Lost in Criterion

Spine 75: Chasing Amy

Chasing Amy is the story of a man who falls in love with a lesbian and is a terrible person. It doesn't hold up to time, but maybe it was still important at some point.

Spine 74: Vagabond

Pat and I actually understand Agnes Varda this week.

Spine 73: Cleo from 5 to 7

In this episode Pat gets annoyed by the main character's angst, and I spend as much energy as I can trying to get him to care. We have more Agnes Varda coming up in the Collection, including next week's Vagabond, and well deserved, too, considering she pretty much started the French New Wave. Hopefully Pat can get into the others.

Spine 72: Le Million

In this week's episode we watch a French musical comedy and discuss the metaphorical value of Pat's underwear. Le Million (1931) is director Rene Clair's second sound film, a medium he at first regarded as "an unnatural creation" apparently believing that sound would do nothing but diminish the quality of story telling on the big screen, an opinion that I can not imagine anyone actually having ever.

Spine 71: The Magic Flute

Ingmar Bergman's 1975 adaptation of the classic Mozart comedic opera is, as Pat repeatedly says in these week's episode, "wonderful!"

Spine 70: The Last Temptation of Christ

This is a highly controversial film to say the least, and still one that doesn't come up positively in conversation's about Jesus films in conservative circles. A Christianity Today article on the top 10 Jesus films even lists Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew - a film in which Jesus is a brooding, angry revolutionary made by a Marxist, atheist – while only making a passive negative comment about the “heresy” that is The Last Temptation.

Spine 69: Testament of Orpheus

We hit up our last Jean Cocteau film this week to finish off his trilogy of artistic non-statements with the 1959 swan song Testament of Orpheus. Pat and I are so done with Cocteau and his insistence that nothing he does has meaning even while he forces metaphor and symbolism into every nook and cranny of his work. This one features Cocteau himself as protagonist being berated by supernatural beings for asking "Why?"

Spine 68: Orpheus

We finally find a Cocteau film we can sit through.

Spine 67: The Blood of a Poet

Jean Cocteau's exploration of art leaves Lost in Criterion with feelings.

Spine 65: Rushmore

We're joined by a myriad of guests, old and new, to talk about our first (but certainly not last) excursion into the world(s?) of Wes Anderson: Rushmore.

Spine 64: The Third Man

I owned this movie for a long time. I could watch this movie every day and not grow tired of it. And yet still, viewing it to talk about this week brought fresh eyes and new observations: things I'd never noticed; things I feel kind of stupid for never noticing. Which I suppose is the sign of a true classic. Always something new to discover.

Spine 63: Carnival of Souls

Herk Harvey made educational films. Herk Harvey made an indie horror film in 1962. Herk Harvey had an uneven skillset.

Spine 62: The Passion of Joan of Arc

Carl Theo. Dreyer's direction, and Maria Falconetti's performance combine for one of the greatest cinematic experiences in history.

Spine 61: Monty Python's Life of Brian

Lost in Criterion gets lost in religious controversy (and it won't be the last time) with Monty Python's Life of Brian

Spine 60: Autumn Sonata

Ingmar Bergman directs Ingrid Bergman in a heart-wrenching character study about a bad mother.

Spine 59: The Night Porter

I mean, at least Salo had a point I could grasp.

Spine 58: Peeping Tom

Peeping Tom is a dark thriller about a young man with daddy-issues. It came out 6 months before Psycho. Everyone hated it. We don't.

Spine 57: Charade

"The best Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock never made" according to unciteable sources.

Spine 56: The 39 Steps

Hands down the best film with an autogyro. Well, except for The Rocketeer.

Spine 55: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

"Unfilmable" novels still get filmed. Unfilmable novels are still unfilmable. Lost in Criterion explores The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

Spine 54: For All Mankind

Al Reinert's 1989 documentary made of NASA's own footage of the Apollo missions is raw and exciting and wonderful.

Spine 53: Sanjuro

Donovan and Mifune and Kurosawa back one more time.

Spine 52: Yojimbo

Donovan's back to talk about Kurosawa's Yojimbo with us. It's a fun conversation as always.

Holiday Special 2: Die Harder

Donovan, Stephen, Andrew Tobias, and Wrion Bowling gather around our hearts and hearths to talk Die Harder.

Spine 51: Brazil

Gilliam's 1985 version of 1984 is a bit fatalistic, but stilll fun.