Why This Film? started with a simple question.
The Criterion Collection has been publishing important cinema since 1984. Classic films, contemporary films, films from every corner of the world, each one presented as its maker intended. Their mission is clear. What wasn't always clear to me was why a specific film earned that treatment. What made it important? Culturally, artistically, historically. What did it do that nothing else did?
I started asking experts.
Each episode brings in a critic, historian, author, or scholar who can answer that question for one specific Criterion title. Together we go scene by scene through the film, examining its themes, its craft, its place in cinema history and in the culture that produced it. Not a review. Not a plot summary. A conversation about why this film matters and why it still matters now.
The Criterion Collection currently stands at over 1,300 titles. We have work to do.
Choose a Criterion film you know deeply. Be prepared for a 1–1.5 hour conversation where we'll walk through the film's scenes and key moments in detail. Prepare to answer: "Why [film]? Why does it deserve its place in the Criterion Collection?"
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