Criterionchannel Suggestions

Despite the title and the premise, The Naked Kiss is actually less raunchy than it sounds. Sure, it does have themes that seem more explicit than what’s expected from older classic films, but writer-director Samuel Fuller considers these themes with the weight it deserves, directly challenging the way the men of the town would scorn Kelly’s wares at the same time they’re taking a taste, and at the same time they’re willing to look away from the unpleasant truths lurking in the suburbs because of money. With memorable shots and a surprising song number halfway, The Naked Kiss plays with expectations for an earnest belief in change.

Genre: Crime, Drama

Actor: Anthony Eisley, Barbara Perry, Betty Bronson, Constance Towers, Edy Williams, Jean-Michel Michenaud, Marie Devereux, Michael Dante, Patsy Kelly, Virginia Grey, Walter Mathews

Director: Samuel Fuller

When the film publication Sight and Sound dubbed it “the greatest film of all time,” movie fans were quick to give their opinion. Those opposed complained about its simplicity, while those favoring the film praised the same trait. It’s true the film is simple—the camera is static and far away, and all it does is follow the titular Jeanne as she goes through the strict routines of her life. But nothing about it is plain or easy. You could mine a thousand things from a single scene alone, to say nothing about the woman at the center of it all. As Jeanne juggles her duties as a homekeeper, mother, and breadwinner, she eventually unravels, and the film rewards us with one of the most memorable climaxes of all time. There’s complexity in the ordinary, Akerman reminds us in her mundane epic, and there’s always something political motivating our choices, no matter how normal they seem.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Chantal Akerman, Delphine Seyrig, Henri Storck, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, Jan Decorte, Yves Bical

Director: Chantal Akerman

Rating: NR

You know how many films depict the magic and wonder of cinema in such gorgeous, magnificent scenes? Peeping Tom does the opposite. Sure, it has director Michael Powell’s signature flair, with excellently framed and colored shots, but he takes a much more violent route here, swapping spectacular fantasy with the psychological terror of how the act of filming and watching can be. Given the title, it won’t be a surprise that the film involves voyeurism, but rather than of the sexual kind, Powell hones into the morbidity of the camera gaze, the twisted pleasure that’s felt when the audience sees someone terrified, despite the violence done upon them. It’s because of this that the film was so controversial, but eventually, Peeping Tom garnered critical acclaim for breaking ground as the first slasher film ever made.

Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller

Actor: Anna Massey, Brenda Bruce, Brian Worth, Cornelia Frances, Esmond Knight, Frank Singuineau, Jack Watson, John Barrard, Karlheinz Böhm, Maxine Audley, Michael Goodliffe, Michael Powell, Miles Malleson, Moira Shearer, Nigel Davenport, Paddi Edwards, Roland Curram, Shirley Anne Field, Susan Travers

Director: Michael Powell

Rating: NR

While initially commissioned to be an atomic bomb documentary, Hiroshima Mon Amour became something entirely different. For starters, it’s not a documentary, with director Alain Resnais recruiting author Marguerite Duras to write the screenplay, but it was pretty unusual for a narrative film at the time. It’s a love story, yes, but with such a poetic introduction of the two lovers going back and forth about what they know and don’t know about the bomb, pairing their discussion with archival footage and captivating scoring, Resnais created a new, non-linear cryptic style to capture how memory, grief, and loss irrevocably shaped a generation. Hiroshima Mon Amour was an unexpected shift, eventually becoming one of the most influential films of the French New Wave movement.

Genre: Drama, History, Romance

Actor: Bernard Fresson, Eiji Okada, Emmanuelle Riva, Pierre Barbaud, Stella Dassas

Director: Alain Resnais

Rating: NR

Nearly a decade after the Hays Code, the time for glorified gangsters was over. However, before Hollywood shifted their gaze to the European-inspired, shadowy film noir, the gangster bid one last adieu in High Sierra. It was this very concept that was the foundation of the story– bringing back a robber for one more heist– but with an excellent Humphrey Bogart and John Huston’s riveting script, the film was something else. It pushed the gangster genre into a different place, as Bogart’s thief reveals a sensitivity that was then uncommon in the genre, and Huston takes advantage of the Code to build up suspense and sympathy as his farm boy-turned-mobster tries to climb his way to freedom. Being their breakthrough moment, it’s no wonder then that Bogart and Huston continued their partnership in brooding, anti-hero film noir dramas, but High Sierra still holds up to this day, cementing some of the tropes that future crime thrillers draw inspiration from.

