In the shortest month of the year, even with that 29th day, Criterion has six movies and a collection of films from the same director. Eric Rohmer’s collection and Robert Altman’s Western masterpiece are re-editions while the rest make their entry into the Criterion Collection. One is a classic noir of 1930s Hollywood, another is an independent film that has not been appreciated in decades, a Hong Kong action film and its sequel featuring three leading ladies, and a German drama released just last year as a contemporary piece.
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
James Cagney, Jeffery Lynn, and Humphrey Bogart are friends from their time serving on the front lines of World War I who then go on their separate paths into the next decade, intersecting in the Prohibition underworld. The story of war heroesto criminals from director Raoul Walsh ended the decade’s gangster genre releases from Warner Brothers and topped it with an epic feel spanning many years. While Cagney was at his peak, Bogart was about to reach his stardom for the next fifteen years with a string of noir masterpieces that would make his name stay forever.
Nothing But A Man (1964)
A hidden piece of independent cinema from the 1960s, director Michael Roemer made his debut with a story of survival in a prejudicial world that remains a standard of American neorealism. A Black railroad worker (Ivan Dixon) living in the South struggles to make a living as he provides for his wife (Abbey Lincoln) while also trying to reconcile with his alcoholic father (Julius Harris). Hardly seen at the time of release, its recent rediscovery has made this a much necessary piece of American film to be seen more. It was inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1993, so it already has been recognized, yet hasn’t really been out to a wider audience.
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
Robert Altman created an original Western that made it much more grayer than Westerns are with Warren Beatty and Julie Christie as two new visitors to a Pacific Northwest mining town. They collaborate on a business venture of prostitution and gambling which finds itself facing the wrath of the ruling mining company who want them gone and are willing to kill them both. In its special re-edition, Altman’s “anti-Western” is again up for purchase as a standout in the New Hollywood movement that would dominate the decade.
Eric Rohmer’s Tales Of The Four Seasons (1990-1998)
Following his acclaimed anthology Six Moral Tales in the sixties and seventies, French icon Eric Rohmer created four movies with themes of each season of the year. A Tale of Springtime (1990), A Tale of Winter (1992), A Tale of Summer (1996), and A Tale of Autumn (1998) all deal with his common concepts of human interaction, love, and scenery which sets the tone for each of his characters. Springtime is his most schemic story dealing with jealousy and desire while Winter is one of his most spiritual films. Summer is Rohmer’s most autobiographical film but was not released in the U.S. until 2014 while Autumn is influenced by American romantic comedies. These four films added to an extensive filmography in the latter half of Rohmer’s career that extended his legacy of going after the philosophical in all of movies.
The Heroic Trio/Executioners (1993)
In one year, Hong Kong cinema enjoyed two related films featuring Maggie Cheung, Anita Mui, and Michelle Yeoh, bothdirected by Johnnie To about a trio of heroines who can throw down with any male threat in any manner. The first film follows the group having to band together to fight a kidnapper who the police cannot stop, but they must work together while dealing with a dark past each has. Its sequel is set in a Hong Kong victimized by war where order has broken down and the trio must stop the chaos and save citizens from a mass poisoning of water threatening to eliminate the population.
Afire (2023)
Released just last year, Christian Petzold (Phoenix, Undine) directed this story of a friendship tested while on holiday when their vacation home is occupied by an unexpected visitor. As tension starts to come between the two friends due to this visitor, a more serious situation develops that makes the ordeal more tragic. Winner of the Silver Bear at Berlinale, Petzold’s drama puts human nature on a collision course with Mother Nature as Petzold pushes out the real feelings from his solid cast including Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs, and Matthias Brandt.
Follow me on Twitter: @bsusbielles (Cine-A-Man)
Follow me on BlueSky: @briansusbielles.bsky.social
