cinema | criterion collection closet.
films that i consider putting in my basket if i was lucky enough to be offered a visit to the criterion collection closet.
Items in this hypelist
top 4 letterboxd.
Dead Man's Letters
Konstantin Lopushansky · 1986
In a world after the nuclear apocalypse a scholar helps a small group of children and adults survive, staying with them in the basement of the former museum of history. In his mind he writes letters to his son — though it is obvious that they will never be read.
Repentance
Tengiz Abuladze · 1987
The day after his funeral, the corpse of Varlam Aravidze, the mayor of a small Georgian town, turns up in his son's garden. Although it is secretly reburied, the corpse keeps returning until the police capture the local woman who is responsible. This woman says that Varlam should never be laid to rest since his Stalin-like reign of terror led to the disappearance of her family and friends.
Penda's Fen
Alan Clarke · 1974
Through a series of real and imagined encounters with angels, demons, and England's pagan past, a pastor's son begins to question his religion and politics, and comes to terms with his sexuality.
Solaris
Andrei Tarkovsky · 1972
A psychologist is sent to a space station orbiting a planet called Solaris to investigate the death of a doctor and the mental problems of cosmonauts on the station. He soon discovers that the water on the planet is a type of brain which brings out repressed memories and obsessions.
honorable mentions.
Heat
Michael Mann · 1995
Obsessive master thief Neil McCauley leads a top-notch crew on various daring heists throughout Los Angeles while determined detective Vincent Hanna pursues him without rest. Each man recognizes and respects the ability and the dedication of the other even though they are aware their cat-and-mouse game may end in violence.
Altered States
Ken Russell · 1980
A research scientist explores the boundaries and frontiers of consciousness. Using sensory deprivation and hallucinogenic mixtures from native American shamans, he explores these altered states of consciousness and finds that memory, time, and perhaps reality itself are states of mind.
...And Justice for All
Norman Jewison · 1979
An ethical Baltimore defense lawyer disgusted with rampant legal corruption is forced to defend a judge he despises in a rape trial under the threat of being disbarred.
The Godfather
Francis Ford Coppola · 1972
Don Vito Corleone ist der Kopf einer der einflußreichsten Mafia-Familien New Yorks. Als die anderen Familien der Stadt beschließen, neben Glücksspiel und Schutzgelderpressungen nun auch den Handel mit Drogen als Erwerbsquelle zu nutzen und sich Don Corleone diesem Vorhaben nicht anschließen möchte, wird er zum Ziel eines hinterhältigen Mordanschlags. Nun steht Vitos Sohn Michael in der Verantwortung, in die Fußstapfen seines Vaters zu treten, obwohl er mit den Geschäften der Familie bis dato nichts zu tun haben wollte.
One Battle After Another
Paul Thomas Anderson · 2025
When their evil nemesis resurfaces after 16 years, a band of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own.
Black Narcissus
Emeric Pressburger · 1947
A group of Anglican nuns, led by Sister Clodagh, are sent to a mountain in the Himalayas. The climate in the region is hostile and the nuns are housed in an odd old palace. They work to establish a school and a hospital, but slowly their focus shifts. Sister Ruth falls for a government worker, Mr. Dean, and begins to question her vow of celibacy. As Sister Ruth obsesses over Mr. Dean, Sister Clodagh becomes immersed in her own memories of love.
Lawrence of Arabia
David Lean · 1962
The story of British officer T.E. Lawrence's mission to aid the Arab tribes in their revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Lawrence becomes a flamboyant, messianic figure in the cause of Arab unity but his psychological instability threatens to undermine his achievements.
Twin Peaks
David Lynch · 1989
An idiosyncratic FBI agent investigates the murder of a young woman in the even more idiosyncratic town of Twin Peaks. (This standalone version of the series pilot was produced for the European VHS market and has an alternate, closed ending.)
Winter Light
Ingmar Bergman · 1963
A Swedish pastor fails a loving woman, a suicidal fisherman and God.
The Holdovers
Alexander Payne · 2023
A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam.
Oppenheimer
Christopher Nolan · 2023
The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer's role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.
The Basketball Diaries
Scott Kalvert · 1995
A high school basketball player’s life turns upside down after free-falling into the harrowing world of drug addiction.
The Seventh Seal
Ingmar Bergman · 1957
When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.