Genre: Crime, Drama

Actor: Alan Curtis, Arthur Kennedy, Barton MacLane, Cornel Wilde, Donald MacBride, Dorothy Appleby, Elisabeth Risdon, George Meeker, Henry Hull, Henry Travers, Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, Isabel Jewell, Jerome Cowan, Joan Leslie, John Eldredge, Minna Gombell, Paul Harvey, Robert Strange, Spencer Charters, Willie Best

Director: Raoul Walsh

Rating: NR

While today’s moviegoers would likely pick Black Swan as the ballet film of choice, there is one film classic that brings the title of the best ballet film in contention. That is The Red Shoes. It first divided critics of film and ballet alike, but as time went by, the spectacular drama from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger deservedly garnered acclaim for the brilliant, novel ways of bridging the gap between art forms. Of course, the most obvious of this is the lush, stunning 17-minute dance sequence that first incorporated dynamic camera movement to the choreography, and captured Han Christian Andersen’s story to its essentials. But aside from just depicting the dance, The Archers reconfigured every other single aspect of film to bend toward the movement without breaking the beauty of every shot– the scoring, the casting, the production design, and the ballet-within-a-film plotline. It’s because of this that The Red Shoes garnered a legacy of being one of the best ballet films, one of the best British films, and even one of the greatest films ever made.

Genre: Drama, Romance

Actor: Albert Bassermann, Anton Walbrook, Austin Trevor, Bill Shine, Emeric Pressburger, Esmond Knight, Léonide Massine, Ludmilla Tchérina, Marcel Poncin, Marius Goring, Moira Shearer, Patrick Troughton, Robert Helpmann

Director: Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell

Rating: NR

If we were to list down the best of the best movie musicals ever made, most of the titles would probably come from the Golden Age of Hollywood. But we’d be remiss to forget that just a few years later, all the way across the pond, came The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, a French romantic musical from Jacques Demy. It's certainly in the running for the most gorgeous musical ever made, with the bold, dreamy colors, incredible camera work, stylish costumes, and two beautiful leads front and center, but what makes Cherbourg great is the lush composition made by Michel Legrand. With the sweeping violins and the tragic lyrics of Devant le Garage, to the catchy, jazzy Scène du Garage that starts off the film, Les Parapluies de Cherbourg brings together sublime visuals and sound into one of the greatest musicals ever made.

Genre: Drama, Romance

Actor: Anne Vernon, Catherine Deneuve, Dorothée Blanck, Ellen Farner, Harald Wolff, Jacques Demy, Jean Champion, Marc Michel, Michel Legrand, Mireille Perrey, Mirelle Perrey, Nino Castelnuovo, Paul Pavel, Rosalie Varda

Director: Jacques Demy

Rating: Not Rated, PG-13

Filmed in 1970s Manila, at the height of dictatorship in the Philippines, Manila in the Claws of Night is above all else a political statement—against tyranny, yes, but more significantly, against imperialism, capitalism, and class divide. It’s a weighty film, but director Lino Brocka, with help from cinematographer Mike de Leon, balances his potent ideas with stunning visuals. He captures Manila’s essence perfectly: neon signages point to its crippled reliance on capitalism, while the clash of old structures and weak new buildings point to colonialism’s reigning grip. Those familiar with the wrought history of the Philippines (or other third-world countries subjugated and then forgotten by Western powers, for that matter) will relate to Julio’s struggles. Those who aren’t, however, are in for an eye-opening experience.

Genre: Drama, Mystery

Actor: Bembol Roco, Hilda Koronel, Joe Gruta, Joonee Gamboa, Lily Gamboa Mendoza, Lorli Villanueva, Lou Salvador Jr., Orlando Nadres, Sibyl Santiago, Spanky Manikan, Tommy Abuel

Director: Lino Brocka

A film like Autumn Sonata shouldn’t work; on paper, it’s simply a confrontation between a resentful daughter and her vain mother. But in the masterful hands of Ingmar Bergman, their knotty relationship unfolds in thrilling, cathartic, and painfully relatable ways. Every accusation feels like a lashing. Every breakdown rips your heart. As a viewer, you sympathize with whoever is onscreen--that’s how real each character seems. You root for the neglected daughter, but also for the pianist who followed her heart and chose career over children. As with most Bergman films, Autumn Sonata feels like an evisceration of one’s soul, but it will feel extra relatable to those of us who’ve harbored secret resentments over our parents or children.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Erland Josephson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Halvar Björk, Ingrid Bergman, Lena Nyman, Liv Ullmann, Marianne Aminoff, Mimi Pollak

