Category: Criterion

American Cinema, Crime, Criterion, Drama, Movie Reviews, Vincent Price, Westerns

STRANGER THAN FICTION: THE BARON OF ARIZONA (1949)

“In the movie business, a good ending must sometimes hold sway over the truth.” – Samuel Fuller, A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting, and Filmmaking Before Samuel Fuller wrote and directed his own films he was a gutsy go-getting newspaperman. Fuller first worked at the New York Journal as a copyboy and eventually graduated to the role of crime reporter for the New York Evening Graphic, a … Continue reading STRANGER THAN FICTION: THE BARON OF ARIZONA (1949)

Kimberly Lindbergs
Actors, Criterion, Japanese Cinema, Movie Reviews, Toshiro Mifune

NIPPON NOIR: SNOW TRAIL (1947)

Senkichi Taniguchi’s Snow Trail aka Ginrei no hate (1947) begins with a bang. A montage of shadowy figures and fragmented images bombards viewers during the film’s opening credits while guns fire, alarms ring, windows break, trains whistle and sirens scream. We soon discover that three desperate men (Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura and Yoshio Kosugi) have just robbed a bank and in a bold attempt to dodge authorities, … Continue reading NIPPON NOIR: SNOW TRAIL (1947)

Kimberly Lindbergs
American Cinema, Crime, Criterion, Japanese Cinema, Japanese New Wave, Masahiro Shinoda, Movie Reviews, Robert Wise, TCM

Plucking the Petals of Masahiro Shinoda’s Pale Flower (1964)

“Tokyo… After three long years. It makes my head spin. Just look at it. Why so many people crammed into tiny cage-like boxes? People… Such strange animals. What keeps them all going? They look like they’re half dead. Making a frantic pretense of being alive. What was so wrong about killing one of these stupid animals? I served three years… This is my territory… With … Continue reading Plucking the Petals of Masahiro Shinoda’s Pale Flower (1964)

Kimberly Lindbergs
British Cinema, British New Wave, Criterion, FilmStruck

Now at FilmStruck – Streamline

In case you haven’t noticed, the Turner Classic Movie’s Morlocks blog has been renamed Streamline and is currently part of the new TCM & Criterion film streaming service at FilmStruck.com What is FilmStruck? Here’s an excerpt from a Time Warner press release: “Developed and managed by Turner Classic Movies (TCM) in collaboration with the Criterion Collection, FilmStruck will feature the largest streaming library of contemporary … Continue reading Now at FilmStruck – Streamline

Kimberly Lindbergs
Criterion, Italian Cinema, Movie Reviews, Spies & Secret Agents, TCM

Spy Games: MATCHLESS (1967)

For my fourth installment of Spy Games I decided to highlight the funny Italian spy spoof MATCHLESS (1967) directed by Alberto Lattuada. Criterion’s released a couple of Lattuada’s films including MAFIOSO (1962) and VARIETY LIGHTS (1950), which he co-directed with Fredrico Fellini. But I hadn’t seen any of Lattuada’s other films until I came across his two silly & stylish spy spoofs currently streaming on Netflix… Continue reading Spy Games: MATCHLESS (1967)

Kimberly Lindbergs
Criterion, Japanese Cinema, Movie Reviews, Seijun Suzuki, TCM

EVERYTHING GOES WRONG (1960)

Images from Seijun Suzuki’s Everything Goes Wrong (1960) Last week I shared some of my thoughts about Seijun Suzuki’s Everything Goes Wrong (1960) over at the Movie Morlocks. This excellent neo-noir is one of Suzuki’s early films that isn’t available on DVD in the US yet but you can currently watch it on Hulu.com if you’re a member. Criterion has made an exclusive deal with Hulu … Continue reading EVERYTHING GOES WRONG (1960)

Kimberly Lindbergs
Crime, Criterion, Japanese Cinema, Japanese New Wave, Movie Reviews, Roger Corman, Seijun Suzuki

SEIJUN SUZUKI’S EVERYTHING GOES WRONG (1960)

I recently signed up for a temporary “Plus” account with Hulu.com so I could sample some of the hard-to-see Japanese films Criterion has made available there. According to Criterion their partnership with Hulu “gives viewers a chance to explore our library, sample films they might want to buy, discover films they never knew they would want, and see films so rare that they would never see the … Continue reading SEIJUN SUZUKI’S EVERYTHING GOES WRONG (1960)

Kimberly Lindbergs
Comedies, Criterion, French Cinema, Movie Reviews, TCM

Monsieur Hulot vs. The Modern World

Images from Jacques Tati’s Mon Oncle (1958) I recently caught up with Jacques Tati’s delightful French comedy Mon Oncle (aka My Uncle; 1958). I had previously only seen one Tati film, Les Vacances de M. Hulot (aka Mr. Hulot’s Holiday; 1953) and frankly it didn’t engage me as much as I wished it had so I put off watching other Tati films, but that was … Continue reading Monsieur Hulot vs. The Modern World

Kimberly Lindbergs
Criterion, Michelangelo Antonioni, News

Do You Auteur?

About 5 or 6 months ago I joined The Auteurs. The Auteurs is a Criterion sponsored film site where each member has their own Profile Page and you can watch films, rate films, add films to your “Favorites” and “Watch” lists, and chat with other members in the community forum. I haven’t participated in many forum discussions there, but I do enjoy the ongoing Fake … Continue reading Do You Auteur?

Kimberly Lindbergs9 Comments
American Cinema, Amicus Productions, Bette Davis, British Cinema, British New Wave, Criterion, Favorite 2008 DVDs, Freddie Francis, Horror, Ishiro Honda, Japanese Cinema, Movie Reviews, Peter Cushing, Richard Harris, Russ Tamblyn, Science Fiction

Favorite DVD Releases of 2008: Part II

Apologies for the long delay! My annual list of Favorite DVDs always takes longer to compile than I expect it will. You can find the first part of this list here. Now on to Part II #11-20 . . . Cornel Wilde in The Naked Prey (1966) 11. The Naked Prey (Criterion) You can read my my thoughts about The Naked Prey here. Bette Davis … Continue reading Favorite DVD Releases of 2008: Part II

Kimberly Lindbergs12 Comments