The Criterion Collection Complete

KUROSAWA, Akira (Japan) Sanjuro [1962] Spine #53 DVD/ Blu-ray (1999/2006) 1999 synopsis Toshiro Mifune swaggers and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Kurosawa’s tightly paced, beautifully-composed Sanjuro . In this companion piece to Yojimbo , jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan’s evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a “proper” samurai on its ear. Criterion is proud to present Sanjuro  in a gorgeous Tohoscope transfer. 2006 synopsis Toshiro Mifune swaggers and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Kurosawa’s tightly-paced, beautifully composed  Sanjuro . In this sly companion piece to  Yojimbo , the jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan’s evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a “proper” samurai on its ear. Less brazen in tone than its predecessor but just as engaging, this classic character’s return is a masterpiece in its own righ...

VARDA, Agnès (France) The Complete Films Of Agnès Varda Spine #0000B Blu-ray A progenitor of the French New Wave who became an international art-house icon, Agnès Varda was a fiercely independent, restlessly curious visionary whose work was at once personal and passionately committed to the world around her. In an abundant career in which she never stopped expanding the notion of what a movie can be, Varda forged a unique cinematic vocabulary that frequently blurs the boundaries between narrative and documentary, and entwines loving portraits of her friends, her family, and her own inner world with a social consciousness that was closely attuned to the 1960s counterculture, the women’s liberation movement, the plight of the poor and socially marginalized, and the ecology of our planet. This comprehensive collection places Varda’s filmography in the context of her parallel work as a photographer and multimedia artist — all of it a testament to the radical vision, boundless imaginat...

BERGMAN, Ingmar (Sweden) Ingmar Bergman Collection Spine #0000A Blu-ray In honor of Ingmar Bergman’s one hundredth birthday, the Criterion Collection is proud to present the most comprehensive collection of his films ever released on home video. One of the most revelatory voices to emerge from the postwar explosion of international art-house cinema, Bergman was a master storyteller who startled the worlds with his stark intensity and naked pursuit of the most profound metaphysical and spiritual questions. The struggles of faith and morality, the nature of dreams, and the agonies and ecstasies of human relationships — Bergman explored these subjects in films ranging from comedies whose lightness and complexity belie their brooding hearts to groundbreaking formal experiments and excruciatingly intimate explorations of family life. Arranged as a film festival with opening and closing nights bookending double features and centerpieces, this selection spans six decades and thirty-nine ...

FELLINI, Federico (Italy) Intervista [1987] Spine #0000C Blu-ray Federico Fellini’s penultimate film is a similarly self-reflexive (and self-deprecating) journey through both the director’s dream life and his cinematic world — which are, here as always in Fellini’s work, inextricably entwined. In Rome to make a documentary about the great filmmaker, a Japanese camera crew follows Fellini on a tour through his longtime home studio of Cinecittà as the maestro’s memories and fantasies unfurl in a dizzying, dazzling, time-bending love letter to the art and spectacle of moviemaking. the film’s sprawling vision even makes room for an appearance by Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg who, in an unforgettable bit of movie magic, relive their iconic Trevi Fountain scene from La dolce vita , lent new poignancy by the tacit acknowledgement of time’s passing. 106 minutes Color Monaural In Italian, Japanese and English 1:37:1 aspect ratio Criterion Release 2020 Director/Writer Federi...

FELLINI, Federico (Italy) Il Bidone [1955] Spine #0000C Blu-ray Between the international triumphs of La Strada  and Nights of Cabiria , Federico Fellini made this fascinatingly unique film, which has been long overlooked. Largely eschewing the poetic flourishes of the more famous works that bookend it, Il Bidone  is a dark neorealist crime drama starring a commanding Broderick Crawford as one of the most complex characters in the director’s canon: an aging con man who, having made a career preying on the desperation of poor peasants, suddenly finds that his crooked ways have begun to catch up with him. Masterfully entwining the story’s human grit with elements of humor and pathos, Fellini crafts a searing portrait of a man reckoning with the consequences of his life’s choices that hits with the force of a profound moral tragedy. 113 minutes Black & White Monaural in Italian 1:37:1 aspect ratio Criterion Release 2020 Director/Writers Screenplay by  Fede...

