The Criterion Collection
Essays
Nov 23, 1998 — Paul Morrissey’s gory comedy may be sensationally shlocky, yet it explores profound ideas about sexual liberty, individualistic freedom, and the commodification of everyday life.
Essays
Oct 12, 1998 — Are there cultural purists still remaining who would argue that the “Westernized” title of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 masterpiece—High and Low—throws polluted water on the cosmological fire of its given name: Tengoku to jigoku—literally, Heaven and Hell?Kurosawa’s once insisted-upon reputation as...
Essays
Dec 4, 1995 — While Carol Reed’s psychological noir is the most compassionate of movies, it’s a poetic summary of twentieth century harshness—of what can be called the inhuman condition.
Essays
Dec 3, 1990 — Over the years I have had a recurrent nightmare in which I am summoned to a large, unfamiliar building in a middle-European satellite country (Bulgaria, perhaps) to tell the idea of Annie Hall to the Bulgarian Minister of Green Lights,...
Oct 22, 2024 — Lana Wilson is a writer and director whose work includes After Tiller, an Emmy-winning feature documentary about the four most-targeted abortion doctors in America; The Departure, a Spirit Award–nominated feature documentary about a punk-turned-priest who helps suicidal people find reasons...
Essays
Jul 14, 2008 — Linguistic cosmopolitanism in the Babel-like world of commerce and culture is one of Jacques Tati’s several satirical targets.
The filmmaker returns to the Criterion Closet, where he praises seventies thrillers like The Parallax View and Straw Dogs, talks about You Can Count on Me and how “no one writes dialogue like Kenneth Lonergan,” and connects Targets to his...
The legendary filmmaker talks about the brilliance of Targets, his memories of collaborating with a young Martin Scorsese, and his experiences as a story analyst at Twentieth Century-Fox and as a distributor of art-house classics like Amarcord.
Interviews
May 24, 2024 — During a period of seismic change in U.S. history, the Hollywood studio system began to fracture beyond repair, resulting in a new freedom in how movies explored themes of violence, psychosis, and social breakdown.