In this short documentary produced for the Criterion Collection, Oscar-winning visual-effects expert Craig Barron and film writer John Bengtson, author of Silent Visions, discuss the unique stunts, locations, and effects seen in Harold Lloyd's comedy masterpiece Safety Last! (1923).
In the following conversation, recorded remotely in 2020, filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Ari Aster discuss the mission, evolution, and ongoing work of The Film Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and preserving motion-picture history that Scorsese established in 1990.
In 2009, Sean Baker sat down with the Godfather of Gore himself, Herschell Gordon Lewis, to discuss his legendary career as an exploitation pioneer and creator of the splatter movie. In 2019, the footage formed the basis for this documentary produced by the Criterion Channel.
Musician Bo Harwood discusses his work with filmmaker John Cassavetes.
In the sixth installment of the Criterion Channel's Meet the Filmmakers series, director Alex Ross Perry (Her Smell, Listen Up Philip) visits the ever-iconoclastic auteur Paul Schrader during the making of his 2017 masterpiece First Reformed. On set and at home- where, for his own pleasure, he continues to work and rework his previous films- Schrader reflects on the highs and lows of his legendary career, the challenges and rewards of slow cinema, and the influences and experiences that continue to shape his approach to filmmaking. With this insightful portrait of one of his filmmaking heroes, Perry captures an artist who is continually at play, intentionally provocative, and never less than vital.
Athina Rachel Tsangari has become one of the foremost figures of the so-called “Greek Weird Wave”—a movement characterized by its fascination with human behavior, bitingly absurdist humor, and arresting visual style—both as a director and as a producer for contemporaries such as Yorgos Lanthimos. Her films, however, showcase a bold vision that goes way beyond the merely “weird,” offering a provocative perspective on family, sexuality, power dynamics, and the inherent strangeness of human interaction. In this original documentary, David Thompson travels to the Greek island of Hydra to meet up with Tsangari and discuss her directorial philosophy and what it means to “live cinema.”
In this documentary, filmmaker Daniel Raim delves into Yasujiro Ozu's remarkable late work, in which the master made the leap from black and white to color. In his stirring tribute to the great filmmaker, Raim examines Ozu's life and work through archival treasures such as his diary and the red teakettle from the family drama "Equinox Flower" (1958); sits down with Ozu's nephew and the producer of the director's gently elegiac final film, "An Autumn Afternoon" (1962); and interweaves many scenes and images from the vibrant and humane films with which the director capped his career.
This 17-minute documentary is featured on the 3-Disc Criterion Collection DVD of The Battle of Algiers (1966), released in 2004. An in-depth look at the Battle of Algiers through the eyes of five established and accomplished filmmakers; Spike Lee, Steven Soderbergh, Oliver Stone, Julian Schnabel and Mira Nair. They discuss how the shots, cinematography, set design, sound and editing directly influenced their own work and how the film's sequences look incredibly realistic, despite the claim that everything in the film was staged .
Get to know the siblings whose films have captured the skittering pulse of New York’s city streets. An original documentary featuring footage from the making of their new thriller, Good Time, along with several of the brothers’ early features and shorts. Produced by the Criterion Channel for their "Meet the Filmmakers" series.
To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS, we revisited our edit of the film and interviews with director Gillo Pontecorvo and producer Saadi Yacef, who discuss the process of representing Algeria's struggle for independence and the challenges of presenting a balanced view of the conflict.
In this short documentary and personal essay, Bruce Goldstein, founder of Rialto Pictures and repertory director at New York’s FIlm Forum, tracks down many of the 100+ New York City locations—from the Bronx to the Lower East Side—used in his friend Jules Dassin’s classic police procedural THE NAKED CITY, while also spotlighting the contributions of producer Mark Hellinger and cinematographer William Daniels.
Composer Bo Harwood discusses his score for John Cassavetes' 1974 film A Woman Under the Influence.
In this new video by filmmaker Daniel Raim, production designer Robert F. Boyle uncovers how two great artists—Alfred Hitchcock and Edward Hopper—mastered the subtle art of suspense.
Laura Truffaut shares her memories of her legendary filmmaker father.
A documentary from 2012 on the making of the film, featuring interviews with Pedro Almodóvar; Agustín Almodóvar; actors Penélope Cruz, Marisa Paredes, Cecilia Roth, and Antonia San Juan; production manager Esther García; and author Didier Eribon.
In this brand new featurette, executive producer T Bone Burnett and the Coen brothers discuss the history of some of the songs that heard in Inside Llywin Davies and possible origin of the stories they tells, the folk movement during the 1960s and the social and cultural ideas that it represented, the authenticity and the identity of folk music and the balance between the two, the future of folk music, etc. Included with the featurette are illustrations by Drew Christie. The featurette was created exclusively for Criterion in 2015.
Filmmaker Robert Townsend executive-produced the following fifty-six-minute program for Criterion’s Meet the Filmmakers series in 2018. In it, he and Charles Burnett reflect on Burnett’s groundbreaking career in cinema, returning to South Central Los Angeles and the shooting locations of his landmark films Killer of Sheep and To Sleep with Anger.
Canadian actor and filmmaker Connor Jessup (Closet Monster, Falling Skies) profiles Apichatpong Weerasethakul, a maverick of Thai cinema who explores the slippery nature of time and consciousness with a sublimely idiosyncratic, often surreal approach to film form.
Produced in 2014, this documentary about the making of TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN! features interviews with director Pedro Almodóvar; actors Antonio Banderas, Victoria Abril, Loles León, and Rossy de Palma; producer Agustín Almodóvar; production manager Esther García; and cinematographer José Luis Alcaine.
To pay tribute to one of his filmmaking heroes, Sean Price Willams adopts a style that’s just as out there as his subject, mixing new material and never-before-seen archival footage in this portrait of the underground film titan Robert Downey (A Prince).
