Persona: Criterion Collection
April 28, 2014
The 1960s was an exciting decade for world cinema with the likes of Akira Kurosawa (Japan), Sergio Leone (Italy), Lindsay Anderson (England) and Jean-Luc Godard (France) making names for themselves on the international stage. Among these cinematic giants...
A Brief History of Time: Criterion Collection
April 9, 2014
Stephen Hawking’s book A Brief History of Time was published in 1988 and by 2007 had sold over 10 million copies. It was the brilliant physicist’s attempt to tackle such weighty ideas as the notion that the universe had a beginning and if so, what...
I Am Divine
April 8, 2014
In 1988, notorious cult filmmaker John Waters finally achieved mainstream recognition with Hairspray. His star and muse Divine a.k.a. Harris Glenn Milstead helped the filmmaker get there and deservedly basked in the praise. Sadly, he died the same year...
The Freshman: Criterion Collection
April 2, 2014
Many cineastes consider The Freshman (1925) to be silent comedian Harold Lloyd’s undisputed masterpiece. It was the pinnacle of his “Glasses Character,” a bespectacled protagonist that left home to succeed out in the world. In the case of this film,...
George Washington: Criterion Collection
March 31, 2014
When George Washington (2000) made the rounds at various film festivals, critics were impressed by David Gordon Green’s directorial feature debut with some comparing him to Terrence Malick. Set in a decaying rural southern United States setting, the...
Blue is the Warmest Color: Criterion Collection
March 28, 2014
From the moment it was screened at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, Blue is the Warmest Color (2013) was surrounded by controversy when it came out that several crew members not only complained of but quit the production over director Abdellatif Kechiche’s...
King of the Hill: Criterion Collection
March 27, 2014
After the surprise success of his independent film debut, sex, lies & videotape (1989), which won the prestigious Palme d’Or, Steven Soderbergh struggled to find the right projects and the ability to make them to his satisfaction. This resulted...
Breathless: Criterion Collection
March 19, 2014
Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1960) is arguably the most famous example of the French New Wave, a group of film critics who were inspired by classic Hollywood films to become filmmakers themselves. Breathless certainly wasn’t the first French New...
Tess: Criterion Collection
March 18, 2014
Based on Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Tess (1979) ended a prolific decade of memorable films for Roman Polanski who, at this point in his career, had been exiled to Europe due to legal problems in the United States. The film featured...
Foreign Correspondent: Criterion Collection
March 4, 2014
While Foreign Correspondent (1940) was Alfred Hitchcock’s second Hollywood film, the director considered it his first, true effort. He regarded Rebecca (1940) as not one of his films because it lacked humor thanks to the meddling of David O. Selznick....
