Criterion Month Day 7: Ashes And Diamonds

Ashes and Diamonds (1958)

For my first foray into the career of Polish director Andrzej Wajda, I’m starting at the end. Not at the end of his career, as he would be a presence on the international film stage even into the ’80s, but more because I’m starting at the end of a trilogy. Wajda’s films A Generation in 1955 and Kanał in 1957 preceded Ashes and Diamonds as commentaries on the effects World War II had on Poland, and all three have appeared together in an early Criterion box set that is now out of print. But Ashes and Diamonds seems to be the most acclaimed of these three films, so it seemed like a good place to start. The film certainly feels like a continuation of something, as there’s an impeccable amount of craft behind it, which managed to slip in some anti-communist sympathies despite being filmed in communist Poland. Continue reading →

Criterion Month Day 6: Cairo Station

Cairo Station (1958)

One fun thing to be reminded of each year when we do Criterion Month is that film is such a rich, wide-ranging, and diverse medium that there are always new pockets of great filmmaking around the world to discover. Namely, I chose to watch Cairo Station for not much reason other than that it was a film produced in Egypt, a country that I don’t believe has been represented yet in Criterion Month. So after watching the film and doing a little bit of digging into its production, I was surprised to find that Egypt actually had a pretty thriving film industry during the mid-20th century, on par with Bollywood.

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Criterion Month Day 4: Summer with Monika

Summer with Monika (1953)

From Terence Malick’s Badlands to Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, one of the most beloved sub-genres cinema’s great auteurs inevitably explore is stories about young lovers on the run. Ingmar Bergman went there when he was 35, a bit before all the big titles in his filmography, but nonetheless Summer with Monika did achieve its own unique sort of infamy: two years after its Swedish release, a Time magazine article about “Sin & Sweden” inspired an edited-down version of the movie to be released in the US, where it was a poster child Swedish exploitation films. Hard to believe that was ever a thing! Against all odds did Ingmar Bergman of all people make an early erotic masterpiece? And can a movie from 73 years ago still titillate audiences in 2026?

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Criterion Month Day 3: Night and the City

Night and the City (1950)

There are plenty of directors that are closely associated with the film noir genre, from John Huston to Billy Wilder to Edward Dmytryk. However, there was really only one great noir director who found themself completely severed from the country that produced the majority of the great noirs. Jules Dassin first made a name for himself in the genre in Hollywood with fellow Criterion Collection entries 1947’s Brute Force and 1948’s The Naked City, but was blacklisted due to being a former member of several American communist party associations in his younger years. This is how Dassin ended up directing his later films in Europe, such as heist classic Rififi. While Dassin was in the midst of being ousted from Hollywood, he made a sojourn to Britain to direct Night and the City, a film fittingly about a desperate man with more than a few walls closing in on him.

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Criterion Month Day 2: All That Money Can Buy

All That Money Can Buy (1941)

I first learned about “All That Money Can Buy” aka “The Devil and Daniel Webster” from the same place I learn all of my pop culture tidbits: The Simpsons.

“The Devil and Homer Simpson” was the first story in The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror IV, which first aired on October 28, 1993. In the segment, Homer sells his soul to the Devil (Ned Flanders) for a donut. Lisa pleads with the Devil for a trial, but only on the conditions that Homer spend a day in Hell, and that the Devil gets to pick the jury, a jury he refers to as the “Jury of the Damned,” which includes infamous historical figures such as Blackbeard, John Wilkes Booth, Benedict Arnold, and the starting lineup of the 1976 Philadelphia Flyers.

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Criterion Month Day 1: Hell’s Angels

Hell’s Angels (1930)

There is not much value in getting nostalgic for how the ultrarich used to live. Yes, they seemed to have better taste, with their ornate mansions that still stand today and often serve as museums or tourist destinations, as well as their patronage to the arts. But at the same time, a billionaire is still a billionaire. And if we’re adjusting for inflation while talking about the ultra-wealthy of the early 20th century, a millionaire is still a millionaire.

That said, there is something about the image of maverick aviation pioneer Howard Hughes risking his life against the wishes of his stunt coordinator to film one of the marvelous plane combat scenes in 1930’s Hell’s Angels. It was a stunt so dangerous that Hughes crashed his plane and had to have facial surgery, which was immortalized in the 2004 film The Aviator. It’s the type of thing you’d be hard-pressed to imagine one of today’s billionaire tech turds attempting, let alone having the attention span to craft a piece of long-form storytelling, even one that mostly aims to thrill and amaze you. So with that all said, I have to give Mr. Hughes begrudging respect for pulling off one of the more entertaining movies of the early sound era I can remember seeing.

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