13 movies to watch on FilmStruck before Warner Bros. pulls the plug on the streaming service
Image: Photo: Withnail & I Photo: The Strange Love Of Martha IversPhoto: The Philadelphia StoryPhoto: The Shop Around The Corner'Graphic: Libby McGuire Film Features AVQ&A
This week’s question follows the news that Warner Bros. is shutting down its Criterion-affiliated streaming platform (at least for now):
What one movie should subscribers watch on FilmStruck before the service closes up shop on November 29?
Vadim Rizov
Jacques Tourneur’s 1948 Berlin Express is a thriller with a then-topical twist: An American, a Brit, etc. in Germany on postwar political business need to track down a kidnapped German peace activist. The premise screams dull and dutiful allegory about global cooperation, but Tourneur (still best known for ultimate noir Out Of The Past) applies his visually expressive A-game to very real locations. With the perpetually world-weary Robert Ryan anchoring the tone as America’s rep, this is noir that doubles as documentary. The film was shot in rubble-strewn Berlin at the same time Billy Wilder was making A Foreign Affair and Roberto Rossellini his bleak Germany, Year Zero; together, all three—which strived to avoid shooting the same locations while shuttling equipment back and forth—provide complementary, wildly different, and still-startling views of the terrain.
Jesse Hassenger
I’ll pause in the middle of my frantic rush to determine how much I can watch before FilmStruck goes dark to recommend a hardly obscure but thematically (and seasonally!) appropriate classic: The Shop Around The Corner, Ernst Lubitsch’s pen-pal rom-com that inspired the about-to-turn-20 You’ve Got Mail. Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan are adorable as feuding coworkers who have been unwittingly writing each other anonymous love letters, but what struck me when I finally caught up with the film was how much time and care Lubitsch takes in detailing the business where both characters work, a leather goods emporium in Budapest. He makes running a retail outlet look kind of exciting and even sometimes honorable, without shortchanging the hard work and frustration that goes into it—which seems like an appropriate choice to celebrate a business (and subsidiary of an enormous corporation) that also did wonderful and beloved work that seemed like it must have been a lot of fun, too. (Maybe even more so than selling leather doodads in Budapest.) Not to spoil anything, but The Shop Around The Corner ends happier than the FilmStruck story does, so if you haven’t seen it, maybe you could use the comfort.
Lawrence Garcia
Though less heralded than other French New Wave filmmakers like Godard and Truffaut, Claude Chabrol remains a significant figure of that vaunted circle. (At the very least, he has the distinction of appearing briefly in The Other Side Of The Wind.) A number of his films are currently streaming, but the best of these is his late-period masterpiece, 1995’s La Cérémonie. Transposing Ruth Rendell’s 1977 British novel, A Judgment In Stone, to an isolated area of Brittany, the film stars Sandrine Bonnaire as an illiterate maid employed by the wealthy Lelièvre family, and Isabelle Huppert as a local postal worker who harbors more than a little ire toward the Lelièvres. From the opening aerial shot of a car wending through a rural countryside, Chabrol’s superlative talents at crafting genre thrillers are on full display. No mere kill-the-bourgeoisie tract, La Cérémonie spirals toward its shocking, inevitable finale in a manner that’s far more complex and chilling.
Noel Murray
I feel confident that the jewels of the Criterion Collection will show up on that new streaming service it’s launching. But I worry that some of the FilmStruck/Criterion esoterica—like the contents of last year’s phenomenal 100 Years Of Olympic Films box set—won’t carry over. There are a healthy number of rare documentary shorts to watch at the Olympic page, but the feature to seek out is Tony Maylam’s 1977 White Rock, an arty, Rick Wakeman-scored record of the 1976 Innsbruck Winter Olympics, inspired by Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia and Kon Ichikawa’s Tokyo Olympiad (both of which are also available on FilmStruck). White Rock is much shorter than its predecessors but just as pretty to look at, with a dynamic audio-visual style that sports TV producers quickly tried to copy.
