The Beach

Jan 8, 2019 — “Elements which can be eliminated have been eliminated” is how Abbas Kiarostami once described his late turn toward minimalism. While the Iranian director was known for the intricate, metatextual playfulness of his work, he also spent much of his career...

Jul 16, 2013 — Theater legend Peter Brook’s approach to bringing the classic fable about human savagery to the screen was radical in its straightforwardness.

Aug 5, 2024 — The expansive program includes the world premiere a new restoration of Wake in Fright with a new score performed live.

Apr 26, 2016 — “It is not an exaggeration to say that before Primary, documentary as we know it today—the art of candid observation—didn’t exist,” writes Thom Powers.

Aug 21, 2017 — When Jonas Mekas and his brother Adolfas fled Lithuania in 1944 only to land in a Nazi forced-labor camp, Jonas began to keep a diary. Entries from that diary are gathered in I Had Nowhere to Go, out now from...

Feb 2, 2011 — This essay first appeared in the winter 2010 issue of Brick, a literary journal based in Toronto. It is posted here by permission of the author. Michelangelo said he could sense the figure in the uncut stone; his job was...

Sep 25, 2015 — Some months ago, we invited Criterion Facebook fans to submit their questions for director Wes Anderson, six of which he responded to on the commentary track on our release of Moonrise Kingdom. The following clip from the commentary features a...

Mar 5, 2009 — Starting this Sunday, March 8, the Harvard Film Archive will devote a week of programming to the groundbreaking work of Agnès Varda with the series Ciné-Varda. The “grandmother of the New Wave” will appear in person at a handful of...

Mar 24, 2025 — A series coprogrammed by Bonjour Tristesse director Durga Chew-Bose “celebrates the beauty and myth of the Riviera.”

Dec 1, 2021 — Celebrate the holidays with our 21-film Alfred Hitchcock retrospective and a series dedicated to collaborations between female directors and cinematographers.