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criterionmoments.bsky.social
Criterion Moments
@criterionmoments.bsky.social
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Since 2023, we’ve dedicated ourselves to gathering and publishing some screenshots from some movies. criterion.com
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criterionmoments.bsky.social
The Seventh Seal (1957), dir. Ingmar Bergman, #11
A scene from the medieval fantasy The Seventh Seal. A black-and-white image of a sad-looking medieval actor in jester’s motley, bells hanging from his neck and waist. He stands before a fancifully painted backdrop, and a stringy fake beard hangs from his jowls. Something thrown from the crowd, perhaps some overripe fruit, splatters across his face.
March 31, 2025 at 1:14 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), dir. Peter Weir, #29
A scene from the film Picnic at Hanging Rock. A young Australian man with dark blonde hair scrabbles on a rocky mountaintop, unable to gain purchase or stand despite the utterly unchallenging terrain. He stares up towards the camera, which watches him from some dark crevasse, in which lurks some completely unknowable mystery that, if understood, would not illuminate anything about itself. What he looks into is the concept of the unknown itself, and, unable to contend with what he sees within and without, his body fails.
March 10, 2025 at 5:39 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
High and Low (1963), dir. Akira Kurosawa, #24
A scene from the film High and Low. Five men cluster around an open window overlooking the city of Yokohama. An industrial smokestack emits light pink billows. One man looks back in surprise and apprehension. In the world of the film, this is a clue; the trigger on a trap set to locate a kidnapper. On a metatextual level, it is Akira Kurosawa’s first ever use of color on film.
March 2, 2025 at 7:05 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
Babette’s Feast (1987), dir. Gabriel Axel #665
A scene from the Danish film Babette’s Feast. An old woman in austere clothing has a worried look on her face. A figure, face unseen, seems to quietly comfort her from behind. The subtitles of her speech read “The tongue, that strange little muscle,”
February 24, 2025 at 1:33 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
M (1931), dir. Fritz Lang, #30
A scene from the crime noir film M. A man, played by a young Peter Lorre, hunches in the corner of a dank, industrial interior, clearly some sort of basement. His eyes are wild, his face and hands tight, his eyebrows as high as they can get. This is a man cornered, a man trapped. This is a man who has been caught, and who knows he deserves it.
February 18, 2025 at 4:19 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
Memories of Underdevelopment (1968), dir. Tomas Gutierrez Ales #943
A scene from the Cuban film Memories of underdevelopment. In a tastefully appointed bedroom, a man in a white button-down stands with his back to the camera. Facing him, slightly out of focus, a young woman makes a classic “nyah nyah” moose-antler gesture while sticking her tongue out at him
February 15, 2025 at 12:06 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
Winter Light (1963), dir. Ingmar Bergman #210
A handsome Catholic priest sits at a table, an almost coy and coquettish look on a face worn otherwise ragged by sorrow. His hand seems to brush back is neatly combed hair. Over his shoulder, a wooden Christ suffers on the cross, ribs prominent and head bowed.
February 9, 2025 at 7:39 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
Touki Bouki (1973), dir. Djubril Diop Membety #685
A scene from the Senegalese adventure film Touki Bouki. A postcoital couple lounge in the sun on a cliff overlooking the sea. One of the couple props themselves up in a seated position over the other, who is played out on the flat rock surface. To the couple’s left, a motorcycle. To their right, a cow skull. A large rock sticks out of the water some distance away.
February 2, 2025 at 9:10 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
Beauty and the Beast (1942), dir. Jean Cocteau, #6
A scene from the French fantasy film Beauty and the Beast. In a grand reveal, we get our first good look at the titular Beast. He emerges from the greenery of his garden and steps onto the footpath the block the door. His features are still in shadow but his silhouette immediately translates as an immaculately dressed French lord with the head of a lion. His eyes flash with a primal ferocity that belies his gentle gait and almost dainty body language.
January 24, 2025 at 11:54 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
Half a Loaf of Kung Fu (1978), dir. Chan Chi-Hwa, #1197
A scene from the opening credits sequence of the Hong Kong Kung Fu comedy Half a Loaf of Kung Fu. Throughout the sequence, Jackie Chan displays various comic scenes and martial arts proficiencies, sort of a demo reel of his whole deal. In this particular vignette, after a display of two-saber flourishes, a gang of assailants throw what I believe are kunai (a kind of throwing knife) at him. He attempts to dodge in midair, resulting in this image: Jackie Chan, a young Chinese martial artist in white martial arts attire with black accents and belt, pinned to the wall in a pose reminiscent of Christ on the cross. His body is framed (and theoretically supported) on the wall by the throwing knives, each of which have a red tassel hanging from the blunt end. When this moment happens a musical sting similar to the song “Superstar” from Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Weber’s stage play Jesus Christ Superstar plays.
