Dreams abound this August on the Criterion Channel. From Werner Herzog’s maniacal visions and Frank Borzage’s romantic fantasies to Barbara Stanwyck’s salacious pre-Code escapades, next month’s lineup sets our hearts racing with tales of human desire, ambition, and possibility.

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* indicates programming available only in the U.S.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 1

The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962)

Criterion Collection Edition #803

Featuring an introduction by filmmaker Julie Taymor

Female Trouble (John Waters, 1974)

Criterion Collection Edition #929

FRIDAY, AUGUST 2

Double Feature: Face Off!

The Skin I Live In and Eyes Without a Face

Plastic surgery goes very wrong in skin-crawling shockers by Georges Franju and Pedro Almodóvar.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 3

Saturday Matinee: Black Jack

Ken Loach embarks on a whirlwind odyssey through the underworld of eighteenth-century England.



SUNDAY, AUGUST 4

Directed by Werner Herzog

Featuring a 1989 documentary about Herzog

Journey to the edge of human experience with the mad genius of the New German Cinema, featuring: Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970), Land of Silence and Darkness (1971), Fata Morgana (1971), Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), The Enigma of Kasper Hauser (1974), Heart of Glass (1976), Stroszek (1977), Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), Woyzeck (1979), Fitzcarraldo (1982), Ballad of the Little Soldier (1984), Where the Green Ants Dream (1984), Cobra Verde (1987), Lessons of Darkness (1992), Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997), My Best Fiend (1999)



MONDAY, AUGUST 5

True Stories (David Byrne, 1986)

Criterion Collection Edition #951

TUESDAY, AUGUST 6

Short + Feature: Summer Wonderlands

A Day with the Boys and George Washington

David Gordon Green’s luminous childhood dreamscape and an avant-garde marvel that inspired it.



WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7

Manny & Lo

Featuring a new interview with director Lisa Krueger and her short film Best Offer

A young Scarlett Johansson goes on the lam in Lisa Krueger’s offbeat feature debut.



THURSDAY, AUGUST 8

From the Archive: Trainspotting

With a classic Criterion laserdisc commentary featuring members of the cast and crew

Danny Boyle’s electrifying 1996 adaptation of the cult novel by Irvine Welsh.

Three Hustlers

Pleasure comes with a price in these kinky-dangerous looks at the business of seduction, featuring: Fox and His Friends (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975), American Gigolo (Paul Schrader, 1980), Mala Noche (Gus Van Sant, 1985)

FRIDAY, AUGUST 9

Double Feature: The Devil Made Me Do It

The Devil and Daniel Webster and Beauty and the Devil

Walter Huston and Michel Simon are diabolical delights in these inventive takes on the Faust legend.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 10

Saturday Matinee: For Me and My Gal

Judy Garland and Gene Kelly light up Busby Berkeley’s toe-tapping salute to vaudeville.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 11

The Immigrants

Featuring an introduction by critic Michael Sragow

Timeless, heartrending sagas of struggle and survival that transcend borders, featuring: America America (Elia Kazan, 1963), The Emigrants (Jan Troell, 1971), The New Land (Jan Troell, 1972), Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974), News from Home (Chantal Akerman, 1976), ¡Alambrista! (Robert M. Young, 1977), . . . And the Pursuit of Happiness (Louis Malle, 1986), La haine (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995), La promesse (Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, 1996), Le Havre (Aki Kaurismäki, 2011), Paraíso (Nadav Kurtz, 2012)

MONDAY, AUGUST 12

Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise Trilogy

Featuring an interview with cinematographer Ed Lachman

Ulrich Seidl’s provocative trilogy walks a razor-thin line between cruelty and compassion: Paradise: Love (2012)*, Paradise: Faith (2012)*, Paradise: Hope (2013)*



TUESDAY, AUGUST 13

Short + Feature: Party Politics

Fatherland and The Firemen’s Ball

Theater of the absurd prevails in a surreal Georgian short and a Czech New Wave classic.

