Filmmaker

Jan 20, 2016 — Inside Llewyn Davis (now out on Blu-ray and DVD), the Coen brothers’ latest odyssey into the more desolate corners of Americana, stars Oscar Isaac in the title role, as an ill-fated musician navigating the Greenwich Village folk scene of the...

Jan 13, 2016 — In Bitter Rice, Giuseppe De Santis focused his lens on the world of Italy’s female rice workers, for a story that’s part social commentary, part pulp melodrama—and introduced the world to a dazzling young actress named Silvana Mangano.

Dec 29, 2015 — Kitchen Conversations“I almost have the impression that films come by themselves and you’re like a slave to them—one of them decides to go for it, and you run after it,” said director Deniz Gamze Ergüven when she and her eight-month-old...

Dec 11, 2015 — With his singular and unwavering style, Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu disregarded the established rules of cinema and created a visual language all his own. Precise compositions, contemplative pacing, low camera angles, and elliptical storytelling are just some of the signature...

Dec 9, 2015 — Speedy, directed in 1928 by comedy writer and filmmaker Ted Wilde, is a mile-a-minute ride through New York that was the final silent film to star Hollywood comic icon Harold Lloyd. Shot on location in New York and on sound...

Dec 8, 2015 — The Sundance Film Festival’s 2016 documentary premieres lineup, announced yesterday, will feature Richard Linklater—dream is destiny, the directorial debut of Louis Black.

Nov 25, 2015 — Repertory PicksDecember is but a few days away, so it’s an ideal time to revisit Metropolitan, Whit Stillman’s classic holiday tale of New York's “urban haute bourgeoisie.” And this week, the director's influential 1990 gem will screen in Florida at...

Nov 25, 2015 — Last week, when John Waters stopped by Criterion for a visit, we asked the cult filmmaker (and connoisseur of holiday entertainment) for his recommendations of the films we should be watching this holiday season. Naturally, he responded with one of...

Nov 25, 2015 — Akira Kurosawa's 1952 film about one man’s mortality offers a study in postwar Japan, Kurosawa vs. Ozu, and the realization that knowing how to die requires learning how to be alive.

Nov 24, 2015 — Film scholar David Bordwell has written a terrific new piece for his blog about the incredible influence and evolution of Agnès Varda’s six-decade-long filmmaking career. “Varda is now regarded as a living treasure of world cinema,” Bordwell writes. “Whatever she...