The 7 Best New Movies on the Criterion Channel in January 2023

Birds (1963) / Psycho (1960)

Available: January 1 | Producer: Alfred Hitchcock | Written: Evan Hunter/Joseph Stefano

If Tomatometer had existed in the early 1960s, chances are that the soundtrack to these films would not inspire confidence in potential viewers. Both received mixed reviews, as is often the case with relatively transgressive art positioning itself for commercial consumption. just ask John Lennon or Black Sabbath. Not even time passed Birds and Psycho acquired an improved reputation for masterpieces, or close enough to them. Birds - it’s impossible to reproduce the story of some really cruel, angry birds. But it begins as a dramatic depiction of a very human love triangle. Once this human drama is interrupted, it stays that way. If there is something in particular that caused this bird apocalypse, the birds are not in the mood to discuss it.

Psycho, which is a little easier to imitate, but still one of a kind, is the story of a hotel owner with some demons. This film alone sowed a million seeds in the public’s imagination, and many of its scenes continue to receive modern horror homage. In tandem, they represent a one-two punch of creative horror filmmaking that has taken decades to digest. Between productions, Alfred Hitchcock gave an extensive interview to a French critic-turned-director. François Truffaut. The resulting book Hitchcock/Truffautmakes a great reading companion for these two films as Hitchcock talks breathlessly about this highly productive period of his film career.

Watch Psycho on the Criterion channel

Watch The Birds on the Criterion channel

Bo Travale (1999)

Available: January 1 | Producer: Claire Denis | Written: Claire Denis, Jean-Paul Fargeau

Throw: Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, Grégoire Colin

Beau Travele French drama based on an American writer Herman Melvilleunfinished novella Billy Budd, sailor. Producer Claire Denis (recently from Robert Pattison-starring Savor), this elegiac tone poem discards Melville’s maritime setting of the 1700s in favor of what was then East Africa occupied by French foreign legionaries. The story - a sergeant falls in love with a charming young recruit and vows to destroy him - is told in flashback sequences. Dialogues are poor. The composition of the frame is phenomenal. The tragic story unfolds like a dream itself. Denis claimed that he shoots quickly and painstakingly edits, and it shows. Beau Travele this fleet is not in a hurry yet. There are few major dramatic moments in the film, yet the visuals are so gripping and the music so tense that the shots of a face, a horse, or a soldier carrying a body have enough weight to keep the viewer on their toes.

Watch on the Criteria channel

400 Blows (1959)

Available: August 1 | Producer: François Truffaut | Written: François Truffaut, Marcel Moussy

Throw: Jean-Pierre Leo, Albert Remy, Claire Maurier

400 strokes It is a highly influential story about a troubled Parisian youth and the debut film from director François Truffaut, author of the Alfred Hitchcock book mentioned above. AT blows, our main character is ten-year-old Antoine. When he is not skipping school, he is a violent student. At home, his parents just don’t understand him. The film is presented at Antoine’s level, making it a perfect example of the French New Wave of films. An integral feature of this directorial school is that the film can rival the novel in honesty and artistic power (and therefore in authenticity). A year before this film was screened to great success at Cannes, the director was banned from the festival for bemoaning Cannes commercialism. french new wave and 400 strokes more broadly, sought to set an example of the rise of films as literary vehicles. These are noble things, their intentions, but the result is a great coming-of-age drama that feels honest, not pompous, with great Parisian photography.

Watch on the Criteria channel

Stalker (1979)

Available: January 1 | Producer: Andrei Tarkovsky | Written: Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky

Throw: Alexander Kaidanovsky, Anatoly Solonitsyn, Alisa Freindlich

In a cordoned-off part of the Russian wilderness known as the Zone, Writer, Scientist and Stalker go in search of a bunker that contains a wish-granting room. This is the plot of a psychedelic sci-fi drama. Stalker. The film starts with a washed out sepia tone. While our travelers are busy with their boring, ordinary lives of industrial labor, we enjoy their grim status quo. As soon as they break through the blockade around the Zone and reach the otherworldly forests, full color sets in, and oddities begin. The Stalker leads the Scientist and the Writer into a world that doesn’t belong to them, but that’s exactly what they want, for better or worse. Temporal shifts, Orthodox religious imagery, distorted reality and danger await. The tone is dull, the powers supernatural, and the less spoiled in detail the better. From the opening credits, he sets up a hypnotic mood, but he manages to keep his weirdness sharply grounded throughout the movie.

Watch on the Criteria channel

Seven Samurai (1954) / Throne of Blood (1957)

Available: January 1 | Producer: Akira Kurosawa | Written: Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni / Shinobu Hashimoto, Ryuzo Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni

One is an adaptation ShakespeareX Macbeth, one original idea. Both bill themselves from the opening credits as high-stakes historical fables that combine an almost operatic, militaristic soundtrack with iconic samurai imagery. seven samurai it is the shop of a village inhabited by bandits who must rely on a group of samurai to protect themselves and teach them how to defend themselves. Like the director himself Rashomon, there is a bit of nihilism in the current morality. Samurai are not portrayed as inherently heroic characters, but simply as villains that you need to destroy other villains. Not the men you would like to see next to you. At three plus hours, it’s an epic full of action, thoughtful writing, and 3D characters.

Throne of Blood served in almost the same language, but presents a more direct tragedy. Beats and narrative hooks Macbeth how history is such a powerful engine that Akira Kurosawadirection takes off with it. He’s extremely gifted at setting the mood, and the seriousness he creates makes it clear that our ambitious hero and his equally ambitious wife are on their way to some trouble. Whatever this unearthly female spirit says to our hero, everything seems to be going wrong. Taken in tandem, these two films don’t sum up Akira Kurosawa, but they do say a hell of a lot about what he’s capable of.

Watch Seven Samurai on Criterion

Watch Throne of Blood on the Criterion Channel