I’m old enough to remember when Jacques Rivette films were the domain of dark-web networks and substandard DVD rips, a conspiratorial network worthy of his cinema. (Actually not even close for intrigue or danger, but give me room to write an intro.) It’s still a little strange seeing that April will feature a 10-film, one-short Criterion Channel program that combines of his canonized masterpieces (Céline and Julie, La belle noiseuse) with decidedly lesser-seens (Love on the Ground or Up, Down, Fragile)––plus Va Savoir, which I really hope is the recently unearthed four-hour cut for which there’s no substitute. Penélope Cruz is also subject of a retrospective in April, which––more than making me pine for a Rivette collab that never was––will include both Abre Los Ojos and Vanilla Sky, some Almodóvar, and another in the Channel’s ongoing let’s-add-a-Woody-Allen-movie campaign, Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
For themed series, J. Hoberman has curated a series on the dangers of ’60s and ’70s New York that runs from Michael Roemer’s recently restored The Plot Against Harry and Francis Ford Coppola’s You’re a Big Boy Now to Allen’s Bananas and Across 110th Street; the succinctly named “Chinese Crime Thrillers” features Jia’s Ash Is Purest White and two excellent films from Diao Yinan (Black Coal, Thin Ice and The Wild Goose Lake); and “Legacies of War: Vietnam Across the Divides” wisely pairs work by American and Vietnamese filmmakers, Platoon and Full Metal Jacket given fuller context next to The Little Girl of Hanoi or On the Same River.
Criterion Editions for April are The Long Good Friday, All About My Mother, Céline and Julie, and Dead Ringers; the latter leads to a Cronenberg series that I expect will lead everyone to finally watch Fast Company. John Farrow and Ray Feung are given a trio of noirs and melodramas, respectively.
See the full list of films below and more at the Criterion Channel:
121280 Ritual, Antoinetta Angelidi, 2008
Across 110th Street, Barry Shear, 1972
Alias Nick Beal, John Farrow,1949*
All About My Mother, Pedro Almodóvar, 1999
The Angel Levine, Ján Kadár, 1970
Art College 1994, Liu Jian, 2023
Ash Is Purest White, Jia Zhangke, 2018
at the bamboo green, Xiaolu Wang, 2024
Bananas, Woody Allen, 1971
Before Seriana, Samy Benammar, 2024
Belle Époque, Fernando Trueba, 1992*
La belle noiseuse, Jacques Rivette, 1991
The Big Clock, John Farrow, 1948*
Black Caesar, Larry Cohen, 1973
Black Coal, Thin Ice, Diao Yinan, 2014
Born to Win, Ivan Passer, 1971
Burnt Milk, Joseph Douglas Elmhirst, 2023
Bye Bye Braverman, Sidney Lumet, 1968
Casualties of War, Brian De Palma, 1989
Chongqing Hot Pot, Yang Qing, 2016
Coogan’s Bluff, Don Siegel, 1968*
Cotton Comes to Harlem, Ossie Davis, 1970
Dead Ringers, David Cronenberg, 1988
Dog Day Afternoon, Sidney Lumet, 1975
Dying to Survive, Wen Muye, 2018
The Fallen Bridge, Li Yu, 2022
Fast Company, David Cronenberg, 1979
The Fog of War, Errol Morris, 2003*
Front Cover, Ray Yeung, 2015
Full Metal Jacket, Stanley Kubrick, 1987
The Gang of Four, Jacques Rivette, 1989
Hinkelten, Svetlana Romanova, 2023
In Country, Norman Jewison, 1989
Jamón jamón, Bigas Luna, 1992
Joan the Maid, Jacques Rivette, 1994
Journey from the Fall, Ham Tran, 2007
Landscape Suspended, Naghmeh Abbasi, 2022
The Little Girl of Hanoi, Hải Ninh, 1974
Little Murders, Alan Arkin, 1971
Love on the Ground, 1984
Ma’loul Celebrates Its Destruction, Michel Khleifi, 1984
Madigan, Don Siegel, 1968*
Ms. Tư Hậu, Phạm Kỳ Nam, 1963
Naked Acts, Bridgett M. Davis, 1996
Night Has a Thousand Eyes, John Farrow, 1948*
Nine, Rob Marshall, 2009*
Norman Mailer vs. Fun City, Dick Fontaine, 1970
On the Battlefield, Little Egypt Collective, 2024
On the Same River, Nguyễn Hồng Nghi and Phạm Kỳ Nam, 1959
The Panic in Needle Park, Jerry Schatzberg, 1971
ping pong ping pong ping pong ping pong ping pong, Daphne Xu, 2024
Platoon, Oliver Stone, 1986
A Radical Duet, Onyeka Igwe, 2023
Regret to Inform, Barbara Sonneborn, 1998
Replacing Dad, Joyce Chopra, 1999
Resynator, Alison Tavel, 2024
Rosemary’s Baby, Roman Polanski, 1968*
Showgirls, Paul Verhoeven, 1995
A Stone’s Throw, Razan AlSalah, 2024
Streetwise, Na Jiazuo, 2021
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Joseph Sargent, 1974
Three Seasons, Tony Bui, 1999*
Twilight’s Kiss, Ray Yeung, 2019
Up, Down, Fragile, Jacques Rivette, 1995
Va savoir, Jacques Rivette, 2001*
Vanilla Sky, Cameron Crowe, 2001*
Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Woody Allen, 2008
Volver, Pedro Almodóvar, 2006*
When the Tenth Month Comes, Đặng Nhật Minh, 1984
The Wild Goose Lake, Diao Yinan, 2019
You’re a Big Boy Now, Francis Ford Coppola, 1966
*Available in the U.S. only