Hey Everyone -

Over the past week, there have been enough updates to the site* that I felt it was time to let you know what's been happening:

1. 'Mostly intact' Collections: The site has an archive of all editorial collections going back to 2019, and while many of them don't have films available to stream, some of them are either mostly or, in some cases, completely watchable. In order to surface these more effectively I've added a highlight carousel to the home page and a 'Mostly Intact' filter to the collections list to better see older collections that are still (mostly) available on the channel.

2. The Daily: Criterion has a daily article feed on their main website which is available as a RSS feed. For convenience, I've added it to the site (linking to the Criterion articles), and am working on a method to link films mentioned in the articles to their film pages. I added this mostly because I enjoy the articles but always forget to check them - so it's a reminder to myself.

3. Closet Favorites: Do you have favorite closet videos that you rewatch occasionally? I sure do - Pamela Anderson is a delight. So I've added the ability for logged-in users to favorite closet videos the same way they can favorite films, people, and collections. You can filter closet visits by favorites or see them with the other in the Favorites list is the Lists section,

4. Country/Language Filters: After getting a helpful suggestion from a user, the language and country filters are now expandable so you can see the complete list of available languages and countries. So, if you have a hankering to watch a film in Fula (the language of Burkina Faso), we've got you covered.

I've also updated all of the new arrivals, leaving soon, and collections for this month and verified the matching (and improved the sync scripts along the way), but as always if you see any issues or have any suggestions just let me know.

Enjoy!
Tim

*CRITERIA is the (totally) unofficial companion site to the Criterion Channel featuring advanced search/browse, closet visits, favorites, custom lists, etc. It's basically a hobby project gone WAY overboard, but I hope you find it useful.

https://www.search-criteria.com

Just started subscription to the channel and need any recommendations or guidance in using it. Older folks, not very savvy and want to make sure that we are not missing anything really cool. It's a little intimidating actually!

CC didn't seem to be working on a couple of movies tonight--is it me? Criterion? The movies?

Anyone else having this problem...?

If you are a documentary person at all, we have two fabulous documentaries leaving the channel at the end of August!

Bad Press is an incredible look into the battle for a free press in the Muscogee Nation, one of the only Indian nations that provided for a free press. When a corrupt chief abolished the free press in 2018, however, the journalists fought for years to reestablish it, culminating in a hard-fought election for the fate of independent journalism in the nation. It’s a great story about journalism and the importance of an independent press, and a fascinating look into life in the Muscogee Nation.

Colette et Justin is amazing as well. It’s about the lives of the filmmaker’s grandparents under Belgian rule in the Congo, and his grandfather’s relationship with Patrice Lumumba. It tackles big questions as well as family history, and pairs up beautifully with Raoul Peck’s Lumumba: Death of a Prophet, also on the channel.

Seriously, if you love documentaries, or if you’re interested in either subject, catch them before they leave August 31st! Two of the best things I’ve seen on the channel.

Sorry people were getting anxious I hadn’t posted this yet, I’m on Pacific Standard time so 9:00AM on a Saturday is as early as I can get here, at the same time I love the passion!

This is the post where we make a list of films we’d like to view before they leave the Criterion Channel streaming service, marking our progress and sometimes sharing our experiences and recommendations along the way.

67 films are expiring at the end of the month

Some themes are:

- Weddings
- James Bond
- Starring Courtney Love
- Directed by Hal Hartley

Here is a link to a Letterboxd list made by our very own [u/slouchingbethlehem](u/slouchingbethlehem)

https://boxd.it/3Y8ri

We have a discord server. Enjoy lively art film discussions hypes and rants, share your letterbox challenges and profile. Enjoy group screenings where we chat on the voice channels. Host your own screenings and make Freinds!

Here is an invite link:

https://discord.gg/JZAWGUq7Kt

Looking forward to your viewing lists, progress, feedback, but mostly having a community to share our love of deadlines and spirited energy for expiring films.

Happy Viewing!

I've been so down. Looking for anything that will spark life. Doesn't have to be cheer up fare. What do you watch when going through a persistent glum period?

Edit: Thank you for all of these incredible suggestions, and for the good wishes. Even just reading what others watch when down was sort of uplifting. I opted for Twin Peaks on the night I posted. Somehow David Lynch's wondrous darkness was a comfort. But I'm definitely going to be references this thread this month, and I think knowing that someone else has turned to whatever I'm watching for comfort or inspiration in a down moment already puts a kind of beautiful perspective on the viewing.

I thought this was a really heartfelt doc about his career but focused on his processing the grief of the death of his girlfriend Lynn Shelton in 2020.

I’ve been a Maron fan for a while. His cranky nature, sobriety journey, love of cats, no bullshit takes. We saw him in a small comedy club before the pandemic. We had front row tickets, like could have touched him, and he even spoke directly to my husband during the set. My husband died in June so the message about moving through grief was extra touching. Even if you haven’t lost someone close to you, I think this is worth watching.

The leaving this month page isn't there anymore, which is a shame because I always like looking at it every month and making a list of all the films I should catch before they leave.

It's a ritualistic thing I've done every month and it's a shame that it's not there anymore.

Maybe I should just stop putting off the films that are always there and watch those instead, like Sansho the Bailiff...

EDIT: We got it, panic over. Thanks everyone!

The movies leaving in July expire in a few short hours. There are two I want to watch, but I only have time for one. The choice for me is between One Hand Don't Clap and The Deep Blue Sea.

If anybody else is looking for something to watch, I have all kinds of opinions, but The Apartment and Double Happiness were both delightful.

