Filmstruck / Criterion Channel

Linda Darnell even

Catching up on Kay Francis before those films leave. I was totally charmed by everything about One Way Passage.

November 2023 additions: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8291-the-criterion-channels-november-2023-lineup

December 2023 additions, arriving a few days earlier than usual: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8309-the-criterion-channels-december-2023-lineup

Wow...I apparently missed the news that 140 minutes (!!) had been restored to Abel Gance's "La Roue" since the 2008 restoration, now making it almost 7 hours long.

I can’t even.

(xpost) Oh god--it's a key work of poetic realism, but when I watched the 2008 restoration I had to fast-forward to not give up halfway through.

Hahaha I honestly appreciate the feedback - I loved loved loved Gance's "Napoleon" (although it was the 4-hour edit, with the Coppola soundtrack...this was like 15 years ago) but come to think of it, I did nod off at least once. I haven't actually seen "La Roue" yet but started watching "La Fin du monde" ("The End of the World") recently, which is REALLY REALLY SLOW so far (put me to sleep after 30 min.)

Relatedly, I had a hunch that Guy Maddin took a bit of inspiration from that for his short film "The Heart of the World" - this interview (translated from French) from 2015 confirms it (and also discusses "La Roue" ("The Wheel"):
https://www-debordements-fr.translate.goog/Guy-Maddin?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp

GM: That's why I made my own adaptations of Gance, based on The Wheel and The End of the World- -(Odilon Redon- -The Heart of the World) I thought they were lost...

AND: They are: The End of the World was butchered, Gance did not edit it and completely disowned it. It's more of a document of what the project was supposed to be, and it had to be all the more than just a film - as always with him. The Wheel is not lost but there are so many versions that we no longer know what the original cut looks like.

GM: I have a 4-hour version of it. What else was it supposed to be, The End of the World?

AND: A global mystical cinema company.

Had to notice that Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky is streaming on the channel. Could we possibly be blessed with a future Criterion disc release, following the same pattern as Last Hurray for Chivalry and Heroic Trio/Executioners???

been trying to sneak in some "gaslit noir" films before they leave:

Dragonwyck
Moss Rose
Ladies in Retirement

The above is in descending order of preference.

Dragonwyck is pretty great imo, a wildly goth melodrama w/the sinisterly suave Vincent Price as the latest in a long family line of mildly tyrannical upstate NY patroons who owns the title estate, and the luminously misguided Gene Tierney (the character is misguided) as a country girl from a religious family who is invited to live at the estate, falls for him, and seems to miss multiple red flags along the way, including the first act fate of his gluttonous wife. It's got a dash of the supernatural a la The Uninvited, though whether it's madness or an actual haunting is left unresolved. Joseph Mankiewicz directed it, and does a pretty solid job of things. Some excellent support from Walter Huston, Jessica Tandy, Glenn Langan, Anne Revere, and Spring Byington (as one of Dragonwyck's servants, whose early extremely on-point warnings to Tierney go thoroughly unexamined.)

Moss Rose is a bit less great but still very good. It bears some superficial resemblance to Dragonwyck, with Peggy Cummins playing an Irish girl in London of slightly ill repute whose friend is murdered, and she blackmails the man she thinks murdered her (Victor Mature) into letting her live the high life at his family estate somewhere in the English country. Like Dragonwyck, things get sinister there, and she falls for the guy. It looks good, but the big problem is Victor Mature's character is just a big lunkhead, very miscast, and it's hard to believe him in the role, let alone as someone Peggy Cummins would fall for. He tries, but no. But Cummins is quite legitimately incredible, just a real force of nature performance, the smallest person onscreen at any given moment but believably fearless to the point that you don't question why she's putting herself in a seemingly vulnerable situation. This one also has Vincent Price in it, playing a police detective investigating the murder, and he's put to good use here as a more heroic figure. Ethel Barrymore is Mature's increasingly scary and possessive mother.

Ladies in Retirement is good enough, another "remote country home" noir, mostly worth watching for the college-age Ida Lupino playing a matronly housekeeper supposedly in her forties, whose sketchy nephew in the film is played by her real-life husband at the time (Louis Hayward). Lupino's Ellen Creed has two very annoying but harmlessly insane sisters whom, in order to save from being committed, she invites to stay at the home. The home is owned by a retired former entertainer, Leonora (played by Isobel Elsom.) Leonora comes to regret allowing the sisters to stay for a couple days (because it eventually stretches out to a couple months), and orders the sisters *and* Ellen to leave, which she also eventually regrets. Lupino is excellent, and there are some beautiful visuals of the foggy moors (i presume they're the moors), some bonus nosey nuns, and the fine use of a bread oven as a tomb.

the first two are based on novels, the last based on a play.

