The Hit

Apr 23, 2019 — It’s unlikely that anyone who pays attention to contemporary short films will be unfamiliar with our selection this week on the Criterion Channel, which took the film-festival circuit by storm last year, garnering dozens of awards and an Oscar nomination....

Apr 23, 2019 — Elia Kazan can be and has been called many things: a cinematic genius, an actor’s director, a womanizer, a government stoolie, an uncompromising artist and three-time Academy Award winner. But whatever your opinion of his personality, his temperament, or his...

Feb 18, 2019 — The Swiss actor will be remembered for a range of characters spanning from heaven to hell.

Nov 23, 2018 — The work of James Agee (1909–1955) remains one of the touchstones of American movie criticism. An extraordinarily versatile writer, he won acclaim as a novelist, a poet, and a screenwriter (his scripts for The African Queen and The Night of the...

Oct 4, 2018 — North by Northwest’s crop-duster scene—in which Cary Grant’s victim of mistaken identity finds himself in a fallow Indiana field, hunted by a low-flying biplane—is one of the most iconically thrilling moments in Alfred Hitchcock’s fiendishly clever body of work. But,...

May 8, 2018 — In his uncharacteristic final masterpiece, the great Hollywood melodramatist Frank Borzage approaches the shadowy violence of film noir with his unique brand of romanticism.

Sep 6, 2017 — Oscar-winning visual effects artist and film historian Craig Barron takes a close look at the techniques used to create the gothic atmosphere of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca.

Jun 28, 2017 — Composer Neil Brand discusses the challenges of crafting new music for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 silent classic The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog.

Jun 26, 2017 — 1. Before ever setting foot in front of a camera, Ivor Novello found fame as a music composer in 1914 with his beloved wartime anthem “Keep the Home Fires Burning (’Till the Boys Come Home).” Over a million copies of...

Apr 10, 2017 — Critic Peter Cowie pays tribute to a quintessentially English master, whose prolific career stretches back to the silent era.