The Criterion Collection
Short Takes
Feb 20, 2015 — In time for this year’s Academy Awards ceremony, we wanted to celebrate all the incredible women who have been nominated for best actress Oscars for their roles in Criterion titles. They range from the 1930s to the 2010s, and include...
Features
May 1, 2014 — When Walter Wanger conceived the movie that would become Riot in Cell Block 11, he wasn’t thinking in terms of pop culture. The longtime independent film producer, with classics (and Criterion releases) such as Stagecoach and Foreign Correspondent to his...
Apr 21, 2014 — A real-life prison uprising inspired this two-fisted tale directed by Don Siegel, who would go on to make many more films about men in extreme situations.
Apr 18, 2014 — Did You See This?• The best animated films of all time • Olivier Assayas, David Cronenberg, Mike Leigh, and others going to Cannes • Our Frances Ha essayist dances off with a Pulitzer! • British Pathé opens its vaults. •...
Nov 29, 2013 — Did You See This?• Living Criterion covers • A lengthy detour with Edgar Ulmer • Re-creating Babette’s feast • Eleven great (mini) performances • A gateway cinema survey • Steve James to honor Roger Ebert on film • Mike Leigh...
Sneak Peeks
May 29, 2013 — The beginning of Mike Leigh’s new audio commentary track for Criterion’s release of his poignant domestic comedy-drama Life Is Sweet is just too charming not to share here. In these first few minutes, which span the film’s opening credits, the...
Sneak Peeks
May 21, 2013 — Having shot films like Norman Jewison’s In the Heat of the Night and Mike Nichols’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (for which he won an Oscar), Haskell Wexler had already established himself as a foremost Hollywood cinematographer by the time...
Mar 22, 2013 — Did You See This?• Fifty awesome openers—but 8½’s the best of all. • Pam Grier, Federico Fellini, and fried pigeon—all in one story • Restored silent Hitchcock coming our way • The incredible true adventures of Budd Schulberg and Leni...
Short Takes
Sep 13, 2011 — Poignant news to pass along: our good friend and frequent contributor Michael Sragow has announced on his Baltimore Sun blog that at the end of this week, he will be hanging up his hat as a regular film critic. This...
Jul 21, 2011 — Performances When people talk about Mike Leigh’s Naked, the conversation is inevitably focused on David Thewlis’s nerve-shredding, tour de force central performance as the callous drifter Johnny, who slices through life like a straight razor. Yet consider how impossible his...