Are they leaving? I can’t always keep track and drive myself a little crazy at the end of every month trying to figure out which films get into the lifeboat.

Wait AFIRE already arrived?

Here’s the tricky part. HANGOVER SQUARE is also part of the Linda Darnell series so I thought I would have more time to watch. Guess I was misinformed.

Screen Play by Barré Lyndon?

hangover square starts out a little slow but has a couple of incredible sequences in the back half

Opening sequence is pretty good at least.

all three of those are going tomorrow i think and yeah Hangover Square too.

Laird Cregar is great in the latter, really sad backstory to his role in the film.

The crash diet that Cregar followed for his roles in The Lodger and Hangover Square (which included prescribed amphetamines) placed a strain on his system, resulting in severe abdominal problems. He underwent surgery at the beginning of December 1944.[51]

A few days after surgery, Cregar had a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital.[54] He rallied briefly when put in an oxygen tent, but died on December 9, aged 31 years.[55]

When you see Linda Darnell in that film you can see why she was briefly a superstar.

Linda Darnell already in my pantheon for some of her other films.

Who is the Ella Raines-looking actress who plays Barbara?

Faye Marlowe, it seems. This was apparently her breakout role, as far as it goes.

Keep waiting for George Sanders to break out in his Man Hunt German.

She passed away only last year, and had an interesting late life:

Marlowe later worked as a writer under the name Faye Hueston. Her 2010 book "Silent Enemy" describes the effects of pesticide toxins on humans and other mammals; her 2016 book "Invisible Enemy," chronicles the effects of environmental illness caused by chemical pollution. Her autobiography, "Fanchon's Daughter," was published on July 14, 2014; in addition to recounting her life in show business, she also describes her interest in psychic phenomena.[2]

Noticed that Doctor X is going too.

I managed to sneak in Experiment Perilous at the end there as well. Definitely a minor Jacques Tourneur joint, primarily memorable for its atmospherics during a tense train ride in the opening scene, and in the fiery climax. Definitely worth seeing though it's not going to make anyone forget Out of the Past, Cat People, etc.

I was disappointed in that one. Felt like reading a book.

It is pretty clinical, maybe befitting the story. The three lead actors are a very mixed bag, Lukas and Brant are going through the motions,though they're not bad as much as they never catch fire and just aren't inspired. I think w/Lamarr's role her flatness is part of the character and kind of touchingly done when compared to the sunniness she shows in the flashbacks, but the best performances are by Albert Dekker and Olive Blakeney. The story doesn't get goth enough. I still think it's worth checking out but I wish I'd burned my last couple hours of gaslit noir on Ivy or one of the others.

January 2024 additions: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8335-the-criterion-channels-january-2024-lineup

The cat in a A Cat From Outer Space was incredibly talented!

There's a Channel FB group with a stathead named M!ch@el Hµtch!ns, who puts together an annual roundup. Credit to him for this.

2023 State of the Channel Report

Featured films: 2833 (2777 in 2022, 2% increase)
Janus Streaming Library: 1716 (1631 in 2022, 5% increase)
Criterion Channel Streaming Library: 659 (810 in 2022*)
Limited Engagements: 458 (336 in 2022*)
* Films in the CC Streaming Library have streamed for 12 months or more. Limited Engagements have streamed for less than 12 months. Many of the LE films will move to the CCSL after streaming for 12 months. Adding these two figures results in a slight decrease from the 2022 totals.

Analysis of the total number of 2833 featured films:
1148 Feature-length films released physically by Criterion
446 Feature-length films in the streaming-only Janus Films library (319 from Hulu & FilmStruck)
260 Feature-length non-Criterion films streaming in limited engagements
107 Feature-length non-Criterion films streaming in long-term engagements (12 months or more)
Totals
*1961 Feature-length films featured on the Channel

276 Short films released physically by Criterion
52 Short films in the streaming-only Janus Films library
151 Short non-Criterion films streaming in limited engagements
393 Short non-Criterion films streaming in long-term engagements
Totals
*872 Short films featured on the Channel
*2833 Featured films on the Channel
plus
459 Non-Criterion films which are supplements to a featured film (241 features + 218 shorts)
Totals
3292 All films streaming on the Channel

Length of current engagements as of December 2023
88 Streaming for one month
71 Streaming for two months
56 Streaming for three months
58 Streaming for four months
37 Streaming for five months
47 Streaming for six months
20 Streaming for seven months
29 Streaming for eight months
118 Streaming for 9 - 12 months
276 Streaming for 13 - 23 months
2033 Streaming for 24 months or more
2833 Total

