The Switch

Aug 31, 2011 — French sociologist Roger Caillois proposed that every form of human recreation could be placed somewhere on a continuum between two terms: ludus and paidia. The first of these represents games defined almost wholly by their rule systems. Crossword puzzles and...

Mar 8, 2010 — Congratulations to Friday’s winner, Dan! Dan’s caption for this screenshot from Throne of Blood was: The Emperor initially resisted the switch from plastic bags to cloth. March is Akira Kurosawa month at Criterion. On the twenty-third, the great Japanese filmmaker...

Jun 18, 2025 — Throughout a small but indelible body of work that includes the 1984 neorealist masterpiece Bless Their Little Hearts, the veteran filmmaker has explored how everyday life is lived within structures of power.

Jan 9, 2017 — A feast of whip-smart banter, Howard Hawks’s protofeminist take on newsroom politics is the most grown-up of all remarriage comedies.

May 5, 2014 — Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole almost requires an honorary expansion of the term film noir. There are no private eyes in seedy offices or femmes fatales lurking in the shadows of neon-lit doorways, no forces of evil arrayed against...

Oct 18, 2022 — Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s hypnotic serial-killer film dives into the realm of the uncanny and envisions the breakdown of Japanese society.

Apr 20, 2022 — Running parallel to Cannes, two independent programs will present work ripe for discovery.

Mar 24, 2020 — Edgar Wright, Rian Johnson, and Natasha Lyonne have some home viewing recommendations.

Apr 25, 2005 — Pietro Germi offers locomotive relief in this comedy about the horrors of inertia.

Mar 23, 2021 — With the participation of Wong Kar Wai’s production company, Jet Tone Films, and collaborating with L’Immagine Ritrovata and One Cool, the Criterion Collection undertook meticulous restorations of seven of the director’s films, five of which—Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, Happy Together,...