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The Criterion Channel has launched, here’s a look at what’s available to stream

The Criterion Channel officially launched today, which is a dream for lovers of cinema. The streaming service was born following the untimely demise of FilmStruck last year. The Criterion Channel offers subscribers access to practically all of the Criterion Collection, including Eclipse releases, so long as Criterion currently holds the rights. For instance, you may not be able to watch previous Criterion releases like Grand Illusion, The Third Man, or RoboCop, but you can see all of the Criterion releases from the late great Agnes Varda, the classic output of Akira Kurosawa, loads of Ingmar Bergman, the entire Lone Wolf and Cub film series, all of the Zatoichi films, and so much more.

A subscription to The Criterion Channel is $10.99 per month, or $99.99 per year. It is a remarkable value just given all of the films that you have access to, in addition to actor and filmmaker interviews, behind-the-scenes featurettes, audio commentary tracks for numerous films, and other content.

In addition to streaming films on your laptop and desktop, The Criterion Channel is available on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and your iOS and Android devices. That said, as of this writing I cannot add The Criterion Channel via the Roku website, or find the channel while searching on the Roku itself. This being the first day, I assume this issue will be rectified very soon.

So what is on The Criterion Channel? Below I’ll give a cursory rundown of some of the programming on the channel this month and my initial experiences searching for available titles.

According to an official press release from last week, The Criterion Channel hosts more than 1,000 films in the Criterion Collection and Janus Films library. In addition, The Criterion Channel will be home to a rotating selection of films from other studios and independent licensors, including Kino Lorber, MGM, Warner Bros, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, IFC Films, Oscilloscope, and Shout Factory. This rotating selection will help keep content and programming fresh each day.

The Criterion Channel will also be home to original programming that debuted in the FilmStruck days. The interview series Adventures in Filmmakers and Meet the Filmmakers are back, as is Observations on Film Art.

Below is a schedule of The Criterion Channel’s special programming until the end of April. Any day marked with ** is my personal pick for things I am most excited about.

Monday, April 8**

Spotlight: Columbia Noir — Eleven dark gems from the studio that epitomized the hard-boiled essence of film noir

Mildred Pierce, directed by Michael Curtiz, 1945 – Criterion Collection Edition #860

Tuesday, April 9

Short + Feature: Yearbook and Y tu mamá también — A short film by Bernardo Britto paired with Alfonso Cuarón’s beloved road movie

Wednesday, April 10**

Screenwriter: Suso Cecchi d’Amico — Seven classics from the Italian screenwriter behind some of the greatest films of all time

Wanda, directed by Barbara Loden, 1970 — Criterion Collection Edition #965

Thursday, April 11

Directed by David Lynch — Visions of terror and salvation from contemporary cinema’s master of the surreal

Shorts:

Ace in the Hole, directed by Billy Wilder, 1951 — Criterion Collection Edition #396

Friday, April 12**

Double Feature: Last Hurrah for Chivalry and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg — John Woo finds unlikely inspiration in Jacques Demy’s candy-colored musical.

Jubal, directed by Delmer Daves, 1956 — Criterion Collection Edition #656

Saturday, April 13**

Saturday Matinee: Bugsy Malone —Pint-sized wise guys battle it out in this irresistible all-kid gangster spoof.

Sunday, April 14

Julie Taymor’s Adventures in Moviegoing — Our guest-programmer series returns with the acclaimed stage and screen director.

Monday, April 15

Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day, directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972 — Criterion Collection Edition #946

Tuesday, April 16

Short + Feature: The Silence and Taste of Cherry — Two soul-searching Iranian films grapple with mortality

Wednesday, April 17**

Directed by Susanne Bier — Three intimate and explosive dramas from an auteur specializing in emotional extremes

Thursday, April 18**

Kaili Blues — Bi Gan introduces his audacious feature debut, along with a related short film The Poet and Singer.

Friday, April 19**

Double Feature: Hamlet and To Be or Not to Be — Laurence Olivier’s Shakespeare adaptation meets Ernst Lubitsch’s wartime farce.

Saturday, April 20

Saturday Matinee: The Kid — Charlie Chaplin pairs his lovable Tramp with a child companion in one of his best-loved films.

Sunday, April 21**

Meet the Filmmakers: Charles Burnett — The director of To Sleep with Anger revisits Watts with filmmaker Robert Townsend in an intimate portrait paired with a selection of his films.

Shorts:

Monday, April 22

David Simon on Paths of Glory — The creator of The Wire introduces Stanley Kubrick’s wrenching antiwar film.

Tuesday, April 23

Short + Feature: Fauve and The Wages of Fear — An Oscar-nominated short precedes Henri-Georges Clouzot’s masterful suspense film.

The Hidden Fortress, directed by Akira Kurosawa, 1958 — Criterion Collection Edition #116

Wednesday, April 24

The Virgin Suicides, directed by Sofia Coppola, 1999 — Criterion Collection Edition #920

Thursday, April 25

Killer Couples x 3 — Three couples you definitely don’t want to meet at a party

Friday, April 26**

Double Feature: Murder by Contract and Le samouraï — Irving Lerner’s pared-down film noir, followed by Jean-Pierre Melville’s minimalist thriller

Saturday, April 27**

Saturday Matinee: Mon oncle — Jacques Tati’s first color film is a slapstick sendup of modern technology.

Sunday, April 28**

Spotlight: Simone Signoret — A salute to the French actor who brought unforgettable complexity to every performance

Monday, April 29

Observations on Film Art No. 26: The Revolutionary Subjectivity of Memories of Underdevelopment — Professor Jeff Smith picks up our monthly film-school series with a course on a Cuban classic.

Tuesday, April 30**

Short + Feature: Surface Tension and News from Home — Hollis Frampton and Chantal Akerman’s experimental portraits of New York City

I’ll need to spend a full week or so digesting and mulling over what The Criterion Channel has to offer. On this first day of The Criterion Channel, I have gotten a peculiar amount of joy using the search function to find out if a certain movie is on The Criterion Channel. Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons is not available on The Criterion Channel (probably because it’s currently on Netflix) but you can stream Chimes at Midnight; John Waters’ Female Trouble is nowhere to be found, but you can stream Multiple Maniacs. No to cult favs like Repo Man and Putney Swope, but there are some classic Ishiro Honda kaiju movies (Godzilla, Rodan, The War of the Gargantuas) and Rene Laloux’s Fantastic Planet.

I feel like I’ll be playing “Is it available on The Criterion Channel?” a lot in the coming weeks. While I’ll be a little disappointed if something isn’t streamable, there is more than enough for me to check out regardless.

Have you also subscribed to The Criterion Channel? Let us know your experiences below in the comments. We’ll have more coverage of The Criterion Channel here on Flixist in the coming weeks and months, so keep an eye out for that.

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