The Criterion Collection

End-of-year list-making has been merrily under way in the movie world for the past few weeks, and now Sight and Sound magazine has jumped into the mix with its lineup of the best DVDs of 2009. We couldn’t be more pleased to have gotten so many mentions from so many terrific critics and programmers. Downhill Racer and The Friends of Eddie Coyle were both named by Geoff Andrew and James Bell, with the latter writing “Criterion’s resurrection of two long since neglected but nonetheless key films of the ‘New Hollywood’ were two personal highlights of the year for me.” Bell calls Eddie Coyle “brilliantly acted all round” and says Downhill Racer “could be the most insightful film ever made about the ruthless, competitive world of sports.” Meanwhile, Brad Stevens and Amy Taubin have both selected Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles as one of their DVDs of the year; Taubin calls the film “mesmerizing on the small screen.”

Some Eclipse titles are getting a lot of love as well: Michael Atkinson and Jonathan Rosenbaum recommend Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu; Adrian Martin is particularly taken with Dušan Makavejev: Free Radical; and Rossellini’s History Films—Renaissance and Enlightenment was cited as cream of the crop by Tom Charity, Kieron Corless, and the team of Christoph Huber and Olaf Moller.