The Asphalt Jungle: Criterion Collection
February 16, 2017
As a connoisseur of heist films it just doesn’t get any better than The Asphalt Jungle (1950), which also happens to be one of my all-time favorite film noirs. Directed with stylish economy by John Huston, it features atmospheric black and white cinematography...
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...
Following: Criterion Collection
January 2, 2013
Shot on a bare-bones budget of approximately $5,000, Following (1999) is the auspicious feature film debut of writer/director Christopher Nolan. Shot sporadically over a year on black and white 16 mm film stock, it would introduce many of the themes that...
The Killing: Criterion Collection
August 18, 2011
Before graduating to studio films for the remainder of his filmmaking career, Stanley Kubrick cut his teeth on several lean independent films with producer James B. Harris, chief among them was The Killing (1956), a masterful take on Lionel White’s...
Kiss Me Deadly: Criterion Collection
June 22, 2011
After the classy film noirs of the 1940’s, Robert Aldrich’s adaptation of Mickey Spillane’s hardboiled crime novel Kiss Me Deadly (1955) was as tough and uncompromising as its protagonist Mike Hammer. The film reflects the Cold War paranoia that...
Sweet Smell of Success: Criterion Collection
February 24, 2011
While Sweet Smell of Success (1957) was a hit with film critics at the time, it was not a box office smash as fans of the film’s two leads – Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis – were put off seeing their matinee idols portraying unlikable characters....
The Missing Person
April 23, 2010
With an Academy Award nomination for his scene-stealing role in Revolutionary Road (2008), Michael Shannon’s career was given a considerable boost. For years, he’s plugged away in small roles in big films like Pearl Harbor (2001) and more substantial...
Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics: Volume 1
November 4, 2009
Film noir is a tricky genre to get a handle on. Film critics and historians argue endlessly about how to define it but they certainly know one when they see it. Classic film noir typically is set in an urban environment – rainy nights, shadowy alleyways...
Le Doulos: Criterion Collection
November 25, 2008
Jean-Pierre Melville was known for making genre films with rambling narratives that delighted in taking all kinds of plot diversions. His seventh film, Le Doulos (1962), based on the novel by Pierre Lesou, deviated from his usual approach to produce a...
Classe tous risques
June 16, 2008
Despite kick-starting his career as a feature film director in the 1960s when the French New Wave was all the rage, Claude Sautet was never part of that movement. He got his start as an assistant director and got the gig for Classe tous risques (1960)...
