No streaming service does a director retrospective like the Criterion Channel, and March offers two masters at opposite ends of exposure. On one side is Michael Mann, whose work from Thief through Collateral (minus The Keep) is given a spotlight; on the other is Alain Guiraudie, who (in advance of Misericordia opening on March 21) has five films arriving. (2001’s duet of That Old Dream That Moves and Sunshine for the Scoundrels have perhaps never streamed in the U.S. before.) Meanwhile, three noirs from Douglas Sirk (Lured, Shockproof, and Thunder on the Hill) are programmed alongside a Lee Chang-dong retrospective that features three new restorations.
Showcases will be staged for Dogme 95, Best Supporting Actor winners, and French Poetic Relaism (Renoir, Carné, Duviver, you know the deal). Welles’ The Trial gets a Criterion Edition alongside Demon Pond; Horace Ové’s newly restored Pressure makes a streaming premiere alongside spruced-up copies of Amadeus, Love Is the Devil, Port of Shadows, and Burning an Illusion, as well as recent favorite Only the River Flows; and all three parts of Penelope Spheeris’ The Decline of Western Civilization are given their own corner.
See the full list of films streaming in February and more at the Criterion Channel:
Ali, Michael Mann, 2001
Amadeus, Miloš Forman, 1984
American Promise, Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster, 2013
The Bad and the Beautiful, Vincente Minnelli, 1952
Burning, Lee Chang-dong, 2018
Burning an Illusion, Menelik Shabazz, 1981
Collateral, Michael Mann, 2004*
The Crime of Monsieur Lange, Jean Renoir, 1936
Dancer in the Dark, Lars von Trier, 2000
The Decline of Western Civilization I, Penelope Spheeris, 1981
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years, Penelope Spheeris, 1988
The Decline of Western Civilization Part III, Penelope Spheeris, 1998
Demon Pond, Masahiro Shinoda, 1979
Ed Wood, Tim Burton, 1994
The End of the Day, Julien Duvivier, 1939
A Fish Called Wanda, Charles Crichton, 1988
From Here to Eternity, Fred Zinnemann, 1953
Ghost, Jerry Zucker, 1990*
Glory, Edward Zwick, 1989
The Grapes of Wrath, John Ford, 1940
Green Fish, Lee Chang-dong, 1997
Hannah and Her Sisters, Woody Allen, 1986
Heat, Michael Mann, 1995
The Insider, Michael Mann, 1999
Le jour se lève, Marcel Carné, 1939
Julien Donkey-Boy, Harmony Korine, 1999
Key Largo, John Huston, 1948
The Killing Fields, Roland Joffé, 1984
L.A. Confidential, Curtis Hanson, 1997
Ladies’ Paradise, Julien Duvivier, 1930
The Last of the Mohicans, Michael Mann, 1992
The Last Picture Show, Peter Bogdanovich, 1971
Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon, John Maybury, 1998*
Lured, Douglas Sirk, 1947
Manhunter, Michael Mann, 1986*
Mifune, Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, 1999
Mother Hummingbird, Julien Duvivier, 1929
Nobody’s Hero, Alain Guiraudie, 2022
Oasis, Lee Chang-dong, 2002
Only the River Flows, Wei Shujun, 2023
Peppermint Candy, Lee Chang-dong, 1999
Poetry, Lee Chang-dong, 2010
Port of Shadows, Marcel Carné, 1938
Shampoo, Hal Ashby, 1975
Shockproof, Douglas Sirk, 1949
Slaying Goliath, Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster, 2008
Stateless, Michèle Stephenson, 2020
Staying Vertical, Alain Guiraudie, 2016
Stranger By the Lake, Alain Guiraudie, 2013*
Such a Pretty Little Beach, Yves Allégret, 1949
Sunshine for the Scoundrels, Alain Guiraudie, 2001
T, Keisha Rae Witherspoon, 2019
That Old Dream That Moves, Alain Guiraudie, 2001
They Were Five, Julien Duvivier, 1936
Thief, Michael Mann, 1981
The Trial, Orson Welles, 1962
*Available in the U.S. only