Criterion Streaming Service to Launch with Robust April Slate: ‘Mulholland Drive’, ‘The Big Heat’, and More

By Dade Hayes, Deadline
Published March 22, 2019, 12:09 p.m. ET

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Mulholland Drive

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The Criterion Channel, the streaming service that is bringing classic films back online after the widely lamented shutdown last fall of WarnerMedia’s FilmStruck, has set the lineup for its launch on April 8. (See it below.)

The channel features the same Criterion Collection and Janus Films titles that were on FilmStruck, which went dark last fall, prompting a backlash among a long list of A-list directors, not to mention thousands of fans of the service. FilmStruck had been an effort to take the DNA of Turner Classic Movies into the streaming realm, with hundreds of Criterion titles at its core. Original programming from FilmStruck will also be back on the new channel, including Adventures in Moviegoing, Meet the Filmmakers, Observations on Film Art and 10 seasons of John Pierson’s Split Screen.

Subscriptions are $10.99 per month or $99.99 a year. A promotional offer lowers the lifetime price for those who sign up before April 7 to $9.99 a month or $89.99 a year, as well as providing earlybirds with a “movie of the week” dropping each Wednesday before the April 8 official launch. Those signing up by April 7 will also get their first month free.

In addition to the 1,000 classic and contemporary Criterion and Janus films and 350 shorts, the new channel will also rotate in selections from studios and indies, among them Sony, Warner Bros., Paramount, MGM, Lionsgate, IFC, Kino Lorber, Cohen Media and several others. More suppliers of licensed films will be added in the coming months.

Cinephiles in the U.S. and Canada will be able to stream the new service on desktop browsers as well as through apps for Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, iOS, and Android and Android TV devices.

The April lineup is highlighted by a group of 11 film-noir titles from Columbia Pictures, from directors including Fritz Lang, Jacques Tourneur, Don Siegel, and Blake Edwards. David Lynch will be spotlighted with four features and a selection of shorts, as will screenwriter Suso Cecchi d’Amico. A seven-film series will center on French actress Simone Signoret.

In addition to short and feature-length films, the service will have 3,500 supplementary features, including trailers, introductions, behind-the-scenes documentaries, interviews, video essays, commentary tracks, and rare archival footage.

Films in the permanent streaming library will be continuously available to all Criterion Channel subscribers at all times, regardless of whether they are being spotlighted in thematic programming. Films licensed specifically for featured thematic programming may be available for shorter periods, but all films will be available for a minimum of 90 days unless otherwise noted.

Films with specific dates of arrival on the service will generally be made available at the start of each month, though the concept of a day-by-day calendar suits the classic-film market and is familiar to repertory filmgoers and TCM viewers.

Here is the full launch lineup, with descriptions provided by Criterion:

