The Criterion Collection
Essays
May 15, 2000 — In René Clair’s ebullient early talkie, an unsentimental love of humanity permeates every frame.
Essays
Nov 15, 1999 — Great comedy cannot be confined within normally accepted boundaries of taste and sensitivity. The essence of the Pythons was that they were always ready to take on formidable, daunting subjects that others might find too dangerous to contemplate. The idea...
Essays
Sep 6, 1999 — The subject of loneliness and the observation of the isolated person has always interested me. Even as a child, I couldn’t help but notice those who didn’t fit in for one reason or another—myself included. In life, and for my...
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
Jun 4, 2001 — Mario Monicelli’s caper comedy is that genuine rarity in popular culture: a satire that not only helped kill off one movie genre, but started a whole new subgenre in the process.
The actor praises films by directors he has worked with, talks about how Mike Leigh’s Naked and Ken Loach’s Kes helped define contemporary British cinema, and thanks his father for his love of Tampopo.