NEW FILMS STREAMING IN 2023
Films added: 922, average per month: 77, lowest: 62 (May and October), highest: 104 (September)
Films removed: 880, average per month: 73, lowest: 35 (April), highest: 127 (January)

Regions:
630 from North America (598 from USA) (68.3%)
168 from Europe (64 from UK) (18.2%)
91 from Asia (31 from Hong Kong) (9.9%)
16 from Africa (1.7%)
11 from South America (1.2%)
6 from Australia (0.7%)
Films made by women: 161 (17.5%) (101 different women directors)
Streaming Premieres: 35 (39 in 2022)
Returning films: 255 or 27.7% with an average of 21/month (219 in 2022 or 20.7% with an average of 12/month)

Directors with 10+ films (only for new films added)
30: Hal Hartley
22: Buster Keaton
19: Alfred Hitchcock
13: Abbas Kiarostami
13: Georges Méliès
13: Roscoe Arbuckle
11: Derek Jarman

Sources (only of new films added):
126: MGM/Warner
97: Janus Films
93: Universal
70: Kino Lorber/Zeitgeist
62: 20thCentury Fox
49: Columbia/Sony
27: Possible Films (Hal Hartley)
14: Strand Releasing
14: Oscilloscope
14: Flicker Alley
13: StudioCanal
343: Others

ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING
49: Collection teasers (47 in 2022)
13: Meet the Filmmakers (6 in 2022)
9: Introductions to collections (film critics and scholars) (19 in 2022)
3: Spotlights (10 in 2022)
2: Adventures in Moviegoing (4 in 2022)
1: Observations on Film Art (4 in 2022)
1: Queersighted (2 in 2022)
1: Art House America (0 in 2022)
0: Visual essays (5 in 2022)

Collections:
48: Director (46 in 2022)
36: Theme (45 in 2022)
17: Star (21 in 2022)
Criterion Collection Editions: 30 (55 in 2022)

If you like con artist capers Nine Queens is good, twisty fun and worth catching before it leaves. Nice location filming on the streets of Argentina.

The Jan. additions were announced on 12/12, and here it is the 23rd with nothing yet. I wish they'd be a bit more consistent.

avoid the Disney cat movies. they're exactly what you'd expect.

I like That Darn Cat though!

Odd they didn't include The Incredible Journey which has some of the best cat acting I've ever seen.

xxp they announced the February line-up around the same time earlier this month.

Link please? I'm not seeing it at https://www.criterion.com/current/category/19-on-the-channel

OK, weird that criterion.com doesn't have anything about 02/24 on their own website, but I guess they sent out a press release early this month that other sites picked up on. Feb 2024 additions: https://cinephilecorner.com/blogposts/criterion-channel-february-2024/

They also posted on their social media accounts, e.g.:

✨ Announcing our FEBRUARY 2024 Criterion Channel lineup! ✨

💗Interdimensional Romance
💗GRETA GERWIG'S ADVENTURES IN MOVIEGOING
💗 Gothic Noir
💗 Celebrate Black History
💗 Hong Kong Hits
and more! pic.twitter.com/EwqG900k2s

— Criterion Channel (@criterionchannl) January 11, 2024

I assume it's just negotiated rights, but I'm still confused why Criterion can have the rights to release and distribute and keep in print a title on DVD, but not stream it on the channel. For example, as far as I can tell the channel is streaming more or less everything by Kieslowski, from his shorts to "Red," but not The Dekalog, even though The Dekalog is available on blu-ray (and even though the channel is streaming the expanded Short Film about Love and Short Film about Killing). What's up with that?

Yeah. Assume it’s vaguely parallel to MUBI having streaming rights abroad but not in the US

On a film by film basis I mean.

Yes, physical media rights (many of which were negotiated pre-Criterion Channel) and streaming rights are different things.

Has Dekalog ever made a streaming appearance there? Maybe it was on Filmstruck, briefly?

No, it never did.

Okay, maybe I'm late to the party, but I watched The Swimmer(1968) on Criterion on Saturday, starring Burt Lancast... mind blown. I was not even aware of this film, but I found it really moving, was thinking about it all the next day

Which is more than I can say about Poor Things which I promptly forgot as the credits were rolling

Just a heads-up that That Darn Cat is leaving at the end of the month.

B-b-but what about THE CASSANDRA CAT?

March 2024 additions: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8388-the-criterion-channels-march-2024-lineup

I guess this means I'll finally have to watch Cocktail, though it seems like a bad idea.

There is some kind of perfection in Cocktail being the asymptotic limit of all 80s movies and Tom Cruise vehicles.

Lead somewhat buried there. This is an awesome collection:

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)

(alongside early Hou Hsiao-hsien)