January 20, 2025 at 1:59 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
Invention for Destruction (1958), dir. Karel Zeman #1016
A scene from the Czech science fiction masterpiece Invention for Destruction. In a Victorian Engraving animation style, we see a port city somewhere in Europe. A burly man in some manner of swimming costume (with cap) sporting a waxed moustache and expression of intense concentration and seriousness, propels himself across the water by a combination of three devices, supposedly used in concert: 1) ski-like footwear, seemingly shorter and thicker than water skis 2) an oar like a paddleboard 3) a propeller attached to his back.
January 15, 2025 at 8:59 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
Female Trouble (1974), dir. John Waters, #929
A scene from the crime comedy Female Trouble. In a cluttered, rough performance space, a woman in a tight white top with rhinestones and faux fur stands in front of a trampoline. She is fat with the sides of her head shaved and vivid, garish makeup that draws her eyeliner and eyeshadow all the way behind her ears. The rest of her hair forms a huge crest over the top of her head, easily a foot and a half tall. Her eyes flash with joy and malice as with her right hand she extends a revolver. The barrel barks as she fires from the stage into the audience. Her mouth hangs open in laughter.
January 12, 2025 at 3:44 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
Walkabout (1971), dir. Nicolas Roeg, #10
A scene from the film Walkabout. An indigenous Australian boy of about sixteen wrestles a water buffalo, grasping it by the horns. He is all muscle, and its four legs are splayed in resistance. In the background, the tangle of scrub gives rise to spiky trees, and then a vast plain beyond, with low mountains on the horizon. The sky is pale blue with barely a whisp of cloud. The moment is violent, but nature is immense and seemingly endless.
January 6, 2025 at 6:05 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
Lord of the Flies (1963), dir. Peter Brook, #43
A scene from the adventure film Lord of the Flies. A young boy stands on some rocks at the edge of a churning sea. He is very close to the camera. In one hand he holds a conch shell. His mouth is open and eyes closed in surprise. An enormous rock falls into frame. The whole image blurs with the violence of the action.
December 21, 2024 at 12:05 AM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
Things to Come (1936), dir. William Cameron Menzies, #660
A scene from the speculative future sci-fi film Things to Come, based on the novel by HG Wells. A black-and-white landscape viewed from high above reveals the launch point for humankind’s first piloted trip around the moon, set to launch in 2036. Buzzing above the campus in the clouds, a little personal helicopter approaches the site. The campus itself stands in a hilly countryside, seemingly untouched (possibly due to humans mostly living underground). A monorail connected the central structures to remote locations. A large loading platform stands ready to service the launch tower. I’ve been dancing around the actual launch device itself, because it’s just literally a gun. It’s a fifteen-story gun barrel, with sights and everything. It’s so funny. I love it.
December 15, 2024 at 5:27 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
The Lady Vanishes (1938), dir. Alfred Hitchcock, #3
A scene from the suspense film The Lady Vanishes. A black and white image of a large passenger train, stopped on its tracks in the woods. A man falls off the stairs leading up to the train. He is well-dressed with a receding hairline and turned out to face the camera. In one hand he holds a cloth napkin, intended as a white flag to surrender to some Nazis. You cannot negotiate with Nazis.
December 10, 2024 at 3:02 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
The Horse’s Mouth (1958), dir. Ronald Neame, #154
A scene from the British screwball comedy The Horse’s Mouth, wherein Michael Gough (left) and Alec Guinness (right), play eccentric artists, named Albel and Gulley respectively. At the moment their physical confrontation (which involved Abel preventing Gulley from speaking on the telephone, still gripped in his right hand) paused due to a huge slab of marble crashing through the floor, rather than its intent to lightly rest upon it. The two are staring at the devastation, which is out of frame. Gulley’s is a look of weary incredulousness, while Abel wears a guilty sort of surprise. Hiar arms are wrapped around Gulley from behind, giving the impression he would like a piggyback ride.
December 7, 2024 at 2:13 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
Fight Without Hate (1948), dir. André Michel, #900
A montage of earlier Olympics told largely in photograph from the documentary Fight Without Hate. Here, a young ice skater from the 1924 Paris and Chamonix games wears an outlandish and gaudy outfit with stripes, a pleated skirt, and a big floppy cap. They appear garish and clownish, but with an intense sense of danger thanks to a raised foot that displays a sharp-bladed skate. The subtitled caption “This little monster is Sonja Henie” isn’t helping anything.
