Catering directly to my interests, the Criterion Channel’s January lineup boasts two of my favorite things: James Gray and cats. In the former case it’s his first five features (itself a terrible reminder he only released five movies in 20 years); the latter shows felines the respect they deserve, from Kuroneko to The Long Goodbye, Tourneur’s Cat People and Mick Garris’ Sleepwalkers. Meanwhile, Ava Gardner, Bertrand Tavernier, Isabel Sandoval, Ken Russell, Juleen Compton, George Harrison’s HandMade Films, and the Sundance Film Festival get retrospectives.
Restorations of Soviet sci-fi trip Ikarie XB 1, The Unknown, and The Music of Regret stream, as does the recent Plan 75. January’s Criterion Editions are Inside Llewyn Davis, Farewell Amor, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and (most intriguingly) the long-out-of-print The Man Who Fell to Earth, Blu-rays of which go for hundreds of dollars.
See the lineup below and learn more here.
Back By Popular Demand
The Graduate, Mike Nichols, 1967
The Swimmer, Frank Perry, 1968
Near Dark, Kathryn Bigelow, 1987
Streaming In January
1990: The Bronx Warriors, Enzo Castellari, 1982
Altered States, Ken Russell, 1980
An Accidental Studio, Bill Jones, Kim Leggatt, and Ben Timlett, 2019
Apparition, Isabel Sandoval, 2012
Babylon, Franco Rosso, 1980
The Barefoot Contessa, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1954
The Bed Sitting Room, Richard Lester, 1969
The Blair Witch Project, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, 1999
The Boy Friend, Ken Russell, 1971
Captain Conan, Bertrand Tavernier, 1996
The Cat, Lam Nai-choi, 1991
The Cat Creeps, Erle C. Kenton, 1946*
The Cat from Outer Space, Norman Tokar, 1978
Cat People, Jacques Tourneur, 1942
Cat’s Eye, Lewis Teague, 1985
The Clockmaker of St. Paul, Bertrand Tavernier, 1974
Daddy Nostalgia, Bertrand Tavernier, 1990
The Day the Earth Caught Fire, Val Guest, 1961
Dead End Drive-In, Brian Trenchard-Smith, 1986
Death Watch, Bertrand Tavernier, 1980
The Devils, Ken Russell, 1971
Escape from New York, John Carpenter, 1981
Escape from the Bronx, Enzo Castellari, 1983
Eye of the Cat, David Lowell Rich, 1969*
Farewell Amor, Ekwa Msangi, 2020
Gothic, Ken Russell, 1986
The Graduate, Mike Nichols, 1967
The Great Sinner, Robert Siodmak, 1949
The Harder They Come, Perry Henzell, 1972
Heaven Knows What, Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie, 2014*
The Hucksters, Jack Conway, 1947
Ikarie XB 1, Jindřich Polák, 1963
The Immigrant, James Gray, 2013*
The Incredible Shrinking Man, Jack Arnold, 1957
Inferno, Dario Argento, 1980
Inside Llewyn Davis, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, 2013*
It All Starts Today, Bertrand Tavernier, 1999
The Judge and the Assassin, Bertrand Tavernier, 1996
The Killers, Robert Siodmak, 1946
L.627, Bertrand Tavernier, 1992
The Lair of the White Worm, Ken Russell, 1988
Let Joy Reign Supreme, Bertrand Tavernier, 1975
Lingua Franca, Isabel Sandoval, 2019
Little Odessa, James Gray, 1994
The Long Goodbye, Robert Altman, 1973
Mad Max, George Miller, 1979
The Man Who Fell to Earth, Nicolas Roeg, 1976
Mississippi Blues, Bertrand Tavernier and Robert Parrish, 1983
The Music of Regret, Laurie Simmons, 2006
Mogambo, John Ford, 1953
Near Dark, Kathryn Bigelow, 1987*
The New Barbarians, Enzo Castellari, 1983
Night of the Comet, Thom Eberhardt, 1984
The Night of the Iguana, John Huston, 1964
No Blade of Grass, Cornel Wilde, 1970
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, Albert Lewin, 1951
Panic in Year Zero, Ray Milland, 1962
The Perils of Priscilla, Carroll Ballard, 1969
Plan 75, Chie Hayakawa, 2022
The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean, 1966
The Quiet Earth, Geoff Murphy, 1985
The Rainbow, Ken Russell, 1989
Rhubarb, Arthur Lubin, 1951
Rockers, Theodoros Bafaloukos, 1978
Safe Conduct, Bertrand Tavernier, 2002
Salome’s Last Dance, Ken Russell, 1988
Savage Messiah, Ken Russell, 1972
Señorita, Isabel Sandoval, 2011
The Shadow of the Cat, John Gilling, 1961*
Sleepwalkers, Mick Garris, 1992
The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Henry King, 1952
Spoiled Children, Bertrand Tavernier, 1977
Stranded, Juleen Compton, 1965
A Sunday in the Country, Bertrand Tavernier, 1984
The Swimmer, Frank Perry, 1968
Testament, Lynne Littman, 1983*
That Darn Cat, Robert Stevenson, 1965
Threads, Mick Jackson, 1984
Two Evil Eyes, George A. Romero and Dario Argento, 1990
Two Lovers, James Gray, 2008*
The Undeclared War, Bertrand Tavernier, 1992
The Unknown, Tod Browning, 1927
Walk on the Wild Side, Edward Dmytryk, 1962
A Week’s Vacation, Bertrand Tavernier, 1980
We Own the Night, James Gray, 2007
Whore, Ken Russell, 1991
The Yards, James Gray, 2000*
*Available in the U.S. only