Live stream preview

Watch this video and more on The Criterion Channel

Watch this video and more on The Criterion Channel

Start your free trial

Already subscribed? Sign in

By the Book

The Sweet Hereafter

1h 52m

Directed by Atom Egoyan • 1997 • Canada
Starring Ian Holm, Sarah Polley, Bruce Greenwood

Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes, Atom Egoyan’s masterful adaptation of a novel by Russell Banks traces the aftermath of a school bus accident in a small Canadian town that leaves fourteen children dead. When Mitchell Stephens (Ian Holm), a big-city lawyer, arrives to organize a class-action lawsuit, his presence stirs up tensions within the town. Garnering Academy Award nominations for Egoyan for both best director and adapted screenplay, THE SWEET HEREAFTER is a powerful, deeply empathetic exploration of what it means to go on living in the face of tragedy.

Up Next in By the Book

  • The Piano Teacher
    2:11:01
    The Piano Teacher

    The Piano Teacher

    Directed by Michael Haneke • 2001 • France
    Starring Isabelle Huppert, Benoît Magimel

    In this riveting study of the dynamics of control, Academy Award–winning director Michael Haneke takes on Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek’s controversial 1983 novel about perverse female sexuality and the world ...

  • Gomorrah
    2:17:22
    Gomorrah

    Gomorrah

    Directed by Matteo Garrone • 2008 • Italy
    Starring Toni Servillo, Salvatore Abruzzese, Gianfelice Imparato

    Matteo Garrone’s GOMORRAH is a stark, shocking vision of contemporary gangsterdom, and one of cinema’s most authentic depictions of organized crime. In this tour de force adaptation of unde...

  • 45 Years
    1:35:40
    45 Years

    45 Years

    Directed by Andrew Haigh • 2015 • United Kingdom
    Starring Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay

    In this exquisitely calibrated film, Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay perform a subtly off-kilter pas de deux as Kate and Geoff, an English couple who, on the eve of an anniversary celebration, fin...

×