Dead Poets Society
Peter Weir · 1989
At an elite, old-fashioned boarding school in New England, a passionate English teacher inspires his students to rebel against convention and seize the potential of every day, courting the disdain of the stern headmaster.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
John Ford · 1962
Questions arise when Senator Stoddard attends the funeral of a local man named Tom Doniphon in a small Western town. Flashing back, we learn Doniphon saved Stoddard, then a lawyer, when he was roughed up by a crew of outlaws terrorizing the town, led by Liberty Valance. As the territory's safety hung in the balance, Doniphon and Stoddard, two of the only people standing up to him, proved to be very important, but different, foes to Valance.
sanity preservation.
Letter Never Sent
Mikhail Kalatozov · 1960
Four geologists are searching for diamonds in the wilderness of Siberia. After a long and tiresome journey they manage to find their luck and put the diamond mine on the map. The map must be delivered back to Moscow. But on the day of their departure a terrible forest fire wreaks havoc, and the geologists get trapped in the woods.
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Werner Herzog · 1972
A few decades after the destruction of the Inca Empire, a Spanish expedition led by the infamous Aguirre leaves the mountains of Peru and goes down the Amazon River in search of the lost city of El Dorado. When great difficulties arise, Aguirre’s men start to wonder whether their quest will lead them to prosperity or certain death.
I've Heard the Ammonite Murmur
Isao Yamada · 1992
A young geologist is traveling by train to visit his sister in the countryside after having received a mysterious letter from her.
Taxi Driver
Martin Scorsese · 1976
A mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran works as a night-time taxi driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze feed his urge for violent action.
Scent of a Woman
Martin Brest · 1992
Charlie Simms is a student at a private preparatory school who comes from a poor family. To earn the money for his flight home to Gresham, Oregon for Christmas, Charlie takes a job over Thanksgiving looking after retired U.S. Army officer Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, a cantankerous middle-aged man who lives with his niece and her family.
The Thing
John Carpenter · 1982
In the winter of 1982, a twelve-man research team at a remote Antarctic research station discovers an alien buried in the snow for over 100,000 years. Soon unfrozen, the form-changing creature wreaks havoc, creates terror... and becomes one of them.
Metropolis
Fritz Lang · 1927
En 2026, une métropole à l’architecture fantastique vit sous le joug d’un groupe de tyrans. Les aristocrates se prélassent et se divertissent dans de somptueuses demeures et de luxuriants jardins, tandis que la grande masse de la population travaille, dort et survit durement dans les profondeurs de la terre. Le fils du maître de la ville découvre avec effarement l’existence du monde souterrain, où se rencontrent en secret les ouvriers, peu enclins à supporter pour toujours leur situation. Pendant ce temps, un savant invente une femme‐robot qui doit détourner les opprimés de leur révolte…
The Banshees of Inisherin
Martin McDonagh · 2022
Two lifelong friends find themselves at an impasse when one abruptly ends their relationship, with alarming consequences for both of them.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Stanley Kubrick · 1964
After the insane General Jack D. Ripper initiates a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union, a war room full of politicians, generals and a Russian diplomat all frantically try to stop the nuclear strike.
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
Quentin Tarantino · 2019
Los Angeles, 1969. TV star Rick Dalton, a struggling actor specializing in westerns, and stuntman Cliff Booth, his best friend, try to survive in a constantly changing movie industry. Dalton is the neighbor of the young and promising actress and model Sharon Tate, who has just married the prestigious Polish director Roman Polanski…
Atonement
Joe Wright · 2007
As a 13-year-old, fledgling writer Briony Tallis irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.
Killers of the Flower Moon
Martin Scorsese · 2023
When oil is discovered in 1920s Oklahoma under Osage Nation land, the Osage people are murdered one by one—until the FBI steps in to unravel the mystery.
Wings of Desire
Wim Wenders · 1987
Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the angel longs to experience life in the physical world, and finds -- with some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk -- that it might be possible for him to take human form.
Mirror
Andrei Tarkovsky • 1975
Ao saber que tem câncer, um professor passa a fabricar metanfetamina pelo futuro da família, mudando o destino de todos.
Stand by Me
Rob Reiner · 1986
After learning that a boy their age has been accidentally killed near their rural homes, four Oregon boys decide to go see the body. On the way, Gordie, Vern, Chris and Teddy encounter a mean junk man and a marsh full of leeches, as they also learn more about one another and their very different home lives. Just a lark at first, the boys' adventure evolves into a defining event in their lives.
