The Criterion Collection
May 11, 2009 — “It’s taken more than fifty years, but the world has finally caught up with [the] dark and cynical vision” of Billy Wilder’s chillingly black satire of the fourth estate, Ace in the Hole, A. O. Scott declares in a clever...
Apr 30, 2009 — The concept of “obscenity” is tested when we dare to look at something that we desire to see but have forbidden ourselves to look at. When we feel that everything has been revealed, “obscenity” disappears and there is a certain...
Apr 23, 2009 — These profiles of the real-life Sada Abé and the actress who portrayed her in Nagisa Oshima’s In the Realm of the Senses first appeared in Donald Richie’s 1987 book Different People: Pictures of Some Japanese, and can also be found...
Sep 22, 2008 — With their rotating casts of sourpuss Finns and their stringent compositions, Aki Kaurismäki’s films would seem the least likely candidates for laughs, yet his black-comic precision has made him one of the most warmly embraced filmmakers on the international art-house...
Jan 14, 2008 — As Japan was coming out of World War II, Akira Kurosawa was coming into his own as a filmmaker.
The Daily
Aug 7, 2026 — This week: Conversations with Jane Schoenbrun, Ngozi Onwurah, and Kent Jones and writing on Jean Epstein and Stanley Kwan.
Aug 7, 2026 — The members of this influential leftist collective created a formally adventurous body of work that examined the nation’s tumultuous history through a postcolonial lens.
Aug 6, 2026 — In 1972, on the occasion of the Summer Games in Munich, the first-ever Olympic mascot made its debut. Waldi, a cheerful, bright blue dachshund, was heavily merchandised, with over two million toys, keychains, T-shirts, and other memorabilia created in its...
The Daily
Aug 6, 2026 — The Chicago Film Society hosts three days of eclectic and vibrant programming.
Aug 4, 2026 — New restorations, festival favorites, and world premieres are heading to Toronto.