I’m somewhat sleepy as I start this post since I’m halfway through the long trip from Dublin back to Seattle, so a fair chunk of my writing about the March Criterion Channel lineup may just be “Wait, you’re telling me Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Cruel Intentions is on the Channel this month?” It’s even the banner image on the lineup post.
I’m not sad about this — it’s a guilty pleasure and gives me another excuse to remind everyone to seek out Miloš Forman’s Valmont, which is overshadowed by the admittedly superior Dangerous Liaisons and which is not streaming anywhere. However, Valmont has a delightfully sardonic cast (Meg Tilly!) and really I want to do a marathon of all three now. But it’s weird to see Cruel Intentions on this lineup. It’s not even part of any program. I am super curious about how it wound up here.
I’m so off track. I’m so sleepy. Let’s get into it!
We start with VHS Forever, which is a fun theme. Everything from Videodrome to Clerks to Haneke’s Benny’s Video to The Ring (2002, so the remake). I could not ask for better curation that captures the heart of my nostalgia.
Next up, Three Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, none of them particularly classics. Sliding Doors I guess maybe? This is in honor of Marty Supreme, which okay. Leaves me a little meh, though.
Two Short Films by Charlie Kaufman and Eva H.D. excites me, though. One of them stars Jessie Buckley. Both are recent work. I will watch these for sure.
And then we get really interesting again: Romanian New Wave. This is more or less current Romanian film: Cristi Puiu, Christian Mungiu, and so forth. I’ve seen none of these and wanted to, so I’ll put my initial marker down on The Death of Mr. Lazarescu. It seems like a good time to dive into a film movement so tightly related to the end of authoritarian rule.
Reflecting the Channel’s newfound interest in anime, the next collection is the entire first season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. I guess Shanghai Blossoms set the precedent for this kind of full TV season showing up, although it feels a bit weird. This is 26 episodes, each a bit under 30 minutes. It’s a classic for sure, and I imagine I’ll at least take a peek.
Then, in yet another abrupt tonal shift, it’s Sex, Gender, and Seduction: The Films of Monika Treut. I feel like… yep, a bunch of these were just programmed back in October at one of my favorite local theaters, with a very similar description. Must be a new distribution deal or something. Interesting material.
As has become my habit, I’ll skip down to the director collections now. Robert Bresson gets a pretty complete collection, including his Arthurian movie Lancelot du lac. Letterboxd recently wrote about that one in a list of Arthurian movies and I was intrigued; I love me some Arthur. I know nothing about William Klein but contemporary documentaries about activist figures like Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther are up my alley. Who Are You, Polly Maggoo also looks interesting although sometimes transgression from decades ago winds up feeling a bit dated.
On to individual movies…
OMG, it’s Cruel Intentions. I said what I wanted to say there. In Hollywood Hits, we have We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, which is superb, and Talking About Trees, which is a documentary about a movie theater in Sudan. Nice. And a little more anime: Hideako Anno’s first movie (as recut from the TV show). Odd choice but I like Anno’s lighter work so sure.
The Channel adds Lou Reed’s Berlin to the Music Films section which I really gotta spend more time in. I’m a Reed fan; I will try and find time for this. The Rediscoveries and Restorations are fine; we’ve talked about most of them as part of collections. Oh, yeah, Who Killed Teddy Bear stars Sal Mineo — I’ve been wanting to see more of his work. And happily, Happyend is a movie I wanted to see at Fantasia last year but missed, so it’ll be nice to see it here.
I’ll wrap this month’s summary with Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project, which is the four movies in the 5th Criterion boxed set. Rich choices as always. The standout for me is The Fall of Otrar, a reportedly amazing epic from Kazakhstan.