The Criterion Collection
With his brilliant knack for composition, expertise at choreographing deadpan slapstick, and grandiose vision, this French mime turned filmmaker created one of the most enjoyable, singular oeuvres in film.
This singularly audacious B-movie visionary made purposefully crude, elegantly stripped-down films that laid bare the dark side of American culture.
A singular, iconoclastic artist and philosopher, Bresson illuminates the history of cinema with a spiritual yet socially incisive body of work.
Essays
Jul 14, 2008 — Linguistic cosmopolitanism in the Babel-like world of commerce and culture is one of Jacques Tati’s several satirical targets.
May 9, 2005 — Les Blank’s documentary examines the interaction of premodern tribal existence with European modernity, epitomized by a movie narrative about the invidious clash of brute nature and a singular ego bent on his own mission of cultural enlightenment.
May 9, 2004 — With his vibrant chronicle of an Oedipal revolt, Volker Schlöndorff captures the source novel’s singular recreation of the German past.
Aug 20, 2001 — Before Lars von Trier, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Andrei Tarkovsky, Ingmar Bergman, Robert Bresson there was Carl Th. Dreyer. The first great film artist to pursue the ineffable in cinema, Dreyer gave depth to what early silent filmmakers innately understood yet took...
The writer, director, and actor returns to the Criterion Closet, where he shares how he and cinematographer Maceo Bishop studied documentaries like The War Room when making their new film The Smashing Machine, shouts out the singular performances in Carnal...
Known for playing helpless but lovable neurotics, this brilliant performer has also written and directed some of the sharpest satires of modern American culture, all characterized by his singularly dry sense of humor.
The comedian, actor, and director talks about loving the relatable weirdness of Grey Gardens and the compulsive passion of Crumb; praises Miranda July’s singular, offbeat voice; and shares how The 400 Blows (a Natasha Lyonne recommendation) evokes empathy for the...