As of last week, subscribers to the ever discerning streaming service can now access a huge back catalogue of its film selections. Here are a few top picks…
Regular readers will know that Mubi is a standby in these parts: in a VOD landscape where classic and arthouse cinema is often pushed to dusty, dwindling virtual shelves, its foregrounding of such films has won the streaming service a devoted following. Key to its appeal has been its strictly curated model: 30 films available to subscribers at any one time, each live for only 30 days. That limited but tastefully assembled menu has been a refreshing alternative to the overwhelming content assault of
Netflix and the like – as well as recreating the time-sensitive urgency of seeing films on their first run at the cinema. Only got a day left to watch that Godard film you’ve always wanted to see? Better hop to it, then.
Yet last week saw a significant change over at Mubi that should please subscribers who chafe against having their viewing selected and structured for them – however discerningly. Its 30-day menu remains, including such ongoing strands as this month’s Focus on Céline Sciamma and a Fellini 100 retrospective. To this, however, Mubi has now added a comprehensive Library section, containing hundreds of past curated selections, for viewers who would rather make their own way. Most of its 30-day picks, where rights permit, will transfer to the library once their time is up. This applies retrospectively too, to previous selections. The addition (currently available exclusively on the web, but coming soon to Mubi’s iOS and
Android apps) is granted to all subscribers at no extra cost – so suddenly your £9.99 a month (or £7.99 a month for annual subscribers) goes rather a lot further: well-timed relief for lockdown bargain-hunters seeking to streamline their streaming costs.