Few American filmmakers of the last 40 years await a major rediscovery like Hal Hartley, whose traces in modern movies are either too-minor or entirely unknown. Thus it’s cause for celebration that the Criterion Channel are soon launching a major retrospective: 13 features (which constitutes all but My America) and 17 shorts, a sui generis style and persistent vision running across 30 years. Expect your Halloween party to be aswim in Henry Fool costumes.
Speaking of: there’s a one-month headstart on seasonal programming with the 13-film “High School Horror”––most notable perhaps being a streaming premiere for the uncut version of Suspiria, plus the rare opportunity to see a Robert Rodriguez movie on the Criterion Channel––and a retrospective of Hong Kong vampire movies. A retrospective of ’70s car movies (Spielberg, Tati, Cimino among credited directors) offer chills and thrills of a different sort
Six films by Allan Dwan and 12 “gaslight noirs” round out the main September series; The Eight Mountains, The Blue Caftan, and Dry Ground Burning have streaming premieres; three by Andrew Bujalski (Computer Chess, Results, Support the Girls), one Coppola (Peggy Sue Got Married), one by Don Siegel (Coogan’s Bluff), and one from Howard Hawks (Man’s Favorite Sport?) are set to play; Do the Right Thing is the sole Criterion Edition; and several Caribbean films play courtesy Third Horizon.
Back By Popular Demand
Fat City, John Huston, 1972
Eyes of Laura Mars, Irvin Kershner, 1978
Hardcore, Paul Schrader, 1979
Gloria, John Cassavetes, 1980
Premiering In September
A/Muse, Hal Hartley, 2010
Accomplice, Hal Hartley, 2010
Adventure, Hal Hartley, 2010
Ambition, Hal Hartley, 1991
And with Him Came the West, Mike Plante, 2019
The Apologies, Hal Hartley, 2010
Aquí, Carlos Mario, 2020
Battle Royale, Kinji Fukasaku, 2000
Battle Royale II: Requiem, Kinji Fukasaku and Kenta Fukasaku, 2003
Black Sheep, Allan Dwan, 1935
Blanche Fury, Marc Allégret, 1948
The Blue Caftan, Maryam Touzani, 2022
The Book of Life, Hal Hartley, 1998
Boyz n the Hood, John Singleton, 1991
The Cartographer’s Girlfriend, Hal Hartley, 1987
The Cemetery Lightens, Luis Alejandro Yero, 2018
Cocote, Nelson Carlos de los Santos Arias, 2017
Coogan’s Bluff, Don Siegel, 1968*
Corridor of Mirrors, Terence Young, 1948
The Craft, Andrew Fleming, 1996
Dadli, Shabier Kirchner, 2018
Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, John Hough, 1974
Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee, 1989
Dogs, Hal Hartley, 1988
Donnie Darko, Richard Kelly, 2001
Douvan jou ka leve, Gessica Généus, 2017
Dragonwyck, Joseph Mankiewicz, 1946
Dry Ground Burning, Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós, 2022
Duel, Steven Spielberg, 1971*
East Side, West Side, Allan Dwan 1927
Encounters of the Spooky Kind, Sammo Hung, 1980
Experiment Perilous, Jacques Tourneur, 1944
Eyes of Laura Mars, Irvin Kershner, 1978
The Faculty, Robert Rodriguez, 1998*
Fat City, John Huston, 1972
Fay Grim, Hal Hartley, 2006*
Fear Is the Key, Michael Tuchner, 1972*
Field Notes, Vashti Harrison, 2014
Flaming Star, Don Siegel, 1960
Flirt, Hal Hartley, 1995
Frontier Marshal, Allan Dwan, 1939
Ginger Snaps, John Fawcett, 2000
The Girl from Monday, Hal Hartley, 2005
Gloria, John Cassavetes, 1980
Gone in 60 Seconds, H. B. Halicki, 1974
Hangover Square, John Brahm, 1945
Hardcore, Paul Schrader, 1979
Henry Fool, Hal Hartley, 1997*
Here Is the Imagination of the Black Radical, Rhea Storr, 2020
High Tension, Allan Dwan, 1936
I Know What You Did Last Summer, Jim Gillespie, 1997
Implied Harmonies, Hal Hartley, 2010
Iris, Hal Hartley, 1994
Ivy, Sam Wood, 1947*
Kid, Hal Hartley, 1984
Ladies in Retirement, Charles Vidor, 1941
The Last American Hero, Lamont Johnson, 1973
The Last Run, Richard Fleischer, 1971
Le Mans, Lee H. Katzin, 1971*
Man’s Favorite Sport?, Howard Hawks, 1964*
Massacre at Central High, René Daalder, 1976
Meanwhile, Hal Hartley, 2011
Moss Rose, Gregory Ratoff, 1947
Mr. Vampire, Ricky Lau, 1985
Mr. Vampire II, Ricky Lau, 1986
Mr. Vampire III, Ricky Lau, 1987
Mr. Vampire IV, Ricky Lau, 1988
My Mother Resents Me, Victoria Linares Villegas, 2019
Ned Rifle, Hal Hartley, 2014
The New Math(s), Hal Hartley, 2000
No Such Thing, Hal Hartley, 2001
Nou voix, Maxime Jean-Baptiste, 2018
NYC 3/94, Hal Hartley, 1994
One Mile from Heaven, Allan Dwan, 1937
Opera No. 1, Hal Hartley, 1994
The Other Also, Hal Hartley, 1997
Paroles de nègres, Sylvaine Dampierre, 2021
Peggy Sue Got Married, Francis Ford Coppola, 1986
Poetic Justice, John Singleton, 1993
Prom Night, Paul Lynch, 1980*
Regarding Soon, Hal Hartley, 2004
Results, Andrew Bujalski, 2015
Right Near the Beach, Gibrey Allen, 2020
The River’s Edge, Allan Dwan, 1957
The Seven-Ups, Philip D’Antoni, 1973
Simple Men, Hal Hartley, 1992
The Sisters of Mercy, Hal Hartley, 2004
Slumber Party Massacre, Amy Holden Jones, 1982
So Evil My Love, Lewis Allen, 1948*
So Long at the Fair, Terence Fisher and Antony Darnborough, 1950
Stones Have Laws, Tolin Alexander, Siebren de Haan, and Lonnie van Brummelen, 2019
Super Fly, Gordon Parks Jr., 1972
Support the Girls, Andrew Bujalski, 2018*
Surviving Desire, Hal Hartley, 1992
The Suspect, Robert Siodmak, 1944
Suspiria, Dario Argento, 1977
Theory of Achievement, Hal Hartley, 1991
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Michael Cimino, 1974
A Time for Burning, Barbara Connell and Bill Jersey, 1966
Trust, Hal Hartley, 1990
The Unbelievable Truth, Hal Hartley, 1989
The White Death of the Black Wizard, Rodrigo Ribeiro-Andrade, 2020
White Lightning, Joseph Sargeant, 1973
*Available in the U.S. only