rico gets the inside story of its creation and legacy from DDLJ co-star Anupam Kher, costume designer Manish Malhotra, and critic Anupama Chopra — who literally wrote the book on this classic rom-com. O...

To get a deeper idea of what makes his favorite country tick, Rico dives into Paul Verhoeven’s wild sophomore feature TURKISH DELIGHT — the biggest home-grown box office hit in the history of the Netherlands.  Featuring interviews with Verhoeven himself, cinematographer Jan de Bont, and star Monique Van De Ven. Our first season, titled “Lost in Translation,” spotlights movies that were massive cul...

Coming soon. The MUBI Podcast. Subscribe now and tune in June 3. Hosted by Rico Gagliano, the first season of the MUBI Podcast focuses on movies that have great importance in their home country, but are lesser known by international audiences and critics. We begin with the unlikely tale of Paul Verhoeven’s infamous second feature TURKISH DELIGHT and its unique significance during the countercultur...