Lost in Criterion
946 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago - ★★★ - 42 ratingsThe Adam Glass and John Patrick Owatari-Dorgan, attempt the sisyphean task of watching every movie in the ever-growing Criterion Collection and talk about them. Want to support us? We’ll love you for it: www.Patreon.com/LostInCriterion
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Episodes
Mon Oncle Antoine
February 05, 2021 17:14 - 1 hour - 101 MBWe reach a boiling point today as the Collection serves us another coming of age story about a white boy. Claude Jutra’s Mon Oncle Antoine isn’t a bad movie! It’s extremely well regarded in it’s native Canada, and for good reason. But there are more stories to tell, and we’re kinda tired of this same old one.
Spine 438: Mon Oncle Antoine
February 05, 2021 17:09 - 1 hour - 101 MBWe reach a boiling point today as the Collection serves us another coming of age story about a white boy. Claude Jutra’s Mon Oncle Antoine isn’t a bad movie! It’s extremely well regarded in it’s native Canada, and for good reason. But there are more stories to tell, and we’re kinda tired of this same old one.
Vampyr
January 29, 2021 15:21 - 1 hour - 159 MBSpine 437: Vampyr
January 29, 2021 15:17 - 1 hour - 159 MBWe finally return to the work of Carl Th. Dreyer with a dreamy horror film on the edge of the silent/sound divide. Stephen G. brings some research on vampire film history as we talk the beautiful, surprising Vampyr (1932).
Spine 436: Before the Rain
January 22, 2021 15:09 - 1 hour - 117 MBMilcho Manchevski's 1994 Before the Rain is a circular look at ethnic violence in Macedonia and a reminder to other countries that may view themselves as more "civilized" that violence is their daily life as well. Nationalism: it's bad!
Before the Rain
January 22, 2021 14:37 - 1 hour - 117 MBThe Furies
January 15, 2021 16:24 - 1 hour - 133 MBSpine 435: The Furies
January 15, 2021 16:21 - 1 hour - 133 MBStephen G. joins us for a rootin’ tootin’ good time as we discuss our first proper western! Though discussion of course turns to other movies we’ve covered that are western-adjacent and also the fact that this may not be the sort of movie most people think of when they think of westerns. But there’s one shootout! And horses! And even a saloon! Anthony Mann’s The Furies (1950) has, according to wikipedia, a “reputation” as a “Freudian western” and we even have to explore the caveats needed to...
Classe Tous Risques
January 08, 2021 17:44 - 1 hour - 98.2 MBDo we contradict ourselves? We contain multitudes. But also don't contradict ourselves this time.
Spine 434: Classe Tous Risques
January 08, 2021 17:38 - 1 hour - 98.2 MB"Consider the risks" is the title of Claude Sautet's adaptation of the "José Giovanni" novel. Giovanni, real name Joseph Damiani, made a post-death row career of writing novels fictionalizing his own and others criminal exploits. On the one hand you love to see a man get out of prison and into a better life. On the other he and the men whose stories he draws from were all collaborators, leading Pat and I to interrogate if we have a double standard. In any case the story of a man on the run t...
Patriotism
January 01, 2021 16:41 - 1 hour - 117 MBLost in Criterion posted its first episode on January 1, 2013. In the 8 years since, we have never looked been less enthused for a movie than we are for this week's film, Yukio Mishima's Patriotism. At worst this should have been an extra on the DVD for Schrader's Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. At best, this shoddy, self-aggrandizing, dry run for the man's sexual suicide should never have been put in our view.
Spine 433: Patriotism
January 01, 2021 16:38 - 1 hour - 117 MBLost in Criterion posted its first episode on January 1, 2013. In the 8 years since, we have never looked been less enthused for a movie than we are for this week's film, Yukio Mishima's Patriotism. At worst this should have been an extra on the DVD for Schrader's Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. At best, this shoddy, self-aggrandizing, dry run for the man's sexual suicide should never have been put in our view. Happy New Year. It can only go up from here.
Holiday Special 2020: Trancers
December 25, 2020 16:38 - 1 hour - 141 MBGather ‘round your screens and join Pat and Adam with old friends Stephen G. and Ben JW to talk about the Charles Band “classic” Trancers starring Tim Thomerson as a cop from the future come to kill a mall Santa and fall in love with helper-elf Helen Hunt. Spoilers? Can you spoil a movie like Trancers? We’ve seen a lot of good movies this year, even through our last Criterion (and first of the year next week) are real low points as far as our opinions of the Collection. But the Varda boxset...
Happy Holidays w/ Trancers
December 25, 2020 16:37 - 1 hour - 141 MBSpine 432: Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
December 18, 2020 16:26 - 1 hour - 117 MBPaul Schrader makes a visually lovely movie about a man we do not care about whose politics we find abhorrent, and who Schrader seems to have far more empathy for than we can muster.
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
December 18, 2020 16:26 - 1 hour - 117 MBThe Thief of Bagdad
December 11, 2020 16:25 - 1 hour - 111 MBSpine 431: The Thief of Bagdad
December 11, 2020 16:23 - 1 hour - 111 MBAlex Korda leads a cadre of directors in this tour du force of visual effects and casual racism. Come for the children's adventure film, stay for the killer six-armed sexbot.
