The Criterion Collection

Summer with Monika

Ingmar Bergman

Cnuts: “Harriet Andersson is just plain earthy sexy in this. As opposed to all those other Bergman films with allll those other unsexy leading Svensk ladies! ”

Heaven’s Gate

Michael Cimino

The Game

David Fincher

Videodrome

David Cronenberg

Rashomon

Akira Kurosawa

Umberto D.

Vittorio De Sica

Late Spring

Yasujiro Ozu

Amarcord

Federico Fellini

Army of Shadows

Jean-Pierre Melville

Design for Living

Ernst Lubitsch

Cnuts: “Miriam Hopkins is timeless. Ah the "Lubitsch Touch" Play on a Friday night w/ bottle of wine & someone special who thinks they don't like old movies.”

The Music Room

Satyajit Ray

Cnuts: “Came for the music, loved the music. My first Ray film. I'll be coming back and exploring the Apu Trilogy. ”

The Rules of the Game

Jean Renoir

Cnuts: “A film for which the title "Best Ever" seems quite defendable. Though to be fair, Renior seems to have a knack for making "Best Ever" films. See G.I. ”

Paths of Glory

Stanley Kubrick

Stagecoach

John Ford

Cnuts: “The archetypal western film from two men who would become viewed as the archetypal western actor & director. Beautiful, timeless art. Essential. ”

Lola Montès

Max Ophuls

Cnuts: “Like all her would be suitors, I'm in love with Lola. Name me one bad Ustinov performance? I defy you! Vivid colors & fluctuating aspect ratios, yes!”

The Battle of Algiers

Gillo Pontecorvo

Cnuts: “I keep telling myself this isn't a documentary, this isn't a documentary. Realism not just in style, but because the embers of war were still so warm ”

Wings of Desire

Wim Wenders

Cnuts: “A gem of a film before the fall of The Wall. I love it. Check out the deleted pie fight scene, hilarious! Is this Wender's best? Was that Columbo!? ”

8½

Federico Fellini

Cnuts: “I saw 8 1/2 after La Dolce Vita and enjoyed coming to Fellini in that order. Please films gods, let Anita Ekberg fall into Criterion's loving arms! ”

Red Beard

Akira Kurosawa

Cnuts: “The last of AK's productive period. Even when Mifune's playing a doctor he still finds time to kick a few guys asses. Finale to a great collaboration ”

Man Bites Dog

Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel and Benoit Poelvoorde

Cnuts: “2 oz gin, 8 oz tonic, 1 sugar cube tied to an olive with floss. Twist up some Dead Baby Boy's for this film & invite over a few uninitiated friends. ”

The River

Jean Renoir

Cnuts: “Is there another Technicolor film—one that is so near and dear to Uncle Marty's heart—that deserves the Blu-ray upgrade more? I think not Criterion.”

Ran

Akira Kurosawa

Cnuts: “CURSE THE GODS WHO STOLE THIS FILM FROM US! KILLING IT IN ITS BLU-RAY CRADLE!!! I WEPT MORE THAN KING LEAR AND LORD HIDETORA COMBINED!!! ”

Peeping Tom

Michael Powell

Cnuts: “A psychotic voyeur whom the audience sympathizes with, making us an accessory to his deeds & privy to the dark screening room of Michael Powell's mind”

The Thin Red Line

Terrence Malick

Cnuts: “The triumphant return of Malick. The commentary track on this & Days of Heaven alone is worth it, giving insight into the camera shy philosofilmaker. ”

Solaris

Andrei Tarkovsky

Cnuts: “My first voyage into the world of Tarkovsky shall not be my last. ”

Smiles of a Summer Night

Ingmar Bergman

Cnuts: “Rolling in the hay in the land of the midnight sun. Bergman's arrival on the international scene came as a surprise even to the filmmaker himself. ”

The Seventh Seal

Ingmar Bergman

Cnuts: “A fundamental starting point when wading into the chilly waters off Bergman Island. A film I come back to time and time again. 50's art house bliss. ”

Seven Samurai

Akira Kurosawa

Cnuts: “Seriously, what hasn't been said about this film? I want to meet the Criterion-Head who hasn't seen this cornerstone of the collection! Do they exist?”

