MUBI Podcast

MUBI Podcast

The MUBI Podcast is an audio documentary series about great cinema–how it happens and how it brings people together. Each season, host Rico Gagliano deep dives into a different facet of the film world, from history making cinemas to legendary needle drops. It has been twice named Best Arts or Entertainment Podcast in the L.A. Press Club’s 2022 and 2023 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards. It was nominated for a 2022 Webby Award for Best Individual Podcast Episode - TV or Film, and for Best New Podcast at the 2022 British Podcast Awards. Most recently, the series was nominated for Best Entertainment Show and Best Scriptwriting (Non-fiction) at the 2023 Ambie Awards.

Episodes

March 6, 2025 25 mins

GRAND THEFT HAMLET tells the radical tale of a band of artists who stage a virtual production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet inside the online video game Grand Theft Auto. But it’s hardly the first time filmmakers have messed with Shakespeare’s great Dane.

Host Rico Gagliano learns the history of Hamlet on screen, with help from the movie’s cocreators, Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane, director Michael Almereyda (HAMLET 2000), and Rico’s own pla...

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The Oscar-nominated THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE is inspired by the grim, gripping true story of one of Denmark's most infamous criminals.  Director/co-writer Magnus von Horn tells guest host Anna Bogutskaya about recreating the horror of a century ago, and how it might not be all that different than right now.

THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE is now streaming exclusively on MUBI in North America, UK, Ireland, Latin America, Germany, Austr...

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For their first project together since last year's steamy hit CHALLENGERS, director Luca Guadagnino (CALL ME BY YOUR NAME) and writer Justin Kuritzkes tackle another story about a sensuous 1950s romance of desire and longing: an adaptation of William S. Burroughs' novel QUEER. The pair tell host Rico Gagliano about why they vibe, how they make audiences feel the heat, and how their films are like a MAD MAX movie.

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After THE MATRIX and V FOR VENDETTA, the Wachowskis were ready to turn from darkness, into the bright, bright candy-colored light. The result was SPEED RACER, an eyepopping postmodern explosion that honored the gravity-defying spirit of old-school anime… and which audiences couldn’t quite figure out.

Host Rico Gagliano talks with the SPEED RACER star Roger Allam (THE THICK OF IT), legendary special effects artist John Gaet...

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When screenwriter Charlie Kaufman started making his epic, heartbreaking directorial debut SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK, he was the toast of Hollywood. Then it flopped, put a pause on his career, and arguably marked the end of the heady “indiewood” era of the oughties. Host Rico Gagliano talks to one of the film’s stars, Daniel London (MINORITY REPORT), comedy star and SYNECDOCHE superfan Jamie Demetriou (FLEABAG), and LA Times critic Amy ...

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In 1994, indie darlings the Coen Brothers went for the big time with a playful pastiche of classic Hollywood movies that pulled out every visual and comedic stop… and still crashed and burned at the box office. Host Rico Gagliano tells the story of the soaring Coens movie that paved the way for the flatlands of FARGO. Guests include HUDSUCKER’s legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins (BLADE RUNNER 2049), acclaimed film podcaster Ka...

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It’s hard to imagine Katharine Hepburn as anything but a Hollywood icon. But in 1935, director George Cukor’s dreamy, gender-fluid comedy SYLVIA SCARLETT derailed her career for years. Host Rico Gagliano tells the story of a movie with sexual politics way ahead of its time — and which paid for it dearly at the box office. Guests include movie star and Hepburn devotee Rebecca Hall (THE PRESTIGE), film scholar Elyce Rae Helford (WHAT...

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The first BABE was a family-friendly megahit. So for the sequel, why did director George Miller thrust his sweet porcine hero into a family-unfriendly nightmare?  Host Rico Gagliano takes a trot down the mean streets of BABE: PIG IN THE CITY, telling the story of its rise and box-office fall with the help of guests including Farmer Hoggett himself, James Cromwell (SUCCESSION), and voice-of-Babe E.G. Daily (PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE)....

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In the mid-’70s, legendary director William Friedkin — fresh off THE EXORCIST — helicoptered into South America with tens of millions of dollars… and emerged with malaria and a bleak, thrilling masterpiece called SORCERER. The only problem was the competition: A little movie called STAR WARS.

Host Rico Gagliano tells the story of how SORCERER crashed and burned at the box office — with help from the film’s screenwriter Wal...

