Criterion Collection
Articles and Essays on Criterion Collection
Pickpocket (1959)
“The style of this film is not that of a thriller. Using image and sound, the filmmaker strives to express the nightmare of a young man whose weaknesses lead him to commit acts of theft for which nothing destined him.” I find these opening credits a curious irony because Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket ‘is’ a thriller; just not the […]
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Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The (1972)
All characters that are in a Luis Bunuel film are psychologically trapped. They are trapped in his universe of utter hell, and for are entertainment we watch as they desperately try to break free, with us knowing they cannot. Luis Bunuel has been one of the most cynical directors ever since he created his radical surreal […]
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Grand Illusion (1937)
Jean Renoir’s Grand Illusion is not only the greatest of all prison escape movies but it is regarded by critics and film historians as one of the greatest films in the world. Apart from its other extraordinary achievements Grand Illusion influenced three later movie sequences that became classics of their own. The digging of the escape […]
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Jules and Jim (1962)
“You said, ‘I love you’, I said ‘Wait’. I was about to say, ‘Take me.’ You said ‘Go.” Francois Truffaut’s Jules and Jim is one of the most tragic and poetic love triangles ever made about two men: one French the other Austrian, who fall for the same woman who is clearly, morally unstable. The character of Catherine is […]
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