The Criterion Collection
Aug 3, 2015 — On film noir’s unparalleled roster of resonant titles—Kiss of Death, Out of the Past, and Where Danger Lives, to name three—none is more emblematic or iconographically cogent than Night and the City. Juxtaposing two of noir’s essential, virtually ontological qualities,...
Jul 6, 2015 — The Killers (1946) is exemplary film noir from Robert Siodmak, who, on the strength of three films—this, Phantom Lady (1944), and Criss Cross (1949)—stands beside his fellow European exiles Fritz Lang and Otto Preminger as one of noir’s crucial directors....
Features
May 7, 2015 — Movie comedies about moviemaking through the decades
May 1, 2015 — In his first feature, Jean-Pierre Melville found subtly radical ways to adapt Vercors's underground French novel about quiet resistance against the German occupation.
Apr 14, 2015 — Before he turned Vienna into a labyrinth of shadows with The Third Man, Carol Reed brought film noir to Belfast for this stylishly fatalistic tale of a man caught up in political violence.
Sneak Peeks
Mar 23, 2015 — When we think of film noir, we think of shadowy city streets, often in Los Angeles or New York. But Robert Montgomery’s Ride the Pink Horse, which we released last week, is one of a handful of dark-toned films made...
Mar 16, 2015 — Director and star Robert Montgomery suffuses his moody 1947 New Mexico–set noir with palpable postwar anxiety and expressive fatalism.
Jan 13, 2015 — Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s characters play an endlessly layered game of dress-up in this tale of sadomasochistic love.
Sneak Peeks
Dec 12, 2014 — A supplemental feature on our edition of the film documents the brilliant work of costume designer James Acheson and production designer Milly Burns.
Production Notes
Nov 19, 2014 — While revisiting the films for their Criterion release, director Monte Hellman returned to shooting locations, many of which are now underwater; found and interviewed Calvin Johnson, the chief wrangler on both films; and discovered something new in a take of...