The Criterion Collection
Essays
Jun 13, 1988 — G. W. Pabst lends humanity and depth to his adaptation of a play by Bertolt Brecht—one of the last great works of German cinema's richest period.
Short Takes
Sep 15, 2016 — From its formal and technical complexity to its potent social commentary, Mizoguchi’s early-career masterpiece The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum offers a rich learning experience for directors seeking to hone their craft.
Mar 31, 2016 — At the beginning of Julia Cafritz’s senior year of high school, she saw Peter Weir’s The Last Wave and decided to drop out of high school, skip college, move to Australia, marry Mr. Weir and devote her life to filmmaking....
Jan 29, 2014 — Martin Scorsese is an Academy Award–winning filmmaker who has directed more than twenty features, including The Last Temptation of Christ, available from the Criterion Collection. He is the founder of the nonprofit Film Foundation and World Cinema Project, dedicated to...
Jul 19, 2011 — Comedians, writers, and producers Robert Ben Garant and Tom Lennon split their duties in selecting their favorite titles from the collection: the first five are from Lennon, the last are from Garant. Best known for their work on The State...
Short Takes
Apr 18, 2011 — In this photograph of the Brattle Theatre circa 1953, you can see a sign that says “Opening Soon! Foreign Films.” The brilliant idea behind the sign belonged to Harvard classmates Cy Harvey and Bryant Haliday, without whom the Brattle Theatre...
Sep 4, 2009 — Explains Whit Stillman, writer and director of The Last Days of Disco: “In trying to come up with a ten best list from the Criterion Collection I thought first of Trouble in Paradise and decided to go online to find...
Nov 21, 2008 — Kevin Macdonald is the grandson of the filmmaker Emeric Pressburger (A Canterbury Tale, The Red Shoes). Macdonald’s directorial credits include 2000's Academy Award–winning One Day in September, about the killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, and 2003's...
Nov 21, 2008 — John Lurie, whose band, the Lounge Lizards, was one of the most acclaimed jazz groups of the eighties and nineties, has recorded twenty-two albums and has acted in several films, including Stranger Than Paradise, Down by Law, and The Last...
Nov 19, 2008 — Michael Barker and his copresidents at Sony Pictures Classics, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom, have brought out some of the best and most successful independent and international films of the last two decades, from Women on the Verge of a...