What’s All The Hulu-baloo About? This Week In Criterion’s Hulu Channel

There are TONS of new releases this past week, and as my co-host and friend Travis George said, it was going to be a hell of a time to write these up for all of you people out there who want to know about Criterion’s blossoming Hulu Plus page. And as usual, I’m elated to tell you all about these films, especially if you want to join up to the service, which helps us keep this weekly article series going. I mean, come on, there’s an Ingmar Bergman film that’s not in the collection yet! More on that at the end of the article. So let’s get right to it then.

The epic film The Human Condition (1959) has been put up, separated into three videos. Parts 1 & 2, Parts 3 & 4 and Parts 5 & 6 are there for your ease of watching, so if you have 574 minutes to kill watching the beautiful black and white images presented by Masaki Kobayashi, I’d say do it this weekend, especially with the heat wave that’s hitting the country right now.

Coming out this Tuesday is Kon Inchikawa’s The Makioka Sisters (1983) but you can watch it on Hulu’s page first. A wonderful adaptation of Junichiro Tanizaki’s novel, we see the lives of a family who have taken over the kimono business leading up to the Pacific War. The colors are breathtaking in this film, as we see the story unfold as the changing of the seasons and why the youngest of the four siblings cannot marry due the shyness of the third. A film that will get a lot of love soon enough.

A film that Janus has been touring lately, which just played at BAM here in NYC, is Kaneto Shindo’s The Naked Island (1960), which isn’t in the collection yet. I say yet because it’s a perfect fit, with Shindo’s Onibaba and Fighting Elegy already being there. Also his film Kuroneko is one we speak of regularly on the podcast and is hopefully coming out later this year. Halloween feels like a perfect fit. The Naked Island is a nearly dialogue free film, where a small Japanese family is struggling to make ends meet on a small island. A sad tale that I ask all of you to watch and let me know what you think.

An interesting pick up by Criterion is the Bulldog Drummond series, which 10 films are now on the Hulu page, six of which were added this past week. Wait, you don’t know who Bulldog Drummond is? Described as ‘part James Bond’, ‘part Sherlock Holmes’, Captain Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond is a former officer from World War I in Britain who has grown bored with his civilian life and gets into private investigation. Created by “Sapper” (Herman Cyril McNeile), his stories are influenced by the pulp heroes of the day, such as Doc Savage. Great yarns, the six that are new to the page are The Return of Bulldog Drummond (1934) and Bulldog Drummond’s Revenge (1937), Bulldog Drummond Escapes (1937), Bulldog Drummond Comes Back (1937), Bulldog Drummond’s Peril (1938) and Bulldog Drummond’s Wife (1939). Around an hour of length each, they are great fun.

With Louis Malle’s Black Moon coming out this year, we are getting a few films from Malle’s Documentary Eclipse set, his debut film and a shocking one as well. Calcutta (1969), …And The Pursuit Of Happiness (1986), Place De La Republique (1974) and Humain, Trop Humain (1973). For some reason, Malle wasn’t as known for these documentaries, which show a more personal side than his feature narrative work. We get a bit of France, a little India and even some immigrant American experience. As I said above, we’re also getting Elevator to the Gallows (1957), which was his first film, told over one restless night in Paris and dealing with a murder. That Miles Davis score is still one to behold and it’s definitely a knock out punch. They’ve also put up his film The Fire Within (1963), about a writer who wants to kill himself (played by Maurice Ronet who was also in Elevator) and wants to reconnect with his friends in the following 24 hours before doing the deed. A very dark and telling story of one man’s inner turmoil and beautifully shown on screen.

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933), one of Fritz Lang’s best (in a career full of brilliance) and our very own David Blakeslee’s favorite cover (I’m assuming, of course) is a sequel to Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler and a sequel of sorts to M, because Inspector Lohmann returns, this time to put the pieces to a case that doesn’t make sense at all to a logical mind. A film showcasing an evil that was brainstorming to take over which paralleled with the Nazi takeover going on in Germany that then became a reality, it’s a film that Goebbels himself banned because he thought it presented the people with a manual to terrorist action. A film that many people copied afterward, it’s one that is definitely ripe for rediscovery yet again.

A film that I’ve been meaning to check out for years is DuÅ¡an Makavejev’s WR: Mysteries of the Organism (1971). What does the energy harnessed from an orgasm have to do with Yugoslavia in 1971? Blending politics and sexuality, the film was banned in his native country when it was released and is a pseudo documentary/ narrative feature which deals with the work of controversial psychologist and philosopher Wilhelm Reich and then delves into the sexual liberation of a young Slavic girl. It’s one I’ve heard only the best from fellow film nerds, it’s one that I have no excuse for not checking out now.

