Here’s What’s Coming to The Criterion Channel in March 2024
The Criterion Channel has announced their March 2024 lineup, and as usual, it’s features an eclectic mix of films. We’re particularly interested in their ‘Razzies’ collection, but also can’t wait to dig in to the Criterion Collection editions of Raging Bull, Drive My Car, and Bergman Island. So much great stuff to choose from.
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The Criterion Channel’s March 2024 Lineup
* indicates programming available only in the U.S.
And the Razzie Goes to . . .
Every year, the Golden Raspberry Awards (a.k.a. the Razzies) honor the “worst” in contemporary cinema. Yet in doing so, they have often inadvertently shed light on films so out-there, so uncompromising, so beyond the bounds of accepted “good” taste that they demand attention. While some infamous Razzie winners like Xanadu, Barb Wire, and Gigli live on as classics of camp and cult, others, like Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, Elaine May’s Ishtar, and Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls have been reclaimed as fearlessly ambitious expressions of personal vision. In a topsy-turvy way, this program pays tribute to those divisive films that continue to fascinate and provoke debate, while calling into question the very line that separates high and low culture.
FEATURING: Cruising (1980), Heaven’s Gate (1980), Xanadu (1980)*, Querelle (1982), Under the Cherry Moon (1986), Ishtar (1987), Cocktail (1988), Showgirls (1995), Barb Wire (1996)*, The Blair Witch Project (1999), Freddy Got Fingered (2001), Swept Away (2002), Gigli (2003), The Wicker Man (2006)
Living the Part
Featuring a new introduction by Isaac Butler, author of The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act
Extreme diets, elaborate prosthetics, uncannily convincing (and sometimes less so) accents: the late twentieth century witnessed the rise of a new strain of screen acting that saw stars deploy extensive research, long preparation processes, and often staggering physical transformations to create their characters. Inspired in part by Robert De Niro’s work in the 1970s, these performers sought to live within the very skin of their characters and render them with operatic intensity. Bringing together key performances from actors like De Niro (Raging Bull), Meryl Streep (Sophie’s Choice), Jeffrey Wright (Basquiat), and Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)—as well as an essential showcase for chameleonic precursor Lon Chaney (The Unknown) and several films that comment on the transformational potentials and pitfalls of acting—this program surveys a major shift in film art that continues to inspire both acclaim and controversy.
FEATURING: The Unknown (1927), Cruising (1980), Raging Bull (1980), Sophie’s Choice (1982), Basquiat (1996), I’m Not There (2007)*, My Week with Marilyn (2011)*, The Master (2012)*, Kate Plays Christine (2016)
Starring Jane Russell
Jane Russell belongs to Hollywood’s golden age, but there remains something startlingly modern and subversive about her persona—maybe it’s her signature snarl, which allured studio magnates like Howard Hughes as much as it intimidated them. Initially making a splash as a provocative pin-up, she soon proved herself a charismatic and sharp-witted performer whose mix of brassy toughness and down-to-earth likability made her one of the most popular stars of the 1940s and ’50s, enlivening everything from the offbeat noir Macao to the irresistible musical comedy Gentlemen Prefer Blondes to the punchy melodrama The Revolt of Mamie Stover with her wry and knowing presence.
FEATURING: Macao (1952), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), The Tall Men (1955), The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956)
Green Porno+
Featuring a new introduction by Isabella Rossellini, part of Criterion’s Meet the Filmmaker series
Ever wondered about the sadomasochistic sex lives of snails? Or about the cannibalistic maternal instincts of hamsters? Wonder no more, for the one and only Isabella Rossellini explains it all in these singularly strange and delightful short films that combine science, performance art, and DIY puppetry to illuminate the intimate, unexpected oddities of the natural world. Across a trio of acclaimed series—Green Porno, Seduce Me, and Mammas—Rossellini enacts the animal kingdom’s most surprising habits and rituals for a surreal biology course unlike any other. They’re presented alongside her other recent work as a filmmaker, which further grapples with the animal kingdom by exploring Darwin’s theory of evolution.
SERIES: Green Porno (2008–2009), Seduce Me (2010), Mammas (2013)
FEATURES: Animals Distract Me (2011)
SHORTS: Darwin, What? (2020), Darwin, What? What? (2020), Fox Film (2020)
EXCLUSIVE PREMIERES
Our Body
Timely, intimate, and deeply empathetic, Our Body observes the everyday operations of the gynecological ward in a public hospital in Paris. In the process, veteran documentarian Claire Simon questions what it means to live in a woman’s body, filming the diversity, singularity, and beauty of patients at all stages of life. We see cancer screenings and fertility appointments, a teenager dealing with an unwanted pregnancy, a trans woman considering the beginnings of menopause. The specific fears, desires, and struggles of these individuals illuminate the health challenges we all face—even, as it comes to pass, the filmmaker herself.
