You may have forgotten (or altogether missed) that David Chase wrote and directed just one feature film, and that its black-and-white rework is exclusively streaming on the Criterion Channel. To supplement his great Not Fade Away, the Sopranos creator has programmed and been interviewed for a new Adventures in Moviegoing that debuts this May, boasting Jean Vigo’s L’Atalante, Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows and Lacombe, Lucien, Luis Buñuel’s Viridiana, and Dino Risi’s Il sorpasso. More than anticipating the interview, I will invest (some) hope that this puts into the universe (just enough) energy for another film from one of American cinema’s great minds.
May’s flagship program seems to be ’80s Remakes (and Their Originals!), which does as it says on the tin: Breathless and Breathless, The Thing and The Thing, The Man Who Loved Women and the closest Burt Reynolds ever got to Truffaut. Meanwhile, Office Romances offers a mix of Dorothy Arzner’s Working Girls, His Girl Friday, The Apartment, and John Ford’s severely underrated The Whole Town’s Talking. Jonathan Ali has guest-programmed You Don’t Get Freedom, You Take Freedom: Caribbean Activist Cinema, featuring the likes of Bitter Cane and Med Hondo’s West Indies. Premiere-wise, Debra Granik’s Conbody vs Everybody makes its debut on the Channel, while Lav Diaz’s Magellan, Thierry Fremaux’s Lumière, le cinéma!, and a restoration of Ken Loach’s The Spirit of ’45 make appearances.
Criterion Editions of Buñuel’s Él, Woman of the Year, Cat People, and His Girl Friday begin streaming. The Ross Brothers, Kimi Takesue, and Bill Douglas each have a series of movies streaming, including the COVID-era favorite Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets. Special notice to Kathryn Bigelow’s Point Break and Sean Baker’s Four Letter Words, being added to Stunts and Directed by Sean Baker, respectively (as if it could possibly be the other way around).
See the full list of May additions and find more at the Criterion Channel:
95 and 6 to Go, Kimi Takesue, 2016
Against All Odds, Taylor Hackford, 1984
An Unfinished Film, Lou Ye, 2024
The Apartment, Billy Wilder, 1960
The Big Clock, John Farrow, 1948*
Bitter Cane, Ben Dupuy and Kim Ives, 1983
Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets, Turner Ross and Bill Ross IV, 2020
Bound, Kimi Takesue, 1995
Breathless, Jim McBride, 1983
Cat People, Jacques Tourneur, 1942
Cat People, Paul Schrader, 1982
A Chinese Ghost Story, Ching Siu-tung, 1987
A Chinese Ghost Story II, Ching Siu-tung, 1990
A Chinese Ghost Story III, Ching Siu-tung, 1991
Clockwatchers, Jill Sprecher, 1997
Conbody vs Everybody, Debra Granik 2024
D.O.A., Rudolph Maté, 1949
D.O.A., Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, 1988
Daughter’s Daughter, Huang Xi, 2024
Desk Set, Walter Lang, 1957
E=NYC2, Kimi Takesue, 2005
Él, Luis Buñuel, 1953
Four Letter Words, Sean Baker, 2000
Grenada: The Future Coming Towards Us, Carmen Ashhurst, Samori Marksman, and John Douglas, 1983
Haiti: The Way to Freedom, Arnold Antonin, 1973
Heaven’s Crossroad, Kimi Takesue, 2002
His Girl Friday, Howard Hawks, 1940
House of Cardin, P. David Ebersole and Todd Hughes, 2019
K-On! The Movie, Naoko Yamada, 2011*
Looking for Adventure, Kimi Takesue, 2013
Lumière, le cinéma!, Thierry Frémaux, 2025
Man Wanted, William Dieterle, 1932
The Man Who Loved Women, François Truffaut, 1977
The Man Who Loved Women, Blake Edwards, 1983
Maya, Give Me a Title, Michel Gondry, 2024
More Than a Secretary, Alfred E. Green, 1936
My Ain Folk, Bill Douglas, 1973
My Childhood, Bill Douglas, 1972
My Way Home, Bill Douglas, 1978
No Way Out, Roger Donaldson, 1987
The Office Wife, Lloyd Bacon, 1930
Onlookers, Kimi Takesue, 2023
Point Break, Kathryn Bigelow, 1991
The Postman Always Rings Twice, Tay Garnett, 1946
The Postman Always Rings Twice, Bob Rafelson, 1981
Queen Bee, Ranald MacDougall, 1955
Riotsville, U.S.A., Sierra Pettengill, 2022*
Rosewater, Kimi Takesue, 1999
The Shepherd and the Bear, Max Keegan, 2024
The Spirit of ’45, Ken Loach, 2013
Summer of the Serpent, Kimi Takesue, 2004
Suspended, Kimi Takesue, 2009
Sweet Sugar Rage, Harclyde Walcott and Honor Ford-Smith, 1985
The Terror and the Time, Rupert Roonaraine, 1978
That Which Once Was, Kimi Takesue, 2011
The Thing, John Carpenter, 1982*
The Thing from Another World, Christian Nyby, 1951
Tokyo Trial, Masaki Kobayashi, 1983
We’re No Angels, Michael Curtiz, 1955*
We’re No Angels, Neil Jordan, 1989*
Western, Turner Ross and Bill Ross IV, 2015
Where Are You Taking Me?, Kimi Takesue, 2010
The Whole Town’s Talking, John Ford, 1935
Woman of the Year, George Stevens, 1942
Women of Suriname, At van Praag, 1978
Working Girls, Dorothy Arzner, 1931
*Available in the U.S. only