MUBI In March Will Celebrate Female Filmmakers

We’re only less than a week away from March and MUBI will be celebrating next month.With marking International Women’s Day , a focus on female-directed action films which includes Kathryn Bigelow‘s The Hurt Locker.

They will revisit Joanna Hogg‘s superlative The Souvenir Diptych. The continuing Latest & Greatest strand, this month features Alice Winocour‘s Paris Memories starring Virginie Efira and for Short Films Big Names there’s Paweł Pawlikowski‘s Muse. The Comedy of Modern Life: Films by Jacques Tati collection features five classic films from the comic visionary of French cinema. And finally, the foremost aficionado of the F-word, Malcolm Tucker, gives us a masterclass in iconic insults in Armando Iannucci‘s In The Loop.

THE COMEDY OF MODERN LIFE: FILMS BY JACQUES TATI

Take a tour of the modern city with The Comedy of Modern Life: Films by Jacques Tati, a collection of films by the comic visionary Jacques Tati. With a background in mime and performance art, Tati brought forth the character of Monsieur Hulot to the world, the slapstick hero who was played by Tati himself. Monsieur Hulot bumbles his way through modernity and tries to make sense of its many absurdities in films such as Mon Oncle (1958) and Playtime (1967) under Tati’s unique cinematic imagination, a vision that blends physical comedy, ingenious visual gags, and gorgeous detailing of the architecture and design that makes up the modern city.

Jour de fête (Tati, 1949) – 14th March
M. Hulot’s Holiday (Tati, 1953) – 14th March
Mon Oncle (Tati, 1958) – 14th March
Playtime (Tati, 1967) – 14th March
Trafic (Tati, 1971) – 14th March

A PIECE OF THE ACTION

In 2008, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to receive the Academy-Award® for her war action film The Hurt Locker (2008). This year, for International Women’s Day, A Piece of the Action celebrates this trailblazing feat with a series of films directed by women that offer new perspectives to the machismo status-quo of the prototypical action film.

Bigelow’s aforementioned film tracks the explosive dynamic of a bomb disposal squad in Iraq as Sergeant James’ (Jeremy Renner) maverick approach to the work clashes with his more cautious subordinates, plunging them into a deadly game of urban combat. In Let the Corpses Tan (2017), Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani envision warring factions on the searing Mediterranean coast with a painterly sheen. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, Martika Ramirez Escobar blurs fiction and reality with Leonor Will Never Die (2019) as a pioneering female director of action films is struck on the head by a falling television. Now comatosed, Leonor has free reign to finish the unfinished screenplays of her mind, starring as the action hero herself.

The Hurt Locker (Bigelow, 2008) – 8th March
Let the Corpses Tan (Cattet, Forzani, 2017) – 8th March
Lucky Grandma (Sealy, 2019) – 8th March
Leonor Will Never Die (Escobar, 2022) –8th March
Revenge (Fargeat, 2017) – Now Streaming

THE SOUVENIR: A JOANNA HOGG DIPTYCH

By intimately exploring her own personal history, Joanna Hogg’s diptych The Souvenir insists upon the age-old writerly adage to “Write What You Know” by providing an emotionally raw and vulnerable of film student Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) as she searches for integrity in her artistic ambitions and personal romances.

In The Souvenir (2019), we find Julie at an artistic ime as she struggles to find a clear direction in her filmmaking. At the same time she meets Anthony (Tom Burke), and begins an imioned relationship with him, but his dangerous lifestyle threatens the livelihoods of them both. In The Souvenir: Part II (2019), a slightly older Julie finds artistic footing by incorporating her former relationship with Anthony into her graduation film, and while this may be an emotionally cathartic undertaking, she is also faced with creating art that meets the expectations of London’s independent film scene of the time.

The Souvenir (Hogg, 2019) –1st March
The Souvenir: Part II (Hogg, 2021) –1st March

LATEST & GREATEST: PARIS MEMORIES

In Alice Winocour’s somber Paris Memories (2022), Mia (Alice Winocour) survives a deadly terrorist shooting at a bistro in Paris. Three months later, she attempts to contend with her trauma by returning to the scene and speaking to other survivors for answers, only to discover information that further clouds her recollection of the events that transpired that night. This tender portrait of a woman in healing touches upon the subject with grace while also understanding that life can be vastly different for each survivor depending upon their background.

Paris Memories (Winocour, 2022) – 21st March

IN THE LOOP

In Armando Iannucci’s sardonic political satire In the Loop (2009), the UK and US are considering going to war in the Middle East when the British Minister, Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) accidentally makes contradictory public statements on the matter and creates a public relations minefield which draws the ire of the Prime Minister’s ruthless Director of Communications, Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi). While Simon travels to the divided US seeking to rectify the miscommunication, Malcolm desperately plots to fake intelligence that justifies the war.

A chaotic and combustible energy courses throughout the screenplay and ensemble cast that is as gripping as it is accusatory of the suits in charge of politics, while Peter Capaladi’s delivery of his myriad iconic insults has immortalised the film in the British comedy canon.

In the Loop (Iannucci, 2009) – 7th March

SHORT FILMS BIG NAMES: MUSE

From acclaimed Academy-Award® winning director Paweł Pawlikowski comes Muse (2024), a witty visual poem wherein a struggle for power between a pianist and his unruly muse turns murderous.

Pawlikowski’s exhilarating first foray into short filmmaking, co-created with his partner, Polish fashion model and actress Małgosia Bela, marks a striking return to his signature black-and-white cinematography which also defined his acclaimed Cold War (2018) and Academy-Award® winning Ida (2013). Set against a sunlit Greek villa and featuring Bela in the turbulent titular role, the short explores themes of control, inspiration, and the blurred lines between creation and destruction.

Muse (Pawlikowski, 2024) –3rd March

MUBI UK & IRELAND MARCH 2025