Our Father, the Devil
Ellie Foumbi’s elegant moral thriller is a grippingly intense exploration of trauma, revenge, and forgiveness that stands as one of the most exciting feature debuts in recent memory. Babetida Sadjo delivers a bravura performance as Marie, the head chef at a retirement home in small-town France, whose day-to-day life caring for residents, hanging out with her coworker and best friend, and teasing a potential new romance is disrupted by the arrival of Father Patrick (Souleymane Sy Savane), an African priest whom she recognizes from a terrifying episode in her homeland. As Father Patrick endears himself to those around her, Marie is forced to decide how to deal with this unwelcome reminder of her troubled past.
REDISCOVERIES AND RESTORATIONS
Dreadnaught
Everything that made 1980s Hong Kong action cinema such a blast—the furious fights, bursts of wild comedy, and larger-than-life performances—is cranked up to eleven in this audacious cult classic directed by legendary martial-arts choreographer Yuen Woo-ping (Drunken Master; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). Disguised in fearsome face paint, a psychotic fugitive killer known as White Tiger (Yuen Shun-yee) hides out among a theater troupe. When he murders the friend of cowardly laundry man Mousy (Yuen Biao), the latter must overcome his timidity to take revenge. An almost schizophrenic mishmash of slapstick, horror, mystery, and martial-arts mayhem succeeds miraculously thanks to its total commitment to its own craziness.
Sepa: Our Lord of Miracles
Having languished in a closet for more than thirty years, this newly rediscovered documentary is a unique record of a bold and troubling experiment in criminal justice. A collaboration between between Walter Saxer, the producer of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo, and the Peruvian Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, Sepa: Our Lord of Miracles observes an open-air penal colony of the same name, created in 1951 by the Peruvian government in the Amazon jungle. Tasked with growing crops on these colonized lands, the inmates were permitted to roam freely, commune with their families, and dance and cook together, yet they soon found themselves in despair, abandoned and forgotten by their country and the world at large, forming, in the words of Herzog, “a bizarre island of freedom where tragedy and absurdity create a closed-in world seemingly invented from feverish dreams.”
The Passion of Remembrance
One of the major works of the revolutionary Sankofa Film and Video Collective, this radically innovative film explores issues of Black British culture, gender, and sexuality via a mix of documentary, monologue, and dialogue that weaves together two narratives: a conversation between a man and a woman about their experiences living in the UK, and a decades-spanning series of episodes in the lives of one family. An early collaboration between pioneering feminist filmmaker Maureen Blackwood and acclaimed multimedia artist Isaac Julien, The Passion of Remembrance provides a thought-provoking and formally audacious framework for considering the complexities of postcolonial identity.
CRITERION COLLECTION EDITIONS
Drive My Car (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2021)
Criterion Collection Edition #1136
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Oscar-winning masterpiece is a cathartic exploration of art, grief, and what it means to go on living when there is seemingly no road ahead.
SUPPLEMENTAL FEATURES: An interview with Hamaguchi, a program about the making of the film, and press-conference footage from the premiere.
Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, 2001)
Criterion Collection Edition #779
A love story in the city of dreams . . . David Lynch’s seductive and scary vision of Los Angeles is a tale of love, jealousy, and revenge like no other.
SUPPLEMENTAL FEATURES: Interviews with Lynch and members of the cast and crew, on-set footage, and a deleted scene.
El Norte (Gregory Nava, 1983)
Criterion Collection Edition #458
A work of social realism imbued with dreamlike imagery, El Norte recounts a brother and sister’s immigrant journey from Guatemala to the U.S. with urgent, heartbreaking humanism.
SUPPLEMENTAL FEATURES: Audio commentary by director Gregory Nava, a program on the making of the film, and an award-winning student film by Nava.
Bergman Island (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2021)
Criterion Collection Edition #1170
Mia Hansen-Løve embarks on a luminous summertime journey to the home of Ingmar Bergman in this rich, shape-shifting tale about the magic and mysteries of the creative process.
SUPPLEMENTAL FEATURES: Interviews with Hansen-Løve and actor Vicky Krieps and more.
Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)
Criterion Collection Edition #1134
With this stunningly visceral portrait of self-destructive machismo, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro elevated the boxing picture to the realm of operatic tragedy.
SUPPLEMENTAL FEATURES: Three audio commentaries featuring Scorsese, editor Thelma Schoonmaker, boxer Jake LaMotta, screenwriters Mardik Martin and Paul Schrader, and others; programs on Scorsese and De Niro’s longtime collaboration; a making-of program; an interview with actor Cathy Moriarty; and more.
Heaven’s Gate (Michael Cimino, 1980)
Criterion Collection Edition #636
Michael Cimino’s breathtaking saga of America’s western expansion is among the most ambitious and unorthodox epics in Hollywood history.
SUPPLEMENTAL FEATURES: Interviews with Cimino, actor Kris Kristofferson, and other crew members.
