The Criterion Channel’s mass-addition of restorations marked a watershed moment for Hong Kong cinema’s exposure in the United States, but—as with seemingly all else in cinema—there’s always more. Beefing up their collection of Ringo Lam films, then, is an August-bound series that includes the previously programmed City on Fire, Prison on Fire, Prison on Fire II, and School on Fire (arguably his masterpiece) with Wild Search, Victim, and Full Alert, probably the definitive action film about the 1997 handover. Further in the month’s directorial retrospectives are two films by Barbara Kopple (Harlan County USA and American Dream), an eleven-feature set on the perpetually underrated Julien Duvivier, and three shorts by Neo Sora. Highlighting another artist, albeit one who never stepped behind the camera, is the succinctly titled James Baldwin On-Screen: I Heard It Through the Grapevine, James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket, and three shorts.
For themed series, the also-succinct Rock Biopics That Don’t Suck, curated by Bandsplain‘s Yasi Salek, features some of the genre’s best-known least-shamefuls (I’m Not There, Velvet Goldmine, 24 Hour Party People, Control); I’ll make a special recommendation for The Hours and Times, which I suspect captures John Lennon better than any of Sam Mendes’ four upcoming biopics. Pairing nicely (as far as sweat and sexual tension go) are Desert Trips and Southern Gothic: the former is most exciting for giving a streaming platform to Antonioni’s perpetually underrated Zabriskie Point, the latter is a good opportunity to discover Elia Kazan’s Baby Doll, and both feature Wild at Heart. In the meantime, Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein have curated their own Adventures in Moviegoing.
August’s Criterion Editions are Med Hondo’s West Indies, Nagisa Oshima’s Cruel Story of Youth, Luis Buñuel’s That Obscure Object of Desire, Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter, Kasi Lemmons’ Eve’s Bayou, and Douglas Sirk’s Written on the Wind; no less notable is the out-of-print Carrie Criterion arriving alongside. For recent films making streaming debuts, there’s the magnificent Blue Heron, Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo), and Cactus Pears, while a restoration of I Heard It Through the Grapevine is joined by Ebrahim Golestan’s Brick and Mirror and three anthology features (Quartet, Trio, Encore) adapting W. Somerset Maugham. Finally, a special notice to George Armitage’s Miami Blues, a film whose profile has risen in recent years but is still not high enough.
See the full lineup below and more at the Criterion Channel:
24 Hour Party People, Michael Winterbottom, 2002
Amadeus, Miloš Forman, 1984
American Dream, Barbara Kopple, 1990
The American Ruling Class, John Kirby, 2005
Baby Doll, Elia Kazan, 1956
The Beguiled, Don Siegel, 1971*
Brick and Mirror, Ebrahim Golestan, 1965
The Buddy Holly Story, Steve Rash, 1978
Cactus Pears, Rohan Kanawade, 2025
Cape Fear, J. Lee Thompson, 1962*
Cape Fear, Martin Scorsese, 1991*
Carrie, Brian De Palma, 1976
The Chicken, Neo Sora, 2020
Color Me Obsessed: A Film About the Replacements, Gorman Bechard, 2011
Control, Anton Corbijn, 2007
Dream Lover, Nicholas Kazan, 1993
Encore, Pat Jackson, Anthony Pelissier, and Harold French, 1951
Eve’s Bayou, Kasi Lemmons, 1997
La fête à Henriette, 1952
Full Alert, Ringo Lam, 1997
The Hours and Times, Christopher Munch, 1992
I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Pat Hartley and Dick Fontaine, 1982
I’m Not There, Todd Haynes, 2007
James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket, Karen Thorsen, 1989
Lisztomania, Ken Russell, 1975
The Long Goodbye, Robert Altman, 1973
Love & Mercy, Bill Pohlad, 2015
Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo), Joel Alfonso Vargas, 2025
Miami Blues, George Armitage, 1990
Nico, 1988, Susanna Nicchiarelli, 2017*
The Night of the Hunter, Charles Laughton, 1955
Nowhere Boy, Sam Taylor-Johnson, 2009*
The Paperboy, Lee Daniels, 2012*
Quartet, Ken Annakin, Arthur Crabtree, Harold French, and Ralph Smart, 1948
Rockers, Theodoros Bafaloukos, 1978
The Runaways, Floria Sigismondi, 2010*
Sugar Glass Bottle, Neo Sora, 2022
That Obscure Object of Desire, Luis Buñuel, 1977
Through the Night, Loira Limbal, 2020
Trio, Ken Annakin and Harold French, 1950
Velvet Goldmine, Todd Haynes, 1998
A Very Straight Neck, Neo Sora, 2025
Victim, Ringo Lam, 1999
Wild Search, Ringo Lam, 1989
Zabriskie Point, Michelangelo Antonioni, 1970
*Available in the U.S. only
The post The Criterion Channel’s August Lineup Features Ringo Lam, James Baldwin, Desert Trips, and Rock Biopics first appeared on The Film Stage.
from The Film Stage https://ift.tt/1dA0kE2
0 Comments