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Cinema is a profound language of emotion and storytelling; few understand this as deeply as Denis Villeneuve. His curated selections for the Criterion Collection reveal a director’s intimate connection with transformative filmmaking. These choices span decades and continents, showcasing films that challenge narrative conventions, explore human complexity, and push artistic boundaries. Villeneuve’s picks are not mere recommendations but a masterclass in cinematic appreciation—each film is a testament to storytelling’s power to illuminate the human experience.

1. Three Colors: Blue (Krzysztof Kieślowski)

Kieślowski’s masterpiece represents cinematic poetry in motion. Denis Villeneuve is captivated by its meticulous artistic synthesis—the delicate interplay between visual composition, emotional narrative, and musical score. The film explores grief through a devastatingly intimate lens, tracking a woman’s journey of loss and eventual emotional reconstruction. Its visual language transcends traditional storytelling, creating a symphonic experience that moves viewers at a profound, almost cellular level.

Henri-Georges Clouzot, active between the 1940s and '60s, was a director primarily of noir films and thrillers. His defining projects are Diabolique and The Wages of Fear, two of the best movies of the 1950s, while his groundbreaking documentary The Mystery of Picasso is also considered a classic. Clouzot's talent for suspense and penchant for dark, violent stories earned him the nickname "the French Hitchcock".

As 2021 mercifully winds down, the Criterion Channel have a (November) lineup that marks one of their most diverse selections in some time—films by the new masters Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Garrett Bradley, Dan Sallitt’s Fourteen (one of 2020’s best films) couched in a fantastic retrospective, and Criterion editions of old favorites.

Fourteen is featured in “Between Us Girls: Bonds Between Women,” which also includes Céline and Julie, The Virgin Suicides, and Yvonne Rainer’s Privilege. Of equal note are Criterion editions for Ghost World, Night of the Hunter, and (just in time for del Toro’s spin) Nightmare Alley—all stacked releases in their own right.

See the full list of October titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

300 Nassau, Marina Lameiro, 2015

5 Card Stud, Henry Hathaway, 1968

Alone, Garrett Bradley, 2017

Álvaro, Daniel Wilson, Elizabeth Warren, Alexandra Lazarowich, and Chloe Zimmerman, 2015

America, Garrett Bradley, 2019

Angel Face, Otto Preminger, 1953

Angels Wear White,...

A long-gestating non-conventional documentary directed by Iranian multi-hyphenate Mitra Farahani centered around a conversation between Jean-Luc Godard and Iranian filmmaker and literary figure Ebrahim Golestan that took place via regular weekly email exchanges involving videos, images, aphorisms, and letters, is set to soon surface on the international festival circuit.

The film, called “See You Friday Robinson: A Film Unlike Any Other,” stems from Farahani’s desire to initiate and portray a dialogue between the French New Wave icon, who is now 90, and Golestan, a revered intellectual who is 98 and lives in the West Sussex village of Bolney, south of London. Golestan is considered an Iranian cinema pioneer and is known for the films “Brick and Mirror” (1965) and “The Secrets of the Treasure of the Jinn Valley (1974). He left Iran in 1975, settling in the U.K. and has focused entirely on his writing since then. The two men do not know each other personally.

The Marathi film Picasso, starring award-winning actor Prasad Oak, child actor Samay Sanjeev Tambe and Ashwini Mukadam, is set to digitally release on March 19.

Picasso revolves around a young student named Gandharva from a remote village in the Konkan, who is selected for national level of the Picasso Arts Scholarship. The winner of the competition gets to travel to Spain - Picasso's birthplace - to hone his or her art.

Picasso gives a glimpse of Dashavatara art through a feel-good story about a troubled alcoholic father and his son.

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A post shared by Prasad Oak (@oakprasad)

Actor Prasad Oak posted Picasso's video and captioned: ""पिकासो" माझा नवा कोरा चित्रपट ऍमेझॉन प्राईम व्हिडिओ वर 19 मार्च ला प्रदर्शित होतोय… हा #worldpremiere आहे. भारत आणि २४० देश...

‘The Truth’ was the most-viewed title on Curzon Home Cinema from March 20-22.

Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s English and French-language drama The Truth was the most-streamed title on Curzon Home Cinema (Chc) last weekend (March 20-22) according to a top 10 of the most-viewed titles revealed by by the UK platform.

The Truth was set for theatrical release on March 20 via Curzon’s distribution arm but pivoted to an early digital release in the wake of cinema closures. Its release beat the previous best three-day figure on the platform by 66%. No further details of the numbers involved were given.

Celine Sciamma’s...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Museum of the Moving Image

Two essential collaborations between Bruno Ganz and Wim Wenders can be seen.

In tribute to Jonas Mekas, Guns of the Trees screens this weekend.

Creature from the Black Lagoon plays in 3D on Saturday.

Metrograph

A young Björk proves the highlight of The Juniper Tree, a film absolutely worth your time.

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Metrograph

Three by Ringo Lam are still playing.

Love is Colder Than Death and Ghost in the Shell have late-night showings, while Some Like It Hot screens through the weekend.

Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask can be seen on Sunday.

Bam

Banned by Nyff for being “too controversial” and “likely to incite racial tension,...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Metrograph

Three by Ringo Lam and the films of Ulrike Ottinger, rarely screened, come in a pair with respective series.

Weekend and Ghost in the Shell have late-night showings, while Some Like It Hot plays through the weekend.

In honor of Michel Legrand, Cléo from 5 to 7 screens this Saturday.

Anthology Film Archives

Films by Renoir...

