The Criterion Collection
One of Japan’s most important filmmakers, Kenji Mizoguchi created a cinema rich in technical mastery and social commentary, specifically regarding the place of women in Japanese society.
Sneak Peeks
Jul 9, 2013 — Today, we mostly know the great Japanese star Kinuyo Tanaka for her ability to disappear into roles in such films as The Life of Oharu, Ugetsu, and The Ballad of Narayama. But in the late 1940s, she was a personality...
Jul 8, 2013 — With its marvelous, distinctive camera work, Kenji Mizoguchi’s searing drama is as technically remarkable as it is humane.
Jul 3, 2013 — PerformancesIn Rosemary’s Baby, one of the first exclamations that Minnie Castevet (Ruth Gordon) makes on hearing the news that her young neighbor Rosemary (Mia Farrow) is expecting a little bundle of joy is “I can’t wait to tell Laura-Louise!” Earlier,...
Jun 26, 2013 — On the life and work of the famous Czech author, and the pleasures and challenges of translating him.
Sneak Peeks
Jun 25, 2013 — For our new release of Shoah, director Claude Lanzmann sat down with critic Serge Toubiana to talk about his philosophy and approach in making the formidable investigation into the Nazi extermination of Jews during World War II. One of the...
Essays
Jun 25, 2013 — How Claude Lanzmann made a thoughtful film about the unthinkable and unfilmable.
Sneak Peeks
Jun 24, 2013 — The most iconic gag of Harold Lloyd’s career—and one of the most indelible images of all of silent cinema—is the limber funnyman dangling from a clock on the side of a high building in Safety Last!. It is the centerpiece...
Jun 20, 2013 — The prophetic voice of H. G. Wells resonates throughout this singularly ambitious, spectacularly designed vision.
Sneak Peeks
Jun 19, 2013 — In a new supplement recorded in 2013 for the Criterion Collection, we catch up with Magda Vášáryová, who was a teenager when she played the title character in František Vlácil’s Czechoslovak New Wave landmark Marketa Lazarová. In this clip from...