Criterion

by Ari

Boudu Saved From Drowning - Jean Renoir
This light, charming, and hilarious comedy from Jean Renoir features Michel Simon in one of the great performances of the 1930’s. Simon is Boudu, a humorous, but bedraggled homeless man who decides to commit suicide by leaping into the river and drowning. Unfortunately for Boudu, a resident bookseller witnesses his plunge and comes to the rescue, saving Boudu from certain death and offering him his home and services. The bookseller’s wife and servant are initially reluctant to accept such a strange, unhealthy man into their upper-class, relatively peaceful lifestyles, but over time they come to treasure and even love the poor sap. At first their lives are torn asunder by the foolhardy bum’s carelessness and lunacy, but eventually his charm and luck win their affection. Renoir’s amusing satire is one his most accessible and enjoyable films.

Brief Encounter - David Lean

While David Lean is widely recognized and acclaimed for his epic accomplishments like Lawrence of Arabia and Bridge on the River Kwai, it’s this intimate, 86 minute masterpiece that I find to be his most impressive, pleasing, and beautiful work. A housewife befriends a married doctor by chance, leading into an affair that becomes the cause of both their greatest passion and greatest pain. Lean brilliantly presents the psychological toll the situation takes on the two lead characters, exploring the beauty, happiness, heartbreak, and torment of such unexpected emotions. Celia Johnson gives an incredible performance along with her co-star Trevor Howard, the screenplay adapted from the play "Still Life" is brilliant, and Lean’s direction and visual poetry is exquisite. Brief Encounter is moving, tender, and terribly romantic. An enduring classic.

Night and the City - Jules Dassin
Arguably the best film by one of the great masters of gritty filmmaking. Dassin was way ahead of his time, releasing some of the edgiest and thrilling entertainments of the 40’s and 50’s. Night and the City stars the excellent Richard Widmark as Harry Fabian, a hustler incapable of fulfilling his ambitions and who compromises himself and the people who trust him when he attempts to become a successful businessman in London. The on-location photography is incredible. Dassin takes you down the streets and through the alleys; in the clubs, gyms, apartments, and dumps as Fabian struggles to survive in the dangerous world in which he dwells. Stanislaus Zbyszko and Gene Tierney co-star. The film contains one of the most intense, violent brawls of the period, and the ending is classic, uncompromising cinema. A great film.

The Red Shoes - Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Simply put, one of the best films ever made. Powell and Pressburger’s beautiful, epic exploration into art, passion, love, and dance is a sensational display of cinematic craft and performance. A talented ballerina is forced to choose between two men when see joins a prestigious theatre production: the composer who she’s fallen in love with, or the director/visionary who plans on turning her into the greatest dancer in the world. Once she performs the number titled “The Red Shoes”, her life begins to mirror the path of that tragic story. The film features incredible dancing, most specifically the triumphant center-piece that changes the course of the story. Anton Walbrook gives a performance for the ages as visionary artist Boris Lermontov. The rich technicolor cinematography is a dream.

White Nights - Luchino Visconti
I briefly wrote about this film for our Highly Recommended: Favorites from The Aspect Ratio feature. As I stated: “Visconti’s beautiful, poetic adaptation of Dostoevksy’s exceptional short story on romance and loneliness, starring the great Marcello Mastroianni and the exquisite Maria Schell. The deeply atmospheric cinematography is among the best I’ve seen, the performances are both sweet and wrenching, and the ending is classic.” The short story is one of my favorite pieces of literature, and Visconti’s adaptation is masterful, moving, and inspiring.

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