The Fire Within
December 04, 2020 18:17 - 1 hour - 101 MBSpine 430: The Fire Within
December 04, 2020 18:12 - 1 hour - 180 MBLouis Malle takes his turn at the classic genre of alcoholic and suicidal writer wanders around a large city for a day or so, and really just knocks it out of the park by remembering the key to these tales that so many creators forget: the protagonist is a narcissistic jerk who surrounds himself with narcissistic jerks.
The Lovers
November 27, 2020 17:57 - 1 hour - 150 MBWe return to the well of Louis Malle’s films with one that was famously banned in Ohio, so much so that it led to a landmark US Supreme Court case. I think the last movie we saw that led to trials in Ohio was Salo. The Lovers is very much not Salo.
Spine 429: The Lovers
November 27, 2020 17:47 - 1 hour - 150 MBWe return to the well of Louis Malle’s films with one that was famously banned in Ohio, so much so that it led to a landmark US Supreme Court case. I think the last movie we saw that led to trials in Ohio was Salo. The Lovers is very much not Salo.
Blast of Silence
November 20, 2020 17:36 - 1 hour - 92.8 MBAs we enter a holiday season of increased isolation -- please, please let it be a holiday season of increased isolation -- we take a look at a film about a man who spends Christmas failing to connect with old friends, and failing to make new ones who he's not trying to kill or aren't trying to kill him.
Spine 428: Blast of Silence
November 20, 2020 17:34 - 1 hour - 92.8 MBAs we enter a holiday season of increased isolation -- please, please let it be a holiday season of increased isolation -- we take a look at a film about a man who spends Christmas failing to connect with old friends, and failing to make new ones who he's not trying to kill or aren't trying to kill him.
Spine 427: Death of a Cyclist
November 13, 2020 17:33 - 1 hour - 99.6 MBWe love when we get to watch an unapologetically leftist film, and even better when it's just a very well-crafted movie. Juan Antonio Bardem's Death of a Cyclist swings at the upper class in Franco's Spain with a wildly creative use of cuts and transitions showcasing a nation of dichotomies, and a college professor caught in the middle.
Death of a Cyclist
November 13, 2020 17:33 - 1 hour - 99.6 MBWe love when we get to watch an unapologetically leftist film, and even better when it's just a very well-crafted movie. Juan Antonio Bardem's Death of a Cyclist swings at the upper class in Franco's Spain with a wildly creative use of cuts and transitions showcasing a nation of dichotomies, and a college professor caught in the middle.
The Ice Storm
November 06, 2020 19:32 - 1 hour - 94.6 MBAng Lee's story of two families trying to make sense of life during the Nixon impeachment came out on the cusp of the Clinton impeachment and maybe this week just has impeachment on my mind because the movie doesn't really have that much to do with either of them.
Spine 426: The Ice Storm
November 06, 2020 19:22 - 1 hour - 94.6 MBAng Lee's story of two families trying to make sense of life during the Nixon impeachment came out on the cusp of the Clinton impeachment and maybe this week just has impeachment on my mind because the movie doesn't really have that much to do with either of them.
Spine 425: Antonio Gaudi
October 30, 2020 17:00 - 1 hour - 165 MBHiroshi Teshigahara went on a trip to Spain with his dad and made a short, silent vacation movie during it. Years later, after his father’s death, Teshigahara essentially reshot it, elongated it, and focused it on the Barcelona-area works of architect Antonio Gaudi. It is, arguably, unlike any other movie we’ve seen in the Collection in good and bad ways.
Antonio Gaudi
October 30, 2020 17:00 - 1 hour - 92.8 MBHiroshi Teshigahara went on a trip to Spain with his dad and made a short, silent vacation movie during it. Years later, after his father’s death, Teshigahara essentially reshot it, elongated it, and focused it on the Barcelona-area works of architect Antonio Gaudi. It is, arguably, unlike any other movie we’ve seen in the Collection in good and bad ways.
Spine 424: Mafioso
October 23, 2020 21:49 - 1 hour - 157 MBAlberto Lattuada’s Mafioso is a black comedy about a dumb man who makes a bad promise while in the background his wife has a very sweet fish out of water story. It’s also about the people who progress leaves behind, and perhaps continues to leave behind. We also spend a little time talking about bridges, in particular the nearly inscrutable comparison image on the wikipedia page for the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge in Japan. Check it out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akashi_Kaiky%C5%8D_Bridge
Walker
October 16, 2020 17:17 - 1 hour - 54.8 MBAlex Cox went to Sandinista Nicaragua to film a biography of an 18th century American colonialist while the US was pretending to take the Iran-Contra scandal seriously. No wonder American critics hated the movie.
Spine 423: Walker
October 16, 2020 17:14 - 1 hour - 54.8 MBAlex Cox went to Sandinista Nicaragua to film a biography of an 18th century American colonialist while the US was pretending to take the Iran-Contra scandal seriously. No wonder American critics hated the movie.