A.A. Dowd
But what will happen to the FilmStruck titles that aren’t part of the Criterion Collection? Will Je T’aime, Je T’aime, for example, find a new home on the new streaming service? Long unavailable in the States (Kino Lorber brought it to Blu-ray three years ago via a transfer that many have criticized for its distracting blue tint), Alain Resnais’ 1968 science-fiction melodrama tells the story of a heartbroken man (Claude Rich) who submits himself to a time-travel experiment, only to find himself unmoored in his own past, experiencing a recently aborted relationship out of order, as a jumbled montage of moments. As in much of Resnais’ work, the larger subject is the mysterious pull of memory, and here the filmmaker uses lo-fi sci-fi to capture the endless agonizing a breakup can incur—the way so many flip the events of their love life over and over again in their minds, trying to make sense of how and why things went wrong. Something of a time traveler itself, Je T’aime, Je T’aime anticipated not just the basic premise of Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind but also the fragmented storytelling style of a thousand nonlinear art movies. Stream it now, before it fades from the web again like a distant memory.
Caroline Siede
What better way to emotionally process the demise of FilmStruck than with a screwball comedy about death? Arsenic And Old Lace has been a favorite of mine since my high school put on Joseph Kesselring’s play my freshman year, and while I maintain that our production was very good, I’ll concede that Frank Capra’s 1944 version just might be a little bit better. Murder has never been as charming as it is when carried out by two cheerful old aunts determined to end the suffering of lonely bachelors. Throw in a little Teddy Roosevelt comedy, some Boris Karloff gags, and my all-time favorite, flabbergasted Cary Grant performance, and you have the perfect funny, macabre way to toast the end of FilmStruck. Just, uh, maybe raise a glass of something other than elderberry wine.
Mike D’Angelo
Although it doesn’t quite live up to one of the greatest titles of all time, Séance On A Wet Afternoon (1964) deserves more attention than it generally receives nowadays. (That may have something to do with the middling reputation of its director, Bryan Forbes, who’s now best remembered for being the first filmmaker to screw up The Stepford Wives.) Anchored by a chilling performance from legendary stage star Kim Stanley—she won Best Actress from the New York Film Critics Circle that year, and was nominated for the Oscar—it’s the quietly demented story of a rinky-dink medium who persuades her meek husband (Richard Attenborough, wearing a prosthetic nose for some reason) to kidnap a child, with the intention of solving the crime via her alleged psychic powers and thereby becoming, if not world-renowned, at least London-renowned. The film is spookily atmospheric enough that it was remade, decades later, by Kiyoshi Kurosawa as simply Séance, but it’s primarily worth seeing for Stanley, who made very few films and puts herself heart and soul into the grandiose mindset of this delusional woman. This is the sort of singular sleeper that you’ll recommend every time someone solicits examples of lesser-known gems. Just as I’m doing now!
Clayton Purdom
I am the basic bro of the film world; catch me expounding at length about David Cronenberg and Blade Runner but never finishing Tokyo Story despite multiple attempts and lots of critical analyses read. A service like FilmStruck—and, by extension, the Criterion Collection at large—is aspirational for someone like me, an attempt to fill in the continent-sized portions of film history that remain shadowy. I flit through based on genre and cover design and hope to find something that connects. My point is that I can’t really tell you much about why Jacques Tati’s 1967 Playtime is his “masterpiece,” beyond that Wikipedia informs me as such. What I can tell you is that it rearranges the purposeful architectural composition and modernist anxieties of so many of my other favorite movies into a sprawling comedy bursting with pathos, slapstick delight, and unexpected beauty. If you, like me, struggle with the obtuseness of a lot of movies you’re supposed to like, give it a shot.
Vikram Murthi
FilmStruck’s imminent demise all but demands that cinephiles seek out work that’s otherwise difficult to access. Although Ronald Bronstein’s Frownland is available to purchase on DVD, and thus not quite “unavailable,” it still deserves to be in the conversation of underseen, underappreciated gems. Featuring a stellar lead turn by Dore Mann (his only screen credit to date), Bronstein’s film situates us in the headspace of a pathologically anxious, mentally unbalanced coupon salesman as he struggles to exist in a New York City that neither has the patience nor the inclination to keep up with his festering neuroses. Frownland won’t be everyone’s cup of tea—its abrasive approach and scuzzy aesthetics are almost designed to quickly weed out detractors, and that’s not even getting to Mann’s daringly alienating performance—but Bronstein’s stubbornly personal vision will be a balm for those who wish more films would be less eager to do the work for the viewer. You can trace the last decade of great American independent film to Frownland, and it features one of the most stunningly cruel roommate exchanges ever put to film: “Has it ever occurred to you that your ridiculous, disjointed sputterings might inspire me to want to malign you?”
