Greta Gerwig’s Adventures in Moviegoing

Greta Gerwig’s Adventures in Moviegoing

18 Episodes

From indie darling to helmer of 2023’s biggest (and pinkest) blockbuster, Greta Gerwig has blazed a unique trail by remaining true to her idiosyncratic voice—forged by a lifelong passion for literature, theater, and dance—at every step of her evolution. In this edition of Adventures in Moviegoing, the Barbie director sits down with Criterion president Peter Becker to discuss her formative love of classic MGM musicals, the first director’s filmography she ever binge-watched, and the rare movie she considers “perfect.” The films she has chosen to present reflect her interests in acting and innovative performers like Toshiro Mifune (YOJIMBO) and David Thewlis (NAKED) and in auteurs like Max Ophuls (THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE . . .) and Claire Denis (BEAU TRAVAIL) for whom camerawork is a kind of choreography.

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Greta Gerwig’s Adventures in Moviegoing
  • Greta Gerwig’s Adventures in Moviegoing Teaser

    Episode 1

  • Greta Gerwig in Conversation

    Episode 2

    From indie darling to helmer of 2023’s biggest (and pinkest) blockbuster, Greta Gerwig has blazed a unique trail by remaining true to her idiosyncratic voice—forged by a lifelong passion for literature, theater, and dance—at every step of her evolution. In this edition of Adventures in Moviegoing...

  • Greta Gerwig on BRIEF ENCOUNTER

    Episode 3

  • Brief Encounter

    Episode 4

    Directed by David Lean • 1945 • United Kingdom
    Starring Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard

    After a chance meeting on a train platform, a married doctor (Trevor Howard) and a suburban housewife (Celia Johnson) begin a muted but passionate, and ultimately doomed, love affair. With its evocatively fog-en...

  • Greta Gerwig on THE RED SHOES

    Episode 5

  • The Red Shoes

    Episode 6

    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...

  • Greta Gerwig on THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE . . .

    Episode 7

  • The Earrings of Madame de . . .

    Episode 8

    Directed by Max Ophuls • 1953 • France
    Starring Danielle Darrieux, Charles Boyer, Vittorio De Sica

    The most cherished work from French master Max Ophuls, THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE . . . is a profoundly emotional, cinematographically adventurous tale of deceptive opulence and tragic romance. When...

  • Greta Gerwig on YOJIMBO

    Episode 9

  • Yojimbo

    Episode 10

    Directed by Akira Kurosawa • 1961 • Japan
    Starring Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yoko Tsukasa

    The incomparable Toshiro Mifune stars in Akira Kurosawa’s visually stunning and darkly comic YOJIMBO. To rid a terror-stricken village of corruption, wily masterless samurai Sanjuro turns a range war...

  • Greta Gerwig on AMARCORD

    Episode 11

  • Amarcord

    Episode 12

    Directed by Federico Fellini • 1973 • France, Italy

    This carnivalesque portrait of provincial Italy during the fascist period, the most personal film from Federico Fellini, satirizes the director's youth and turns daily life into a circus of social rituals, adolescent desires, male fantasies, an...

  • Greta Gerwig on WHERE IS THE FRIEND’S HOUSE?

    Episode 13

  • Where Is the Friend’s House?

    Episode 14

    Directed by Abbas Kiarostami • 1987 • Iran

    The first film in Abbas Kiarostami’s sublime, interlacing KOKER TRILOGY takes a simple premise—a boy searches for the home of his classmate, whose school notebook he has accidentally taken—and transforms it into a miraculous, child’s-eye adventure of ...

  • Greta Gerwig on NAKED

    Episode 15

  • Naked

    Episode 16

    Directed by Mike Leigh • 1993 • United Kingdom

    The brilliant and controversial Naked, from director Mike Leigh, stars David Thewlis as Johnny, a charming and eloquent but relentlessly vicious drifter. Rejecting anyone who might care for him, the volcanic Johnny hurls himself around London on a n...

  • Greta Gerwig on BEAU TRAVAIL

    Episode 17

  • Beau travail

    Episode 18

    Directed by Claire Denis • 1999 • France
    Starring Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, Grégoire Colin

    With her ravishingly sensual take on Herman Melville’s “Billy Budd, Sailor,” Claire Denis firmly established herself as one of the great visual tone poets of our time. Amid the azure waters and sunbaked ...