Anne-Marie (1936) is another film that isn’t in the Criterion Collection yet. Directed by Raymond Bernard (who has an Eclipse set with two amazing films that are also on their Hulu page, Wooden Crosses and what is deservedly hailed as the greatest screen adaptation of Les misérables), Anne-Marie is about a woman who is trying to become a pilot in the 1930’s and is the next to last pre-war French film that the star Annabella did before going to Hollywood. It is also the sole screenwriting credit for Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who is most famous for his story The Little Prince. I can’t wait to check this film out, considering I haven’t been let down by Bernard yet.

Jean-Pierre Léaud returns as Antoine Doinel in Stolen Kisses (1968), the third installment in Truffaut’s series. He’s been dishonorably discharged from the army and is now on the streets of Paris where all sorts of misadventures start to occur. Luckily Hulu Plus has the whole series of adventures of Antoine Doinel, starting with his landmark 400 Blows (which should be watched promptly). After Stolen Kisses is Bed and Board and following that is Love On the Run, the final chapter in the Doinel series. It’s wonderful seeing Léaud grow up in these films and Truffaut’s steady eye and love for the medium is on full display in these comical affairs.

One of my favorite Criterion covers goes to Ronald Neame’s The Horse’s Mouth (1958), an earlier spine number (#154), is one of Alec Guinness’ finest performance in his amazing career. As the scruffy painter Gulley Jimson, we are treated to one of the best comic performances, we see him stopping at nothing to get the best canvas. A very underrated film, in my opinion, that I will be catching up with this weekend.

Sword of the Beast (1965) is one of my favorite Hideo Gosha films (this being his most famous in this neck of the woods) and is part of the action packed Rebel Samurai: Sixties Swordplay Classics. About a disgraced man who lives in the wild like an animal after being hunted like one, until he meets another samurai who is poaching for gold in the mountains. Definitely a fun and thrilling film about betrayal and the attempt to gain one’s life back after losing it all.

The Cranes Are Flying (1957) is a film I’m not familiar with at all, within the collection and directed by Mikhail Kalatozov. Perhaps a more somber look at World War II than our latest podcast, this deals with young lovers Veronica and Boris who are torn apart due to the beginning of the war. Boris is forced to the front lines and then their communication stops completely. The winner of the Palme d’Or in 1958, I feel a bit ashamed I’ve never seen this film. Something I must rectify asap.

Torna (1954) is another film not in the Criterion or Eclipse collections by a soon to be member of the latter. Raffaello Matarazzo directed this drama about two cousins James and Robert who are both in love with the same woman, Susanna. When Robert and Susanna announce that they are to be married, James vows to ruin any sort of happiness they could ever achieve. A film dealing with how far one man selfishness can ruin people’s lives, it’s a testament as to why Matarazzo is a perfect fit within the collection.

It wouldn’t be a week with new releases from Hulu Plus if it didn’t have another film from Yasujiro Ozu and this time it’s Tokyo Twilight (1957) from his Late Ozu Eclipse set. It’s a touching tale of two sisters who have to deal with the pain of an absent mother, unwanted pregnancy and troubles in marriage.

Albert Finney was deservedly nominated for the Oscar for his portrayal of British consul Geoffrey Firmin in John Huston’s Under the Volcano (1984), in my eyes a forgotten masterpiece. Telling the story on the final day of Firmin, attempting to reconnect with his estranged wife (played by the radiant Jacqueline Bisset) but sadly pushes her more way, while in Mexico on The Day of the Dead fiesta. Another supposedly novel that had no chance of being adapted to the screen, Huston did the unthinkable and made a stellar film with an amazing performance and returned him to his filming stomping grounds of Mexico where he did a small picture known as The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

I Vitelloni (1953), the second solo directorial effort from Federico Fellini, is another semi-autobiographical tale about five young men in a seacoast town who go through their lives in a sort of limbo, drinking and chasing women to keep time moving forward. We see their lives through one year and if they ever find any sort of meaning to it all. Another Academy Award nominee, it’s a great film and seeing early Fellini is where one should begin when watching one of the greats.

One of the more exciting releases this week is an Ingmar Bergman film that hasn’t been released yet, either in the Criterion Collection or within their very own Eclipse series. Summer Interlude (1951). With Criterion adding the complete Fanny and Alexander TV cut on their Hulu Plus page (which you have no excuse not watching this weekend with The Human Condition) and with the recent news flooding the internet about his upbringing and that he was actually adopted, it’s a wonderful time to catch up with a film that many people haven’t had the pleasure of seeing. Summer Interlude is one of Bergman’s earlier romantic dramas, dealing with a ballerina who is dealing with a tragedy that has put her in a place of repressed feelings and closing herself off to the world, harkening back to a love affair she had many years ago. It sounds beautiful, interweaving flashbacks of a time long missed and the present day and sounds like Bergman, at any time of his career, was at the top of his game.

And that’s a fitting end to this week’s Hulu-baloo. A huge amount of fantastic stuff, as usual, from our friends over at Criterion. Thanks again for checking this out and please, if you sign up for the Hulu Plus service, do so right here. Every little bit counts and we appreciate it. Until next week, keep on streaming.