February––particularly its third week––is all about romance. Accordingly the Criterion Channel got creative with their monthly programming and, in a few weeks, will debut Interdimensional Romance, a series of films wherein “passion conquers time and space, age and memory, and even death and the afterlife.” For every title you might’ve guessed (Birth, Tarkovsky’s Solaris, or Je t’aime, je t’aime) there’s a wilder companion: Alan Rudolph’s Made In Heaven, Soderbergh’s remake, and Resnais’ Love Unto Death. Mostly I’m excited to revisit Francis Ford Coppola’s Youth Without Youth, a likely essential viewing before Megalopolis.
February also marks Black History Month, and Criterion’s series will include work by Shirley Clarke (also subject of a standalone series), Garrett Bradley, Cheryl Dunye, and Julie Dash, while movies by Sirk, Minnelli, King Vidor, and Lang play in “Gothic Noir.” Greta Gerwig gets an “Adventures in Moviegoing” and can be seen in Mary Bronstein’s Yeast, programmed alongside Good Time. Unrest will have a streaming premiere; restorations of Farewell My Concubine, James Ivory’s Maurice, and Maestro play. Criterion editions of Love Affair and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie are also programmed. For my money, though, the most fun of the bunch is “Hong Kong Hits,” featuring two Police Story and Heroic Trio movies, Infernal Affairs, Sammo Hung’s My Lucky Stars, and two Wong-produced features by Jeffrey Lau starring Tony Leung.
See the full list below:
Back By Popular Demand
Peeping Tom, Michael Powell, 1960
Husbands, John Cassavetes, 1970
The Bedroom Window, Curtis Hanson, 1987
The Limey, Steven Soderbergh, 1999
Premiering In February
24 Hour Party People, Michael Winterbottom, 2002
After Sherman, Jon-Sesrie Goff, 2022
The Bedroom Window, Curtis Hanson, 1987
Birth, Jonathan Glazer, 2004
Code 46, Michael Winterbottom, 2003
Daughters of the Dust, Julie Dash, 1991
Defending Your Life, Albert Brooks, 1991
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Luis Buñuel, 1972
Drugstore Cowboy, Gus Van Sant, 1989
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Michel Gondry, 2004*
Exhibitionist—Purpose Maker Mix, Jeff Mills, 2004
Farewell My Concubine, Chen Kaige, 1993
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1947
Good Time, Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie, 2017
Grizzly Man, Werner Herzog, 2005
Heaven Can Wait, Ernst Lubitsch, 1943
Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Alexander Hall, 1941
Husbands, John Cassavetes, 1970
Hyperfate, Christelle Oyiri, 2022
I Held the Truth in My Hands, Anaïs Duplan, 2020
It’s All About Love, Thomas Vinterberg, 2003*
Je t’aime, je t’aime, Alain Resnais, 1968
Kiss the Blood off My Hands, Norman Foster, 1948*
The Last Angel of History, John Akomfrah, 1996
Lightning Strikes Twice, King Vidor, 1951
The Limey, Steven Soderbergh, 1999
Love Affair, Leo McCarey, 1939
Love unto Death, Alain Renais, 1984
Lunar New Year, S*an D. Henry-Smith, 2021
Lured, Douglas Sirk, 1947
Made in Heaven, Alan Rudolph, 1987
Maestro, Josell Ramos, 2003
A Matter of Life and Death, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1946
Maurice, James Ivory, 1987
Ministry of Fear, Fritz Lang, 1944
MOSQUITO: The Movie, LYZZA, 2022
My Name Is Julia Ross, Joseph H. Lewis, 1945
Pacific Club, Valentin Noujaïm, 2023
Peeping Tom, Michael Powell, 1960
Pivot, Tarona, 2020
A Place of Rage, Pratibha Parmar, 1991
Sexy Beast, Jonathan Glazer, 2000
The Sign of the Ram, John Sturges, 1948
Solaris, Steven Soderbergh, 2002
Starman, John Carpenter, 1984
To Be Free, Adepero Oduye, 2017
Trial Period, Kiernan Francis, 2023
Truth, AG Rojas, 2017
Undercurrent, Vincente Minnelli, 1946
Unrest, Cyril Schäublin, 2022
The Upturned Glass, Lawrence Huntington, 1947
Waking the Dead, Keith Gordon, 2000
When Strangers Marry, William Castle, 1944
Woman in Hiding, Michael Gordon, 1950*
Yeast, Mary Bronstein, 2008
You Got To Move, Lucy Massie Phenix and Veronica Selver, 1985
Youth Without Youth, Francis Ford Coppola, 2007
*Available in the U.S. only