John Turturro’s Adventures in Moviegoing

John Turturro’s Adventures in Moviegoing

21 Episodes

A virtuoso actor who brings an unpredictable edge to his always memorable performances for frequent collaborators like the Coen brothers and Spike Lee, John Turturro is also a fervent cinephile who became enamored with the golden-age Hollywood stars whose films he watched religiously on television while growing up in Queens. In this edition of Adventures In Moviegoing, he sits down with Criterion Collection curatorial director Ashley Clark to discuss a selection of the films that have marked his life, including those built around commanding, physical performances from favorite actors like Burt Lancaster (BRUTE FORCE), Marlon Brando (ON THE WATERFRONT), and Toshiro Mifune (SEVEN SAMURAI).

Subscribe Share
John Turturro’s Adventures in Moviegoing
  • John Turturro's Adventures in Moviegoing Teaser

    Episode 1

  • John Turturro in Conversation

    Episode 2

  • John Turturro on THE LADY EVE

    Episode 3

  • The Lady Eve

    Episode 4

    Directed by Preston Sturges • 1941 • United States
    Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn

    Barbara Stanwyck sizzles, Henry Fonda bumbles, and Preston Sturges runs riot in one of the all-time great screwballs, a pitch-perfect blend of comic zing and swoonworthy romance. Aboard a cr...

  • John Turturro on ON THE WATERFRONT

    Episode 5

  • On the Waterfront

    Episode 6

    Directed by Elia Kazan • 1954 • United States
    Starring Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb

    Marlon Brando gives the performance of his career as the tough prizefighter-turned-longshoreman Terry Malloy in this masterpiece of urban poetry. A raggedly emotional tale of individual failure and soc...

  • John Turturro on SEVEN SAMURAI

    Episode 7

  • Seven Samurai

    Episode 8

    Directed by Akira Kurosawa • 1954 • Japan
    Starring Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima

    One of the most thrilling movie epics of all time, SEVEN SAMURAI (SHICHININ NO SAMURAI) tells the story of a sixteenth-century village whose desperate inhabitants hire the eponymous warriors to pro...

  • John Turturro on ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS

    Episode 9

  • Rocco and His Brothers

    Episode 10

    Directed by Luchino Visconti • 1960 • Italy
    Starring Alain Delon, Annie Girardot, Renato Salvatori

    Looking for opportunity, five brothers move north with their mother to Milan. There, Simone and Rocco find fame, in the boxing ring, and love, in the same woman. Jealousy mounts, blood is shed, and...

  • John Turturro on BRUTE FORCE

    Episode 11

  • Brute Force

    Episode 12

    Directed by Jules Dassin • 1947 • United States
    Starring Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford

    As hard-hitting as its title, BRUTE FORCE was the first of Jules Dassin’s forays into the crime genre, a prison melodrama that takes a critical look at American society as well. Burt Lancaster ...

  • John Turturro on DIVORCE ITALIAN STYLE

    Episode 13

  • Divorce Italian Style

    Episode 14

    Directed by Pietro Germi • 1961 • Italy
    Starring Marcello Mastroianni, Stefania Sandrelli, Daniela Rocca

    Baron Ferdinando Cefalù (Marcello Mastroianni) longs to marry his nubile young cousin Angela (Stefania Sandrelli), but one obstacle stands in his way: his fatuous and fawning wife, Rosalia (D...

  • John Turturro on WILD STRAWBERRIES

    Episode 15

  • Wild Strawberries

    Episode 16

    Directed by Ingmar Bergman • 1957 • Sweden
    Starring Victor Sjöström, Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin

    Traveling to accept an honorary degree, Professor Isak Borg—masterfully played by the veteran filmmaker and actor Victor Sjöström—is forced to face his past, come to terms with his faults, and make...

  • John Turturro on CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI

    Episode 17

  • CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI: Episode 1

    Episode 18

    Directed by Francesco Rosi • 1979 • Italy
    Starring Gian Maria Volontè, Paolo Bonacelli, Alain Cuny

    An elegy of exile and an epic immersion in the world of rural Italy during the regime of Benito Mussolini, Francesco Rosi’s sublime adaptation of the memoirs of the painter, physician, and politica...

  • CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI: Episode 2

    Episode 19

    Directed by Francesco Rosi • 1979 • Italy
    Starring Gian Maria Volontè, Paolo Bonacelli, Alain Cuny

    An elegy of exile and an epic immersion in the world of rural Italy during the regime of Benito Mussolini, Francesco Rosi’s sublime adaptation of the memoirs of the painter, physician, and politica...

  • CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI: Episode 3

    Episode 20

    Directed by Francesco Rosi • 1979 • Italy
    Starring Gian Maria Volontè, Paolo Bonacelli, Alain Cuny

    An elegy of exile and an epic immersion in the world of rural Italy during the regime of Benito Mussolini, Francesco Rosi’s sublime adaptation of the memoirs of the painter, physician, and politica...

  • CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI: Episode 4

    Episode 21

    Directed by Francesco Rosi • 1979 • Italy
    Starring Gian Maria Volontè, Paolo Bonacelli, Alain Cuny

    An elegy of exile and an epic immersion in the world of rural Italy during the regime of Benito Mussolini, Francesco Rosi’s sublime adaptation of the memoirs of the painter, physician, and politica...