Features

Deep Dives

British cinema’s mad genius Ken Russell dispenses with history, chronology, genre, and taste in this wild reimagining of the great composer’s life.

Behind her carefully crafted bombshell persona, the great Hollywood actor found ingenious ways of signaling how aware she was of the artifice of her own image.

One Scene

The director of Beasts of the Southern Wild and Wendy finds inspiration in the 1973 documentary Dry Wood, one of his first cinematic encounters with his adopted home of Louisiana.

Michael Almereyda, Geoff Dyer, Shirin Neshat, Peter Strickland, and Colm Tóibín dive deep into moments from the Russian master’s work that continue to haunt them.

During a fertile period in American film history, Grammy-winning icon Quincy Jones used the cinematic medium as a platform for his wide-ranging musical ambitions.

The earliest decades of African American filmmaking, celebrated in a monumental collection of “race films” now playing on the Criterion Channel, were fueled by an urgent need for self-representation.

Flashbacks

The prolific writer and filmmaker passed earlier this year, leaving behind an enduring legacy that has shaped Finland’s cultural scene.

Before breaking through with her debut feature, Atlantics, the French-Senegalese filmmaker honed her moody, sensual style in a string of short films that bring together postcolonial and supernatural themes.

The late actor exuded a feverish intensity on-screen that few stars in golden-age Hollywood could match. But in one lesser-known performance, he reveals a tenderness that cut against his persona.

Songbook

One of the most iconic rock bands of the eighties provides the soundtrack to this poignant portrait of friendship and lost youth.

One Scene

Artificiality becomes a pathway to unbearable reality in a shocking scene at the center of Lars von Trier’s nightmarish marital drama.

Performances

In David Cronenberg’s deeply strange adaptation of the William S. Burroughs novel, Judy Davis plays two dissonant variations on the theme of the archetypal Beatnik Muse.

Having mastered his imposing physicality early in his career, the legendary Hollywood actor later gravitated toward roles that allowed him to explore a rich, complicated inner life.

One Scene

In celebration of Federico Fellini’s 100th birthday, the director of The Farewell talks about the deeply moving final scene of Nights of Cabiria and its mixture of pain and hope.

The chaos of a rapidly changing world and a politically turbulent decade come into focus in a series of science-fiction films made in the 1970s, now playing on the Criterion Channel.

Deep Dives

The arrival of sound proved an enormous challenge for the geniuses of silent comedy. But Harold Lloyd, with his unflappable determination, finally made a successful transition.

With a mixture of intuition, craft, and an endless curiosity about how cinema can be used to shock and provoke, the Spanish master left us with a rich body of work that stands as a testament to the power of surrealism.

The director of Margaret and Manchester by the Sea celebrates Hollywood’s greatest humanist, whose films are featured in a series now playing on the Criterion Channel.

We asked some of our friends if they had underappreciated films from the past decade that they wanted to champion. Here’s what they chose.

A key collaborator on Wim Wenders’ sci-fi magnum opus, Michael Almereyda shares a personal reflection written while the film was still taking shape in the editing room.

One of Juliette Binoche’s closest collaborators explains how the actor placed herself at the heart of artistic creation, maintaining an independence that allowed her to become a true creative partner to some of the world’s greatest filmmakers.

One Scene

A boy-meets-girl seduction accelerates at absurd speed in Catherine Breillat’s controversial coming-of-age film, transporting us to a realm beyond naturalism.

Songbook

Heard three times in Andrea Arnold’s coming-of-age drama, the R&B legend’s cover of “California Dreamin’ ” highlights the teenage heroine’s yearning for connection and escape.

Performances

Played with icy restraint, the bully at the heart of Irving Rapper’s classic woman’s picture is a prime example of how Hollywood melodramas shaped the archetype of the villainous mother.