Criterion Close-Up

Criterion Close-Up


Latest Episodes

CCU44: A Brighter Summer Day
July 16, 2016

Mark and Aaron are joined by Scott Nye to hash out the intricate themes, history, and nuance of Edward Yang's A Brighter Summer Day. Given the length and depth of the film, we explored it in detail, distilling the cultural and societal clashes that...

CCU43: The Player
July 06, 2016

Mark and Aaron welcome old friend, Doug McCambridge to talk about Robert Altman's "Don't call it a" comeback. We touch on the opening tracking shot, what Altman is saying about Hollywood, and yes, we even go into the ending -- or both of them. On top...

CCU42 - Silent Film Music with Ben Model
June 26, 2016

Mark and Aaron welcome Ben Model, silent film historian, accompanist, distributor, and enthusiast. He gave a presentation about "undercranking" on Criterion's release of Chaplin's The Kid. We discuss the idea of undercranking, scoring silent music,...

CCU41: Barcelona and Whit Stillman
June 19, 2016

Mark and Aaron take a look at Whit Stillman's Barcelona (1994), and how it compares with his other work. We focus most on his other two films from the 1990s, Metropolitan (1990) and Last Days of Disco (1998), but we also discuss his most recent...

CCU40: The Science Fiction Episode
June 06, 2016

Mark and Aaron explore the popular genre that is science fiction. At the core of our discussion is a science fiction project that Aaron has been working on, but we also explore the genre on Criterion, and delve further into Rainer Werner Fassbinder's...

CCU39: The War Room (1993) and Politics in Film
May 30, 2016

Aaron is joined by Keith Enright for a discussion of politics, new and old, through the lens of The War Room (1993), the behind-the scenes 1992 Clinton campaign documentary. We go into depth about the backroom politics and how those are what defines...

CCU38: The Manchurian Candidate
May 22, 2016

Mark, Aaron and Paul Cobb look at John Frankenheimer's politica

CCU37: Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
May 15, 2016

Mark and Aaron fly back to 1939 to discuss Howard Hawks' classic Only Angels Have Wings. We evaluate the special effects, how the film built suspense, the context of aviation in the late 1930s, and later films that embody a similar masculinity. We...

CCU36 - Plain Archive, 1988 Films, Cannes 2016
April 23, 2016

Mark and Aaron discuss Plain Archive, the South Korean Blu-Ray label, with input from Hyunhu Jang. He is a Producer and the Communications Manager for the label. In addition to talking about the label's titles and their terrific packaging, we also...

CCU35: Lady Snowblood, Don Hertzfeldt, 4K TVs
April 10, 2016

Mark and Aaron change things up by talking about a variety of topics. We delve into Don Hertzfeldt, Lady Snowblood, our recent purchases, films we've seen lately, Criterion news, and a strange story about a trolling incident. Outline: 0:00 - Intro...