CRITERION CORNER #11: A Travel Guide for Cinephiles
Well, it’s that time of year again, you know, when the impending holidays have many of us masochistically entertaining fantasies that we have the time and / or money to drop everything and head off to someplace far, far away. You know how it goes: “Oh, I’ll just take a hot sec to Google ‘Rural France.’ I’m sure nothing painful could possibly come from that.” It’s the time of year when the most vile torture in Saloisn’t the fancy feast of feces, but that all these folks are spending 120 days in this coastal paradise and almost never going outside to enjoy it. I mean, when you’re watching Salo and your most pressing thought is “Gee, I really want to visit,” it’s probably time for a vacation.
Of course, one of the things I enjoy most about The Criterion Collection and the films to which they’ve provided us access is that - together - they form both a passport and a wormhole, a comparatively inexpensive window into foreign lands and forgotten times. In the mood for a guided tour of Sweden’s Faro Island? Ingmar Bergman would be happy to oblige. Jonesing for the rush of Rio’s Carnival? Black Orpheus will take you there in 1080p. Curious as to what it might be like to stroll through the disintegrating Lisbon slum of Fontainhas? Well, the films of Pedro Costa are likely going to be your only means of getting there. Having such films at our immediate disposal makes the world feel smaller than ever, while simultaneously reaffirming the wistful truth that there are far too many sights to see in one lifetime.
Or are there!?!?
…Yes, yes there are. But Criterion films offer a pretty solid compass as to where you might want to go should the opportunity ever present itself. So I present to you Criterion Corner’s Travel Guide for Cinephiles, which can be used either for dreaming and planning, alike. Just remember, it’s all fun and games until someone clicks “Purchase Tickets” on that Priceline page, and the next thing you know you’re wandering around the Scottish Hebrides, screaming “I Know Where I’m Going!” into the deaf ears of the wind. But you don’t know where you’re going. Because it turns out the title of that movie was kind of a metaphor, and the film makes for a charming light drama but a horrible map. Anyway, here are my favorite global locales to which Criterion films have transported me at least half of the way, eight great places where you can go stick your wanderlust.
HEAD ON OVER TO MOVIES.COM TO READ CRITERION CORNER’S TRAVEL GUIDE FOR CINEPHILES!