Call Me by Your Name
Luca Guadagnino · 2017
In the summer of 1983, a 17-year-old Elio spends his days in his family's villa in Italy. One day Oliver, a graduate student, arrives to assist Elio's father, a professor of Greco-Roman culture. Soon, Elio and Oliver discover a summer that will alter their lives forever.
All About Lily Chou-Chou
Shunji Iwai · 2001
Charts the troubled teenage years of students Yūichi Hasumi and Shūsuke Hoshino, exploring the shifting and complex power dynamics of their relationship against the backdrop of Yūichi's love for the dreamy and abstract music of pop star Lily Chou-Chou.
Stalker
Andrei Tarkovsky · 1979
Near a gray and unnamed city is the Zone, a place guarded by barbed wire and soldiers, and where the normal laws of physics are victim to frequent anomalies. A stalker guides two men into the Zone, specifically to an area in which deep-seated desires are granted.
Gattaca
Andrew Niccol · 1997
Vincent is an all-too-human man who dares to defy a system obsessed with genetic perfection. He is an "In-Valid" who assumes the identity of a member of the genetic elite to pursue his goal of traveling into space with the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation.
emotional attachment.
mid90s
Jonah Hill · 2018
In 1990s Los Angeles, a 13-year-old spends his summer navigating between a troubled home life and a crew of new friends he meets at a skate shop.
Carlito's Way
Brian De Palma · 1993
Free after years in prison, Carlito Brigante intends to give up his criminal ways, but it's not long before the ex-con is sucked back into the New York City underworld. Reconnecting with his dancer girlfriend, Carlito gets entangled in the shady dealings of his friend Dave Kleinfeld, who also serves as his lawyer. An encounter with shifty gangster Benny Blanco sets the duo on a dangerous path.
GoodFellas
Martin Scorsese · 1990
A história verídica da vida do gangster Henry Hill, desde os tempos da sua adolescência nas ruas de Nova Iorque até à sua terrível ascensão ao poder e consequente queda nos anos setenta.
Dog Day Afternoon
Sidney Lumet · 1975
Based on the true story of would-be Brooklyn bank robbers John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile. Sonny and Sal attempt a bank heist which quickly turns sour and escalates into a hostage situation and stand-off with the police. As Sonny's motives for the robbery are slowly revealed and things become more complicated, the heist turns into a media circus.
Umberto D.
Vittorio De Sica · 1952
When elderly pensioner Umberto Domenico Ferrari returns to his boarding house from a protest calling for a hike in old-age pensions, his landlady demands her 15,000-lire rent by the end of the month or he and his small dog will be turned out onto the street. Unable to get the money in time, Umberto fakes illness to get sent to a hospital, giving his beloved dog to the landlady's pregnant and abandoned maid for temporary safekeeping.
The Red and the White
Miklós Jancsó · 1967
In 1919, Hungarian Communists aid the Bolsheviks' defeat of Czarists, the Whites. Near the Volga, a monastery and a field hospital are held by one side and then the other.
Viy
Georgi Kropachyov · 1967
A young priest is ordered to preside over the wake of a witch in the church of a remote village. This means spending three nights alone with the corpse with only his faith to protect him.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Robert Wiene · 1920
Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through. Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his death-like sleep.
Before Sunrise
Richard Linklater · 1995
A young man and woman meet on a train in Europe, and wind up spending one evening together in Vienna. Unfortunately, both know that this will probably be their only night together.
Seven Samurai
Akira Kurosawa · 1954
A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.
Artemide’s Knee
Jean-Marie Straub · 2008
Mourning the death of his partner and collaborator Danièle Huillet, Straub finds tender mercy in music and nature. Out of the abyss, Kathleen Ferrier sings “The Farewell” from Gustav Mahler’s “The Song of the Earth”, (which the composer wrote in 1909 after the death of his daughter) and Heinrich Schütz’s Lament on the Death of His Wife. The landscape also provides solace: the mountain grove where Endymion pines for his beloved Artemis, “a wild thing, untouchable, mortal,” appears to embody the Japanese concept of ‘mono no aware’ — a wistful acceptance of the fleeting beauty of things.
