Jan 21, 2008 — Lindsay Anderson’s adaptation of David Storey’s novel is a clenched fist of a movie that follows a professional Rugby League player who instinctively channels feeling through physical aggression.

The actor shares his close connection to Lindsay Anderson’s This Sporting Life, praises Richard Burton’s performance in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and talks about playing villains for “master of the macabre” Brian De Palma.

Neil Sinyard is emeritus professor of film studies at the University of Hull in the UK. He has published twenty-five books on the cinema, including studies of such directors as Billy Wilder, William Wyler, Alfred Hitchcock, Fred Zinnemann, Steven Spielberg,...

Feb 3, 2017 — Over on the Criterion Channel, for Super Bowl weekend, we’re showing the first football movie ever made, Harold Lloyd’s crackerjack comedy The Freshman (1925), and the first rugby-football movie ever made, Lindsay Anderson’s heart-pounding drama This Sporting Life (1963). And...

May 14, 2014 — The author recalls his meetings and correspondence with the uncompromisingly independent British director.

Aug 23, 2016 — Tony Richardson’s era-defining exploration of sexuality, race, and working-class life brought a uniquely female perspective to England’s Free Cinema movement.

Jan 28, 2014 — Terence Davies beckons the viewer into a private world of moods and sensations with this exquisite childhood reverie.

Aug 30, 2022 — Next month, the Criterion Channel celebrates the films of trailblazing cinematographer James Wong Howe, European acting icon Romy Schneider, and Spanish provocateur Carlos Saura.

Jun 15, 2023 — A major star in the 1970s, she retired to serve as a Labour MP, and then returned to widespread acclaim.

May 31, 2009 — Apparently, things were as rough on the set of Lindsay Anderson’s This Sporting Life as they were on-screen. In a new piece for the Guardian, written on the occasion of a theatrical rerelease of the film in the United Kingdom,...