The Criterion Collection
Essays
Feb 1, 1999 — After finishing Diabolique, heralded French director-screenwriter Henri-Georges Clouzot (1907–1977) confessed that all he had intended was to make a picture that would “amuse myself” and please a young girl who hid under the covers and asked her father to frighten...
Essays
Jan 11, 1999 — David Lean followed his prodigious adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations with this brilliant crystallization of Dickens’ Oliver Twist; or, the Parish Boy’s Progress. It deploys the cinema’s special powers of dash and immediacy to convey all the venturesomeness and...
Jun 24, 1990 — Some films have become famous simply because they’ve sold a lot of tickets. Others have major studio publicity machines behind them, the better to hog the spotlight. Still others earn their fame the hard way through genuine critical acclaim. But...
Jun 3, 2002 — In addition to being his funniest film, The Horse’s Mouth is the most personal, and touching, of all Alec Guinness’ movies. Apart from starring as the brilliant but bedraggled artist Gulley Jimson, Guinness also adapted the Oscar-nominated screenplay from Joyce...
Apr 14, 2022 — Blerta Basholli is a writer and director whose stories touch on social and gender issues in the country where she was born and raised, Kosovo. Her debut feature, Hive, broke Sundance records by winning the Grand Jury Prize, the Directing...
Sep 16, 2021 — Dash Shaw is a cartoonist and animator. His latest feature, Cryptozoo, which he wrote and directed, premiered at Sundance 2021, where it won the Innovator Award. It also premiered internationally at the Berlinale, where it received a special jury mention....
Jul 18, 2018 — Alan Rudolph is a pioneer in the American independent film movement. He has directed nineteen narrative features and one feature-length documentary. His films have been presented in major international festivals for forty years and are noted for their fluid style,...
Mar 27, 2013 — Andrew Loog Oldham was the manager of the Rolling Stones and Marianne Faithfull from 1963–1967. In 1965, he started Immediate Records, one of the first independent labels in the UK, where he worked with such artists as Jeff Beck, Eric...
Dec 9, 1991 — This rarely seen, overlooked gem, featuring what may be one of Marlon Brando’s most fascinating characterizations, was Gillo Pontecorvo’s worthy follow-up to his political masterpiece The Battle of Algiers. The brilliant radical Italian director achieved something unique in cinema, by...