MK2 launches new SVOD offering for cinephiles

French cinema chain MK2 is this week launching a new version of its SVOD service aimed at cinephiles, branded mk2 Curiosity.

The service, which also will be associated with free AVOD content, will be available for €5.99 a month without an ongoing contract commitment, with a special promotional price of €2.99 a month until June 1.

The service will provide three movies each month free of charge, alongside the premium SVOD offering.

The chain said that the service will provide access to a curated collection of hundreds of movies, documentaries and short films “guaranteed without an algorithm”.

MK2 said that the Curiosity service was intended to run against the trend to provide online services that change their line-up very regularly, mix free and pay content and resemble a news site rather than a classic platform.

The service will be available via iOS and Android apps and a site compatible with Chromecast and Airplay.

MK2 said that mk2 Curiosity would offer more than its own catalogue of movies, but would extend to other films and directors thanks to agreements in place with independent distributors including Carlotta, Art House, UniversCiné and others.

The launch will kick off with promotion of John Landis’ Kentucky Fried Movie (aka in France as Hamburger Film Sandwich), Frank Pavich’s documentary on the creation of Jodorowsksky’s Dune, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Before We Vanish and other cult movies.

The service will feature a range of movies including titles by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Andrea Arnold, Robert Bresson, Claude Chabrol, Xavier Dolan, Michael Haneke, Tobe Hooper, Abbas Kiarostami, Krzysztof Kieślowski, the Kuperberg sisters, John Landis, David Lynch, Chris Marker, Bela Tarr, François Truffaut and Agnès Varda, among others.

Subscriptions will also include access to special events as well as regular magazine and review content.

“After three years and over a million unique visitors, I am delighted with this new phase in the development of our unique platform, mk2 Curiosity, that provides a new box of jewels and a different voice to cinema in an era that tends to look at art as a perishable commodity. In our society obsessed by individualism and swamped by images, it seems to me essential to choose and propose precise and refined viewpoints. In a world overflowing with stories, we need poetry. In an age of control, it seems important to escape it,” said mk2 Curiosity artistic director Lubna Playoust.