People can never talk about Gena Rowlands without mentioning John Cassavetes, and sometimes that’s a shame. He directed very few of his movies without her, so the connection isn’t ridiculous, and they came as a package for a few other directors as well (Tempest, Two Minute Warning). Their pairings continue to be the most celebrated and best remembered works of both their careers, and to be even more fair to Cassavetes, no one ever explored her rough edges the way he did. Rowlands spent her youth playing bottle blondes and, following his death, appeared in a series of matronly roles in which she was brilliant but which didn’t have the moral gray areas she traversed in films like Opening Night and A Woman Under the Influence. A proper summation of Rowlands’ career, though, should take in her early TV work, her later Emmy wins for some groundbreaking television movies and her becoming known to younger generations with performances like The Notebook, and the Criterion Channel’s very Cassavetes-heavy look at her career shows that this has yet to be accomplished.
Exploring the works of the great Satyajit Ray, including Pather Panchali, The Music Room, and The Big City.
Bil Antoniou surveys a collection of "home movies" that cater to quarantine life blahs.
Criterion's Black Westerns collection gives a potent overview of films from the era (and beyond) that are diverse in style, content and attitude.
Covering all genres, numerous countries, high arthouse stuff and populist entertainment, Carrière was a natural fit no matter what he worked on, his talent and sensibilities blending in seamlessly with the directors with whom he collaborated.
A sharp wit with an even sharper taste for business who wrote her own scripts and loved to rock a glamorous gown, she was an unapologetic voluptuary whose jokey attitude towards enjoying the carnal side of life skillfully cloaked a nuanced understanding of its painful realities.
Pinter directed nearly fifty productions for stage, theatre and screen.
Criterion Channel's collection of Cary Grant comedies proves the measure of true star power.
The Criterion Channel is currently screening three collections of three very different filmmakers.
Ranking the films that built the South Korean industry pre-Parasite.
Jeremy finishes off his Ingmar Bergman's Cinema series!
Crawford showed up ready for stardom, as time passed the perfection of her face hardened but you could never do anything about those eyes.
Just in time for Halloween, Bil Antoniou takes a look at 28 spooky classics.
As an antidote to our pandemic wanderlust, The Criterion Channel has put together a list of films meant to remind us that going somewhere isn’t always a good thing.
ThatShelf.com presents: Black Hole Films - A podcast, hosted by Jeremy LaLonde, where people finally get around to watching that film they always meant to. Christine Krawczyk joins Jeremy for SON OF GODZILLA and Jeremy gets a lesson from a lifelong Godzilla fan, while hardly being able to contain himself over the joy that Mini-zilla […]
