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La Jetée: Unchained Melody
By Jonathan Romney
However you define Chris Marker's 1963 short La Jetée—philosophical fiction, genre exercise, treatise on cinematic time—one fact is unavoidable: it resembles few other films. In fact, La Jetée does not define itself as a film at all—its credits . . . Read more »
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Personal Effects:
The Guarded Intimacy of Sans SoleilBy Jonathan Rosenbaum
“The Sorbonne should be razed and Chris Marker put in its place.” —Henri Michaux“Contrary to what people say, using the first person in films tends to be a sign of humility: ‘All I have to offer is myself.’” —Chris MarkerEven though few film . . . Read more »
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WWRWFD?
By Issa Clubb
One of the blessings (and curses) of working at Criterion is that every film we put out inspires a passionate response from someone, somewhere. Knowing how deeply people feel about a movie as I’m producing the DVD leads to some very nervous . . . Read more »
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Eclipse Series 3:
Late OzuBy Michael Koresky
Yasujiro Ozu had already directed forty-five features by the time he started work on Early Spring, in 1955, but the artistic and commercial success of his previous film, Tokyo Story (1953), had rejuvenated him. Considered an emotional and . . . Read more »
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WR, Sex, and the Art of Radical Juxtaposition
By Jonathan Rosenbaum
Between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s, it was generally felt among Western intellectuals and cinephiles that cutting-edge, revolutionary cinema came from Western Europe, Latin America, and the United States. Among the touchstones were . . . Read more »
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Sweet Movie: Wake Up!
By David Sterritt
Whatever you’ve heard about Sweet Movie, the audacious and outrageous political comedy by Yugoslav filmmaker Dušan Makavejev, there’s a good chance it’s wrong.Ever since this mischievous masterpiece had its Cannes premiere, in 1974, . . . Read more »
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Here, There, and Everywhere
By Peter Becker
Over the past month or so, it seems as though glancing references to Criterion are popping up everywhere. This morning, I saw Bob Stein, one of the original founders of Criterion, in New York magazine, being interviewed for his fashion sense. . . . Read more »
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The Two of Us: War and Peace
By David Sterritt
As usual, François Truffaut knew exactly what made a great film great. For twenty years, he wrote in 1967, he had been waiting for “the real film” about the Nazi occupation of France, showing the French majority “who were involved neither in . . . Read more »
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24 minutes ago.
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