Katie Rife
As Richard E. Grant (hopefully) inches his way toward his first Oscar nomination, it’s a shame that it’s about to get more difficult to see the movie that started it all. Yes, once FilmStruck shuts down, Withnail & I (1987) will be tossed out like so many champagne bottles full of cigarette butts, unavailable for even paid streaming. (At least until the Criterion service launches.) Set in London in the late 1960s, the film stars Grant as Withnail, an unemployed actor whose pompous grandstanding belies his crazed, lighter-fluid-chugging alcoholism, alongside Paul McGann as his paranoid roommate, Marwood (the “& I” of the title). One of the all-time great British hangout comedies, Withnail & I rivals even Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas in the sheer volume of drugs and drink consumed on screen, and has even more quotable lines. (Grant’s fist-pounding declaration of “We want the finest wines available to humanity! And we want them here, and we want them now!” is an all-timer.) Its DNA can be seen in everything from Spaced to Wayne’s World, and Grant’s never been able to fully shake the gutter-dandy persona he established in that film—which, at least in the case of Can You Ever Forgive Me? isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Allison Shoemaker
My immediate instinct was, as is often the case, to shout “Rififi! For the love of god, RIFIFI!” But alas, it’s too late—that title’s vanished from FilmStruck (though it is in the Criterion Collection, so I say again, “For the love of god, Rififi!”) Luckily, lovers of doom-laced noir have plenty of other options, chief among them Lewis Milestone’s The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers (1946), in which four titans of the genre—Van Heflin, Kirk Douglas, Lizabeth Scott, and the immortal Barbara Stanwyck—get tied up together in all manner of dubious things. It’s a tangled web, as they say, and all stemming from a childhood act of violence to which Martha (Stanwyck) was driven when her abusive aunt started beating her kitten with a cane. That’s the level at which this thing starts—kitten beating—and it never eases up on the ugliness. Luckily, a streak of cleverness percolates throughout Robert Rossen’s sharp screenplay, bringing something almost like levity to the proceedings. Watch it in a dark room with someone you love, and let the guilt, paranoia, and hopelessness mess you both right the hell up.
Gwen Ihnat
The Philadelphia Story is a perfect movie: the film that saved Katharine Hepburn from her reputation as box office poison, cemented her screen partnership with Cary Grant, and gave Jimmy Stewart his only Oscar. As Hepburn’s magnificent Tracy Lord prepares for her second wedding, her first husband (Grant) comes back to cause trouble, as does a nosy reporter (Stewart), sent to cover the social event of the season. Besides the shimmering chemistry among all three leads, Philadelphia Story has a lot to say about class—the faults and bravado of the upper-crust lords, the sincerity of a working-class reporter—and the multitude of misconceptions that can accompany the prejudice of first impressions. As one of the film’s myriad quotable lines puts it, “The time to make up your mind about people… is never.”
Alex McLevy
The possibilities for viewing many of the great silent films of cinema’s infancy are tragically few, and with a couple of famous exceptions, the era has been left behind in the popular consciousness. But The Phantom Carriage (1921) endures for good reason: The Swedish tale of a cursed soul remains a marvel of storytelling and visual style, nearly 100 years later. The film is a haunting vision of loss and regret, all woven through its supernatural conceit, but the ambition is impressive even now. Flashbacks within flashbacks create a hallucinatory sense of time bleeding into itself, and the effects are all the more fascinating for how difficult they were to pull off: To create the impression of ghostly spirits walking around fully formed in the world of the characters, the double exposure effects required the hand-cranked cameras to be turned at the exact same speed, in order to perfectly match the backgrounds and create the illusion of semi-transparent entities passing through material reality. It’s a wonderful film that deserves to be seen by whole new generations.