December 3, 2024 at 1:57 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
Once Upon a Time in China II (1992), dir. Tsui Hark, #1103
A lit nighttime scene from Once Upon a Time in China II wherein a master of the martial arts, played by personal favorite of my partner Donnie Yen, demonstrates his considerable skill. His face contorts in fearsome concentration as he takes a powerful crouched stance in the background. He has struck a bucket in the foreground with a stick, and has broken it beyond all reasonable repair. Its wooden bands spring out on all sides, and the mass of water held therein begins to surge onto the sand below. It’s just at that point where the water still forms a raised blob in the middle as it rushes to level ground. This is not a man to mess with, but Jet Li will do so in about thirty seconds.
November 29, 2024 at 7:21 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
Brute Force (1947), dir. Jules Dassin, #383
A scene from the prison noir film Brute Force. A black-and-white image wherein prisoners enact their escape using a cart on a track. The way is blocked by guards who have formed an earthen barricade with a mounted machine gun. The last surviving prisoner of this group enacts a final, desperate, futile maneuver, allowing the halted momentum of the run-aground cart to catapult him over the barricade and onto the guards. His figure looms in the air over the two guards, who brace for impact. Behind, lashed to the front of the cart, another prisoner slumps over, dead from gunfire. In moments the two guards and remaining prisoner will all be dead as well, but for one brief airborne violent instant, he is free.
November 24, 2024 at 8:57 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
The Importance of Being Earnest (1952), dir. Anthony Asquith, #158
A scene from the comedy film The Importance of Being Earnest. In an English garden, one gentleman (seated) puts a muffin in his mouth while the other (leaning over the seated man’s right shoulder) chastises him. The seated man has a devil-may-care attitude that contrasts with the frantically busy pattern on his jacket, and I wish I knew more about menswear and the vocabulary therein because the standing man has this gorgeous jacket with pink, blue, and black stripes only on the very edges of his lapel and waistcoat and a matching tie, and if anyone can find me something like that I would be incredibly grateful.
November 20, 2024 at 6:57 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
RoboCop (1987), dir. Paul Verhoven, #23
A scene from the sci-fi action film RoboCop, wherein a man who has been exposed to toxic chemicals is hit by a car, which causes him to disintegrate like a mummy made of pork trimmings wrapped in wet toilet paper. His face is visibly detaching from his body and hurtling towards the windshield. The car in question is the 6000 SUX, advertised in the film as “big”, with an MPG of about eight. From a production standpoint, it’s a ’76 Oldsmobile built up with a fiberglass exterior. This scene is arguably more iconic and widely remembered than the ultimate villain’s defeat at the end of the film, although the man being dispatched here is a relatively minor antagonist. This is largely due to the quality and spectacular nature of the practical effects in play.
November 15, 2024 at 3:24 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
Häxan (1922), dir. Benjamin Christensen, #134
A scene from the 1922 horror-documentary Häxan where the initiation of witches is recreated for the edification of the audience. in a monochrome black-and-blue shot meant to evoke the deepest night in the darkest forest, a procession of elderly women in dark dresses line up to kiss a bent-over demon on their proffered rump. The demon leans with straight arms over a brick altar. They are very tall and full-figured, with bushy eyebrows, batlike ears, spiky joints, claws, and pendulous breasts. Another, taller devil watches from the darkness. The woman at the front of the line has her face buried in the plush cheek of evil, and everyone is having a nice time.
November 11, 2024 at 2:02 PM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
Nashville (1975), dir. Robert Altman, #683
A young blond woman sings in front of a keyboard player and a choir at a political rally before a stately building with columns. the subtitles indicate she is singing, the lyrics being "It don't worry me", a statement of resilience in the face of political violence, representing the turning point when the people reject the corporate stock image of Country and restore it to the music of the people
November 7, 2024 at 12:15 AM
criterionmoments.bsky.social
House (1977) dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi #539
A perfectly blue-screened scene in the Japanese horror-comedy HOUSE where the character Fantasy (so named because of her constant daydreaming) attempts to retrieve a chilled watermelon from a well, only to find it replaced with her friend Mac's head (Mac so nicknamed because she's always hungry, thus "stoMACh". it's a crazy stretch) anyway the head starts flying around and bites Fantasy on her lil butt.
November 13, 2023 at 5:06 PM