November is Noirvember for many of us, the Criterion Channel included. Their November lineup features two noir collections and a couple more that include more than a little noir flavor. Let’s open it up and see what we’ve got in the briefcase.
The first noir collection is Columbia Noir, which is exactly that. Gilda and The Big Heat are the standouts but it’s full of gems. The Crimson Kimono is high on my list after seeing Fuller’s earlier House of Bamboo; his takes on race tended to be ahead of their time.
Queersighted: Queer Noir actually has more noir classics in it. Maltese Falcon, Laura, Double Indemnity, and there’s Gilda again — that’s a lot of great chiaroscuro. My lesser known pick here is Desert Fury, which is as much a melodrama as it is a noir. Wendell Corey plays his role with the most blatant gay undertones I can imagine.
On the less noir side we have a very good Coen Brothers collection with everything from Blood Simple to Barton Fink to Hudsucker Proxy. Even No Country for Old Men shows up in December. It’s grand. Similarly, there’s an Ida Lupino collection focused on her acting. Some of these are noir (High Sierra), some of them aren’t (Yours for the Asking), and they’ve all got a great actress who’s usually stuck in supporting roles. See The Sea Wolf for a movie where she really gets to show her stuff, and Moontide for Jean Gabin in a rare Hollywood role.
In an entirely different vein, Criterion has collected seven movies directed by Catherine Breillat. She is a blind spot for me, so I guess I can fix that. Fat Girl is reputed to be her masterwork so I will likely start… somewhere else; I like to be able to build upwards.
John Turturro brings us his favorite movies. It’s somehow very Turturro — focused on the classics, with the most recent of the bunch being Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979). That actually looks interesting — religious and anti-fascist themes and stars an actor I’ve heard good things about in Gian Maria Volonté. Lots of classics in that collection, anyhow. Oh, and there’s also a collection of Turturro’s directorial work — that’ll be fun.
The exclusive premiere this month is The Shadowless Tower, a Chinese slice of life movie (as far as I can tell from the description). I’ve been digging the more recent generations of mainland Chinese film makers, so this seems potentially intriguing. I didn’t mention last month, but the Channel is streaming Janus Films releases after the theatrical run these days, which is super cool.
The Criterion Collection movies this month are Miller’s Crossing and Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse Trilogy, in parallel with Criterion’s new Blu-ray releases. That’s quite a cross-section of 90s US indie cinema. I do not totally vibe with Araki for whatever reason, but maybe I’ll take another dip into his work.
The second director’s collection is from Jacques Audiard, who I know very little about. Dheepan is a crime film about immigrants that won the Palme d’Or — that’s pretty intriguing. Read My Lips stars Vincent Cassel, and The Beat That My Heart Skipped won some awards and the premise is cool. OK, this seems like some must viewing.
All of the Rediscoveries and Restorations are interesting. Weird-ass 1980s Dennis Hopper? A David Bowie and Rosanna Arquette movie I’ve never heard of? Open Your Eyes, remade as Vanilla Sky? And more; it’s a good month there. Hollywood Hits gives us The King of Comedy, the movie Todd Phillips remade as Joker, plus Sidney Lumet’s crackling final film, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke? It’s really good.
Finally, the documentaries look solid. Les Blank had a kid who got into art cars and made more documentaries, as it turns out. Also an interesting looking film about Black voters in 2016 — timely — and a nature picture about Norway. As always who knows if I’ll get to these, but they look like they’d be rewarding if I did.
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