Picnic at Hanging Rock: Criterion Collection
July 8, 2014
There is a fascinating air of mystery surrounding Peter Weir’s adaptation of Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) that captivated me when I first saw it many years ago and continues to haunt me. While the story is a simple yet intriguing one its lack of closure...
L’Eclisse: Criterion Collection
June 26, 2014
In an essay included in the accompanying booklet, Jonathan Rosenbaum points out that Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Eclisse (1962) was the final film in a “loose trilogy about Eros, art, business and emotional alienation in the contemporary world.”...
All That Heaven Allows: Criterion Collection
June 9, 2014
During the 1950s, Douglas Sirk directed some of the most popular Hollywood melodramas, but was maligned by critics of the time. It wasn’t until years later when the Cahiers du cinema critics re-evaluated Sirk’s body of work and argued that he was...
Red River: Criterion Collection
May 28, 2014
Howard Hawks’ Red River (1948) presents a patriarchal society where men live by a macho, male code that excludes women and explores the notion of what it is to be a man and how violence aids in this definition. There is also a lack of women in this...
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou: Criterion Collection
May 27, 2014
There’s always a certain amount of trepidation when a filmmaker like Wes Anderson, known for making intimate and personal films, starts making movies on a more ambitious scale – bigger budgets and movie stars in an attempt to appeal to larger audience...
Overlord: Criterion Collection
May 20, 2014
Stuart Cooper’s Overlord (1975) is proof that you can make an epic movie about World War II with very little money. His film depicts one man’s journey from basic training to D-Day. He did this by blending archival war footage from the Imperial War...
Il Sorpasso: Criterion Collection
May 15, 2014
Il Sorpasso (1962) starts off, appropriately enough for a road movie, with one its main characters driving through the city streets of Rome to brassy be-bop jazz blasting away on the soundtrack. It sets a fun, energetic pace right from the get-go. Often...
Breaking the Waves: Criterion Collection
May 12, 2014
With Breaking the Waves (1996), Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier finally broke through into North America after several early efforts that were exercises in style more than anything else. This film saw him taking a page from the cinema of John Cassavetes...
Ace in the Hole: Criterion Collection
May 7, 2014
Billy Wilder was a cynical filmmaker working in Hollywood during its most productive time – the classic period when legends like John Huston and John Ford reigned. Wilder made commercial films with a wildly subversive streak. For example, both Double...
Riot in Cell Block 11: Criterion Collection
April 30, 2014
As for the prison drama genre, there aren’t many decent examples with notable exceptions being films like Brute Force (1947) and Cool Hand Luke (1967). One of the early excellent examples is Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), a pulpy drama with a story ripped...
