MUBI NEWS

Jose, one would actually assume that streaming via the PS3 would lend itself to greater screen sizes. Most people who have invested in a PS3 will probably have an HDTV to complement it.

I don’t mind. My monitor is fucking big hahahahaha

No, in all seriousness. If it’s a way to stream via your PS3 module into a big screen, that is a big deal, actually.

I haven’t watched one film on his site available to strream yet , most of those I want to see are not in my area and I do not feel like putting my credit card number into here.

I come here for the discussions, even when they are pointless, like this one, and filled with know it alls, and those who just think they do, those you love to insult subjectivity instead of having civil interactions. I enjoy the lists, as well.

There is more than enough room to ignore people, so don’t like people options, good, great, have nothing to do with them.

oy

Jose, I believe you’re mixing up the PSP (PlayStation Portable) with the PS3 (PlayStation 3). The latter is a console that is generally connected to televisions. Most commonly large-screen HDTVs, in fact.

I never watch Netflix instant Watch films on my PC. I watch them on my 65" via my Xbox.

Also, everyone can use tversity to stream youtube videos to your tv via your Xbox. Still not ideal, but for World Cup watchers of rare films, this is the best you can do.

“I watch them on my 65” via my Xbox."

Damn, Josh. You got a big one!

That’s what she…

Nevermind. Too easy.

Yes, unfortunately it’s a 300 lb. behemoth of a rear projection Mitsubishi that is probably on its last legs. That’s one big effing paperweight when it goes out.

You are right Dequinix, I mixed them up!. Fool of me…

Anyway, that could be a good deal, what’s the fuzz about it then?

“I’m really surprised that so many of you smart people see this as an opportunity to be like missionaries bringing the sacred word of Hou Hsiao-hsien to the teeming savages. I didn’t realize we were supposed to be proselytizing here but like all civilizing missions this one is doomed to fail. Hallelujah, Mubi, for I am saved.”

Thanks Ari for giving me an opportunity to introduce one of my favorite quotes by Desmond Tutu:

“When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”

Film lovers and aspiring filmmakers can all benefit by converting the ‘masses’. If there are more eyeballs, there would be more investment in the types of films we want to see (and hopefully we can bring more awareness to art, human condition or whatever through them…) Yes, we are missionaries. :)

Real estate in return for Tarkovsky. Considered fair value in some circles.

i’d be interested to know how they plan to convert the masses. just making something available doesn’t seem to work. i’ve been taking dvd’s into my office for months now and leaving them around, upbraiding my colleagues with ‘encouragements’, lecturing, pandering, telling them that basically all ‘foreign’ films are just porn etc., one guy felt sorry for me and watched city of god but none since. they don’t want subtitles and they don’t want old. they want iron man. i don’t see how, even if it’s free they’ll bother with something that they have such preconceived antipathy for. i’d be genuinely interested in mubi’s tactics to attract these millions. i’ve not even managed one

those people wouldn’t come to a film site anyway

ah but they are always talking about movies, they read the reviews in the papers, they enthuse for hours about avatar. they go to the cinema almost every week. they luuurve movies. just the movies they like are pap.

Thanks to all those who have dug out the news for us. Now we know what is going on re the name change and the rationale. Too bad this wasn’t coming directly from the site itself to its core dedicated users.

Many interesting tidbits to be gleamed from reading the posts here. Great picture of our Mubi group with Varda holding up the auteurs sign. At least we know she is on our side. Interesting, too, that the auteurs is still the banner when you access her films. Perhaps the site is willing to allow some semblance of the auteurs to remain – and ’that’s a good thing’, if true.

We now know why Mubi is a done deal – and done to appease Sony. It’s all about that cute little Japanese anime character called Mubi, after all.

Mubi, sponsored by Sony

We can now reflect on the consequences. Perhaps the influx of capital from Sony will help this site’s bottom line. I don’t frankly see a problem here if the site continues to maintain quality films for streaming free or by user paid fee. We will just have to wait and see how the supposed influx of potential European PS3 users to this site will impact – if at all – the forum. The site is now promoting its core base of users: “But MUBI offers a whole community of film loving fans so that help is always at hand.” I guess this is our opportunity to reach out to the gaming community – many of whom are obviously just dying to know more about obscure art-house releases.

Until we hear more news officially, I will suspend my own campaign to ‘stop the Mubi’ – as it is obviously here to stay. I am encouraged by the fact that the Varda films still use the auteurs banner. Maybe there is indeed room for both Mubi and the auteurs community here.

Very much doubt it was done to appease Sony specifically. The general direction of the site is definitely broader than that. And there’s not going to be an influx of capital directly from Sony. PSN’s business model would indicate that MUBI may actually have to pay Sony for the rights to be on the platform, though a revenue-sharing model for an application like MUBI sounds considerably more reasonable.

I really don’t understand all the negativity there’s been about the changes. The Auteurs was a lovely name but I do feel that it could prevent new people from visiting the site and experiencing these films.

Both names are completely irrelevant to me, the reason I’ve enjoyed this site is due to my love of the medium and there’s been no signs of the content being changed in any way.

I think it’s fantastic that PlayStation 3 owners are getting an opportunity to share in the magic and I would like the service to be available on as many platforms as possible as I hate the idea of something I love being restricted to the few.

If there are people out there who are willing to support this site by watching these films on what ever machine they want to then it’s fantastic news.

