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With culture, as much as we’d like to imagine it, we can’t be our own canon but there’s an interesting list of the first 50 films you might see on this video channel. I was glad that I’d seen most of them when I thought it was academically viable. What’s frustrating is that there will always be more underappreciated things to watch and that there’s so much bad media out there. One could get lost for days.
50 Essential Movies to Watch First on the New Criterion Channel
To the relief of cinephiles still suffering from withdrawal after FilmStruck’s untimely demise last fall, the Criterion Channel launched today, meaning the majority of the Criterion Collection’s catalogue of classic art-house cinema (over 1,000 films) is now available for streaming. So, where should you start? In the interests of relative brevity, we chose one masterpiece each from 50 illustrious directors. And then, to encourage completists, we listed all the other films by each director that are also on the channel. Consider these as starting points, cinematic gateway drugs to the work of the most important filmmakers of all time. You could get lost for days.
The 400 Blows (François Truffaut)
Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder)
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
The Apu Trilogy (Satyajit Ray)
Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio de Sica)
Belle de Jour (Luis Buñuel)
Blood Simple (Joel and Ethan Coen)
…. etc.
Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard)
It’s difficult to top the opening sentence of Criterion’s own description: “There was before Breathless, and there was after Breathless.” Indeed, the DNA of Godard’s 1960 international smash hit is in not only the French New Wave that would follow but so many of the critically beloved films of the ‘60s and ‘70s as well. The narrative doesn’t really matter here; it’s the tone that Godard strikes, one that’s constantly aware of itself as an object of art, fashion, and sexuality. Godard injected art cinema with a playfulness it hadn’t really seen before, opening the eyes of hundreds of filmmakers.
More Godard on the Criterion Channel: 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her, All the Boys Are Called Patrick, Charlotte et son Jules, Every Man for Himself, Le petit soldat, Masculin féminin, Tout va bien, Une histoire d’eau, Vivre sa vie, Weekend.
www.vulture.com/...
When I was in grad school I tried to make it my business to see everything that Jean-Luc Godard had ever made since I had gotten the chance to see him introduce a new film in person when I was an undergrad. His media collective, Groupe Dziga Vertov became an important model for organizing cultural production, even if my own history could never achieve that degree of organization.
Unfortunately even seeing all of Godard’s films would be thwarted for more than a few years because some of his television work was unavailable.
All my weekends are like Weekend.
Jean-Luc Godard's scathing late-sixties satire is one of cinema's great anarchic works. Determined to collect an inheritance from a dying relative, a petit-bourgeois couple travel across the French countryside while civilization crashes and burns around them. Featuring a justly famous centerpiece single take of an endless traffic jam, Weekend is a surreally funny and deeply disturbing expression of social oblivion that ended the first phase of Godard's career - and, according to the credits, cinema itself.
www.rottentomatoes.com/…
In that spirit, I have not listened to many podcasts but have decided I will try to listen to Chapo Trap House.
Chapo Trap House is an American politics and humor podcast hosted by Will Menaker, Matt Christman, Felix Biederman, Amber A'Lee Frost and Virgil Texas, and produced by Chris Wade.
The podcast became known for its irreverent leftist commentary in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
OTOH there’s food...
The sandwich comes together by coating the hand-breaded Extra Crispy Chicken Filet with their signature Cheetos sauce and topping the toasted bun with mayo and an extra layer of Cheetos.
The sandwich, which is actually KFC's signature Crispy Colonel with a "Cheeto-fied" twist, isn't the chain's first foray into special edition dishes. The release of their Chicken and Waffles and Pickle Fried Chicken nearly broke the internet last year.
www.delish.com/...
Then again, there’s Game of Thrones Oreos...
The series also has a new partnership with Oreo, which released limited-edition cookies with the insignia of the Targaryens, Starks, Lannisters, and the White Walkers. “The Oreos came about out of a series of discussions about what different brands would do to show their love for Game of Thrones,” Peters explains. “Oreo used the Game of Thrones font on the packaging, not the regular Oreo logo, so it’s the first time they’ve ever done something like that. They specifically sacrificed their logo for their love of the throne.”
www.vox.com/...