The Criterion Collection

In this week’s selection of free Criterion titles on Hulu, blast off with science-fiction films, set in outer space or dystopic futures. In the former category, there’s Andrei Tarkovsky’s meditative Solaris; Robert Day’s cautionary tale First Man into Space; Kazui Nihonmatsu’s The X from Outer Space, in which a gigantic chicken-lizard from another planet threatens humanity; and for something spacy but a little more real, Al Reinert’s Apollo 11 documentary, For All Mankind. As for the latter category, there’s Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s noir-tinged World on a Wire; Hiroshi Teshigahara’s eerie The Face of Another; and Chris Marker’s short, postapocalyptic masterpiece La Jetée.

And for a film that seems to defy all categories, check out Princess from the Moon, a drastic change of pace from Kon Ichikawa, the director of Tokyo Olympiad and The Makioka Sisters. It’s a Japanese folk tale splendidly updated as a science-fiction spectacle. Watch the entire film below or at Hulu. And don’t forget: if you sign up for Hulu Plus for just $7.99 a month, you can see hundreds of other Criterion films.