The Criterion Collection
Essays
Jun 21, 2010 — A new man is being born, fraught with all the fears and terrors and stammerings that are associated with a period of gestation. —Michelangelo Antonioni Red Desert came out in 1964, almost twenty years after the end of the war,...
Features
Jun 17, 2010 — How do you make a comedy about something as serious as the Nazi threat of world domination—particularly as it is happening? Perhaps there’s something in the English character that allows them to see humor in disaster. Some sort of survival...
Essays
Apr 14, 2008 — Allen Baron’s stark, moody Blast of Silence (1961) is a movie of many strange distinctions. It’s among the last of the true film noirs, those fatalistic black-and-white urban crime dramas that darkened the American screen so gloriously in the years...
Essays
Nov 15, 1999 — Great comedy cannot be confined within normally accepted boundaries of taste and sensitivity. The essence of the Pythons was that they were always ready to take on formidable, daunting subjects that others might find too dangerous to contemplate. The idea...
Aug 20, 2001 — I have known Torben Skjødt since 1983. His debut video Englefjæs—which I thought to be very accomplished—was presented during a film week in Silkeborg. A debut work, yes, but made with a self-assured maturity by a self-taught creator of images....
Oct 15, 2050 — Voice-over narration has existed since the beginnings of cinema and has been an integral part of some of the great masterworks of narrative film, from The Magnificent Ambersons to Double Indemnity to Jules and Jim to Taxi Driver. It spans...
The Daily
Feb 26, 2024 — The Berlinale’s top award went to Dahomey on an evening that has sparked heated debate.
The Daily
Jun 16, 2023 — The week has brought interviews with Claire Denis and Pedro Costa and essays on the work of James Baldwin and Sharon Lockhart.
The Daily
Jun 9, 2023 — A rebel actress, a lost oeuvre, and a pornographic remake are among this week’s highlights.
The Daily
Apr 30, 2021 — The British New Wave, Eric Rohmer, and the late Monte Hellman figure among this week’s highlights. Also, it turns out there’s still a lot to say about Nomadland.