59 Comments
I’d give a shout-out to Harold and Maude (it got a Criterion release 6-8 years ago, so I’m assuming it’s on the service). Underrated film with a classic soundtrack by Cat Stevens a la The Graduate and Simon and Garfunkel.
Tampopo. I know it’s a Criterion Collection film that will likely be available on their new service next spring, but this is a good weekend to watch a food movie, and Tampopo is the best damn food movie ever made.
Have you seen The Search for General Tso? 🙂
I’d say it’s tied with Babette’s Feast and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover. Definitely a gem, high on the rewatchable factor.
Babette’s Feast is an absolute delight as well.
But it doesn’t have this:
That scene also has the Troy McClure seal of approval!
Babette’s Feast is the movie that taught me I can watch a movie with subtitles and get so engrossed that I forget subtitles are supposed to be annoying. It is a true delight of a film and very uplifting, even if you aren’t a foodie. Watch something dark and Noir-y and then this as a chaser before bedtime to have sweet dreams.
I still have it on VHS, taped from an unscheduled late-night broadcast on BBC2, at the end of a day of food programming! Now I feel like digging out the VCR and hooking it up…
The Phantom Carriage and Dreyer’s Vampyr. Amazing films.
Withnail & I is one of those movies that I’ve never been able to get into, and it’s difficult to pinpoint why. Some of it may be that it’s charms are only semi-permeable to most non-British people; some of it may be that it’s a leetle overrated (something that I’ve noticed among many American enthusiasts of non-American cult movies and TV shows; lots of these people dropped Doctor Who when it became a lot more popular); some of it may simply be that, whenever I see one of these road trip movies, I always reflect that I’d much rather be on a road trip myself than watch other people have wacky adventures. Anyway, it’s not because of the actors; I almost always enjoy Richard E. Grant in anything that he’s in (Logan should have made more and better use of him–the man was born to play a mad scientist), McGann was one of the Doctors, and Richard Griffiths was much better known as Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter movies.
Agree. I remember catching it just starting on some station one late night about 20 years ago and staying around waiting for it to get good. It ended before that ever happened. They stuck that first Ralph Brown scene early enough in the movie that I kept thinking it had to turn the corner sometime soon.
I re-watched it about a year ago to see if maybe I was wrong about it being so boring. I was not.
I agree, I first watched it on a late movie about 20 year ago and after awhile went to bed. Could not get into it. I would love to re-watch it as just watching the trailer had me laughing so much. I know that time has changed my taste in movies so I would love to find it again. Can’t wait for the new Criterion channel, I used to watch their movies all the time on a couple now defunct early streaming services from the early 2000s.
I had the exact same experience “waiting for it to get good” which it never did. And I usually like this kind of movie, so it puzzled me. Glad to know I am not alone.
I’m (French) Canadian, watched it in my teens, and it is still somewhere in my top 30 best movies of all time. What initially drew me was the iconic dialogue, but even then it’s crafted in a way that is constantly engaging (that if if you get into it in the first place). Makes sense that you weren’t predisposed to enjoy that one because of your distate for hang-out buddy movies. We all feel like that about well reviewed movies sometimes, I can relate.
A lot of these “cult” movies are made out to be more than they are because they were a bright beacon in the darkness to the audience at the time. You have to figure when Withnail and I was released it was the pre-internet and most most, even pre-cable era… fans of British humor didn’t have access to a lot besides Monty Python, Fawlty Towers and whatever PBS might be running. Now that everything is more accessible the bar has been raised, or at least moved.
I remember being disappointed the one time I saw “Withnail and I,” but I keep meaning to give it another try. On the other hand, I kinda love the next movie Bruce Robinson directed Grant in, “How to Get Ahead in Advertising.” It’s not a perfect movie, sort of awkward and misshapen, and, God knows, lacking in subtlety, but it’s just weird enough to always be interesting and it features Richard E. Grant chewing the scenery in a variety of styles.
Yes! That’s a great movie.
HAUSU!!!!