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Director Kyle Edward Ball had a nightmare as a child: "I was in my parents’ house, my parents were missing, and there was a monster." Turns out, this is a nightmare a lot of people have had. After honing this craft on his YouTube channel, he finally made his film… and then it leaked online. 

Joined by Ball himself and Dread Central’s editor-in-chief MaryBeth McAndrews, Anna explores how SKINAMARINK became the perfect haunt...

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Few films have garnered the rabid, cult following over the years is a sight to behold. Giant cats. Talking houses. Heads coming out of wells. The images might be familiar, but the story behind the film is less so. The debut feature from experimental filmmaker Nobuhiko Obayashi was done in collaboration with his 10-year-old daughter.

Season 6, titled Haunted Homes, explores how haunted house movies have mirrored our relati...

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The most famous haunted house in America is a large Dutch Colonial family home that became a bestseller, super-successful horror movie and a franchise that has spawned over 60 movies (and counting). And it’s all based…on a con. Together with horror critic Jenn Addams, FANGORIA editor-in-chief Phil Nobile Jr. and Bloody Disgusting critic Joe Lipsett, who is possibly the only person in the world to have watched all the Amityville fil...

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After a bad experience in Hollywood, Guillermo del Toro had lost his spark. He got it back with a story of a haunted orphanage during the Spanish Civil War, a script he wrote when he was still a student. 

Together with the film’s producer Rosa Bosch, BFI’s Creative Director and author of THE FABER BOOK OF MEXICAN CINEMA Jason Wood and co-host of the Filmspotting podcast Josh Larsen, guest host Anna Bogutskaya finds out how THE DEVIL...

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Before POLTERGEIST, haunted house movies took place in old, creepy mansions. Regular host Rico Gagliano visits the original suburban house in California to check for ghosts and hands over to guest host Anna Bogutskaya to explore how POLTERGEIST transformed horror movies forever with the help of the movie’s star JoBeth Williams, original publicist Mick Garris and horror filmmaker Vincenzo Natali. 

Season 6, titled Haunted Homes, expl...

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Writer/Director Coralie Fargeat's Cannes-winning body-horror blitz THE SUBSTANCE features Demi Moore as an aging star who turns to a mystery drug in hopes of becoming a better, younger version of herself. Fargeat tells host Rico Gagliano about casting Moore, why blood and guts are great metaphors, and the pain of makeup removal.

THE SUBSTANCE comes to theaters in the US, UK, Latin America, Germany, Canada and Netherla...

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Oscar-winning actor/producer Riz Ahmed (SOUND OF METAL) and acclaimed UK director Yann Mounir Demange (’71, TOP BOY) tell host Rico Gagliano about treading the line between truth and fiction in DAMMI—Demange’s semi-autobiographical short about an angry young man trying to come to terms with his identity, his dad, and his birthplace: Paris.

DAMMI is now streaming exclusively on MUBI worldwide.

More films from Riz...

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With Cannes 2024 underway, host Rico Gagliano takes a tour of the less-known corners of the legendary film festival—avoiding red-carpet glamour to bring you tales of spiritual seekers, aspiring filmmakers on the street, and the ongoing drama of the fest’s favorite dive bar. Featuring on-location conversations with Wim Wenders, UK critic Anna Bogutskaya, ecumenical jury member Jane Stranz, and a bunch of random passersby.

W...

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Legendary filmmaker Wim Wenders returns to the show to tell host Rico Gagliano about his Cannes-winning, Oscar-nominated PERFECT DAYS—the story of a Tokyo toilet cleaner who finds joy in routine. They also get into a few of Wenders’s favorite things: Japan, travel, Nina Simone, and having time on his hands.

PERFECT DAYS will stream exclusively on MUBI in the UK, India, Turkey, and Latin America starting April 12, and the f...

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Superstar fashion designer John Galliano wrecked his career when he was caught on video in a drunken, antisemitic rant circa 2011. Now, in a new documentary, Oscar-winning documentarian Kevin Macdonald (WHITNEY, ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER) asks audiences to gaze into Galliano’s eyes and decide for themselves if he deserves a second act.

On this special episode, Macdonald tells host Rico Gagliano about coming to terms with fashio...

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In a wide-ranging interview, Sofia Coppola tells host Rico Gagliano all about the making of her new Priscilla Presley biopic—from the Kubrick flick that inspired her opening sequence...to picking the soundtrack full of pop tunes by just about everyone except Elvis.

It's a follow-up to last week's career-spanning look at the themes threaded through Coppola's films and fashions—and a fitting end to our season....

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