1Feb10
The critics agree that Criterion’s release of Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy, featuring major restorations of the unassailable landmarks of Italian cinema Rome Open City, Paisan, and Germany Year Zero, is something of a landmark itself. As Dave Kehr reminds us in his New York Times review of the collection, these are films “that helped to lay the foundations of modern cinema,” and “for decades now it’s been impossible to see Rossellini’s War Trilogy, as the films have come to be called, in any kind of decent condition . . . Which is why I’m feeling particularly grateful to the Criterion Collection for its newest release.”
GQ’s Tom Carson is similarly appreciative: “Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy is the most thrilling DVD release I expect to write up in 2010 . . . Rediscovering how great they really are is a welcome shock. In movie terms, this was where the second half of the twentieth century began.” Also mightily impressed is DVD Beaver’s Gary Tooze, who writes, “I feel Criterion’s 500th spine number, Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy, is one of their most important releases . . . ever.” Tooze notes that this “may very well be the best these three films have looked for over fifty years,” and finishes his review by saying, “This has our highest recommendation as one of Criterion’s greatest releases.” And this just in, from the Los Angeles Times’ Sam Adams.
27Jan10
Fans of our release of Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles last year can get a healthy second dose of Chantal Akerman with our new Eclipse Series 19: Chantal Akerman in the Seventies, which features five groundbreaking works that came out in the years just before and just after that domestic-space masterpiece, including News from Home, Je tu il elle, and Les rendez-vous d’Anna. It’s an “inarguably vital Eclipse box set,” trumpets GreenCine’s Aaron Hillis as a prelude to his new podcast interview with Akerman. The brilliant Belgian filmmaker also turns up in an interview for Moving Image Source with Melissa Anderson, who writes, “Thanks to Chantal Akerman in the Seventies, viewers can finally see the other vital, rarely screened films that the director made during that groundbreaking decade of her career.”
In the Los Angeles Times, Dennis Lim praises the films in the box set as “sensual and severe in equal measure, notable both for their formal rigor and their emotional intensity,” before proclaiming Akerman’s News from Home “one of the all-time great New York movies.” And we’ll leave the last word to Gay City News’ Steve Erickson, who says, simply, “No one else made films like hers.”
More from the Onion’s A.V. Club.
4FEB10: Praise from the New York Times’ Dave Kehr.
18Dec09
“Could there be a greater holiday gift for a true, dyed-in-the-wool cineaste than the films of the late, great Japanese master?” asks the Philadelphia Inquirer in just one of the many ecstatic reviews of Criterion’s new DVD collector’s set AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa, which the newspaper also calls “awe-inspiring.” This elegantly designed, linen-bound box, the most complete set of Kurosawa’s works ever released in this country—which also includes an illustrated hardcover book featuring an introduction and notes on each of the films by Stephen Prince and a remembrance by Donald Richie—has become one of the most talked-about items of this shopping season.
The New York Times praises the set’s succession of “flat-out masterpieces”; Glenn Kenny calls the collection “a genuine triumph . . . a work of art in itself”; The Miami Herald’s René Rodriguez says AK 100 is a “true thing of beauty . . . The set is a joy to hold in your hands and an even greater joy to dip into”; and Time’s Richard Corliss calls it nothing less than “the biggest and most rewarding box set of the year.” We’ll leave the last word to Time Out New York’s David Fear: “Criterion’s AK 100 essentially gives you Kurosawa’s entire career in one container. It’s a stunning collection in both quality and quantity . . . Any true appreciation of Japanese cinema begins here.”
More from Dennis Lim in the Los Angeles Times.
21DEC09: AK 100 has been named the best DVD of the year by the Los Angeles Times’s Dennis Lim: “A beautifully packaged testament . . . For historical significance and entertainment value, hands down the boxed set of the year.”
8Dec09
Arnaud Desplechin’s A Christmas Tale may not be the most sugary of holiday treats, but critics are spreading cheer all over this sweet-and-sour family-reunion drama, now available in Criterion Blu-ray and DVD editions. Paper’s Dennis Dermody writes that this “magnificent tapestry about these tormented, talented ‘Gallic Tenenbaums’ is both fascinating and heart-wrenching.” A review at Flavorpill of this “lovely, novelistic drama” is similarly celebratory: “Desplechin creates a tale overflowing with poetry, tenderness (and its opposite), iris effects, and visual and verbal nods to everything from the New Wave to Emerson.” DVD Talk’s Jamie S. Rich calls this “a wonderful release of a fantastic film. Arnaud Desplechin’s richly layered story of one French family’s crises and reconciliation over a holiday is touching, surprising, and all-around involving.” Finally, in his second look at this “spirited, vibrant film” in the Los Angeles Times, Dennis Lim reminds us that “A Christmas Tale is certainly in the spirit of seasonal overindulgence, but Desplechin’s excesses are a mark both of his generosity and of his belief in the irreducible complexity of human behavior.”
More in Paste and Interview.
2Dec09
Let the Los Angeles Times’ Susan King start the praise: “In the early 1980s, PBS presented a series, The Golden Age of Television, which offered eight renowned productions from the early age of TV along with commentary and interviews with those involved. This week, the Criterion Collection released the DVD set of this PBS program, and it’s a knockout.” King goes on to say that these works constitute “a veritable Broadway stage in your own home.”