Psycho
Alfred Hitchcock · 1960
When larcenous real estate clerk Marion Crane goes on the lam with a wad of cash and hopes of starting a new life, she ends up at the notorious Bates Motel, where manager Norman Bates cares for his housebound mother.
La Chimera
Alice Rohrwacher · 2023
Just out of jail, rumpled English archaeologist Arthur reconnects with his wayward crew of tombaroli accomplices – a happy-go-lucky collective of itinerant grave-robbers who survive by looting Etruscan tombs and fencing the ancient treasures they dig up.
Close-Up
Abbas Kiarostami · 1990
This fiction-documentary hybrid uses a sensational real-life event—the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf—as the basis for a stunning, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves.
The Color of Pomegranates
Sergei Parajanov · 1969
The life of the revered 18th-century Armenian poet and musician Sayat-Nova. Portraying events in the life of the artist from childhood up to his death, the movie addresses in particular his relationships with women, including his muse. The production tells Sayat-Nova's dramatic story by using both his poems and largely still camerawork, creating a work hailed as revolutionary by Mikhail Vartanov.
The Silence of the Lambs
Jonathan Demme · 1991
Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.
Total Eclipse
Agnieszka Holland · 1995
Young, wild poet Arthur Rimbaud and his mentor Paul Verlaine engage in a fierce, forbidden romance while feeling the effects of a hellish artistic lifestyle.
The Dreamers
Bernardo Bertolucci · 2003
When Isabelle and Theo invite Matthew to stay with them, what begins as a casual friendship ripens into a sensual voyage of discovery and desire in which nothing is off limits and everything is possible.
Maurice
James Ivory · 1987
Det er tidligt i det 20. århundrede, og to unge Cambridge-studerende, Clive og Maurice, forelsker sig i hinanden. Clive indser, at det ikke vil fungere, hvis ikke han vil tabe al anseelse i sine sociale kredse, og afslutter forholdet for at gifte sig og stifte familie. Man da Maurice kommer for at bo hos Clive og hans kone, blusser dramaet op, fordi Maurice finder ny kærlighed i skovfogedens favn. Maurice er et klassisk James Ivory-drama.
The Holy Mountain
Alejandro Jodorowsky · 1973
The Alchemist assembles together a group of people from all walks of life to represent the planets in the solar system. The occult adept's intention is to put his recruits through strange mystical rites and divest them of their worldly baggage before embarking on a trip to Lotus Island. There they ascend the Holy Mountain to displace the immortal gods who secretly rule the universe.
Wild Strawberries
Ingmar Bergman · 1957
Crotchety retired doctor Isak Borg travels from Stockholm to Lund, Sweden, with his pregnant and unhappy daughter-in-law, Marianne, in order to receive an honorary degree from his alma mater. Along the way, they encounter a series of hitchhikers, each of whom causes the elderly doctor to muse upon the pleasures and failures of his own life. These include the vivacious young Sara, a dead ringer for the doctor's own first love.
The Hourglass Sanatorium
Wojciech Jerzy Has · 1973
Josef visits a dilapidated Sanatorium to see his father. Josef undertakes a strange journey through the many rooms of the sanatorium, each which conjures worlds composed of his memories, dreams and nightmares.
12 Angry Men
Sidney Lumet · 1957
The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and shut case soon becomes a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other.
memory unlocked.
The Eve of Ivan Kupalo
Yurii Illienko · 1968
Petro is a modest farmhand living in an impoverished village in some unspecified long-ago era. He wants to marry the lovely Pidorka, but her stern father won't hear of it. The mischievous demon Basavriuk, offers a deal, enticing Petro into crime for the sake of fortune. Based on Nikolai Gogol’s short story “The Eve of Ivan Kupala” (“St John’s Eve”) and Ukrainian folk tales.
Diamonds of the Night
Jan Němec · 1964
Two Jewish boys escape from a train transporting them from one concentration camp to another. Beyond themes of war and anti-Nazism, the film concerns itself with man's struggle to preserve human dignity.
Oldboy
Park Chan-wook · 2003
Sin tener idea de cómo llegó a ser encarcelado, drogado y torturado durante 15 años, un hombre desesperado busca vengarse de sus captores.
The Florida Project
Sean Baker · 2017
Это лето Муни и ее друзья не забудут. Каждый день они, переполненные энергией и пренебрежением к взрослым, носятся по волшебному миру одноэтажной Америки на подступах к Диснейленду. Помешать им могут только родители или строгий надзиратель.
