The Criterion Collection
Features
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...
Apr 19, 2019 — Performances No other comedian could milk a pause for a laugh quite the way Jack Benny could on his radio program, which lasted from 1932 to 1955 and turned him into an American institution. (He also did a TV show...
Sep 14, 2015 — In his latest column, Peter Cowie reflects on his friendship with our beloved cofounder.
Sneak Peeks
May 27, 2015 — Imagine being plucked from obscurity at age nineteen to star alongside Charlie Chaplin. That’s what happened to London stage actor Claire Bloom in 1951, when she was courted for the female leading role in Chaplin’s Limelight. We recently interviewed the...
Jul 28, 2014 — Jacques Demy’s first full-fledged storybook fantasy challenges and subverts traditional fairy-tale norms.
Jun 19, 2014 — PerformancesTime has added some latter-day ironies to All That Heaven Allows, and not just the revelation that its star Rock Hudson was gay. There’s also the political career of Ronald Reagan, the ex-husband of Hudson’s costar, Jane Wyman—built on the...
Essays
Dec 11, 2013 — This political drama was made in Mexico at a revolutionary moment and represents an extraordinary confluence of international talent.
May 17, 2013 — Did You See This?• Noah Baumbach talks Frances Ha. • Richard Linklater goes back to Before. • Far from Heaven is stage-bound. • How to make an American quilt—from celluloid • New films on the horizon from Bellocchio, Greenaway, Hartley,...
Dec 4, 2012 — Misunderstood by Hollywood, embraced by critics, this fatalistic fantasy remains Terry Gilliam’s ultimate trip.
Short Takes
Oct 12, 2012 — Every ten years since 1952, the world-renowned film magazine Sight & Sound has polled a wide international selection of film critics and directors on what they consider to be the ten greatest works of cinema ever made, and then compiled...