CHOPRA, Joyce (United States) Smooth Talk [1985] Spine #1068 Blu-ray Suspended between carefree youth and the harsh realities of the adult world, a teenage girl experiences an unsettling awakening in this haunting vision of innocence lost. Based on the celebrated short story, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates, the narrative debut from Joyce Chopra features a revelatory breakout performance by Laura Dern as Connie, the fifteen-year-old black sheep of her family whose summertime idyll of beach trips, mall hangouts, and innocent flirtations is shattered by an encounter with a mysterious stranger (a memorably menacing Treat Williams). Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, Smooth Talk  captures the thrill and terror of adolescent sexual exploration as it transforms the conventions of a coming-of-age story into something altogether more troubling and profound . 91 minutes Color Monaural 1:85:1 aspect ratio Criterion Release 2021 ...

BAHRANI, Ramin (United States) Chop Shop [2007] Spine #1067 Blu-ray For his acclaimed follow-up to Man Push Cart , Ramin Bahrani once again turned his camera on a slice of New York City rarely seen on-screen: Willets Point, Queens, an industrial sliver of automotive-repair shops that remains perpetually at risk of being redeveloped off the map. It's within this precarious ecosystem that twelve-year-old Ale (Alejandro Polanco) must grow up fast, hustling in the neighborhood chop shops to build a more stable life for himself and his sister (Isamar Gonzales) even as their tenuous circumstances force each to compete with other struggling people and make desperate decisions. A deeply human story of a fierce but fragile sibling bond being tested by hardscrabble reality, Chop Shop  tempers its sobering authenticity with flights of lyricism and hope . 84 minutes Color 5.1 Surround 1:78:1 aspect ratio Criterion Release 2021 Director/Writers Written by  Ramin Bahrani ...

BAHRANI, Ramin (United States) Man Push Cart [2005] Spine #1066 Blu-ray A modest miracle of twenty-first-century neorealism, the acclaimed debut feature by Ramin Bahrani speaks quietly but profoundly to the experiences of those living on the margins of the American dream. Back in his home country of Pakistan, Ahmad (Ahmad Razvi, elements of whose own life story were woven into the script) was a famous rock star. Now a widower separated from his son and adrift in New York, he works long hours selling coffee and bagels from a midtown Manhattan food cart, engaged in a Sisyphean search for human connection and a sense of purpose that seems perpetually just out of reach. A rare immigrant's-eye view of a post-9/11 city suffused with subtle paranoia and xenophobia, Man Push Cart  gives at once empathetic and clear-eyed expression to the everyday drama of human endurance . 87 minutes Color Stereo in English and Urdu 1:78:1 aspect ratio Criterion Release 2021 Director/Write...

SEMBÈNE, Ousmane (Senegal) Mandabi [1968] Spine #1065 Blu-ray This second feature by Ousmane Sembène was the first movie ever made in the Wolof language — a major step toward the realization of the trailblazing Senegalese filmmaker's dream of creating a cinema by, about, and for Africans. After jobless Ibrahima Dieng receives a money order for 25,000 francs from a nephew who works in Paris, news of his windfall quickly spreads among his neighbors, who flock to him for loans even as he finds his attempts to cash the order stymied in a maze of bureaucracy, and new troubles rain down on his head. One of Sembène's most coruscatingly funny and indignant films, Mandabi  — an adaptation of a novella by the director himself — is a bitterly ironic depiction of a society scarred by colonialism and plagued by corruption, greed, and poverty . 91 minutes Black & White Monaural in French and Wolof 1:66:1 aspect ratio Criterion Release 2021 Director/Writer Ousmane Sembène...