DIRECTOR SPOTLIGHTS
Kinuyo Tanaka Directs
Kinuyo Tanaka was already one of Japan’s greatest actors—celebrated for her collaborations with auteurs like Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozu, and Mikio Naruse—when she took an unprecedented risk by embarking on a directing career in a studio system that actively discouraged female filmmakers. The six features she made over the course of a decade center on women characters who refuse to conform to restrictive social roles as they seek independence and individual agency. With compassion and insight, Tanaka critiques the social conditions and forces that shape her heroines’ struggles: sex work and social shaming (Love Letter), the reduction of a woman to passive romantic partner (The Moon Has Risen), taboos surrounding mortality and the female body (Forever a Woman), colonial politics (The Wandering Princess), the rehabilitation of “fallen women” (Girls of the Night), and religious persecution and forbidden love (Love Under the Crucifix).
FEATURING: Love Letter (1953), The Moon Has Risen (1955), Forever a Woman (1955), The Wandering Princess (1960), Girls of the Night (1961), Love Under the Crucifix (1962)
Three by Marleen Gorris
Director of some of the most provocative and uncompromising films to emerge from the women’s-liberation movement, Dutch filmmaker Marleen Gorris explores questions of gender, sexuality, and violence—and the links between the three—with startling boldness. Her first three features—A Question of Silence, Broken Mirrors, and The Last Island—are landmarks of take-no-prisoners feminist cinema, forming a loose trilogy of thrillers that give potent expression to female rage, solidarity, and defiance.
FEATURING: A Question of Silence (1982), Broken Mirrors (1984), The Last Island (1990)
Early Films by Hou Hsiao-hsien
The roots of Taiwanese-cinema titan Hou Hsiao-hsien’s celebrated artistry are on display in this selection of early films that traces the evolution of his storytelling approach. While the charming romantic comedies Cute Girl (his feature debut) and The Green, Green Grass of Home show tantalizing glimpses of his personal touch couched in a more commercial mode, his fourth feature The Boys from Fengkuei—with its arresting long takes and naturalistic look at lost youth navigating the headwinds of early adulthood—finds the director coming fully into his own.
FEATURING: Cute Girl (1980), The Green, Green Grass of Home (1982), The Boys from Fengkuei (1983)
AMERICAN INDEPENDENTS
Reservoir Dogs
Quentin Tarantino lit up American independent cinema with his blistering, hyperstylish feature debut, a postmodern caper that nods to the history of classic gangster movies while turning genre conventions on their head.
The Virgin Suicides*
Sofia Coppola’s modern-classic debut conjures the ineffable melancholy of teenage ennui in an ethereal evocation of 1970s suburbia.
Frances Ha
Greta Gerwig is radiant as Frances, a woman in her late twenties in contemporary New York trying to sort out her ambitions, her finances, and her intimate but shifting bond with her best friend.
MUSIC FILMS
Instrument
25th anniversary
A visceral, decade-spanning chronicle of legendary DC punk band Fugazi captures both the blistering intensity of their live shows and their unwavering commitment to their anticorporate, DIY ideals.
The Reverend
Meet the self-proclaimed “dirty gospel’’ singer whose intensely soulful music has been moving audiences at the same Brooklyn bar for over twenty years.
Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You
Experience the music of revered indie-folk wizard Bonnie “Prince” Billy anew in an immersive visual accompaniment to his 2023 album of the same name.
BLACK LIVES
Revolutionary Reveries: Four Films by the Sankofa Film and Video Collective
Founded by a group of young artists in London in 1983, the Sankofa Film and Video Collective sought to give expression to the complexities of Black British identity in an era of turbulent social and racial strife. Encompassing documentary, narrative, and avant-garde practices, the aesthetically innovative, politically engaged cinema that Sankofa produced—including several acclaimed shorts as well as Maureen Blackwood and Isaac Julien’s landmark feature The Passion of Remembrance—offered an urgent new perspective on race, gender, sexuality, and British culture and history that radically subverted the white, Eurocentric gaze.
FEATURES: The Passion of Remembrance (1986)
SHORTS: Dreaming Rivers (1988), Perfect Image? (1988), Home Away from Home (1994)
Music Shorts
Sound and vision come together in perfect harmony in this dynamic selection of music-driven shorts. Encompassing jazz (The Cry of Jazz, Keeping Time), folk (Sprout Wings and Fly), soul (Shake! Otis at Monterey), opera (The Music of Regret), and the unclassifiable genre unto herself that is Björk (All Is Full of Love), these single-sized sonic wonders are treats for the eyes and ears alike.
FEATURING: Daybreak Express (1953), Date with Dizzy (1955), The Cry of Jazz (1959), The Musicians (1960), Black Journal: “Alice Coltrane” (1970). Sprout Wings and Fly (1983), Shake! Otis at Monterey (1986), Opera No. 1 (1994), When It Rains (1995), All Is Full of Love (1999), The Music of Regret (2006), Liberian Boy (2015), Keeping Time (2023)
The Pass
A young man wrestles with feelings of attraction and fear during an unsettling beachside encounter in this tense, slow-burn study of queer isolation and connection.
ENCORES
Back by Popular Demand
Don’t miss these viewer favorites, returning to the Channel in January!
FEATURING: The Ladykillers (1955), 3:10 to Yuma (1957), The Silent Partner (1978)*, American Movie (1999)
