The Criterion Collection
Dec 10, 2009 — Upon its U.S. release in the fall of 1969, Costa-Gavras’s Z made a splash unprecedented for a non-Hollywood film: star Yves Montand talked it up to Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, and the film went on to gross $2.2...
Essays
Oct 25, 2009 — Costa-Gavras’s 1969 political assassination thriller Z appeared at the end of a decade of burgeoning cultural change and rampant paranoia. In the United States, this Algerian-French coproduction sparked a sensation, not just relaying the European political crisis but perfectly capturing...
Jul 25, 2017 — Joshua Z Weinstein has directed the feature documentaries Drivers Wanted and Flying on One Engine. His recent credits as director of photography include Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me, Code of the West, and the forthcoming Bikini Moon. Weinstein has been nominated...
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...
The Daily
Nov 6, 2020 — A new restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, the return of Sophia Loren, supercops in the 1970s, and Costa-Gavras’s Z are on our minds this week.
The Daily
Mar 12, 2020 — Canceled festivals and closed movie theaters: The impact has been tough, and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns (Contagion) discusses what we should be doing next.
May 29, 2015 — A shocking chapter of Soviet Czechoslovakian history is dramatized in Costa-Gavras’s controversial follow-up to Z.
Tech Corner
Nov 14, 2016 — Last week, we were saddened to learn of the passing of Raoul Coutard. Our technical director, Lee Kline, shared some memories of working with the great cinematographer.
Sneak Peeks
Jun 2, 2015 — Having made such urgent, ripped-from-the-headlines, international dramas as Z, The Confession, State of Siege, and Missing, it stands to reason that the Greek director Costa-Gavras is often referred to as a political filmmaker. But in this excerpt from a wide-ranging...