The Criterion Collection
Essays
Apr 28, 2008 — It’s a fascinating tradition of children’s fiction that Albert Lamorisse’s film continues, evoking an Edenic world of children and animals living in harmony—one very far away from where we are.
Jul 10, 2006 — In his unpredictable daily encounters with the gorilla Koko and her teacher, Barbet Schroeder foregrounds the quiddity of Koko’s situation in episodic fashion.
FYI
Aug 6, 2025 — In November, Criterion’s series of rare films relaunches on Blu-ray with a box set of early works by Abbas Kiarostami.
Sep 10, 2024 — Andrew Haigh explores loss and queer loneliness in this exquisite, twilit tangle of lives and loves separated by space, time, and personal defenses.
Essays
Feb 24, 2021 — Hollywood is the unofficial ministry of propaganda for the United States. Newcomers to this country typically begin their process of Americanization well before they arrive, having been exposed, for quite some time, to the long-distance bombardment of American blockbusters. In...
Jan 31, 2018 — This month, we’re bringing two essential Criterion editions to the United Kingdom: Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1962 debut feature, Ivan’s Childhood, a haunting depiction of World War II through the eyes of a young boy; and Delmer Daves’s 1957 western 3:10 to...
Essays
Feb 18, 2008 — Actor and writer Linda Sandoval met Alex Cox in 1983, when her husband, Miguel Sandoval, was cast in Repo Man (she recalls that Cox phoned to say he had good news and bad news: the bad news was that Miguel...
Essays
Apr 23, 2001 — In 1955, Jules Dassin, an American director in exile in Paris, made this flat-out perfect piece of cinema. The film came as a redemption for Dassin: a one-time promising young director cranking out B-movies under an MGM contract ("They were...
Essays
Nov 22, 1999 — Amarcord presents a scathing satirical critique of Italian provincial life during the 1930s, the height of the fascist period (1922–43). In this era, Mussolini’s dictatorship enjoyed its greatest popular support. While Fellini’s depiction of the provincial world under fascism provides...
The writer-director of Janet Planet joins the film’s editor in praising Maurice Pialat’s unsentimental depiction of childhood, their collaborator Maria von Hausswolff’s cinematography in Godland, and the ineffable magic of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.