The Criterion Collection
Short Takes
May 24, 2017 — Cannes kicked off the 1980s with a Palme d’Or win for a giant of Japanese cinema entering the final stages of his career. Akira Kurosawa’s Kagemusha (the title of which literally translates as “shadow warrior”) follows a small-time thief who...
Short Takes
May 24, 2017 — For my top-prize pick from the 1970s, I’ve chosen a film that enjoyed great commercial success while also stirring up international controversy. Though it was one of the highest-grossing German films of the decade, Volker Schlöndorff’s adaptation of Günter Grass’s...
On the Channel
May 10, 2017 — Whether evoking the pain of first love or investigating the challenges of the contemporary immigrant experience, Tunisian-French filmmaker Abdellatif Kechiche depicts human behavior in all its unruly complexity. In 2007, his gift for infusing rich, classically structured narratives with documentary-like...
May 1, 2017 — Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 Rumble Fish captures rebellious youth in all its existential angst, following gang leader Rusty-James (Matt Dillon) as he navigates troubled relationships with his near-mythical older brother (Mickey Rourke), his on-and-off girlfriend (Diane Lane), and his drunkard...
On the Channel
Apr 27, 2017 — The capstone to Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski’s brilliant career, the Three Colors trilogy explores the principles of the French Revolution—liberty, equality, and fraternity—through a series of intricately layered human dramas, culminating in 1994’s Oscar-nominated Red. This gorgeously photographed meditation on...
On the Channel
Apr 24, 2017 — Best known for his starring roles in Juno and Superbad, Michael Cera has spent much of his career making us laugh. But when it comes to the films he watches for pleasure, his taste veers toward the serious and contemplative....
Apr 21, 2017 — Did You See This? With its startling mix of tones and genres, Jonathan Demme’s 1986 Something Wild captures the destabilizing experience of falling in love. Kim Morgan looks back on this “moody, transgressive, genre-bending, weirdly romantic (and unromantic)” comedic thriller...
Apr 19, 2017 — Fresh off her successful collaboration with George Cukor on The Philadelphia Story, Katharine Hepburn secured her comeback after a brief career slump with George Stevens’s 1942 Woman of the Year. This clever battle-of-the-sexes comedy—which marked the actor’s first on-screen partnership...
Apr 12, 2017 — A sparkling homage to the golden age of Hollywood, Jacques Demy’s The Young Girls of Rochefort tells the story of dance instructor Delphine and music teacher Solange, twin sisters who yearn for excitement and romance beyond the confines of their...
On the Channel
Mar 30, 2017 — Released in 1973, near the end of General Franco’s military dictatorship, Víctor Erice’s strikingly poetic first film, The Spirit of the Beehive, reflects on the earliest days of the regime, depicting the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War in an...