Criterion Collection (Firm)

In the late twenties and early thirties, Yasujiro Ozu was working steadily for Shochiku studios, honing his craft on dozens of silent films in various genres, from romantic melodramas to college comedies to gangster pictures -- and, of course, movies about families. In these three droll domestic films -- Tokyo Chorus, I Was Born, But, and Passing Fancy, presented here with all-new scores by renowned silent-film composer Donald Sosin -- Ozu movingly...

Presents a documentary on the life of an Eskimo family pitting their strength against a vast and inhospitable Arctic. Juxtaposes their struggle for survival against the elements with the warmth of the little family as they go about their daily affairs.

Focusing on the work of French filmmaker Jean Painlevé, this collection features twenty-three Painlevé nature films; a 2005 performance of the ninety-minute score, The sounds of science, written in 2001 by members of the rock group Yo La Tengo to accompany eight of Painlevé's films; an interview with Yo La Tengo; and the eight-part 1988 French television series, Jean Painlevé au fil de ses films, which explores Painlevé's life and work through...

In 1971, author and film scholar Donald Richie published a poetic travelogue about his explorations of the islands of Japan's Inland Sea, recording his search for traces of a traditional way of life as well as his own journey of self-discovery. Twenty years later, filmmaker Lucille Carra undertook a parallel trip inspired by Richie's by-then-classic book, capturing images of hushed beauty and meeting people who still carried on the fading customs...

A widowed father feels compelled to marry off his beloved only daughter.

One of the great raconteurs of stage and screen comes together with one of cinema's boldest image makers, Oscar winning director Steven Soderbergh for Gray's Anatomy, a spellbinding adaptation of Gray's 1993 monologue of the same name in which he chronicles his journey from diagnosis to treatment of a rare ocular condition.

Three musicians take money that is owed to them from a job and flee to Mexico.

When her best friend and roommate abruptly moves out to get married, Susan, trying to become a gallery artist while making ends meet as a bar mitzvah photographer on Manhattan's Upper West Side, finds herself adrift in both life and love. Could a new job be the answer? What about a fling with a married, older rabbi? This 1970s New York time capsule from Claudia Weill captures the complexities and contradictions of women's lives and relationships with...

A wealthy manufacturer is ruined by a kidnapper who demands a huge ransom for what turns out to be the man's chauffeur's son.

"Astonishingly photographed, and featuring unforgettable, cascading scores by Philip Glass, these are immersive sensory experiences that meditate on the havoc humankind's obsession with technological advancement has wreaked on our world"--Container.