WEDNEDSAY, AUGUST 14

Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson, 2015)

Criterion Collection Edition #846

THURSDAY, AUGUST 15

Three by Frank Borzage

Featuring a new introduction by critic Farran Smith Nehme

Rapturous visions of transcendent love and heart-racing humanity from cinema’s supreme romantic, featuring: A Farewell to Arms (1932), Man’s Castle (1933), No Greater Glory (1934)



FRIDAY, AUGUST 16

Double Feature: Lovers and Bullfighters

Blancanieves and Talk to Her

Matadors and melodrama collide in a Pedro Almodóvar masterpiece and a dazzling silent-cinema homage.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 17

Saturday Matinee: The Three Musketeers

Slapstick antics meet swashbuckling heroics in this rollicking, all-star take on the Dumas classic.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 18

Pre-Code Barbara Stanwyck

With a new introduction featuring film scholar Catherine Russell and critic Imogen Sara Smith

The Hollywood legend plays naughty and nice in these taboo-busting thirties gems, featuring: Ladies of Leisure (Frank Capra, 1930), Night Nurse (William A. Wellman, 1931), The Miracle Woman (Frank Capra, 1931), Illicit (Archie Mayo, 1931), Forbidden (Frank Capra, 1932), So Big! (William A. Wellman, 1932), The Purchase Price (William A. Wellman, 1932), Baby Face (Alfred E. Green, 1933), Ever in My Heart (Archie Mayo, 1933), Ladies They Talk About (William Keighley and Howard Bretherton, 1933), Gambling Lady (Archie Mayo, 1934)



MONDAY, AUGUST 19

Police Story/Police Story 2 (Jackie Chan, 1985/1988)

Criterion Collection Edition #971/972

TUESDAY, AUGUST 20

Short + Feature: Women’s Pictures

You Can’t Do Everything at Once, But You Can Leave Everything at Once and One Sings, the Other Doesn’t

Visions of feminist awakening in an experimental family portrait and Agnès Varda’s utopian musical.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21

Meet the Filmmakers: Athina Rachel Tsangari

Take a trip to the Greek islands to catch up with the boundary-pushing cinematic anthropologist of the Greek Weird Wave. Then, watch a selection her films, including: Fit (1994), The Slow Business of Going (2000), Attenberg (2010), The Capsule (2012), 24 Frames Per Century (2013), Chevalier (2015)

THURSDAY, AUGUST 22

Three by André Téchiné

Fearless explorations of human intimacy from the post–New Wave French master, featuring: Rendez-vous (1985), Wild Reeds (1994), The Witnesses (2007)*



Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson, 1951)

Criterion Collection Edition #222

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23

Double Feature: Bon Voyage Blues

Unrelated and The Green Ray

Featuring an interview with Unrelated director Joanna Hogg

Enjoy rest, relaxation, and existential crises on summer holidays with Joanna Hogg and Eric Rohmer.



SATURDAY, AUGUST 24

Saturday Matinee: The Triplets of Belleville*

French whimsy goes through the looking glass in this imaginatively offbeat animated wonder.



SUNDAY, AUGUST 25

British Hitchcock

Featuring a documentary on Alfred Hitchcock’s early career

Early masterpieces and overlooked rarities from the Master of Suspense, featuring: Downhill (1927), The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), Champagne (1928), Blackmail (1929), Murder! (1930), The Skin Game (1931), Rich and Strange (1931), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935), Sabotage (1936), Young and Innocent (1937), The Lady Vanishes (1938), Jamaica Inn (1939)



MONDAY, AUGUST 26

Observations on Film Art No. 30: The Long Take in Shock Corridor

Discover how Samuel Fuller’s camerawork heats up a scorching exposé of American madness.



TUESDAY, AUGUST 27

Short + Feature: There’s a Riot Goin’ On

Sacrilège and La haine

The streets of France erupt in these explosive portraits of social unrest.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28

Sweetie (Jane Campion, 1989)

Criterion Collection Edition #356

THURSDAY, AUGUST 29

Jonas Mekas

Featuring a tribute to Mekas by filmmaker Jem Cohen

A salute to the late avant-garde icon who reclaimed cinema in the name of personal, poetic vision. Featuring: Walden (1969), Lost Lost Lost (1976), Cassis (1966), Hare Krishna (1966), Notes on the Circus (1966), Report from Millbrook (1966), Travel Songs (1981), Time & Fortune Vietnam Newsreel (1968), Williamsburg, Brooklyn (2003), Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days (Ken Jacobs, 2009)



FRIDAY, AUGUST 30

Double Feature: Mysterious Mason

The Wicked Lady and Pandora and the Flying Dutchman

The debonair James Mason is at his brooding best in a scandalous bodice-ripper and a feverish cult fantasy.



SATURDAY, AUGUST 31

Saturday Matinee: Jungle Book

Rudyard Kipling’s storybook adventure roars to life in glorious Technicolor.

