30 Years of The Film Foundation

30 Years of The Film Foundation

64 Episodes

In 1990, Martin Scorsese founded an organization whose stated mission told the world, in no uncertain terms, that movies matter, that the art of cinema and its history is a legacy worth preserving. Three decades later, The Film Foundation is an indispensable pillar of moving-image culture, helping to make possible over 850 restorations so far and raising much-needed awareness of the necessity of film preservation as central to the safeguarding of our cultural heritage. In recognition of thirty years of vital work, the Criterion Channel looks back at a selection of the many brilliant films that, thanks to the efforts of The Film Foundation, have been rescued from the ravages of time for future generations to discover. This series will expand over the next year, with new additions to be announced monthly.

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30 Years of The Film Foundation
  • Dos monjes

    Episode 1

    Directed by Juan Bustillo Oro • 1934 • Mexico
    Starring Víctor Urruchúa, Carlos Villatoro, Magda Haller

    This vividly stylized, broodingly intense early Mexican sound melodrama by Juan Bustillo Oro hinges on an audacious flashback structure. When an ailing monk recognizes a new brother at his cloi...

  • Of Mice and Men

    Episode 2

    Directed by Lewis Milestone • 1939 • United States
    Starring Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney Jr., Betty Field

    George and Lennie are California migrant workers on the run from the law because of something the simple-minded giant Lennie did. They find work at a local ranch, where they dream of making ...

  • The Long Voyage Home

    Episode 3

    Directed by John Ford • 1940 • United States
    Starring John Wayne, Ward Bond, Ian Hunter

    Shot in stunning chiaroscuro by master cinematographer Gregg Toland, THE LONG VOYAGE HOME is John Ford’s and screenwriter Dudley Nichols’s lyrical adaptation of four one-act plays by Eugene O’Neill, distilled...

  • The Red Shoes

    Episode 4

    Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger • 1948 • United Kingdom
    Starring Moira Shearer, Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring

    THE RED SHOES, the singular fantasia from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, is cinema’s quintessential backstage drama, as well as one of the most glorious Tech...

  • Rashomon

    Episode 5

    Directed by Akira Kurosawa • 1950 • Japan
    Starring Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori

    A riveting psychological thriller that investigates the nature of truth and the meaning of justice, RASHOMON is widely considered one of the greatest films ever made. Four people give different accou...

  • The River

    Episode 6

    Directed by Jean Renoir • 1951 • France, United Kingdom, India, United States
    Starring Nora Swinburne, Esmond Knight, Arthur Shields

    Director Jean Renoir’s entrancing first color feature, shot entirely on location in India, is a visual tour de force. Based on the novel by Rumer Godden, the fi...

  • Pandora and the Flying Dutchman

    Episode 7

    Directed by Albert Lewin • 1951 • United States
    Starring James Mason, Ava Gardner

    This timeless romance based on the legend of the Flying Dutchman features sumptuous color cinematography by Jack Cardiff. Ava Gardner, one of the most beautiful screen goddesses of all time, plays Pandora, a wom...

  • Ugetsu

    Episode 8

    Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1953 • Japan
    Starring Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Kinuyo Tanaka

    By the time he made UGETSU, Kenji Mizoguchi was already an elder statesman of Japanese cinema, fiercely revered by Akira Kurosawa and other directors of a younger generation. And with this exquisite ...

  • Senso

    Episode 9

    Directed by Luchino Visconti • 1954 • Italy
    Starring Alida Valli, Farley Granger

    This lush, Technicolor tragic romance from Luchino Visconti stars Alida Valli as a nineteenth-century Italian countess who, during the Austrian occupation of her country, puts her marriage and political principle...

  • La strada

    Episode 10

    Directed by Federico Fellini • 1954 • Italy
    Starring Giulietta Masina, Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart

    With this breakthrough film, Federico Fellini launched both himself and his wife and collaborator Giulietta Masina to international stardom, breaking with the neorealism of his early career in ...

  • Islands of Fire

    Episode 11

    Directed by Vittorio De Seta • 1954 • Italy

    This prize-winning short is a poetic portrait of life on the coast of Sicily before, during, and following a volcanic eruption.

  • The Age of Swordfish

    Episode 12

    Directed by Vittorio De Seta • 1954 • Italy

    Vittorio De Seta’s rhythmic editing adds drama to this chronicle of a Sicilian spearfishing expedition.

  • Richard III

    Episode 13

    Directed by Laurence Olivier • 1955 • United Kingdom
    Starring Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Claire Bloom

    In RICHARD III, director, producer, and star Laurence Olivier brings Shakespeare’s masterpiece of Machiavellian villainy to ravishing cinematic life. Olivier is diabolically captivat...

  • Easter in Sicily

    Episode 14

    Directed by Vittorio De Seta • 1955 • Italy

    Vittorio De Seta captures the music and pageantry of an Easter celebration in Sicily.

  • Golden Parable

    Episode 15

    Directed by Vittorio De Seta • 1955 • Italy

    Filming amid the flaxen wheat fields of Sicily, Vittorio De Seta documents the everyday rituals of farmers during harvest time.

  • Sea Countrymen

    Episode 16

    Directed by Vittorio De Seta • 1955 • Italy

    The rhythms of the sea set the tempo for this vivid account of a day in the lives of Sicilian fishermen.

  • Solfatara

    Episode 17

    Directed by Vittorio De Seta • 1955 • Italy

    Harshness and beauty exist side by side in this look at the lives of sulfur mine workers and their families in southern Italy.

  • Il bidone

    Episode 18

    Directed by Federico Fellini • 1955 • Italy

    Federico Fellini's IL BIDONE follows a trio of Italian swindlers who resort to petty schemes in order to con poor people out of their money.

  • A Day in Barbagia

    Episode 19

    Directed by Vittorio De Seta • 1958 • Italy

    From sunrise to sunset, Vittorio De Seta chronicles the lives of Sardinian women who look after both home and fields while their shepherd husbands are away tending their flocks.

  • Orgosolo’s Shepherds

    Episode 20

    Directed by Vittorio De Seta • 1958 • Italy

    The striking landscapes of rural Sardinia provide the backdrop to this lyrical look at the hardscrabble lives of the region’s shepherds in winter.

  • Fishing Boats

    Episode 21

    Directed by Vittorio De Seta • 1958 • Italy

    The unpredictable nature of the sea governs the world of Sicilian fishermen as they work, rest, and seek refuge from a storm.

  • The Music Room

    Episode 22

    Directed by Satyajit Ray • 1958 • India
    Starring Chhabi Biswas, Padma Devi, Pinaki Sen Gupta

    With THE MUSIC ROOM (JALSAGHAR), Satyajit Ray brilliantly evokes the crumbling opulence of the world of a fallen aristocrat (the beloved actor Chhabi Biswas) desperately clinging to a fading way of life....

  • Shadows

    Episode 23

    Directed by John Cassavetes • 1959 • United States
    Starring Lelia Goldoni, Anthony Ray, Hugh Hurd

    John Cassavetes’s directorial debut revolves around a romance in New York City between Lelia (Lelia Goldoni), a light- skinned black woman, and Tony (Anthony Ray), a white man. The relationship is p...

  • The Forgotten

    Episode 24

    Directed by Vittorio De Seta • 1959 • Italy

    Vittorio De Seta travels to a remote province in southern Italy to capture a unique celebration known as the “Feast of Silver.”