Almost There: Liv Ullmann in "Scenes from a Marriage"

by Cláudio Alves

I confess that, when I first came up with the idea for this week's Almost There write-up, I didn't expect its subject to be so weirdly topical. First up, there's the actual raison d'être for the piece, which is the Criterion Channel's new "Marriage Stories" collection, in which Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage is featured. Then there's the whole Hamilton kerfuffle, which caused controversy over the Academy's definition of what is and isn't cinema or what should and shouldn't be eligible for the Oscars (two importantly different questions). This is relevant because the ineligibility of Bergman's film caused a major ruckus back in 1974 and even prompted a couple of notorious open letters (another topical subject, unfortunately). Finally, we have the recent news that the television cut of Scenes from a Marriage is going to be remade by HBO with Michelle Williams and Oscar Isaac in the leading roles. 

We'll return to some of those matters later on, but, for now, let's concentrate on Liv Ullmann's masterful performance as Marianne in Scenes from a Marriage…

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Mike Leigh on Criterion

by Cláudio Alves

One of the Criterion Channel's newest and most enticing additions is a Mike Leigh collection that includes 11 of the director's films. His is a cinema of compassionate observation that finds beauty in the bleakest settings, the wildest characters, and most complicated psyches. From Thatcher-era social realism to lavish period pieces, passing through farcical character studies, we can find much variety in this director's oeuvre, though some things remain constant. For one, we have Leigh's social preoccupations, a humanistic mindset that bleeds into every aspect of his productions. For another, there's his methodology when working with actors…

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Hara by Ozu

by Cláudio Alves

100 years ago in 1920, Setsuko Hara was born in the city of Yokohama, Japan. Thanks to the powers of nepotism and the influence of her brother-in-law, she got a job at the Nikkatsu Studios at the age of 15. In the next few years, she rose to prominence. By the 1940s, Hara became somewhat of a symbol of new Japanese womanhood. Curiously enough, that's not how she's best remembered today, in part thanks to her most famous directors being ones that cast her in roles typifying the conservative values of a traditional Japan. Despite multiple collaborations with such legendary filmmakers as the master of melodrama Mikio Naruse and Japan's superstar director Akira Kurosawa, it's her work in the films of Yasujiro Ozu that now most define her legacy… 

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How Had I Never Seen... "But I'm a Cheerleader"?

by Cláudio Alves

To celebrate Pride Month, the Criterion Channel has chosen to highlight several works of queer cinema as well as various films featuring LGBTQIA+ characters. The selection is varied, spanning from Ettore Scola's Oscar-nominated A Special Day to the avant-garde work of Chantal Akerman and Cheryl Dunne. It's not all high-brow artistry -- there's space for kitschy entertainment, too. Such is the case of 1999's But I'm a Cheerleader directed by Jamie Babbit, a cult classic looking at gay conversion therapy through the prism of outrageous farcical humor. It's a movie I had never watched before, making it a great subject for this particular series…

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Streaming Roulette, June: Nezha, Lucy in the Sky, West Side Story

If you're new to the site this is how we share new streaming offerings for the month. We select a handful or two of titles and just randomly hit a place on the scroll bar to see what the film looks like - no cheating.  Ready? Let's play...

-Maid of Honor?
-Oh, that color is bad for Anita!

West Side Story (1961) on Netflix
Silly, Maria. Anita doesn't have bad colors --she's Rita Moreno!  ICYMI I hope you'll read our huge three part retrospective of West Side Story. It was a joy to write. Netflix so rarely has 20th century movies  that you should always stream them (even if you own the picture, just leave it running in the background) to remind them that first century of the artform they make their billions off of is kind of important. Just saying...

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