The new season of the award-winning MUBI Podcast, titled “Only in Theaters,” features great filmmakers telling stories of cinemas that made movie history, including exclusive commentary from directors Barbet Schroeder, Luc Moullet, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Mary Harron, Peter Strickland, Prano Bailey-Bond, Nick Broomfield, and more. Additionally, film writers J Hoberman, Amy Nicholson, Louis Menand, Danny Leigh and many more also add insights.
The complete season is now available and is paired with a Special Bonus Episode “Being Like Water” featuring Tilda Swinton and Apichatpong Weerasethakuldiscussing their latest film Memoria, and coinciding with MUBI’s exclusive release of the film in Germany, Italy, India, Turkey, and select countries in Latin America.
This conversation explores the creative process of two of film’s greatest names while working together on the film, an intimate collaboration founded on their long friendship. Swinton and Weerasethakul reunited in Colombia for Memoria’s release and talked about the importance of understanding that you’re not in control and how cinema is an attempt to put what’s inside one’s head on screen, something they achieved through sound.
Hosted by acclaimed arts and travel reporter Rico Gagliano, the MUBI Podcast is a documentary-style show available on all major podcast platforms and on MUBI’s online publication Notebook.
Season two, titled “Only in Theaters,” tells surprising stories of individual cinemas that had a huge impact on film history, and in some cases, history in general. Recently, cinemas have been facing many unique challenges, especially during the last two years of the pandemic, and in a time when too many cinemas are shutting down, MUBI continues to be committed to celebrating them and lifting them up. MUBI GO, which provides members with one free hand-picked movie ticket every week, launched in the UK in 2018 and in the US in 2021 (expanding throughout 2022), and like “Only in Theatres,” reinforces the essential role cinemas play in our daily lives.
Season 2 episodes include:
Episode 1: The Cinémathèque Française Launches Two Revolutions
The story of the Cinematheque Francaise, which so inspired a generation of filmmakers around the world, that when its founder was briefly fired, it led to demonstrations in the streets of Paris — and arguably set the stage for the May ‘68 protests that followed.
Episode 2: The Elgin and EL TOPO plunge NYC into “Midnite Madness”
The birth of the Midnite Movie phenomenon at New York’s Elgin Theater, with its legendary late-night screenings of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo.
Episode 3: HAROLD AND MAUDE find new life at The Westgate
The story of the Westgate, an unassuming neighborhood cinema in suburban Minnesota where a record-breaking two-year run of Harold and Maude helped turn that film from a total flop into one of the most beloved movies of the 20th century.
Episode 4: London’s Scala Cinema becomes “A country club for lunatics” (feat. Mary Harron and Peter Strickland)
The rise and fall of London’s infamous Scala Cinema Club, where punk and cinema collided in the shadow of conservative Thatcher-era Britain, and inspired filmmakers from Mary Harron to Steve McQueen.
Episode 5: The Dryden Theatre’s Nitrate Picture Show explodes our view of movie history
The George Eastman Museum’s Dryden Theatre, home of the unique Nitrate Picture Show, which spotlights the irreplaceable experience of seeing rare, highly-flammable nitrate prints projected.
Episode 6: Zanzibar’s Majestic, the Last Cinema Standing (feat. Nick Broomfield)
And finally, the cautionary tale of the Majestic Theatre – the last purpose-built cinema left on the island of Zanzibar…and one of very few cinemas left in the entire country of Tanzania.
This ambitious second season follows the show’s award-winning inaugural season, which was released last summer. MUBI Podcast: Season 1, titled “Lost in Translation,” focused on films that have great importance in their home country, but are less celebrated by international audiences and critics. Guests included directorsPaul Verhoeven and Bruno Barreto. It earned international critical acclaim, including a spotlighted recommendation from podcast tastemaker Nick Quah in NY Magazine-Vulture, and was named Best Arts or Entertainment Podcast in the L.A. Press Club’s National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards. It was nominated for a Webby Award for Best Individual Episode – TV or Film. MUBI Podcast was also nominated for Best New Podcast at the 2022 British Podcast Awards.
LISTEN TO ALL EPISODES & SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE
