Welcome to another update on our growing library of independent, international and classic cinema at MUBI. More films are added each week in different countries, but here are some of my favorites that we’ve added this week:

Films by José Mojica Marins

The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures, Hellish Flesh, The Strange World of Coffin Joe, and the documentary The Strange World of Mojica Marins.

We’re expanding our cult offerings this week with a small but intense group of films by Brazilian cult-horror maestro José Mojica Marins, the legendary creator, director, and actor of the famed Coffin Joe films. Don’t take my word for it, but rather let me point to our honorable comrade in arms Christoph Huber, who profiled Marins for the wonderful Canadian film magazine Cinema Scope on the occasion of the auteur resurrecting his famous bogeyman in 2008 for a new film: The Man, The Myth, Mojica: Zé do Caixão’s incredible comeback. We also include in this series a documentary, The Strange World of José Mojica Marins, for some background on the subject; a film Huber calls “an excellent introduction to [Marins'] work (and myth).”

Available in: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland

Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier, Denmark)

After shocking the film industry with the Dogme 95 manifesto of filmmaking restrictions, Lars von Trier prototypically does an about face to break all the rules he himself set up. (He would later make a single Dogme film, The Idiots, but then return to the aesthetic of Breaking the Waves digitally with Dancer in the Dark.) Breaking the Waves marked a new phase in the career of one of the most prominent international filmmakers of our time, shifting from the baroque stylization of his previous genre pastiches and pushing towards the heightened emotionalism, bordering on sensationalism and bitter sentimentality, of melodramas. Instead of blowing up the emotions into ornate domestic sets and explosive colors like the American melodramas of the 1950s, von Trier applied aspects of his Dogme philosophy to present a brutally, affectingly stripped down approach to the inner turmoil of a married couple’s grappling with faith and with each other. One of the most memorable films of the 1990s.

Available in: Australia, Ireland, Italy , Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland

Afterschool (Antonio Campos, USA)

Amongst endless American indie films about mushmouthed-talking, emo-acting “naturalistic” or “realistic” young adults living in the States today, Antonio Campos’ debut feature functions as a startling correction, and an immediate declaration of a new talent in the country. The closest comparison for Afterschool isn’t ramshackle, lo-fi romantic comedies but rather the psychological thrillers of alienation and violence of Austrian provocateur Michael Haneke. Taking place in a remote boarding school, a young student accidentally films the death of two classmates, and as the school reels in shock, the young student pursues his own path of paranoia and obsession.

Available in: Portugal

Soul Kitchen (Fatih Akin, Germany)

Award-winning filmmaker Fatih Akin (Head-On, The Edge of Heaven) is one of the most well-known and well-regarded directors currently working in Germany. After two serious dramas Akin here lightens things up by focusing on two resplendent cultural specialties: food and music. Soul Kitchen played in competition at the Venice film festival, winning a special jury prize, as well as playing at Toronto and Tribeca, among others.

Available in: Norway

The Blues: Feel Like Going Home (Martin Scorsese, USA)

Martin Scorsese (Shutter Island, Taxi Driver) joins the ranks including Wim Wenders, Charles Burnett, and Clint Eastwood by directing an entry in The Blues, the acclaimed American documentary series on—you guessed it—blues music. Scorsese’s rich, colorful entry looks at the movement of musical traditions from Africa to the Mississippi Selta.

Available in: France, Switzerland

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This week’s PlayStation Home update is a bit lighter then we have seen in recent weeks but, I can tease that, since I’ve writing these posts, I have been given a glimpse of a few things in the pipeline and it is exciting stuff.

Moving back to the matter at hand, those PixelJunk Monsters invade PlayStation Home this week in the form of a range of furniture that you can use to create scenes from the game in your apartments. There are rugs, foliage, towers and, of course, the monsters themselves to help you cultivate your own micro-worlds based on the ever-popular PSN tower defence game.

Lockwood is making it easier than ever to get involved in Sodium; here’s what they have to say:

“Lockwood Publishing are proud to announce the new Sodium Hovertank Rental Scheme. As of this Thursday at any Sodium Commerce Point you too can access the full 50 levels of explosive Salt Shooter Action for one day, two days or a full week, for low, low prices”.

“To celebrate this new way to play, we’ll be doubling the amount of Gold, Silver and Silicon available in game for all valid rental ticket and Sodium Pilot Outfit holders for the next seven days. More resources means even more Sodium Credits to use at the VICKIE shop.

“Never has it been easier to get into the action”.

They are also introducing a new brand of clothing called Figment:

“Figment represents a change of pace for Lockwood and a move to high-end formalwear. Figment is all about elegance, poise and show stopping style in the form of Stunning evening dresses, chic jewelled sandals, handsome trilby hats and smart brogues”.

“Figment is about being able to stride confidently into any party, room or restaurant knowing you look great. But most of all, Figment is about imagination and the ability to combine separate items in ways you hadn’t considered before to produce even more incredible looks and outfits. The power is yours”!

This content will be available at the regular time on Thursday.

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Allo! New publisher alert and many more highlights in this week’s comic update.

New publisher alert part 2! This week we are delighted to welcome another great publisher on board: Zenescope. Zenescope has created one of the fastest growing libraries of original content and has brought an exciting new feel to the world of graphic novels – and of fairy tales… with a twist! Adapted from the famous TV Series, Charmed #1 brings Phoebe, Paige and Piper back to embrace a new life… and new enemies. Grimm Fairy Tales is a gripping series retelling the most well-known and beloved childhood tales with very modern heroines – through reality and fairy tale, and good and evil. Another great tale is revisited in Neverland – a land that has changed dramatically and where good and evil are not what they seem… Last but not least is the gritty horror comic The Waking, a race against time to investigate murdered victims seemingly rising from the dead to avenge their own deaths… Brr.

If you missed it last week, I would like to highlight once again two other new publishers, Zallag and Devil’s Due Digital. Devil’s Due Digital is a collaboration of the team at Checker Book Publishing Group & Devil’s Due Publishing, and together they are offering an immense library of talent including Clive Barker, Johnny Hart, Tim Seeley and Alan Moore. They brought us the much loved Hack/Slash last week, and this week it’s the no-less impressive Clive Barker’s Hellraiser! Experience horror as only Clive Barker knows it, with the adaptation of one of the most popular horror movie series of all time. Featuring short stories from some of the best in the comics industry, this series both shocked and entertained readers – try it if you dare.

Do you like dimension-spanning storylines, especially if they involve some of the most famous characters in the comics world? Check out Infestation, the IDW event ten years in the making, featuring Transformers, G.I. Joe, Ghostbusters, Star Trek, and even some cool zombies! Something goes horribly awry in the Zombies vs Robots universe, threatening to tear many of IDW’s biggest realities asunder… Who will be affected, and how?

More Batman! Batman Beyond Vol.2, based on the hit animated TV series, begins this week! In the distant future, Bruce Wayne has retired from crime-fighting, and a new breed of criminals has overrun Gotham City. Now Bruce must train Terry McGinnis to use a futuristic Bat-suit and become tomorrow’s Dark Knight!

In Supernatural: Beginning’s End, written by Peter Johnson, one of the TV series co-executive producer, The Winchesters’ hunt nears its end…in New York! You knew Sam left his family to attend Stanford…learn why he made that choice! This gripping, horrifying story—courtesy of TV series writers Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin—will explore the raw nerves of what makes the Winchesters unique and volatile.

Here is the full list:

• Baby Boomers #1 Markosia
• Batman Beyond Vol.2 #1-2 DC Comics
• Charmed #1 Zenescope
• Clive Barker’s Hellraiser #1-4 Devil’s Due Digital
• Devil’s Wake #3 DC Comics
• The Dreaming #16 TOKYOPOP
• Dual #4 DC Comics
• Dungeons & Dragons #3 IDW Publishing
• Ex Machina #31 DC Comics
• Fables #47 DC Comics
• Green Lantern Corps Vol. 1 #10 DC Comics
• Grimm Fairy Tales #1-3 Zenescope
• I Luv Halloween #15 TOKYOPOP
• Infestation #1 IDW Publishing
• Invincible Iron Man (2008) #8-10 Marvel
• JLA #39 DC Comics
• Justice League: Generation Lost #20 DC Comics
• Legends of the Dark Crystal #9 TOKYOPOP
• Legends of the DC Universe #5 DC Comics
• Neverland #0-1 Zenescope
• Powers (2004) #13-17 Marvel
• The Puppet Makers #2 DC Comics
• Return to Labyrinth #5 TOKYOPOP
• Sandman #23 DC Comics
• Star Trek: The Manga #15 TOKYOPOP
• Superman/Batman #50 DC Comics
• Supernatural: Beginning’s End #1-2 DC Comics
• Tomorrow Stories #3 DC Comics
• Top 10 #3 DC Comics
• Tranformers: Prime #4 IDW Publishing
• True Blood #7 IDW Publishing
• Van Von Hunter #6 TOKYOPOP
• The Waking #1 Zenescope
• Wonder Woman Vol. 3 #22 DC Comics
• Y: The Last Man #29 DC Comics
• Young Avengers (2005) #7-8 Marvel

