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The Criterion Challenge 2021

51 movies   1 tv show  

This is my current work-in-progress list for the first annual Criterion Challenge as created by <a href="https://letterboxd.com/bslaby/">Ben</a>. I'm challenging myself to watch at least one Criterion-related movie a week based on that week's category. Click the glasses button ("Read more") to see the category for each movie!

The original rules and details can be found here: <a href="https://letterboxd.com/bslaby/list/the-criterion-challenge-2021/">The Criterion Challenge 2021</a>.

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Throne of Blood (1957)
蜘蛛巣城
★ 8.2 (257 ratings) director: 黑泽明 actor: 三船敏郎 / 山田五十铃 …
other title: 거미집의 성 / 蜘蛛巣城 …
Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.
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Movie

Pink Flamingos (1972)
Pink Flamingos
★ 6.2 (77 ratings) director: 約翰·沃特斯 actor: Divine / Mary Vivian Pearce …
other title: 粉红色的火烈鸟 / 粉红火鹤(台) …
Notorious Baltimore criminal and underground figure Divine goes up against Connie & Raymond Marble, a sleazy married couple who make a passionate attempt to humiliate her and seize her tabloid-given title as "The Filthiest Person Alive".
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Movie

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) WikiData IMDb TMDB Douban
La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc
★ 8.8 (184 ratings) director: Carl Theodor Dreyer actor: Maria Falconetti / Eugène Silvain …
other title: 잔 다르크의 수난 / 裁かるるジャンヌ …
A classic of the silent age, this film tells the story of the doomed but ultimately canonized 15th-century teenage warrior. On trial for claiming she'd spoken to God, Jeanne d'Arc is subjected to inhumane treatment and scare tactics at the hands of church court officials. Initially bullied into changing her story, Jeanne eventually opts for what she sees as the truth. Her punishment, a famously brutal execution, earns her perpetual martyrdom.
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Movie

M (1931)
M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder
★ 8.3 (322 ratings) director: 弗里茨·朗 actor: 彼得·洛 / Ellen Widmann …
other title: M就是凶手 / M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder …
In this classic German thriller, Hans Beckert, a serial killer who preys on children, becomes the focus of a massive Berlin police manhunt. Beckert's heinous crimes are so repellant and disruptive to city life that he is even targeted by others in the seedy underworld network. With both cops and criminals in pursuit, the murderer soon realizes that people are on his trail, sending him into a tense, panicked attempt to escape justice.
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The Seventh Seal (1957)
Det sjunde inseglet
★ 8.7 (428 ratings) director: Ingmar Bergman actor: Max von Sydow / Bengt Ekerot …
other title: 제7의 봉인 / 第七の封印 …
When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.
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Stalker (1979)
Сталкер
★ 8.9 (460 ratings) director: 安德烈·塔可夫斯基 actor: 亚历山大·凯伊达诺夫斯基 / 阿丽萨·弗雷因德利赫 …
other title: 潜行者 / Сталкер …
Near a gray and unnamed city is the Zone, a place guarded by barbed wire and soldiers, and where the normal laws of physics are victim to frequent anomalies. A stalker guides two men into the Zone, specifically to an area in which deep-seated desires are granted.
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Come And See (1985)
Иди и смотри
★ 8.9 (179 ratings) director: Elem Klimov actor: 阿列克谢·克拉夫琴科 / 奥尔加·米罗诺娃 …
other title: 自己去看 / Иди и смотри …
The invasion of a village in Byelorussia by German forces sends young Florya into the forest to join the weary Resistance fighters, against his family's wishes. There he meets a girl, Glasha, who accompanies him back to his village. On returning home, Florya finds his family and fellow peasants massacred. His continued survival amidst the brutal debris of war becomes increasingly nightmarish, a battle between despair and hope.
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Before Midnight (2013)
Before Midnight
★ 8.8 (1319 ratings) director: Richard Linklater actor: Ethan Hawke / Julie Delpy …
other title: 爱在午夜降临前 / 情约半生(港) …
It has been nine years since we last met Jesse and Celine, the French-American couple who once met on a train in Vienna. They now live in Paris with twin daughters but have spent a summer in Greece at the invitation of an author colleague of Jesse's. When the vacation is over and Jesse must send his teenage son off to the States, he begins to question his life decisions, and his relationship with Celine is at risk.
Reply Quote July 23, 2026