For ‘70s film fans, “Scarecrow” by Jerry Schatzberg is an under-appreciated gem. Gene Hackman and Al Pacino make their way from California to (eventually) Pittsburgh. Along the way Al Pacino steps into a flaming trashcan and Gene Hackman performs a striptease. It’s sad, funny, very much worth watching. It would also make a great double feature with The Last Detail, a similarly under-seen Hal Ashby classic.
Just caught up with that one! Nice to see Pacino in a lower-key, goofier (but still dramatically substantial) mode.
Yeah, it’s Pacino playing Dustin Hoffman, which is fun. But then there’s that super-intense stare while on the telephone near the end, just to remind you this is still Pacino.
I LOVE The Last Detail, it might be my favorite Nicholson performance.
Glad to hear from somebody else who’s seen it! It’s one of my favorites too. Agree with you on Jack Nicholson—he’s so good.
I’ve been watching foreign films almost exclusively, as I have Turner Classic Movies on cable and all the American films listed above pop up there from time to time.Of course, no telling when AT&T will kill Turner Classic Movies.
That would be a very dark day.
God, don’t even think it. As it is, I think their programming has suffered the last year or so. Way too many WTF moments have been happening. Last night at 3:45 am ET, TCM showed The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, from 1987. What in the actual hell.
I disagree. I like it when TCM steps out of its lane once in a while. Now, there’s a difference between stepping out of your lane once in a while and doing a full-on teardown like American Movie Classics or The Learning Channel.It’s actually amazing that TCM has stayed the course for as long as it has and hasn’t devolved into reality shows with midget porn starts shopping for new houses.
I too, was introduced to Arsenic & Old Lace by being cast in it, but I do love that movie so, so much.
I don’t think Cary Grant’s ghast was ever flabbered so well!
I think Bringing Up Baby might be the best flabbergasted Cary Grant performance, but that’s no insult to Arsenic & Old Lace.
I’ve never seen gobs so smacked!
It sucks that Filmstruck is not available where I live. I love Criterion and classic films and thus, I’d subscribe just to see any of these films.I had to order an unsubbed DVD of The Piano Teacher from Ebay France because the Criterion release is 1/4th the local monthly salary here in Malaysia. Having a service of Filmstruck would allow me to watch such films alongside Jimmy Stewart and Agnes Varda films in a bus ride or something.
The Philadelphia Story, a great film with an ending that makes no sense. With all the sparks (and offscreen drunk pool sex) between Hepburn and Stewart, she ends up with Grant? No way.
LOOK AT HIS FACE.
Oh…it makes sense. It makes sense.
I’m hoping I can get another viewing of M in before the shut down. It’s been probably ten years since I’ve seen it but the whole thing has stuck pretty tightly in my brain.
I’d really recommend the early William Wellman films they have on there, which are super-economical pre-code social-revolution bananas. Heroes for Sale (WWI vet deals with morphine addiction, labor agitation, corporate greed, communism, police brutality, and the Depression) and Wild Boys of the Road (kids in the Depression hop trains looking for work, also kill child-rapist Ward Bond) are great, though you can find them on DVD with some luck. Safe in Hell and So Big are also pretty incredible, and Filmstruck may be the only place to see them. And they’re all roughly under 80 minutes
Allow me to add Yi Yi and 12:08 East of Bucharest to that list!!
Chungking Express!!!! It’s practically unavailable literally anywhere else. Also, it’s maybe the finest film of the 90s, and I’d say it’s Wong Kar-wai’s finest.
I had no idea this service existed. I only have one of any particular video service subscribed at a time and this would’ve beat the rest for me. Bummer
Hot take: The only people who like Arsenic and Old Lace have been on a production of the play.
I’m calling “bollocks”.
I loved it years before I played Aunt Abby in a production two years ago.
Never acted and it’s one of the old films that I’m annoying waiting for whomever has the rights to put out on Blu-ray.
I was shocked by how unfunny I found it. Gimme stoic/cool Grant over mugging Grant any day.
No, just people with a sense of humor. Don’t worry, I understand it is considered very uncool to have one of those.
