New Delhi: Criterion Collection is seen as the best film recommendation platform. It is well-loved by cinephiles not just for its extensive record of filmography from its nascent stages but also for its restorations of masterpieces for modern audiences, bringing back lost stories covered in dust and absent from memories.
The American home entertainment distribution company recently restored movies such as Satyajit Ray’s The Apu Trilogy, all of Stanley Kubrick’s work, Foreign Correspondent (1940) and Do Bigha Zamin (1953), bringing filmmakers closer to cinephiles.
While filmmakers and artists had exclusive access to the Closet, a private library where the movies are shelved in New York, now cinephiles can also access it virtually through the Criterion Closet Voyages. The library includes 1,327 Criterion editions of the movies.
According to the website, viewers are allowed to pick movies from the shelves by tapping on the tape’s spine, which also gives them information about the movie, including its release date, director, synopsis, and cast. The collection is constantly updated with new movies being added as per Criterion’s choice.
The first film on the top shelf is La Grande Illusion, released in 1937, directed by Jean Renoir. The story revolves around the relationships between a group of French officers who are imprisoned in Germany during World War I and are plotting an escape. Followed by films such as Seven Samurai (1954), Black Moon (1975), The Fisher King (1991), with the 1,327th film in the collection being Nouvelle Vague (2025).
While the collection’s official list ends here, there is a 1,328th movie, and it’s Satyajit Ray’s Days and Nights in the Forest (1970). The story follows four men who decide to leave the pressure of city life in Calcutta, now Kolkata, for Bihar to enjoy their holiday in a rural setting. What started as a carefree journey to relax their minds changes their vanities, false assumptions and emotional shortcomings through encounters with locals. The film was adapted from a Sunil Gangopadhyay novel. Other Ray movies include The Apu Trilogy, Devi (1960), Charulata (1964), Jalsaghar (1958), Nayak (1966) and Mahanagar (1963).
Including Ray’s films, there are 13 movies in total which were directed by Indian filmmakers—Ritwik Ghatak’s Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960), Uday Shankar’s Kalpana (1948), as well as Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay (1988) and Monsoon Wedding (2001).
The Criterion Collection has invited artists ranging from Robert De Niro, Oscar Isaac, Steven Knight, Sofia Coppola, to Jim Jarmusch and Jafar Panahi to pick their favourites. India’s Payal Kapadia also visited the closed and picked Loves of a Blonde (1965), La Jetée, Trilogy of Life (1971-1974) and Paris Is Burning (1990). Whereas Mira Nair picked movies An Angel at My Table (1990), Breaking the Waves (1996), The Music Room (1958) and The Battle of Algiers (1966).
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)