Fabulous Friday: the Criterion Closet

Are you familiar with the Criterion Collection? They're a media company that planted in the 1980s distributing the work of Janus Films on VHS. Janus specialized in mid-century European art house films by people like Michelangelo Antonioni, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, François Truffaut, and Yasujirō Ozu. Criterion pioneered the use of letterbox format and they allegedly created the "special feature."

I've been a Criterion fan from way back. I started subscribing to the Criterion Channel a couple years ago and wow, what a treasure trove.

Maybe a year ago I discovered the Criterion Closet series on YouTube. Criterion brings in someone connected to the film industry and sets them loose on their collection. That person talks about movies that they love and puts them in a tote bag. Here are a few treasures:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDU3_n78jkc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=std013XVxSk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpuQ4-CCct4