New to Streaming: The Australian New Wave on Criterion

By Glenn Dunks

The Criterion Channel recently added a whole bunch of Australian movies from well-known directors like Peter Weir, Gillian Armstrong and Phillip Noyce onto their service. While some titles from the “Australian New Wave” series were (I think?) already on there, there are many that are not only new to the service but new to American streaming full stop.

The series features 21 titles that range from 1971 to 1982, several of which are stone cold masterpieces. In a funny little merging of cinematic timelines, a few of these movies have more historically been ignored by the prestigious banner of the new wave era as their genre elements meant they often get lumped less nobly into the “Ozploitation” sidebar of exploitation, sex comedies and horror movies. Whatever it took, however, I’m happy to see some of my favourites find a streaming home internationally.

Now if only Criterion would add more of them to the damned collection!

I thought it would be fun to list the titles—because who doesn’t love a list?—but base it not on their quality. Rather, how much they speak to Australia, the country, the people, and its identity both then and now as we look at them nearly 40 years removed. Subjective, of course, and it's been many years between viewings of many of these, but I feel if you want an education on Australia, then there are some films here that would do a better job than others...

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Sakamoto on Criterion

by Cláudio Alves

Ryuichi Sakamoto is a master of music that needs no introduction. Thanks to his work with the Yellow Magic Orchestra and solo experiments, Sakamoto has helped shape the evolution of electronic music like few other artists in the past decades. His avant-garde sound is difficult to confuse with that of other composers, but he's not an artist predisposed to repetition or stagnation. Since the 1970s, has never stopped composing, never stopped challenging himself, or dazzling his audience with music whose beauty transcends comprehension. Sakamoto's also an avid cinephile and had been writing film scores since the 80s when Nagisa Oshima cast him in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. Across the years, he's built an eclectic filmography that's rich in artistic brio and lacking in mediocre efforts. He even won an Oscar.

Because of such excellence, the Criterion Channel has curated a selection of 10 Ryuichi Sakamoto scored pictures. Here are some highlights…

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The genius of Euzhan Palcy

by Cláudio Alves

One of the Criterion Channel's most enticing July releases is A Dry White Season by Caribbean director Euzhan Palcy. Her record-breaking career is a fascinating, often frustrating, piece of cinema history, full of fearless political artistry and a will to challenge the Hollywood machine. While her name isn't very well known, Palcy should be famous for all the risks she took and the astounding quality of her features. They might be few, but they are excellent. With that in mind, we invite you to explore the filmography, the story, and the genius of Euzhan Palcy…

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Almost There: Liv Ullmann in "Scenes from a Marriage"

by Cláudio Alves

I confess that, when I first came up with the idea for this week's Almost There write-up, I didn't expect its subject to be so weirdly topical. First up, there's the actual raison d'être for the piece, which is the Criterion Channel's new "Marriage Stories" collection, in which Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage is featured. Then there's the whole Hamilton kerfuffle, which caused controversy over the Academy's definition of what is and isn't cinema or what should and shouldn't be eligible for the Oscars (two importantly different questions). This is relevant because the ineligibility of Bergman's film caused a major ruckus back in 1974 and even prompted a couple of notorious open letters (another topical subject, unfortunately). Finally, we have the recent news that the television cut of Scenes from a Marriage is going to be remade by HBO with Michelle Williams and Oscar Isaac in the leading roles. 

We'll return to some of those matters later on, but, for now, let's concentrate on Liv Ullmann's masterful performance as Marianne in Scenes from a Marriage…

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Mike Leigh on Criterion

by Cláudio Alves

One of the Criterion Channel's newest and most enticing additions is a Mike Leigh collection that includes 11 of the director's films. His is a cinema of compassionate observation that finds beauty in the bleakest settings, the wildest characters, and most complicated psyches. From Thatcher-era social realism to lavish period pieces, passing through farcical character studies, we can find much variety in this director's oeuvre, though some things remain constant. For one, we have Leigh's social preoccupations, a humanistic mindset that bleeds into every aspect of his productions. For another, there's his methodology when working with actors…

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