The latest in Criterion’s online magazine: A timeless star from Hollywood’s golden age

Plus: Tod Browning’s boundary-pushing cinema, the cult favorite GINGER SNAPS, and Jordan Firstman’s Top 10 [Current]( HIGHLIGHTS NOVEMBER 5, 2023 A roundup of recent articles from Criterion’s online magazine. Happy reading! [In Praise of Linda Darnell]( One of Classic Hollywood’s Most Underrated Stars. Despite her unforgettable performances in Unfaithfully Yours, A Letter to Three Wives, and other gems of the studio era, the actor struggled throughout her career to be seen as more than a great beauty. By Mayukh Sen WATCH [Ten of Darnell’s films are now playing on the Criterion Channel.]( [A Cinema of Misfits]( Tod Browning’s Carnivalesque Provocations. This liner essay, featured in [our new collection]( of three of the director’s films, explores how he tested the limits of early-Hollywood taste with unnerving tales of life on the margins. By Farran Smith Nehme WATCH [Browning’s Freaks is now playing on the Criterion Channel along with special features from the box set.]( [Jordan Firstman’s Top]( 10 The actor, writer, and director offers irreverent commentary on some of his favorite films, including the gay romance Weekend and the delirious satire Putney Swope. WATCH [Firstman discusses his 2016 film Call Your Father in an installment of Meet the Filmmakers.]( [Growing Pains]( Ginger Snaps Envisions Female Adolescence as a Waking Nightmare. John Fawcett’s 2001 cult classic uses the werewolf trope to explore psychosexual anxiety and the weight of gender expectations. By Farihah Zaman WATCH [Ginger Snaps is playing along with nine other films in the Criterion Channel’s High School Horror collection.]( [New Horizons in Caribbean Cinema]( A Conversation with Jonathan Ali. The programmer of Third Horizon, a series now playing on the Criterion Channel, discusses the challenges of cinematic representation and the need to think beyond its limitations. By Tiana Reid WATCH [Among the films Ali recommends as an entry point to the lineup is Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias’s stylistically audacious crime fable Cocote.]( OLDIE BUT GOODIE [“]( film artists may say nothing in their films is ‘real.’ Herzog would say everything is, including the lies.”]( —Michael Atkinson on director Werner Herzog, whose memoir, Every Man for Himself and God Against All, was published last month THE DAILY [Beyond Reality]( Halloween Lasts Through December at the French Institute Alliance Française. The New York City venue presents Film Fantastique: Lust and Blood, a series of classics by Jean Cocteau, René Clair, and other important auteurs. READ MORE [David Hudson gathers tributes to the celebrated filmmaker Terence Davies, who died last month at the age of seventy-seven.]( For further information on Criterion and our products, please visit our website at [criterion.com.]( To start streaming the Criterion Channel, please visit [criterionchannel.com.]( If you are not already on our mailing list and would like to be added, please [click here]( to register at [criterion.com.]( To unsubscribe, [click here.]( © 2023 The Criterion Collection :: 215 Park Ave S. New York, NY 10003