The Criterion Channel’s April Lineup Includes Jacques Rivette, Chinese Crime Thrillers, Vietnam Cinema & More

I’m old enough to remember when Jacques Rivette films were the domain of dark-web networks and substandard DVD rips, a conspiratorial network worthy of his cinema. (Actually not even close for intrigue or danger, but give me room to write an intro.) It’s still a little strange seeing that April will feature a 10-film, one-short Criterion Channel program that combines of his canonized masterpieces (Céline and Julie, La belle noiseuse) with decidedly lesser-seens (Love on the Ground or Up, Down, Fragile)––plus Va Savoir, which I really hope is the recently unearthed four-hour cut for which there’s no substitute. Penélope Cruz is also subject of a retrospective in April, which––more than making me pine for a Rivette collab that never was––will include both Abre Los Ojos and Vanilla Sky, some Almodóvar, and another in the Channel’s ongoing let’s-add-a-Woody-Allen-movie campaign, Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

For themed series, J. Hoberman has curated a series on the dangers of ’60s and ’70s New York that runs from Michael Roemer’s recently restored The Plot Against Harry and Francis Ford Coppola’s You’re a Big Boy Now to Allen’s Bananas and Across 110th Street; the succinctly named “Chinese Crime Thrillers” features Jia’s Ash Is Purest White and two excellent films from Diao Yinan (Black Coal, Thin Ice and The Wild Goose Lake); and “Legacies of War: Vietnam Across the Divides” wisely pairs work by American and Vietnamese filmmakers, Platoon and Full Metal Jacket given fuller context next to The Little Girl of Hanoi or On the Same River.

Criterion Editions for April are The Long Good Friday, All About My Mother, Céline and Julie, and Dead Ringers; the latter leads to a Cronenberg series that I expect will lead everyone to finally watch Fast Company. John Farrow and Ray Feung are given a trio of noirs and melodramas, respectively.

See the full list of films below and more at the Criterion Channel:

121280 Ritual, Antoinetta Angelidi, 2008

Across 110th Street, Barry Shear, 1972

Alias Nick Beal, John Farrow,1949*

All About My Mother, Pedro Almodóvar, 1999

The Angel Levine, Ján Kadár, 1970

Art College 1994, Liu Jian, 2023

Ash Is Purest White, Jia Zhangke, 2018

at the bamboo green, Xiaolu Wang, 2024

Bananas, Woody Allen, 1971

Before Seriana, Samy Benammar, 2024

Belle Époque, Fernando Trueba, 1992*

La belle noiseuse, Jacques Rivette, 1991

The Big Clock, John Farrow, 1948*

Black Caesar, Larry Cohen, 1973

Black Coal, Thin Ice, Diao Yinan, 2014

Born to Win, Ivan Passer, 1971

Burnt Milk, Joseph Douglas Elmhirst, 2023

Bye Bye Braverman, Sidney Lumet, 1968

Casualties of War, Brian De Palma, 1989

Chongqing Hot Pot, Yang Qing, 2016

Coogan’s Bluff, Don Siegel, 1968*

Cotton Comes to Harlem, Ossie Davis, 1970

Dead Ringers, David Cronenberg, 1988

Dog Day Afternoon, Sidney Lumet, 1975

Dying to Survive, Wen Muye, 2018

The Fallen Bridge, Li Yu, 2022

Fast Company, David Cronenberg, 1979

The Fog of War, Errol Morris, 2003*

Front Cover, Ray Yeung, 2015

Full Metal Jacket, Stanley Kubrick, 1987

The Gang of Four, Jacques Rivette, 1989

Hinkelten, Svetlana Romanova, 2023

In Country, Norman Jewison, 1989

Jamón jamón, Bigas Luna, 1992

Joan the Maid, Jacques Rivette, 1994

Journey from the Fall, Ham Tran, 2007

Landscape Suspended, Naghmeh Abbasi, 2022

The Little Girl of Hanoi, Hải Ninh, 1974

Little Murders, Alan Arkin, 1971

Love on the Ground, 1984

Ma’loul Celebrates Its Destruction, Michel Khleifi, 1984

Madigan, Don Siegel, 1968*

Ms. Tư Hậu, Phạm Kỳ Nam, 1963

Naked Acts, Bridgett M. Davis, 1996

Night Has a Thousand Eyes, John Farrow, 1948*

Nine, Rob Marshall, 2009*

Norman Mailer vs. Fun City, Dick Fontaine, 1970

On the Battlefield, Little Egypt Collective, 2024

On the Same River, Nguyễn Hồng Nghi and Phạm Kỳ Nam, 1959

The Panic in Needle Park, Jerry Schatzberg, 1971

ping pong ping pong ping pong ping pong ping pong, Daphne Xu, 2024

Platoon, Oliver Stone, 1986

A Radical Duet, Onyeka Igwe, 2023

Regret to Inform, Barbara Sonneborn, 1998

Replacing Dad, Joyce Chopra, 1999

Resynator, Alison Tavel, 2024

Rosemary’s Baby, Roman Polanski, 1968*

Showgirls, Paul Verhoeven, 1995

A Stone’s Throw, Razan AlSalah, 2024

Streetwise, Na Jiazuo, 2021

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Joseph Sargent, 1974

Three Seasons, Tony Bui, 1999*

Twilight’s Kiss, Ray Yeung, 2019

Up, Down, Fragile, Jacques Rivette, 1995

Va savoir, Jacques Rivette, 2001*

Vanilla Sky, Cameron Crowe, 2001*

Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Woody Allen, 2008

Volver, Pedro Almodóvar, 2006*

When the Tenth Month Comes, Đặng Nhật Minh, 1984

The Wild Goose Lake, Diao Yinan, 2019

You’re a Big Boy Now, Francis Ford Coppola, 1966

*Available in the U.S. only

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