February is about love, but love often—some might say always—does not go one’s way. Thus there’s yearning, and also “Yearning,” a new program where amour isn’t so much fou as mort: In the Mood for Love, The Deep Blue Sea, The Age of Innocence, All That Heaven Allows, and several others to accompany one’s solo Valentine’s Day. (Scorsese and Sirk’s films also get Criterion Editions on February 1.) A very contemporary complement is Dag Johan Haugerud’s Oslo Trilogy (Love, Sex, and Dreams), which makes a streaming debut alongside Ira Sachs’ Peter Hujar’s Day and Clement Virgo’s Rude, while two versions of Wuthering Heights (from William Wyler and Andrea Arnold) might be a better, cheaper option than a certain film arriving that month.
Pumping one’s blood in a different direction are programs on stunts and Mervyn Leroy. The former spans the silent era (Safety Last!, also getting a Criterion Edition) to the 21st century (Death Proof), in between featuring Stagecoach, The Road Warrior, Police Story, and Bullitt—not on that list but deserving of inclusion is Wong Kar-wai’s Ashes of Time Redux, which streams solo—while the latter has Gold Diggers of 1933, Little Caesar, and I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, to name but his three most-famous titles.
February is also Black History Month, ergo a series boasting work by Oscar Micheaux, Cheryl Dunye, Cauleen Smith, Charles Burnett, Shirley Clarke, Michael Roemer, and Kathleen Collins, among others. Further Criterion editions include Drugstore Cowboy and Kiss of the Spider Woman, the latter also in a series of Héctor Babenco’s films like Lúcio Flávio and Pixote.
See a full list of titles below and more at the Criterion Channel:
Africa, the Jungle, Drums and Revolution, Suliman Mohamed Ibrahim Elnour, 1979
The Age of Innocence, Martin Scorsese, 1993
All That Heaven Allows, Douglas Sirk, 1955
Anvil! The Story of Anvil, Sacha Gervasi, 2008
Ashes of Time Redux, Wong Kar Wai, 2008*
Babenco: Tell Me When I Die, Bárbara Paz, 2019
Ben-Hur, William Wyler, 1959
Big City Blues, Mervyn LeRoy, 1932
Bullitt, Peter Yates, 1968
A Camel, Ibrahim Shaddad, 1981
Death Proof, Quentin Tarantino, 2007
The Deep Blue Sea, Terence Davies, 2012*
A Different Image, Alile Sharon Larkin, 1982
Double Happiness, Mina Shum, 1994*
Dreams, Dag Johan Haugerud, 2024
Drugstore Cowboy, Gus Van Sant, 1989
Face/Off, John Woo, 1997
Five Star Final, Mervyn LeRoy, 1931
Flickering Lights, Anupama Srinivasan and Anirban Dutta, 2023
Foolish Heart, Héctor Babenco, 1998
Four Times for Children, Elyateb Mahdi, 1979
God’s Own Country, Francis Lee, 2017*
Gold Diggers of 1933, Mervyn LeRoy, 1933
Gone in 60 Seconds, H. B. Halicki, 1974
Goodbye First Love, Mia Hansen-Løve, 2011
Hard to Handle, Mervyn LeRoy, 1933
Heat Lightning, Mervyn LeRoy, 1934
Hi, Nellie!, Mervyn LeRoy, 1934
High Pressure, Mervyn LeRoy, 1932
Hooper, Hal Needham, 1978
The Hunted, William Friedkin, 2003
Hunting Party, Ibrahim Shaddad, 1964
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, Mervyn LeRoy, 1932
I Am Somebody, Madeline Anderson, 1970
Integration Report 1, Madeline Anderson, 1960
It Still Rotates, Suliman Mohamed Ibrahim Elnour, 1978
King of the Night, Héctor Babenco, 1975
Little Caesar, Mervyn LeRoy, 1931*
Love, Dag Johan Haugerud, 2024
Lúcio Flávio, Héctor Babenco, 1977
Maurice, James Ivory, 1987
My Own Private Idaho, Gus Van Sant, 1991
Nocturnes, Anupama Srinivasan and Anirban Dutta, 2024
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, Albert Lewin, 1951
The Past, Héctor Babenco, 2007
Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time, Lili Horvát, 2020*
The Road Warrior, George Miller, 1981
The Rope, Ibrahim Shaddad, 1984
Rude, Clement Virgo, 1995
Sex, Dag Johan Haugerud, 2024
SLC Punk!, James Merendino, 1998
The Station, Elyateb Mahdi, 1989
Talking About Trees, Suhaib Gasmelbari, 2019
The Tomb, Elyateb Mahdi, 1977
Three on a Match, Mervyn LeRoy, 1932
To Live and Die in L.A., William Friedkin, 1985
Wuthering Heights, William Wyler, 1939
Wuthering Heights, Andrea Arnold, 2011
*Available in the U.S. only