As always, please visit www.playstationcomics.com for prices and to see the whole catalogue.

Thanks for reading, and see ya in the comments below.

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And so, the sun sets on February and we round off with another strong week of content with fun stuff to be had for PS3 and PSP.

The UnderGarden floats onto PSN this week, spreading joy, pollen and brightly coloured cuteness in its wake, the perfect counter-point to Alien Breed: Descent, the third chapter of Team 17′s twin-stick, extra-terrestrial bug hunt. TNT Racers is also now available for all across Europe.

For all your freebie lovers, we’ve got demos of Dragon Age 2, LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars and platform exclusive, Yakuza 4.

Awesome DLC this week in the shape of the highly anticipated Dead Money for Fallout: New Vegas and the Retro Map Pack for KillZone 3. We’ve also got the first of three new Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit packs this week – Armed and Dangerous which brings new content for you Autolog junkies.

More fan favourites on PSP with Ys I & II Chronicles and Tactics Ogre, and some low cost titles to be revisited with Peter Jackson’s King Kong and Disney/Pixar’s movie tie-in, Cars.

To get you in the mood for David Jaffe’s Twisted Metal reboot, we bring you the roots of the franchise this week with Twisted Metal on PSone.

I’m here this week so will be commenting on and off in the afternoon – I have a meeting between 3.00pm and 5.00pm so if I haven’t responded please be patient.

A quick reminder that I can’t tell you release dates for games when a date hasn’t been announced by the publisher, so please, please don’t ask me – however I can tell you that Hoard, Under Siege, BTTF and Strong Bad: CGFAP all have preliminary internal release dates with us now – so the wait for these titles will (fingers crossed) not be a long one.

Catch you later.
(more…)

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The Australian PlayStation community have celebrated the launch of Killzone 3 at an exclusive ‘invitation only’ event at Sydney’s Waterloo. Hosted by none other than ‘Commando Steve’ himself, the warehouse location provided the ideal setting for an ‘ISA Training Camp’ designed to give the 100+ attendees from around Australia, a true glimpse of the Helghan home world.

Upon entry to the event, guests were treated to a 15 minute exclusive developer video produced by Guerrilla Games, detailing the development process behind the game, and shedding some light on the key new features that have been incorporated. This included new details on the multiplayer portion of the game also which particularly excited the community. Next, Commando Steve took to the stage to brief the attendees on the actual training activities of the evening. He ushered them through a red curtained area to reveal a massive Killzone themed world, complete with authentic Helghast trooper in an amazing costume (with fully lit orange eyes).

Commando Steve personally ran all of the attendees through a number of gruelling activities aimed at recreating the harsh conditions of the Helghan home world. This involved for example, playing Killzone 3 while being ‘blasted’ by high output wind fans and snow-making machines. Also, playing Killzone 3 inside a giant ‘wind freezer’ designed to recreate the arctic-like temperature on Helghan. Of course it wasn’t all just about the elements. Weapons assembly was another key activity, with attendees having to learn how to disassemble and reassemble their Killzone weapon at double time, all while being blasted with strobe lighting designed to mimic the ‘flash fire’ of live combat.

Activities aside, the event was truly about Killzone 3 the game, and there were approximately a dozen Killzone 3 demo units set up, allowing attendees to play the finished Killzone 3 game for the first time (using the new Sharp Shooter gun peripheral combined with Stereoscopic 3D televisions no less). There was also a multiplayer challenge where users were able to put the online modes through their paces, and see who the real pros were. One lucky winner at the end of the event even walked away with a Killzone 3 Special Helghast Edition pack.

This was a fantastic event and a worthy celebration for a title that is among the very best that PlayStation 3 has to offer. Killzone 3 launches across Australia on Feb 24th.

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