Look at Life

May 15, 2020 — Directors, actors, and critics look back on their most memorable moments in movie theaters, and the BFI spotlights the best of Japanese cinema.

Apr 3, 2020 — Everyone remembers their first time with Toshiro Mifune. With almost anyone else, such a first would be recollected with a shrug or a casual “it was . . . fine.” But Mifune induces delirious and perfect recall: of him flat...

Feb 28, 2020 — Bong Joon-ho picks twenty directors to watch. Also in the spotlight this week are Jennie Livingston, Jerome Hiler, Dušan Makavejev, and Ritwik Ghatak.

Jan 24, 2020 — This week we’re looking at new work from Víctor Erice, the varied oeuvre of Agnès Varda, the cinematic lighthouse, the making of Before Sunrise, and more.

Sep 18, 2019 — One Scene The way some rock fans talk about the sanctity of live music, you’d think it was a guaranteed path to transcendence. But of course most concerts fall far short of the sublime, and the thrill of breathing in...

Feb 1, 2019 — It’s hard to look away from the stunning lead performances by Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger in Norman Jewison’s In the Heat of the Night. But no one who watches the seething procedural will soon forget Lee Grant as the...

Dec 26, 2018 — Members of the Criterion tech team headed to India last month to teach some practical skills in moving-image conservation at the Film Preservation & Restoration Workshop.

May 29, 2018 — John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy is a milestone along several different paths of movie history, all of which converged at the majestically seedy crossroads of Times Square in the spring of 1968.

Apr 2, 2018 — Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey saw its world premiere on this day, April 2, in 1968 at the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C. Two days later, it opened in two more theaters, one in Hollywood and one in New...

Mar 27, 2018 — At the height of his career, Ken Russell brought D. H. Lawrence’s classic exploration of human sexuality to the screen with frank eroticism and visual panache.