'Neath the Arizona Skies
Harry L. Fraser · 1934
Chris Morrell, the guardian of half-Indian girl Nina, is helping her find her missing white father. so she can cash in on her late mother's oil lease. Outlaw Sam Black is after the girl and her father as well. Besides dealing with the Black gang, Morrell has to find another robber, Jim Moore, who switches clothes with him after he finds Chris unconscious from a fight with Sam Black. Along the way, he meets a lady who's the sister of Jim Moore, another bad hombre who's in cahoots with Jim Moore, and an old friend who takes in Nina and helps Chris locate Nina's father and fight off the various desperadoes
Eyes Wide Shut
Stanley Kubrick · 1999
After Dr. Bill Harford's wife, Alice, admits to having sexual fantasies about a man she met, Bill becomes obsessed with having a sexual encounter. He discovers an underground sexual group and attends one of their meetings -- and quickly discovers that he is in over his head.
The Girl on the River
Đặng Nhật Minh · 1987
A reporter interviews a former prostitute from South Vietnam about her sheltering of an injured Vietcong leader during the war.
Aftersun
Charlotte Wells · 2022
Sophie reflexiona sobre la alegría compartida y la melancolía privada de unas vacaciones que hizo con su padre veinte años atrás. Los recuerdos reales e imaginarios llenan los espacios entre las imágenes mientras intenta reconciliar al padre que conoció con el hombre que no conoció.
The Zone of Interest
Jonathan Glazer · 2023
The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.
On the Silver Globe
Andrzej Żuławski · 1989
A small group of cosmic explorers, including a woman, leaves Earth to start a new civilization. They do not realize that within themselves they carry the end of their own dream. They die one by one, while their children revert to a primitive native culture, creating new myths and a new god.
Hammarskjöld: Fight for Peace
Per Fly · 2023
Set in Cold War in 1961, follows the story of diplomat and economist Dag Hammarskjöld, who boards a plane in a desperate attempt to negotiate a ceasefire from his enemies after he leads UN troops into their first wartime operation.
Little Nikita
Richard Benjamin · 1988
An FBI agent works to uncover an all-American family as Soviet sleeper agents, and gets caught up in friendship with their oblivious teenage son.
Society of the Snow
J. A. Bayona · 2023
El 13 de octubre de 1972, el vuelo 571 de la Fuerza Aérea Uruguaya, fletado para llevar a un equipo de rugby a Chile, se estrella en un glaciar en el corazón de los Andes.
Marvin's Room
Jerry Zaks · 1996
A leukemia patient attempts to end a 20-year feud with her sister to get her bone marrow.
Running on Empty
Sidney Lumet · 1988
The Popes are a family who haven't been able to use their real identity for years. In the late sixties, the parents set a weapons lab afire in an effort to hinder the government's Vietnam war campaign. Ever since then, the Popes have been on the run with the authorities never far behind. Their survival is threatened when their eldest son falls in love with a girl, and announces his wish to live his life on his own terms.
Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge
Fritz Lang · 1924
When Kriemhild, thirsty for revenge, marries to Etzel, king of the Huns, she invites King Gunther and his court to visit them, intending to finally take the life of the man responsible of her disgrace.
Django Unchained
Quentin Tarantino · 2012
With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.
Pulp Fiction
Quentin Tarantino · 1994
A burger-loving hit man, his philosophical partner, a drug-addled gangster's moll and a washed-up boxer converge in this sprawling, comedic crime caper. Their adventures unfurl in three stories that ingeniously trip back and forth in time.
The Tsugua Diaries
Miguel Gomes · 2021
Crista, Carloto and João are building an airy greenhouse for butterflies in the garden. The three of them share household routines, day after day… And they are not the only ones.
Shutter Island
Martin Scorsese · 2010
World War II soldier-turned-U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels investigates the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, but his efforts are compromised by troubling visions and a mysterious doctor.
Alexander Nevsky
Sergei Eisenstein · 1938
When German knights invade Russia, Prince Alexander Nevsky must rally his people to resist the formidable force. After the Teutonic soldiers take over an eastern Russian city, Alexander stages his stand at Novgorod, where a major battle is fought on the ice of frozen Lake Chudskoe. While Alexander leads his outnumbered troops, two of their number, Vasili and Gavrilo, begin a contest of bravery to win the hand of a local maiden.
