The Swissmakers

Sep 15, 2016 — From its formal and technical complexity to its potent social commentary, Mizoguchi’s early-career masterpiece The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum offers a rich learning experience for directors seeking to hone their craft.

Aug 30, 2016 — Set in nineteenth-century Macao, Orson Welles’s adaptation of a classic tale by Isak Dinesen is a hypnotic meditation on the pitfalls of storytelling.

Aug 23, 2016 — In honor of the filmmaker, who passed away in 2016 at the age of ninety-two, Alan Arkin recalls the man who directed him in two of his favorite films, Popi and The In-Laws.

Aug 14, 2016 — While considered to lie outside the highly policed boundaries of film noir, films like Douglas Sirk’s Written on the Wind and Powell and Pressburger’s The Red Shoes nevertheless share many of noir’s stylistic and thematic tropes.

Jul 25, 2016 — In his masterful reimagining of the story of John Smith and Pocahontas, Terrence Malick meditates on the nature of beauty and America’s path from innocence to experience.

Jul 18, 2016 — Criterion’s resident researcher and web producer takes a trip to Madrid bookstore Ocho y Medio, which she calls “a shrine to Spanish contributions to the seventh art.”

Jul 14, 2016 — In honor of the actor’s birthday, we revisit an interview he gave to Interview magazine in 1991, following the release of David Lynch’s Wild at Heart.

Jul 11, 2016 — In anticipation of a retrospective tribute to the collaborations of Rowlands and filmmaker John Cassavetes, we look at a candid conversation with the actor.

Jun 30, 2016 — The film is is a high-water mark in the careers of its director, actors, and cowriter. But for design nerds, the contributions of Pablo Ferro, who designed the film’s iconic opening credit sequence, are just as notable.

May 27, 2016 — The actor sits down to recount his experiences working on Altman’s film about an amoral Hollywood studio executive and discusses the agreement he and Altman made to ensure that the production would be truly independent.