The Criterion Collection Complete

MANN, Anthony (United States) Winchester '73 [1950] Spine #1248 Blu-ray Noirish shadows spread across the frontier in this landmark western, the first of the celebrated collaborations between director Anthony Mann and actor James Stewart that redefined the genre with their moral and psychological intensity. Beginning his midcareer transition into increasingly edgy roles, Stewart portrays an avenging sharpshooter whose stolen rifle becomes a harbinger of death as it is passed from one doomed hand to the next. Featuring a stellar cast that includes a touching Shelley Winters, a sensationally sleazy Dan Duryea, and a pre-stardom Rock Hudson, this elemental tale of violence begetting violence broke new ground with its evocation of the West as a no-man’s-land of antiheroes and villains. 92 minutes Monaural Black and White 1:35:1 Criterion Release 2025 Director/Writer Anthony Mann  was 44 when he directed Winchester '73 . Other Mann films in the Collection: #435: The Furies (1950)...

PRYOR, Richard (United States) Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling [1986] Spine #1247 Blu-ray One of the greatest comedians of all time, Richard Pryor gets raw and real in this brutally funny and lacerating self-portrait. Following the notorious incident in which he caught on fire while high on cocaine, nearly losing his life, Pryor exorcised his inner demons by writing, producing, directing, and starring in this dizzying hall-of-mirrors biopic and backstage drama, which traces a young comedian’s rise to fame, from his childhood growing up in a brothel to the colorful experiences that shaped his edgy comic voice to the addiction struggles that brought him to the brink of death. As he did in his legendary stand-up sets, here Pryor fearlessly turns his soul inside out, revealing the deep vulnerability that made his art so compelling. 97 minutes 2.0 Surround Color 2:39:1 Criterion Release 2025 Director/Writer Richard Pryor  was 46 when he directed Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Call...

FREARS, Stephen (United States) The Grifters [1990] Spine #1246 Blu-ray A dark-hearted neonoir comes to a boil under the bright Los Angeles sun, in British director Stephen Frears’s rousing adaptation of the novel by dime-store bard Jim Thompson, a film that raises pulp to the realm of existential tragedy. A possessive mother (Anjelica Huston), her cynical son (John Cusack), and his scheming, seductive girlfriend (Annette Bening) are career swindlers circling one another in an elaborate emotional confidence game that grows increasingly perverse as love and trust turn to betrayal and Oedipal undercurrents rise to the surface. In Frears’s first Hollywood film, the ever-assured director and his trifecta of magnetic actors conjure a moody, unstuck-in-time vision of toxic Americana. 110 minutes 2.0 Surround Color 1:85:1 Criterion Release 2025 Director/Writer Stephen Frears  was 49 when he directed The Grifters . Other Frears films in the Collection: #469: The Hit (1984) #767: My ...

EUSTACHE, Jean (France) The Mother and the Whore [1973] Spine #1245 Blu-ray After the French New Wave, the sexual revolution, and the upheavals of May 1968 came the near religiously revered magnum opus by Jean Eustache. In his long-unavailable body of work, ranging from documentaries about his native village to closely autobiographical narrative films, Eustache pioneered a forthright and fearless brand of realism. The pinnacle of this innovative style,  The Mother and the Whore  follows Alexandre (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a Parisian pseudo-intellectual who lives with his tempestuous girlfriend, Marie (Bernadette Lafont), even as he begins a dalliance with the sexually liberated Veronika (Françoise Lebrun), leading the three into an emotionally turbulent love triangle. Through daringly sustained long takes and confessional dialogue, Eustache captures a generation navigating the disillusionment of the 1970s, and in the process achieves an intimacy so deep it cuts. 218 minutes Monaur...