The Criterion Collection
Essays
Dec 2, 1991 — Director Akira Kurosawa had wanted to make Throne of Blood for some time. “After finishing Rashomon [in 1950] I wanted to do something with Shakespeare’s Macbeth, but just about that time Orson Welles’s version was announced, so I postponed mine.”...
Jan 4, 1988 — The Secret Agent (1936) came to life in the prime of Alfred Hitchcock’s British period. It arrived between the popular triumph of The 39 Steps and the box-office rejection of Sabotage, a more daringly downbeat work. Secret Agent partakes of...
The award-winning actor and star of Fancy Dance is joined by the film’s director in praising the brilliance of Kelly Reichardt, sharing their connection to After Life and Frances Ha, and selecting favorites by Martin Scorsese and Hirokazu Kore-eda.
An icon of the New German Cinema, the beloved director is a truly international auteur who has captured the spirit of the American road, the beauty of everyday life in Tokyo, and the vibrant musical heritage of Havana.
Lisa Morton is a screenwriter and author whose books include The Cinema of Tsui Hark (2001), Savage Detours: The Life and Work of Ann Savage (2010), and The Art of the Zombie Movie (2023). Her film writing includes articles about...
Robin D. G. Kelley is a professor of history at the University of California Los Angeles. His books include Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination; Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times; Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times...
McKenzie Wark is a professor of culture and media at the New School. She is the author of, among other things, Reverse Cowgirl (Semiotext(e)) and Raving (Duke University Press). Life Story, a short film she made in conversation with Jessica...
Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the best-selling memoir In the Dream House and the short-story collection Her Body and Other Parties, which was a finalist for a National Book Award. Her essays, fiction, poetry, and criticism have appeared...
Philip Horne is a professor at University College London and the editor of Henry James: A Life in Letters (Penguin, 1999), Thorold Dickinson: A World of Film (with Peter Swaab; Manchester University Press, 2008), and Tales from a Master’s Notebook:...
Jane Schoenbrun is a nonbinary filmmaker and writer whose first narrative feature, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, was released earlier this year. Jane is the cocreator of the ongoing touring variety series The Eyeslicer, the director of the...