The Last Emperor
October 09, 2020 14:55 - 1 hour - 58.4 MBDespite my false belief that Last Tango in Paris is in the Criterion Collection, The Last Emperor proves to be our last Bernardo Bertolucci movie for the foreseeable future. The tale of Puyi, crowned emperor of China at the age of 3, just before a half century of political revolution, and eventually dying of old age while working as a gardener at the Beijing Botanical Gardens. Bertolucci and the Chinese government may have different views of what that life trajectory means.
Spine 422: The Last Emperor
October 09, 2020 14:55 - 1 hour - 58.4 MBDespite my false belief that Last Tango in Paris is in the Criterion Collection, The Last Emperor proves to be our last Bernardo Bertolucci movie for the foreseeable future. The tale of Puyi, crowned emperor of China at the age of 3, just before a half century of political revolution, and eventually dying of old age while working as a gardener at the Beijing Botanical Gardens. Bertolucci and the Chinese government may have different views of what that life trajectory means.
Pierrot le Fou
October 02, 2020 17:08 - 1 hour - 59.3 MBOver the years it's become rather apparent that a lot of folks do not appreciate our opinions on Godard. Like Fellini we will not let our awareness of the issue lead us to change.
Spine 421: Pierrot le Fou
October 02, 2020 16:54 - 1 hour - 59.3 MBOver the years it's become rather apparent that a lot of folks do not appreciate our opinions on Godard. Like Fellini we will not let our awareness of the issue lead us to change.
4 by Agnès Varda: The Shorts
September 25, 2020 13:59 - 1 hour - 49.7 MBWe finish off the Agnès Varda boxset with a talk on the short films packaged as bonus features: L'opéra-mouffe (1958), Du côté de la côte (1958), and the short narrative film contained within Cleo from 5 to 7, Les fiancés du pont Mac Donald.
Unspined: 4 by Varda: The Shorts
September 25, 2020 13:58 - 1 hour - 49.7 MBWe finish off the Agnès Varda boxset with a talk on the short films packaged as bonus features: L'opéra-mouffe (1958), Du côté de la côte (1958), and the short narrative film contained within Cleo from 5 to 7, Les fiancés du pont Mac Donald.
Le Bonheur
September 18, 2020 15:13 - 1 hour - 52.7 MBWe couldn't be happier than to have guest Adam Spieckermann bring his insight to our discussion of Agnès Varda's Le Bonheur, a brightly colored relationship horror film.
Spine 420: Le Bonheur
September 18, 2020 15:12 - 1 hour - 52.7 MBWe couldn't be happier than to have guest Adam Spieckermann bring his insight to our discussion of Agnès Varda's Le Bonheur, a brightly colored relationship horror film.
Spine 419: La Pointe Courte
September 11, 2020 15:38 - 1 hour - 54.9 MBWe start the 4 by Agnès Varda boxset in medias res, or at the beginning after seeing the middle? This week we’re talking about La Pointe Courte, Varda’s first film but the third in the boxset. Why not talk about the first two? Because we have. This boxset contains two films, Vagabond and Cleo from 5 to 7, which we watched in much earlier episodes of Lost in Criterion in the times we don’t talk about except in apologetic tones of shame.
La Pointe Courte
September 11, 2020 15:38 - 1 hour - 54.9 MBVarda once claimed that before she made La Pointe Courte she had never even seen another movie which is a hilariously transparent lie and I love her for it.
This Sporting Life
September 04, 2020 17:00 - 1 hour - 55.9 MBSome of the best tragedy narratives indict a whole society for creating the system and the path that keep the tragic character imprisoned in his journey toward loss. There's a bit of that in This Sporting Life but the tragedy is focused on the main character's inability to court the woman he can't stop harassing, herself an even starker victim of the local political and economic system.
Spine 417: This Sporting Life
September 04, 2020 16:59 - 1 hour - 55.9 MBSome of the best tragedy narratives indict a whole society for creating the system and the path that keep the tragic character imprisoned in his journey toward loss. There's a bit of that in This Sporting Life but the tragedy is focused on the main character's inability to court the woman he can't stop harassing, herself an even starker victim of the local political and economic system.
Miss Julie
August 28, 2020 16:44 - 1 hour - 61 MBWhat Alf Slöberg’s 1951 film adaptation adds to August Strindberg’s 1888 play makes the film both more interesting and quite probably more infuriating. How fun.
Spine 416: Miss Julie
August 28, 2020 16:40 - 1 hour - 61 MBWhat Alf Slöberg’s 1951 film adaptation adds to August Strindberg’s 1888 play makes the film both more interesting and quite probably more infuriating. How fun.
The Naked Prey
August 21, 2020 17:11 - 1 hour - 58.6 MBWho amongst us hasn't decided to solve a problem maybe without talking to anyone actually affected by the problem or even understanding what the problem is, so you just ended up doing something that adds to the problem in a different way?
Spine 415: The Naked Prey
August 21, 2020 16:40 - 1 hour - 58.6 MBWho amongst us hasn't decided to solve a problem maybe without talking to anyone actually affected by the problem or even understanding what the problem is, so you just ended up doing something that adds to the problem in a different way? The Naked Prey wants to solve racism. It does not.