In October 2022, amid a flurry of media appearances promoting their film “Tàr,” the director Todd Field and the star Cate Blanchett made time to visit a cramped closet in Manhattan. This closet, which has become a sacred space for movie buffs, was once a disused bathroom at the headquarters of the Criterion Collection, a 40-year-old company dedicated to “gathering the greatest films from around the world” and making high-quality editions available to the public on DVD and Blu-ray and, more recently, through its streaming service, the Criterion Channel. Today Criterion uses the closet as its stockroom, housing films by some 600 directors from more than 50 countries — a catalog so synonymous with cinematic achievement that it has come to function as a kind of film Hall of Fame. Through a combination of luck, obsession and good taste, this 55-person company has become the arbiter of what makes a great movie, more so than any Hollywood studio or awards ceremony.
The Supreme Court vs. Andy Warhol
The Headlines: May 23
Is Trump's Nomination Now Inevitable?
Introducing The Headlines: May 22
Special Episode: Classic TV, New Music and a Side of Pasta
When the Culture Wars Came for NASA
An Anonymous #MeToo Source Goes Public
Turkey’s President Fights for Political Survival
The Day Title 42 Ended
The U.S. Banned Spyware — and Then Kept Trying to Use It
The Lifesaving Power of … Paperwork?
Biden’s Radical Option to End the Debt Fight
Even More Trouble for George Santos
Trump Liable for Sexual Abuse
A Big Policy Change at the Border
A Crisis of Ethics at the Supreme Court
The Sunday Read: ‘The School Where the Pandemic Never Ended’
How Streaming Hurt Hollywood Writers
What if You Could Save Someone From an Overdose?
The Democrats’ Dianne Feinstein Problem
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Up First
Today, Explained
Matter of Opinion
NPR News Now
Pivot