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Rating: PG

Any time someone does something, in public, one mostly thinks about how it affects them personally. We only have one life, after all, working from one timeline, one narrative, and one perspective that naturally forms when we go through it. Code Unknown plays with this idea. It’s as if writer-director Michael Haneke wanted to recreate sonder into film form, as a single littering incident instigates a series of vignettes, each shot in real time, that cuts only when shifting between the strangers who witnessed the incident. Each cut feels intentional, with the way certain scenes linger, while some are cut short before fully concluding, and contrast between the scenes that are shown, and therefore, the treatment given after the incident, is pointedly different, with some finding it inconsequential to their day, and others becoming burdened with subsequent harassment and mistreatment that could have been avoided. Haneke, of course, remains as cryptic in the way he’s best known for, but Code Unknown, nonetheless, reveals just how much empathy is needed and is lacking in real life.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Aissa Maiga, Alexandre Hamidi, Andrée Tainsy, Arsinée Khanjian, Bruno Todeschini, Carlo Brandt, Costel Cașcaval, Didier Flamand, Féodor Atkine, Florence Loiret Caille, Ion Haiduc, Josef Bierbichler, Juliette Binoche, Maimouna Hélène Diarra, Malick Bowens, Marc Duret, Maurice Bénichou, Nathalie Richard, Sandu Mihai Gruia, Thierry Neuvic, Tsuyu Shimizu, Walid Afkir

Director: Michael Haneke

Sometimes, all you need to make a good movie is to get two vastly different characters and force them to stay together. It’s probably why Kiss of the Spider Woman was made in the first place– the novel dumps hardened, self-sacrificial activist Valentin and flamboyant gay man Molina in a jail cell. But rather than depict Molina and Valentin just talking, the film visually recreates the stories they tell to each other as films-within-a-film. Molina’s fictional love stories are given all the glamor and drama of classic 60s romances, and Valentin’s life story depicted with a straightforward, gritty realism that matches the hard experiences he had. So as they tell their stories and challenge each other with their respective approaches to life, director Héctor Babenco ensures that as the two finally feel heard by each other, the audience, too, can easily empathize with the perspectives they take. It also ensures that the plot twist holds a strong punch. Though its escapist approach may suggest otherwise, Kiss of the Spider Woman realistically explores the way storytelling has always meant freedom.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Ana Maria Braga, Denise Dumont, Herson Capri, José Lewgoy, Lineu Dias, Luis Roberto Galizia, Miguel Falabella, Milton Gonçalves, Miriam Pires, Nildo Parente, Nuno Leal Maia, Patricio Bisso, Raúl Juliá, Sônia Braga, William Hurt

Director: Héctor Babenco

Rating: R

Since we live in a society, interacting with authority is inescapable. Terrestrial Verses depict fairly mundane day-to-day interactions– getting a birth certificate, settling a traffic violation, or attending a job interview– but through nine vignettes framed with a static camera, aimed at a person trying to negotiate with someone more powerful just outside the frame, these mundane interactions become satirically absurd. For those unfamiliar with the ideology behind the regime, these interactions are just so annoying. But for those in the know, the doublespeak in the dialogue reflects how finicky and arbitrary the rules set by the authoritarian regime are, and celebrates the wit and ingenuity of the ordinary people that have to navigate them. Terrestrial Verses seems utterly mundane at first, but it proves to be smart, incisive, and deeply insightful.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Actor: Babak Karimi, Farzin Mohades, Gohar Kheyrandish, Hossein Soleymani, Majid Salehi, Reza Behboudi, Sadaf Asgari, Sara Bahrami

Director: Ali Asgari, Alireza Khatami

In most cases (and in so many romance films), the heart clinging to a past love can be silly, at best, and self-sabotaging, at worst. Nostalgia filters the past through rose-tinted lenses, skewing our perspective of what’s true and what’s imagined. In another filmmaker’s hands, A Tale of Winter could very well be this cliché, but writer-director Éric Rohmer gives every reason to believe that Félicie’s love is true. Their separation is caused not by a breakup, but by a simple wrong address. She hasn’t closed herself off to finding someone else, but the feeling, hers and the scenes themselves, don’t quite match to the summer romance montage. When she does talk about The One to her prospective suitors, she’s sane and sober, regardless of whether or not she’s right. And because of excellent writing and Rohmer’s approach, we can’t say her choice is wrong.

