The Criterion Collection Complete

TAVERNIER, Bertrand (United States) 'Round Midnight [1986] Spine #1122 Blu-ray ’Round Midnight  is a love letter from director Bertrand Tavernier to the heyday of bebop and to the Black American musicians who found refuge in the smoky underground jazz clubs of 1950s Paris. In a miraculous, sui generis fusion of performer and character that was nominated for an Oscar, legendary saxophonist Dexter Gordon plays Dale Turner, a brilliant New York jazz veteran whose music aches with beauty but whose personal life is ravaged by addiction. Searching for a fresh start in Paris, Turner strikes up an unlikely friendship with a struggling single father and ardent jazz fan (François Cluzet) who finds his life transformed as he attempts to help the self-destructive musician. Herbie Hancock’s evocative, Oscar-winning score sets the mood for this definitive jazz film, a bittersweet opus that glows with lived-in, soulful authenticity. 131 minutes Color Stereo in French and English 2:39:1 aspect...

ESIRI, Arie & ESIRI, Chuko (Nigeria) Eyimore (This Is My Desire) [2020] Spine #1121 Blu-ray This revelatory, award-winning debut feature from codirectors (and twin brothers) Arie and Chuko Esiri is a heartrending and hopeful portrait of everyday human endurance in Lagos, Nigeria. Shot on richly textured 16 mm film and infused with the spirit of neorealism,  Eyimofe  ( This Is My Desire ) traces the journeys of two distantly connected strangers—Mofe (Jude Akuwudike), an electrician dealing with the fallout of a family tragedy, and Rosa (Temi Ami-Williams), a hairdresser supporting her pregnant teenage sister—as they each pursue their dream of starting a new life in Europe while bumping up against the harsh economic realities of a world in which every interaction is a transaction. From these intimate stories emerges a vivid snapshot of life in contemporary Lagos, whose social fabric is captured in all its vibrancy and complexity. 116 minutes Color 5.1 Surround 1:66:1 asp...

TASHLIN, Frank (United States) The Girl Can't Help It [1956] Spine #1120 Blu-ray In 1956, Frank Tashlin brought the talent for zany visual gags and absurdist pop-culture satire that he’d honed as a master of animation to the task of capturing, in glorious DeLuxe Color, a brand-new craze: rock and roll. This blissfully bonkers jukebox musical tells the story of a mobster’s bombshell girlfriend — the one and only Jayne Mansfield, in a showstopping first major film role — and the washed-up talent agent (Tom Ewell) who seeks to revive his career by turning her into a musical sensation. The only question is: Can she actually sing? A CinemaScope feast of eye-popping midcentury design,  The Girl Can’t Help It  bops along to a parade of performances by rock-and-roll trailblazers — including Little Richard, Fats Domino, Julie London, Eddie Cochran, the Platters, and Gene Vincent—who light up the screen with the uniquely American sound that was about to conquer the world. 97 minutes ...

DE SICA, Vittorio (Italy) Miracle in Milan [1951] Spine #1119 Blu-ray Renowned filmmaker Vittorio De Sica followed up his international triumph  Bicycle Thieves  with this enchantingly playful neorealist fairy tale, in which he combines his celebrated slice-of-life poetry with flights of graceful comedy and storybook fantasy. On the outskirts of Milan, a band of vagabonds work together to form a shantytown. When it is discovered that the land they occupy contains oil, however, it’s up to the cherubic orphan Totò (Francesco Golisano)—with some divine help—to save their community from greedy developers. Tipping their hats to the imaginative whimsy of Charles Chaplin and René Clair, De Sica and screenwriter Cesare Zavattini, adapting his own novel, craft a bighearted ode to the nobility of everyday people. 96 minutes Black and White Monaural in Italian and English 1:27:1 aspect ratio Criterion Release 2022 Director/Writers From the novel Totó il buono by Cesare Zavattin...