APRIL PROGRAMMING ON THE CRITERION CHANNEL

April 8
Spotlight: Columbia Noir — Eleven dark gems from the studio that epitomized the hard-boiled essence of film noir
  • My Name Is Julia Ross, Joseph H. Lewis, 1945
  • So Dark the Night, Joseph H. Lewis, 1946
  • The Big Heat, Fritz Lang, 1953
  • Human Desire, Fritz Lang, 1954
  • Drive a Crooked Road, Richard Quine, 1954
  • Pushover, Richard Quine, 1954
  • Nightfall, Jacques Tourneur, 1957
  • The Burglar, Paul Wendkos, 1957
  • The Lineup, Don Siegel, 1958
  • Murder by Contract, Irving Lerner, 1958
  • Experiment in Terror, Blake Edwards, 1962
Mildred Pierce, directed by Michael Curtiz, 1945 – Criterion Collection Edition #860
April 9
Short + Feature: Yearbook and Y tu mamá también — A short film by Bernardo Britto paired with Alfonso Cuarón’s beloved road movie
April 10
Screenwriter: Suso Cecchi d’Amico — Seven classics from the Italian screenwriter behind some of the greatest films of all time
  • Bicycle Thieves, Vittorio De Sica, 1948
  • Senso, Luchino Visconti, 1954
  • Le amiche, Michelangelo Antonioni, 1955
  • Le notti bianche, Luchino Visconti, 1957
  • Big Deal on Madonna Street, Mario Monicelli, 1958
  • Rocco and His Brothers, Luchino Visconti, 1960
  • Salvatore Giuliano, Francesco Rosi, 1962
Wanda, directed by Barbara Loden, 1970 — Criterion Collection Edition #965
April 11
Directed by David Lynch — Visions of terror and salvation from contemporary cinema’s master of the surreal
  • Eraserhead, 1977
  • The Elephant Man, 1980
  • Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, 1992
  • Mulholland Dr., 2001
Shorts:
  • Six Men Getting Sick, 1967
  • The Alphabet, 1968
  • The Grandmother, 1970
  • The Amputee Version 1, 1974
  • The Amputee Version 2, 1974
  • Premonitions Following an Evil Deed, 1995
Ace in the Hole, directed by Billy Wilder, 1951 — Criterion Collection Edition #396
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
April 13
Saturday Matinee: Bugsy Malone —Pint-sized wise guys battle it out in this irresistible all-kid gangster spoof.
April 14
Julie Taymor’s Adventures in Moviegoing — Our guest-programmer series returns with the acclaimed stage and screen director.
  • Baby Face, Alfred E. Green, 1933
  • Great Expectations, David Lean, 1946
  • Rashomon, Akira Kurosawa, 1950
  • Sawdust and Tinsel, Ingmar Bergman, 1953
  • Nights of Cabiria, Federico Fellini, 1957
  • The Cranes Are Flying, Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957
April 15
Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day, directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972 —Criterion Collection Edition #946
April 16
Short + Feature: The Silence and Taste of Cherry — Two soul-searching Iranian films grapple with mortality
April 17
Directed by Susanne Bier — Three intimate and explosive dramas from an auteur specializing in emotional extremes
  • Brothers, 2004
  • After the Wedding, 2006
  • In a Better World, 2010
April 18
Kaili Blues — Bi Gan introduces his audacious feature debut, along with a related short film The Poet and Singer.
April 19
Double Feature: Hamlet and To Be or Not to Be — Laurence Olivier’s Shakespeare adaptation meets Ernst Lubitsch’s wartime farce.
April 20
Saturday Matinee: The Kid — Charlie Chaplin pairs his lovable Tramp with a child companion in one of his best-loved films.
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.
  • My Brother’s Wedding, 1983
  • To Sleep with Anger, 1990
  • Hollywood Shuffle, Robert Townsend, 1987
Shorts
  • Several Friends, 1969
  • The Horse, 1973
  • When It Rains, 1995
  • The Final Insult, 1997
  • Quiet as Kept, 2007
April 22
David Simon on Paths of Glory — The creator of The Wire introduces Stanley Kubrick’s wrenching antiwar film.
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
April 24
The Virgin Suicides, directed by Sofia Coppola, 1999 — Criterion Collection Edition #920
April 25
Killer Couples x 3 — Three couples you definitely don’t want to meet at a party
  • The Honeymoon Killers, Leonard Kastle, 1969
  • Eating Raoul, Paul Bartel, 1982
  • Sightseers, Ben Wheatley, 2012
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
April 27
Saturday Matinee: Mon oncle — Jacques Tati’s first color film is a slapstick sendup of modern technology.
April 28
Spotlight: Simone Signoret — A salute to the French actor who brought unforgettable complexity to every performance
  • La ronde, Max Ophuls, 1950
  • Casque d’or, Jacques Becker, 1952
  • Diabolique, Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955
  • Room at the Top, Jack Clayton, 1959
  • Adua and her Friends, Antonio Pietrangeli, 1960
  • Army of Shadows, Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969
  • The Widow Courdec, Pierre Granier-Deferre, 1971
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.
April 30
Short + Feature: Surface Tension and News from Home — Hollis Frampton and Chantal Akerman’s experimental portraits of New York City