Senso

Luchino Visconti

Cnuts: “MELODRAMA: All in caps & all in a good way. The colors & art direction, the backdrop of history. Great ride for fans of sweeping colorful melodrama! ”

Repulsion

Roman Polanski

Cnuts: “British production, Polish director, French actress. Fantastic late night popcorn thriller provided by Polanski & Co. Pair with a nice wine & rabbit. ”

The Red Shoes

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Cnuts: “'Why do you want to dance?' asks Lermontov. 'Why do you want to live?' responds young, ambitious Victoria Page. The Archers, Jack Cardiff, too much!”

Red Desert

Michelangelo Antonioni

Cnuts: “Alienation in an industrialized Italy via Vitti + Antonioni's first foray into color (albiet lots of gray) and a dash of overdubbed Richard Harris. ”

The Phantom Carriage

Victor Sjöström

Cnuts: “Sjostrom's Swedish silent era Dickensian tale of redemption. Eerie optical effects showcase when filmmakers took to filmmaking with reckless abandon.”

People on Sunday

Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer

Cnuts: “Every silent film is a treasure to be cherished. Period. Silent Criterions showcasing early talents & documenting Weimar Berlin, priceless treasure. ”

Paris, Texas

Wim Wenders

Cnuts: “I came here because of a love for 'Wings.' I stayed for Harry Dean, Kinski, Stockwell, the great kid performance of Hunter Carson, oh & Sam Shepard.”

Orpheus

Jean Cocteau

Cnuts: “Love Cocteau's camera trickery. Great soundtrack. You also get a short 16mm Kodachrome home movie of his, thank you CC.”

The Night of the Hunter

Charles Laughton

Cnuts: “CHILLLDREN! Mitchum as the Big Bad Wolf in sheep's clothing, Mother Goose Lillian Gish, Laughton's one fantastical, somewhat flawed, masterpiece dream”

The Makioka Sisters

Kon Ichikawa

The Magician

Ingmar Bergman

Cnuts: “Set a precedent for Bergman cover art. This film was totally unavailable for home viewing and we now a copy that is FLAWLESS. Hour of the Wolf next? ”

M

Fritz Lang

Cnuts: “This film changed me. Lang's masterful command of cinema, Lorre's powerful performance, a film that basically is the granddaddy of police procedurals ”

Last Year at Marienbad

Alain Resnais

Cnuts: “I remember watching this movie... wait... did I see this film? When did I watch this last? I'm quite sure I enjoyed it... wait... do I even own this?”

Kes

Ken Loach

Cnuts: “Heartbreaking, but at times also hilarious. I had never heard of it before the blind buy. Thank you CC. ”

Kagemusha

Akira Kurosawa

Cnuts: “Playing Prince & Pauper, but this is no dress rehearsal. In some ways I like this more than Ran. I love that AK shot two great late-in-life epics. ”

In the Realm of the Senses

Nagisa Oshima

Cnuts: “Sex, sex, sex, that's all they think about. I honestly thought there would be more narrative outside of the bedroom. Fuels the "what is porn?" debate.”

Harakiri

Masaki Kobayashi

Cnuts: “Jidaigeki Nirvana! You know when you feel like you will really enjoy a film, but you end up falling in love with it? Spine #302 reaffirmed this for me”

Dazed and Confused

Richard Linklater

Cnuts: “American Graffiti is a 1973 film on teenagers set in 1962. 'Dazed' is 1993 on 1976. I'm waiting on the post 9/11 nostalgia trip to the Clinton years. ”

Days of Heaven

Terrence Malick

Cnuts: “As a Criterion-Head and a Malickite this disc yielded the bounty of a full harvest. Wish we could go on a murder spree in the Dakotas now, hint hint!”

Black Narcissus

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Cnuts: “I could seriously watch Jack Cardiff test the lighting on a fence post for hours. Here he's recreating the Indian Himalayas in three-strip Technicolor”

Beauty and the Beast

Jean Cocteau

Cnuts: “Magical, enchanting, an unmistakable masterpiece... and yet... As Greta Garbo so succinctly put it: "Give me back my Beast!"”

Antichrist

Lars von Trier

Cnuts: “Keep the scissors away from Lars. Still debating my own interpretation of the ending. You know shit aint right when foxes start talking to you Dafoe. ”