Next month’s Criterion Channel selection is here, and as 2021 winds down further cements their status as our single greatest streaming service. Off the top I took note of their eight-film Jia Zhangke retro (Xiao Wu, Platform, Unknown Pleasures, The World, Still Life, 24 City, A Touch of Sin, and Mountains May Depart, plus Walter Salles’ Jia Zhangke, A Guy from Fenyang) as well as the streaming premieres of Center Stage and Malni. And, yes, Margaret has been on HBO Max for a while, but we can hope Criterion Channel’s addition—as part of the 63(!)-film “New York Stories”—opens doors to a more deserving home-video treatment.
Aki Kaurismäki’s Finland Trilogy, Bruno Dumont’s Joan of Arc duology, and Criterion’s editions of Irma Vep and Flowers of Shanghai also mark major inclusions—just a few years ago the thought of Hou’s masterpiece streaming in HD was absurd.
I could implore you not to sleep on The Hottest August and Point Blank and Variety and In the Cut or, look, so many Ernst Lubitsch movies, but we’d be here all day.
See the full list of September titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.
24 City, Jia Zhangke, 2008
Abel’s Island, Michael Sporn, 1988
Ace in the Hole, Billy Wilder, 1951
After Hours, Martin Scorsese, 1985
An Affair to Remember, Leo McCarey, 1957
Angel, Ernst Lubitsch, 1937
The Angel Levine, Ján Kadár, 1970
The Apartment, Billy Wilder, 1960
Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife, Ernst Lubitsch, 1938
Bonjour tristesse, Otto Preminger, 1958
Born to Win, Ivan Passer, 1971
Center Stage, Stanley Kwan, 1991
Chocolate Babies, Stephen Winter, 1996
Ciao! Manhattan, John Palmer, 1972
Citizenfour, Laura Poitras, 2014**
The Clock, Vincente Minnelli, 1945
The Crowd, King Vidor, 1928
Cluny Brown, Ernst Lubitsch, 1946
Crimson Gold, Jafar Panahi, 2003**
Da yie, Anthony Nti, 2019
Dark Days, Marc Singer, 2000
The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Jeff Feuerzeig, 2005
Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee, 1989
Downtown 81, Edo Bertoglio, 2000
Drifting Clouds, Aki Kaurismäki, 1996
Edward, My Son, George Cukor, 1949
The End of the Affair, Edward Dmytryk, 1955
Eye of the Devil, J. Lee Thompson, 1966
Fear of a Black Hat, Rusty Cundieff, 1993
Flowers of Shanghai, Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1998
Freedom Fields, Naziha Arebi, 2018
The Garment Jungle, Vincent Sherman, 1957
God Told Me To, Larry Cohen, 1976
Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life, Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper, 1925
Heaven Can Wait, Ernst Lubitsch, 1943
The Hottest August, Brett Story, 2019
The Hucksters, Jack Conway, 1947
In the Cut, Jane Campion, 2003**
The Innocents, Jack Clayton, 1961
Jason and Shirley, Stephen Winter, 2015
Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, Tamra Davis, 2010
Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc, Bruno Dumont, 2017
Jia Zhangke, A Guy from Fenyang, Walter Salles, 2014**
Joan of Arc,Bruno Dumont, 2019
Just Another Girl on the I.R.T., Leslie Harris, 1992
King of New York, Abel Ferrara, 1990
Koshien: Japan’s Field of Dreams, Ema Ryan Yamazaki, 2019
La Cage aux Folles, Edouard Molinaro, 1978
Lights in the Dusk, Aki Kaurismäki, 2006**
Little Fugitive, Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin, and Raymond Abrashkin, 1953
Little Murders, Alan Arkin, 1971
Los Sures, Diego Echeverria, 1984
maɬni—towards the ocean, towards the shore, Sky Hopinka, 2020
The Man Without a Past, Aki Kaurismäki, 2002
Margaret, Kenneth Lonergan, 2011
Mountains May Depart, Jia Zhangke, 2015**
Mr. Jealousy, Noah Baumbach, 1997
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, Alan Rudolph, 1994
My Country, My Country, Laura Poitras, 2006
Ninotchka, Ernst Lubitsch, 1939
O’Say Can You See 1, Laura Poitras, 2011
O’Say Can You See 2, Laura Poitras, 2011
The Oath, Laura Poitras, 2010
Old Enough, Marisa Silver, 1984
On the Bowery, Lionel Rogosin, 1956
On the Waterfront, Elia Kazan, 1954
The Out-of-Towners, Arthur Hiller, 1970
The Panic in Needle Park, Jerry Schatzberg, 1971
The Perfect Candidate, Haifaa al-Mansour, 2019
Platform, Jia Zhangke, 2000
Point Blank, John Boorman, 1967
The Prisoner of Zenda, Richard Thorpe, 1952
Rhythm Thief, Matthew Harrison, 1994
The Rocket, Kim Mordaunt, 2013
A Royal Scandal, Otto Preminger and Ernst Lubitsch, 1945
Sabrina, Billy Wilder, 1954**
Smoke, Wayne Wang, 1995
Soup to Nuts, Benjamin Stoloff, 1930
The Squid and the Whale, Noah Baumbach, 2005**
Stalag 17, Billy Wilder, 1953
Stations of the Elevated, Manfred Kirchheimer, 1981
Still Life, Jia Zhangke, 2006
still/here, Christopher Harris, 2019
The Story of the Dancing Frog, Michael Sporn, 1989
The Story of Lovers Rock, Menelik Shabazz, 2011
The Sundowners, Fred Zinnemann, 1960
Sunset Boulevard, Billy Wilder, 1950
Super Fly, Gordon Parks Jr., 1972
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Joseph Sargent, 1974
Tea and Sympathy, Vincente Minnelli, 1956
That Uncertain Feeling, Ernst Lubitsch, 1941
Thief, Michael Mann, 1981
Time and Judgement, Menelik Shabazz, 1988
Titus, Julie Taymor, 1999
A Touch of Sin, Jia Zhangke, 2013**
Vacation from Marriage, Alexander Korda, 1945
Variety, Bette Gordon, 1983
West Side Story, Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, 1961
What Is a Woman?, Marin Håskjold, 2020
Wish You Were Here, David Leland, 1987
Working Girls, Lizzie Borden, 1986
**Available in the U.S. only