I guess this was written before the big announcement today. The bad news is the Criterion deal fell through, but the good news is MoviePass bought Filmstruck and promises to keep it going for decades to come.
How could nobody remember Josephine, Daphne and the greatest closing line in all of cinema history…
Thanks for the recommendations! Out of these, I’ve only seen Philadelphia Story and Arsenic and Old Lace, so I’m going to be busy this weekend, it seems.
I’m forever confusing The Philadelphia Story with The Philadelphia Experiment
The many loves of Martha Ivers is available on Amazon Prime.
I played Teddy in a community theater production of “Arsenic And Old Lace” just this past spring. Cary Grant reportedly *hated* his own performance in the movie, thinking it too over-the-top, and supposedly Capra was planning to do some reshoots before he got called away for his work in World War II, but I think the movie, and Grant’s performance, work just fine. I also love the other Cary Grant movie on the list, “The Philadelphia Story,” and for just that reason I can never be completely comfortable with the musical remake, “High Society.” If “The Philadelphia Story” had never existed, “High Society” might be one of my favorite musicals, but as it is I sit there and hear the character names and think of Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart.
And don’t forget the wonderful Ruth Hussey as Liz. I don’t think the movie would work nearly as well without her down-to-earth character as a neat counter-balance to Tracy. One of my favourite scenes is the one with Hussey and Grant where they talk about Stewart; Hussey and Grant clearly have a boatload of chemistry, and I sometimes think of an alternative ending where Mike and Tracy end up together, leaving Liz and Dex to pair off.
Absolutely true.
Warner Brothers is the scapegoat. The real villain is the parent company AT&T. They abruptly pulled the plug on the popular Asian TV streaming site ‘Drama Fever’ recently without notice and I sincerely doubt they’ll revive the service under AT&T’s planned umbrella streaming service. I wonder if they’re going to reimburse screwed-over subscribers. I’ve read rumors that no less than HBO has its neck on the chopping block as AT&T continues it policy of acquiring-then-killing potential streaming competitors.
Fortunately, I was able to watch Withnail & I on Filmstruck before the announcement. Brought me back to my college weekends sleeping until 4 and heading to a movie, concert or gallery exhibit after dinner. Innocent, yet decadent, times.Here are some more I recommendMr. Arkadin – Welles, in all its iterationsFox and His Friends – FassbinderThe Exterminating Angel and Robinson Crusoe -Bunuel (any Bunuel, really)Limelight – ChaplinThe Devils – RussellPassion of Joan of Arc – DreyerVagabond – VardaSmithereens – Sidelman More – SchroederIt Happened on 5th Avenue – RuthRude Boy – MingayEating Raoul -Bartel
Surely Tourneur is better known for his Lewton pictures or Night Of The Demon these days? Not that I’m suggesting they are any better or worse than the marvelous Out Of The Past. His entire classic output (pretty much everything before industry conditions led him to make nondescript western b-pictures) is pretty great.
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, while definitely
worth seeing for fans of Film Noir and classic Hollywood cinema in
general, is kind of a strange choice for the list as it is in the public
domain, and can easily be viewed on Youtube and multiple other
streaming sources. Sure, you’re probably not going to get quite the same
quality as the Filmstruck version. Then again, time is limited and you
may wish to focus on films that can’t be so easily viewed once the
service shuts down.Also, I will make a brief plug that
all Criterion DVD’s are half off at Barnes and Noble right now. I don’t
work or have any financial interest in either concern. I recognize that Criterion will soon be
launching its own channel. But the only way to be sure you’re really going to have access to your favorite obscure indie/arthouse/foreign/classic film whenever you want it is still probably just to break down and buy a hard copy.
Two movies I absolutely love and were perfect for FilmStruck, but you can’t find quality prints online anywhere, and it makes me crazy. First is Rebecca, Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier, directed by Hitchcock, of course. It wasn’t included even when FilmStruck was showing its Hitchcock collection, and you can’t find it streaming anyplace else, can’t buy it on iTunes, you have to buy the damn disc. Can someone explain why that is? No, really, I’m asking. The other one is Raise the Red Lantern; there’s a decent bootleg on YouTube, but would love to see a better-quality print.