criterion collection

‘The Lady Eve’ Indulges Preston Sturges’ Humor, Both Literate and Broad

‘The Lady Eve’ Indulges Preston Sturges’ Humor, Both Literate and Broad

Preston Sturges’ The Lady Eve is layered with texture and substance draped in the gleeful prurience of a master of slapstick and romance.

The Erotic Disruption of the Self in Paul Schrader’s ‘The Comfort of Strangers’

The Erotic Disruption of the Self in Paul Schrader’s ‘The Comfort of Strangers’

Paul Schrader’s The Comfort of Strangers presents the discomfiting encounter with another —someone like you—and yet entirely unlike you, mysterious to you, unknown and unknowable.

Buster Keaton’s ‘The Cameraman’ Casts Light on MGM’s Tyranny

‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ Gorgeously Conveys Our Need for Poise and Elegance

‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ Gorgeously Conveys Our Need for Poise and Elegance

The sense of artifice in Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel helped him create an alluring reverie of both color and meaning.

Before Ru Paul and Trixie Mattel There Was the Ball Circuit: ‘Paris Is Burning’

Before Ru Paul and Trixie Mattel There Was the Ball Circuit: ‘Paris Is Burning’

Told through the voices and movements of the legends and pioneers of the '80s Harlem drag-ball scene, Paris Is Burning is an indispensable look at one of America's most influential subcultures of the last half-century.

Atop a Throne of Ashes: On Juraj Herz’s ‘The Cremator’

Atop a Throne of Ashes: On Juraj Herz’s ‘The Cremator’

Far from being escapist entertainment, Herz's The Cremator is a dissection of evil and how deluded one becomes in willing themselves to power.

“I’ll See You Later”: Repetition and Time in Pedro Almodóvar’s ‘All About My Mother’

“I’ll See You Later”: Repetition and Time in Pedro Almodóvar’s ‘All About My Mother’

There are mythical moments in Almodóvar’s All About My Mother. We are meant to register repetition in the story as something wonderfully strange, a connection across the chasm of impossibility.

A Fix of Fantasy: Reviving the Wondrous Films of Karel Zeman

A Fix of Fantasy: Reviving the Wondrous Films of Karel Zeman

The imaginative filmmaker Karel Zeman influenced many artists including Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton, fellow Czech Jan Švankmajer, the Brothers Quay, and animator Lawrence Jordan's recycling of classic 19th Century imagery.

No Sanctuary in the Light: The Story of Temple Drake

No Sanctuary in the Light: The Story of Temple Drake

Based on William Faulkner’s Sanctuary, The Story of Temple Drake grapples with the unbidden, unsettling force of emergent sexuality.

Embracing Nothing: Nihilism in Bellocchio’s ‘Fists in the Pocket’

Embracing Nothing: Nihilism in Bellocchio’s ‘Fists in the Pocket’

Bellocchio's best work, Fists in the Pocket (I pugni in tasca) is key to understanding the stark shift Italian cinema experienced in moving from the post-realism phase of the 1950s into the experimentalism, social commentary, and surrealism of the 1960s.

Spike Lee’s ‘Do the Right Thing’ Remains Explosive and Vivid

Spike Lee’s ‘Do the Right Thing’ Remains Explosive and Vivid

The Criterion Collection's essential 30th anniversary Blu-ray package of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing honors the film's heart, aesthetic brilliance, and pointed message on American racism, diversity, and community.