Genre: Drama, Romance

Actor: Ava Loraschi, Charlotte Véry, Éric Wapler, Frédéric van den Driessche, Haydée Caillot, Hervé Furic, Michel Voletti, Roger Dumas, Rosette

Director: Éric Rohmer

The basic idea of experimental drama Blind Chance is the butterfly effect. It’s as if writer-director Krzysztof Kieślowski just wanted to tell this concept through the simple act of catching a train, albeit in film form, by starting with the train, and following with three vastly different outcomes of what Witek came to be. Because of this approach, there’s already an interesting metaphysical meditation of the way chance rules life as much as our choices, but on top of this, Kieślowski also contemplates how chance pushes us to make different political stances, choices, and advocacies, given the main difference between Witek’s different timelines. The film doesn’t really advocate for one or the other, but the outcome of the third timeline suggests that even with chance in play, it’s much better to make that choice rather than having that choice made for you. It’s because of this idea that the Polish authorities sought to ban the film, but Przypadek ultimately proved to be an interesting choice Kieślowski made in spite of censorship.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Adam Ferency, Bogusław Linda, Bogusława Pawelec, Jacek Borkowski, Jerzy Stuhr, Marek Kalita, Marzena Trybała, Sylwester Maciejewski, Tadeusz Łomnicki, Zbigniew Zapasiewicz

Director: Krzysztof Kieślowski

Don’t be fooled—despite being a three-hour documentary, Hoop Dreams is just as thrilling, heartbreaking, and cinematic as any sports film out there. Unlike them, however, Hoop Dreams is less of an uplifting feel-good story than it is an honest and sobering look at how the education system has failed Black communities. It’s not a complete downer, though, since we follow two hardworking and inspiring boys committed to lifting their families from poverty. While more privileged players can afford to treat basketball as a hobby, to Arthur and William, basketball is a lifeline, a rare chance to enjoy better opportunities and give their families a better life. Imagine carrying that on your shoulders while training, studying, looking for colleges, and surviving teenhood. It’s a lot, but director Steve James weaves it all beautifully. James divides the chapter into freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years, following Arthur and William as they start on the same footing, diverge and live parallel lives (one in private school, the other in public), and eventually meet again during their final years in school. Their journeys are riveting, not least because we also get to know their families, friends, hopes, and dreams. This is riveting cinema, as socially conscious as it is competitively thrilling.

Genre: Documentary

Actor: Arthur Agee, Bobby Knight, Dick Vitale, Gene Pingatore, Isiah Thomas, Spike Lee, Steve James, William Gates

Director: Steve James

Rating: PG-13

Like people, places have things that change and things that remain the same. Most of us keep our thoughts about our hometowns to wistful conversations and the recesses of our memory, but Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho instead captures Recife in Pictures of Ghosts. It’s a meandering tour, shifting from topic to topic, place to place with not that much structure, but through the journey, Kleber shares so much of himself (his home, his film sets, the theaters he formed his taste in), and Brazilian society, combining archived clips, personal memories, and even a ghostly mystery into one interesting map of Recife.

Genre: Documentary

Actor: Kleber Mendonça Filho, Lucrecia Martel, Maeve Jinkings, Rubens Santos, Sônia Braga

Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho

When Castro took over Cuba in the 1950s, Havana’s nightlife shifted as clubs and casinos were closed down, leading to certain traditional step-based genres like son, bolero, and danzón to decline. A few decades later, prominent American musician Ry Cooder travelled to Cuba with his friend documentarian Wim Wenders, to pay homage to traditional Cuban music in an album and its respective documentary. Wenders weaves in illuminating interviews and shots of Cuba today in between the band’s Amsterdam and Carnegie Hall performances, with a certain intuition that makes each song feel like a triumph. While the documentary does focus more on Cooder, Buena Vista Social Club is a delight to watch, even with its 90s digital grain.

Genre: Documentary, Music

Actor: Compay Segundo, Eliades Ochoa, Ibrahim Ferrer, Joachim Cooder, Omara Portuondo, Ry Cooder

Director: Wim Wenders

Rating: G