Having missed out in a vintage year at Cannes, Diao Yinan’s dazzling The Wild Goose Lake is now available to stream – joining some of this fine director’s earlier work
The further it recedes in the rearview mirror, the more last year’s Cannes competition looks like an exceptionally good vintage. This week,
British cinema audiences can finally see the rapturous beauty of Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire for themselves, while Parasite, now with a history-making Oscar win to match its Palme d’Or, keeps racking up the numbers. That’s in addition to such standouts released last year as Atlantics, Pain and Glory and Once Upon a Time in
Hollywood, with plenty yet to come: only half of last year’s competition has yet been released at all.
Mubi, of course, is helping out with some lower-profile treasures. They have ferocious Brazilian provocation Bacurau coming in cinemas and on streaming later in March. Better yet, however, they’ve just added Diao Yinan’s dazzling The Wild Goose Lake to their 30-day streaming menu. The best film at Cannes last year not to win any kind of prize at all, it’s also been sold a bit short by not getting a cinema release. Don’t let it pass you by, however: this Chinese film noir is an eye-popping, screen-filling vision that deserves wider attention.