“Dear God, please don’t erase that memory.”

History is full of examples of art and an artist’s motivation as the driving forces behind great works in any medium. However, it is rare to see the artist actually in motion, creating his work and to witness inspiration and creativity bringing something new to life. There are many famous examples, from the video footage of Jackson Pollock painting or Henri-Gorges Clouzot’s “The Mystery of Picasso” depicting the famous Spanish artist creating unique works of art. Whatever it is that drives these figures forward, whether we call it beauty, an inner voice or an artist’s spirit, it is a force which will not extinguish easily, and will also still be there in the works left behind.

In the case of Japanese musician and painter Hiroki Morimoto, better known under his stage name Goma, this drive is not only the foundation for his work,...

That bad boy of (mostly) French cinema Walerian Borowczyk has been converting doubters into fans for sixty years, even though his pictures were never easy to see. Before he took a headlong leap into soft-core epics, he made some of the most creative and influential short films of his time — and they eventually became more erotic as well.

The Walerian Borowczyk Short Film Collection

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1959-1984 / B&W and Color / 1:66, 1:78 and 1:37 flat Academy / 144 min. / Street Date April 25, 2017 / available through the Olive Films website / 24.95

Directed by Walerian Borowczyk

This release brings back memories of traveling short subject shows, usually several reels’ worth of experimental films that would tour college campuses. Even in High School I’d drag my girlfriend to the University of Riverside, where huge crowds looking for the ‘In’ place to be would stare in attention at hours of abstract visuals, expressing their approval...

The Classic French Film Festival celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the 1980s (with a particular focus on filmmakers from the New Wave), offering a comprehensive overview of French cinema. The Mystery Of Picasso will screen as part of the festival at 7pm Friday, June 20th at the St. Louis Art Museum.

In 1955, Henri-Georges Clouzot, the acclaimed director of “The Wages of Fear” and “Diabolique,” joined forces with artist Pablo Picasso to make an entirely new kind of documentary, a film that could capture the moment and the mystery of creativity. Together, they devised an innovative technique: The filmmaker placed his camera behind a semi-transparent surface on which the artist drew with special inks that bled through. Clouzot thus captured a perfect reverse image of Picasso’s brushstrokes, and the movie screen itself became the artist’s canvas.

Yippee-ki-yay! It's action-movie time! From Die Hard to Deliverance, here's what the Guardian and Observer's critics think are the 10 best ever made. Let us know what you think in the comments below

• Top 10 romantic movies

Peter Bradshaw on action movies

In some ways, it should be the quintessential cinema genre. After all, what does the director shout at the beginning of a take? Action – at times a euphemism for violence and machismo – evolved into a recognisable genre in the 80s. Gunplay and athleticism resurfaced in a sweatier and more explicitly violent form, with movies such as Sylvester Stallone's First Blood. The hardware was all-important, and the metallic sheen of the guns was something to be savoured alongside the musculature of the heroes. The genre spawned the action hero. These were not pretty-boys there to melt female hearts: they were there to get a roar of approval from the guys.

(Jack Hazan, 1973, BFI, 15)

Among the most strikingly original films on a modern artist (as arresting as Clouzot's Le Mystère Picasso), Jack Hazan's picture takes its title from David Hockney's most famous painting and is neither fly-on-the-wall cinema vérité nor formal documentary. It's a film shot over three years in the early 1970s by a film-maker (credited as co-writer, director and director of photography) fascinated by Hockney's portraits, made with the artist's partial and reluctant participation, and without any specific scenario or agenda. From the semi-improvised, unscripted material, Hazan carved a story tracing the disintegration of the affair between Hockney and his lover and model, the Californian Peter Schlesinger. Incorporated into this episode narrative are members of the flamboyant, charismatic, hard-working artist's circle, most notably Henry Geldzahler, Patrick Proctor, Celia Birtwell and Ossie Clark, the subjects of several key portraits.

Hockney was initially horrified by the movie's intimacy, but...

Review of Wim Wenders' Pina. Wim Wenders takes 3D moviemaking to a new level with dance documentary Pina. The cinematic examples of lightning in a bottle are those rare films that capture an artist at work and preserve it for all to see. Pablo Picasso takes his paintbrush to a pane of glass in Henri-Georges Clouzot's The Mystery of Picasso. Sibling filmmakers Albert and David Maysles capture the glory of The Rolling Stones and the tragic violence at their concert at California’s Altamont Speedway in the 1970 documentary Gimme Shelter. German filmmaker Wim Wenders claims his share of acclaim thanks to beloved movies Kings of the Road (1976), Paris, Texas (1984) and Wings of Desire (1987) but he makes a movie for the ages via his 3D dance documentary Pina...

Filmmakers -- especially French ones, and especially those working before the 50s -- are often overly romanticized amongst cinephiles. We love a great film, but we really love the underlying legends and myths of the artist and the creative process, struggling and screaming and clawing to get each film made, centralized on a whirligig of backstabbing, betrayal, and romance. Failed projects, lusty affairs, bouts with depression, creative absences, controversial ideologies, and tragic deaths: it's the stuff that makes the singular genius of the director all the more untouchable; all the more storied. Enter, then, Henri-Georges Clouzot, the 'French Hitchcock' - perhaps the most improbable canonized auteur of them all. The Tiff Bell Lightbox in Toronto won't be spotlighting him with an 'art' exhibition ala Fellini's photo show last summer, but they will be giving his modestly sized filmography a run-through from mid-October to November 29. Unpretentiously titled The Wages of Fear...