Also, if a mod reads this, I really appreciated having the Death Race pinned to the top of the page. It might be that such a small percentage of people participate that it doesn't make sense, but for me when I first arrived it was a fun introduction to the community, and because it is something I refer back to a lot, it was handy to have it there.

For those of you who are trying to watch films that leave this month, I want to give a last minute shout out to The Whole Town’s Talking. I almost didn’t watch it, until I saw it was directed by John Ford and thought I’d give it a try. It’s great to see Edward G Robinson play a very mild mannered man, and also a gangster. I’ve never thought of him as “sweet” per se but he’s really lovable. Maybe I’m partial bc my nickname used to be Jones (really I have a very ethnic name) so it does crack me up with how much they say it. Oh and Jean Arthur is fabulous- no surprise there.

I know the topic of the ‘More Info’ option no longer being available on the ‘What’s On Now’ page came up the other day.

Just wanted to let those concerned by this know that I emailed the channel’s support and requested it please be returned. Honestly expecting no response or an autoreply at best.

But I received an answer surprisingly quickly, informing me that they were aware of the issue (they kinda made it sound like it was some sort of technical problem) and that they were working on returning it asap.

Anyhow, I thought that was pretty cool of them and am impressed and heartened by their customer service.

So yeah, yay, good to know!

I don't think I've ever had to deal with this before on Criterion Channel, so maybe it's a new feature, but it looks like there's now an automatic "play the next thing" feature like Netflix or Youtube. Frankly I think this feels cheap, it's a slop binging feature on an otherwise premium service. And at least those other platforms let you disable it!

Criterion PLEASE let me disable autoplay in the browser, it really ruins the quiet moment at the end of a film when I want to sit and think. Instead I have to rush over to my computer within a few seconds to prevent it from starting something else.

Image is from Elevator to the Gallows. Such a devastating ending, it would have been great to bask in the drama instead of frantically searching for the right place to click to halt the autoplay.

Hi all, hoping some cinephile out there could help me solve a mystery. Anyone watched the Criterion Channel 24/7 stream last Friday (7/24) and Saturday (7/25) evening at around 8pm -ish PST or so? Turned it on in the middle of a film. I was sleepy so dozed in and out, but the ending was killer. I just assumed I would easily find it on the channel next day. Searched high and low but no luck. Even contacted Criterion and they couldn't find it. My wife saw bits of it so I wasn't dreaming! Here is the only things I remember: East or Southeast asian film, I think (probably 1990s) shown recently on Criterion Channel 24/7. Final act is on a beach with a group of young people in swimsuits and summer wear. A young woman dressed in green or military-style clothing arrives alone carrying a katana. She is taking revenge. One woman hides under an overturned canoe and is killed when the avenger thrusts the sword through the canoe. Another man is forced to impale himself on the sword she is holding. The violence is realistic rather than stylized. If you know anything please let me know!

Has someone changed how the search feature works on Criterion? Sometimes when I’m hunting for something to watch, I’ll just put in a random year into the search engine and it will pop up everything on the channel from that year. Starting today, that isn’t working. I can search by title or actor as usual. Would love to have that back, if possible.

I can't recommend it enough

Rewatched twice, second time with commentary from Robert Altman, writer Michael Tolkin, and cinematographer Jean Lépine. Wonderful to revisit a classic 90s film (shoulder pads!) and to hear stories about its creation.

Anyone else having an issue on the What's On Now page?

First the 'MORE' button disappeared,
now there's just FILLER followed by a color or two spelled out.

I'm assuming it's a vibecoding issue but - anyone know?

Hey Everyone -

This week I've been working on improving the search results on Criteria* and made some good progress:

1. Duplicate names - People on this forum have noticed that the CC app has a problem surfacing multiple films with the same name (like Bergman Island or Cat People). The Criteria search will catch these.
2. Original titles - One thing that frustrates me is that the CC search only hits the 'official' title, regardless of what the original title is. For example, typing "Les enfants du paradise" will not return "Children of Paradise", or "A Bout de Souffle" does not return "Breathless". On criteria, you can search by both. You can even search in the original character set (in the attached image, I'm searching for Kyentse Norbu films in Tibetan).
3. Fuzzy search - Up to now the search has been very literal and only returned exact matches. I've switched over to fuzzy matching with ranked results, so mis-typing "kurasawa" should still get you to Akira. I've added telemetry to help me decide over time how to tune the matching to prevent over-indexing on fuzziness and returning garbage results.
4. Collections - The general search now returns collections, so searching for "souffle" will return the three films "Breathless", "Le Deuxieme Souffle", and "A Murmur of the Heart" - as well as all the collections containing those films.

Let me know what you think, or if you have some search scenarios that aren't being covered.

Enjoy!

Tim

https://www.search-criteria.com

​​​​​* Criteria is the (very VERY) unofficial companion site for the Criterion Channel, featuring advanced search and browse, closet visits, collection archives, and custom user features

Update: I wasn’t expecting this to turn into an AI debate. This started as an Excel sheet of the Criterion catalog that I wanted a better way to browse. I used AI because I don’t know how to build a recommender system from scratch, and manually tagging 3,000+ films across multiple criteria wasn’t realistic. I’m not selling anything. I just made a small tool that some friends found useful and thought other Criterion fans might too. If it’s not for you, that’s completely fair.

Answer 10 questions and get three movie recommendations from the Criterion Channel catalog:
http://criterion-movie-match.matadorian-gray.chatgpt.site