Criterion Collection
Articles and Essays on Criterion Collection
400 Blows, The (1959)
“Dedicated to the memory of Andre Bazin.” French director François Truffaut’s masterpiece The 400 Blows is the most touching and greatest of all films about childhood adolescence. Inspired by Truffaut’s own early life, it is one of the great coming of age stories that portrays a boy growing up in Paris and apparently dashing headlong into a […]
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Tokyo Story (1953)
Film critic Roger Ebert once stated, “Sooner or later, everyone who loves movies comes to Ozu.” Director Yasujirô Ozu has created some of the most gentle and poignant stories I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing within the cinema, such as the universal themes of family, growing old and the acceptance of change; and Tokyo Story is […]
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La Strada (1954)
La Strada which in English means ‘The Road’ is one of Federico Fellini’s most heartbreaking fables. It’s a simple road film that contains the many ‘Felliniesque’ trademarks that we would return to throughout Fellini’s career, which are the circus, the parade, the seashore, loneliness, the search for love, a figure suspended between earth and sky, and one woman […]
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Bicycle Thieves (1948)
The Bicycle Thieves (or The Bicycle Thief) is a story of humanity and love that has touched so many people around the world because of its powerful simplicities. Sometimes the simplest stories are the most important to tell, because they are the ones people can most identify with, which can create an emotional template of personal honesty […]
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Viridiana (1961)
There is always one young child like Luis Bunuel in every Sunday school class, a child who acts mischievous and pulls pranks on their religious teachers. They aren’t necessarily a bad child, they just enjoy pointing out the absurdities in the most serious of subject matters. Right in the opening title shots of Bunuel’s greatest masterpiece Viridiana, you hear Handel’s classic […]
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