Time Out New York’s Joshua Rothkopf calls the set “eye-opening” and is especially impressed by the fact that these were live productions: “The thrill of pulling off these plays before a rapt, nationwide audience is catching.” And in Paste, Sean Gandert states simply, “It’s one of the best DVD releases of the year,” featuring “the best and the most important shows of the era.”
24Nov09
Critics everywhere are rediscovering Downhill Racer—starring a handsome young golden boy known as Robert Redford—and they’re shouting their praise from the mountaintops. “Four decades later, Downhill Racer seems better than ever, not merely the best film ever made about skiing (an encomium that’s almost an insult) but that rarest of triumphs—a pointedly unsentimental sports movie,” says John Powers in Vogue. Entertainment Weekly’s Chris Nashawaty also proclaims that this is “the best movie ever made about skiing” (not such small praise if you’re a fan of the sport, maybe!), but he adds, “This alpine masterpiece is one of Redford’s greatest movies.”
The Salt Lake Tribune’s Sean P. Means similarly focuses on Redford, writing that this “riveting drama, featuring one of the best performances in Redford’s career, is responsible for turning Redford into the icon of independent film.” But there’s more than just a glamorous movie star to recommend Downhill Racer: writes the Boston Globe’s Tom Russo: “The alpine action footage is spectacular, filled with skier POV shots that approach IMAX’s queasy rush, and brisk edits that could pass for contemporary. The understated drama is also a draw.”
20Nov09
The Academy Award–winning Howards End, starring Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins, is back in the spotlight, thanks to Criterion’s new Blu-ray disc. “Pure artistry defines this 1992 film from director James Ivory,” writes Amanda Mae Meyncke in a review for Film.com, “which is as beautiful and timely seventeen years later as the day it was released.” And according to the home-video experts, Howards End has never looked better; it has a restored visual richness to match its emotional lucidity. DVD Talk commends the “immensely vivid presentation” of this “sumptuous, meaningful drama,” while DVD Verdict praises this “involving and rewarding literary adaptation that deserves to be in your collection.”
16Nov09
Interview magazine’s Darrell Hartman is just one of many critics heralding the release of Wings of Desire in Criterion Blu-ray and DVD special editions: “Rilke-inspired interior monologues; Henri Alekan’s gorgeous black-and-white cinematography; a glorious score, rich with cellos and angsty choral music—Wim Wenders mixed these ingredients together for Wings of Desire, his 1987 art-house classic about heavenly creatures keeping grim watch over late-communist-era Berlin.” For Paste, Tim Regan-Porter sings the film’s praises, calling it “a masterful work that’s part tone poem, part philosophical treatise, and part love story—not a dramatic tale of love writ large but an exploration of the tiny things that can make life worth loving.”
Time Out New York’s Joshua Rothkopf reminds us, in a four-star review, of the film’s importance to a generation of soon-to-be cinephiles: “Wim Wenders’s 1987 angels-over-Berlin fantasy was a gateway drug to the pleasures of art cinema, a gorgeous reverie.” Of course, Slant’s Bill Weber says, Criterion’s release of this “cultishly adored fantasy” is not just for the already converted: “Even for non-fanatics, this packaging of perhaps the most beloved European film of a generation is heaven-sent.”
12JAN10: Writes Jessica Winter in Slate, “It’s surprising how beautifully Wings of Desire holds up twenty-plus years after its release (judging by Criterion’s splendid new two-disc set). At once rarefied and accessible, with a singular visual style that’s impossible to carbon-date, Wings has earned its place alongside the likes of The Seventh Seal and The 400 Blows.”
5Nov09
Critics are rallying around the Criterion special edition DVD of Costa-Gavras’s benchmark political thriller Z. As Film.com’s Amanda Mae Meyncke cries, “This 1970 Academy Award best foreign film winner is a simultaneous declaration against tyranny and call to arms.” The Dallas Morning News’ Chris Vognar exclaims, “Costa-Gavras’s frenetic masterpiece is no less startling today than it was forty years ago . . . After you watch Criterion’s new edition of Z, delivered in one of the distributor’s customary pristine digital transfers, you might be tempted to stay put, return to the menu, and soak it all in a second time.” And DVD Talk’s Jamie S. Rich writes that this is “a remarkable re-creation of a volatile political tragedy” and “an important, influential picture.”
Leonard Lopate interviewed Costa-Gavras on public radio about Z earlier this year. We told you about it at the time, and you can listen to it again here.
23Oct09
“Mira Nair’s joyous movie about a wedding in Delhi . . . is both her most popular film and her best. It’s her Rules of the Game, an ensemble masterpiece,” writes Michael Wilmington in a review of our new special edition of Monsoon Wedding that is downright jubilant itself. Chris Vognar of the Dallas Morning News is similarly intoxicated by the 2001 film: “[Its] colors, motion, music, and spirited cross-cultural ensemble convey an infectious sense of unabashed joy and romance.” But Amanda Mae Meyncke, at Film.com, trumps them both with her praise. “Simply put,” she writes, “Monsoon Wedding is one of the finest films I have ever seen.”