I was surprised by the name change and even more surprised by the PlayStation 3 deal but neither has come close to the surprise and sadness I’ve had from the nonsensical responses of a few people on here.

We use a PlayStation 3 as one of our blu-ray players at home and it does a fantastic job, if the video and audio quality is high enough on this service I’d imagine that it’ll be the primary way to watch these films in my house after the service is launched.

An entire dissertation on Socio-economics could be written just from the only-hours-long content of this thread.

I need to state again

^ What John Parry said.

I think the naysayers are arrogant and presumptuous.

Amen

Such vitriolic and entitled (read: spoiled) speech over changes on a still very cool and FREE site does not make sense to me. I wonder if the naysayers would be so aggressive, whiny, and hateful to Efe’s face? Nope.

This isn’t our site, we just get to use it.

I will reserve my opinion until I am sure that there will still be free movies available through MUBI without the PS3.

I must say that Ari has convinced me that the complaining is not really a bad thing. People should voice their concerns as much as possible about any subject and many here have done a great job of articulating potential concerns.

“I think the naysayers are arrogant and presumptuous.”

Here we go again. These type of accusations fly here every now and then, that some group of posters is arrogant and presumptious whereas another group is not. Too bad that the issue here re the name change is now becoming yet another way for the forum to become divisive and for both sides resorting to name calling.

We are here to exchange opinions – differing opinions perhaps – but closely held opinions nonetheless. Name calling really doesn’t move the discussion along but just moves it backwards.

I personally have let my own views on the subject be known respectful of the site and the posters on it. I have used humor occasionally to lighten things up. People here on both sides of this issues have good points and valid concerns. It doesn’t help anyone if one side tries to undercut the other’s position by just saying it is irrelevant, pompous, or arrogant.

Art and commerce coexist, a basic fact of the real world that seems to be lost on all the arrested adolescents around here.

This is great. It means a lot ot possiblities in relation to the promotion of cinema I guess. For instance the films in the world cup (the ones available) or whatever could be promoted among the users of this service of PS3 streaming taking them out of obscurity. Many won’t like them others will but the exposition is certain to happen. And all this with a strong forum with hardcore cinephiles backing up the importance of these films. Or what about polls? a counterlist to the Oscars, for instance, of the best films of the year (the REAL best films) backed by the credibility of auteurs community. The people could get a better sight of the best cinema of the world thanks to Auteurs/mubi. The challenge is to grow an audience and I think that’s positive.

I like this very much as an alternative of piracy by lowering the costs of film watching when the site gets more atractive. I suppose more people involved cheaper the films and cheaper the films less reasons to visit pirate bay. Then, Auteurs/mubi has to increase the number of films and users.

What is more interesting to me is that the site is presented to the world as a streamer of "independent and classic films from around the world. " so I don’t see how threads of Sex and The City 2 will invade the forum of the site and neither “mainstream buff” people, without mentioning that it still very risky in a crazy world devoted to transformer movies. I see this atracting people whose favorite film is Pan’s Labyrinth or City of God and these people is normally up to the discoveries and suggestions (I can’t believe the people complaining about the BARBARIAN INVASIONS were born loving Kenji Mizoguchi or Satyajit Ray or Apichatpong Weerasethakul or James Benning or whatever).

We’d wish all this work to be made by a foundation uninterested in profit., but It’s being made in the frame of bussiness transactions and capitalistic logic. So what?. Maybe if you can’t be that pragmatic to accept it, you could begin your own paths of actions. That would be great (it would proved the value of complaining which is very important).

EDIT: I realized some of these arguments have been presented already haha.

I’m not too concerned, because I don’t use the site as often as many here do (I wish I did, but I don’t have the time to watch as many films at the moment). But I don’t understand the view that people complaining are “arrogant” or “spoiled”.

Firstly, the site may be free, but it charges for services. A cinema isn’t free because I can stand around in the lobby (and maybe creep a few people out by talking about Fellini to them) – it requires monetary payment to access all areas. Yes, the offerings given by this website, free of charge, are more than generous. But many people posting in this thread have likely paid for content on it – they are paying customers of the service, and to say they are whining children with an inflated sense of entitlement in light of such knowledge is absurd. And while my purchase of an Xbox 360 doesn’t necessarily mean I should have the right to dictate the direction of said product, another important principle is at work here. Even if theauters didn’t charge for content, it remains a site that is built upon the solid foundation of a community of users. And just as Rousseau’s Social Contract demands that the people of a community are represented by the state, I feel it is important that any entity that unites a community should act in that community’s interests, and represent their views as fully as possible – the name Mubi is unpopular, there is fear that the community will be diluted and over-run by undesirables, there is some fear that the move may not even be economically wise (if the speculation of Moby → Sony payment is true).

It’s a complex issue, but the one clearly shocking element is the lack of transparency on the part of company, not the response of the “wicked” contributors on the forum.

in the loop…

“This isn’t our site, we just get to use it.”

That is not entirely true. This started out as a social networking site and this site does not have the greatest design for a social networking site so why are people here? Even if it does have a great design, a lot of the value does come from the users and as you may have read elsewhere, Efe has used this as a factor to leverage the site…

I get the sentiment, but this entire dialogue of “undesirables” and “the masses” comes off as undesirably elitist and bourgeois.

^^AND TIRESOME.