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.
Israel’s Plan to Destroy Hamas
The New Supreme Court Cases to Watch
War in Israel
The Sunday Read: ‘The Dungeons & Dragons Players of Death Row’
Chaos or Conscience? A Republican Explains His Vote to Oust McCarthy.
The Mosquitoes Are Winning
The Ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy
Sam Bankman-Fried Goes on Trial
Amazon’s Most Beloved Features May Turn Out to Be Illegal
The Sunday Read: ‘The Art of Telling Forbidden Stories in China’
Why the Government is About to Shut Down
The Presidential Politics of the Autoworkers’ Strike
Did Hollywood Writers Get Their Happy Ending?
Gold Bars, Wads of Cash and a Senator’s Indictment
An Unexpected Battle Over Banning Caste Discrimination
The Sunday Read: ‘The Kidnapped Child Who Became a Poet’
He Tried to Save a Friend. They Charged Him With Murder.
Canada Confronts India Over Alleged Assassination
Is College Worth It?
Inside Ukraine’s Drone Attacks on Russia
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Up First
Today, Explained
Post Reports
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
The Rachel Maddow Show