Directed by Jerry Zucker • 1990 • United States
Starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg

In one of the most unique and memorable cinematic love stories of all time, Sam (Patrick Swayze), a former banker now existing as a ghost, discovers his death wasn’t just a random robbery gone ba...

Directed by Garry Marshall • 1991 • United States
Starring Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hector Elizondo

SCARFACE costars Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer reunited for this tender and witty tale of unlikely romance adapted by theater legend Terrence McNally from his own play. Frankie (Pfeiffer) i...

Directed by Norman Jewison • 1987 • United States
Starring Cher, Nicolas Cage, Vincent Gardenia

A full moon, a New York City night, and love and music in the air . . . One of the most enchanting romantic comedies of all time assembles a flawless ensemble cast for a tender and boisterously funny ...

Directed by Peyton Reed • 2003 • United States
Starring Renée Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, David Hyde Pierce

A playfully postmodern take on the Doris Day/Rock Hudson sex comedy, this giddily inventive update delights in the midcentury style and clothes while offering a fresh perspective on the genr...

Criterion Collection Edition #147

Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 2000 • Hong Kong
Starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Maggie Cheung Man-yuk

Hong Kong, 1962: Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung Man-yuk) move into neighboring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are form...

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson • 2017 • United States
Starring Daniel Day Lewis, Vicky Krieps, Lesley Manville

Amid the the glamour of 1950s London, renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) are at the center of British fashion, dressing ro...

Directed by Todd Haynes • 2015 • United States
Starring Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Kyle Chandler

Todd Haynes’s sumptuous, aching adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel “The Price of Salt” deploys the mechanics of classical melodrama in service of a moving and subversive queer love story for ...

Directed by Kathleen Collins • 1982 • United States
Starring Seret Scott, Bill Gunn, Duane Jones

One of the first feature films directed by an African American woman, Kathleen Collins’s LOSING GROUND tells the story of a marriage between two remarkable people, both at a crossroads in their lives...

Directed by Joan Micklin Silver • 1988 • United States
Starring Amy Irving, Peter Riegert, David Hyde Pierce

Joan Micklin Silver’s wonderfully affectionate spin on the romantic comedy infuses the genre with a fresh, personal perspective, following an unmarried Jewish woman’s search for fulfillme...

Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 1997 • Hong Kong
Starring Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing

One of the most searing romances of the 1990s, Wong Kar Wai’s emotionally raw, lushly stylized portrait of a relationship in breakdown casts Hong Kong superstars Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Leslie Cheun...

Directed by Woody Allen • 1977 • United States
Starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Carol Kane

Woody Allen and Diane Keaton make for one of the great screen couples of the 1970s in this brilliantly bittersweet Oscar winner. Walking a fine line between humor and pathos, Allen plays a neurotic Manh...

Directed by Ulu Grosbard • 1984 • United States
Starring Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, Harvey Keitel

The palpable chemistry between Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro elevates this poignant romance, which plays like a 1980s update of a golden-age Hollywood melodrama. Architectural engineer Frank Ra...

Directed by Dorothy Arzner • 1931 • United States
Starring Claudette Colbert, Fredric March, Monroe Owsley

The incandescent presence of two rising stars—Claudette Colbert and Fredric March—lights up this deft blend of comedy, romance, and social drama. A young secretary (Colbert) faces a life-al...

Directed by Patrick Tam • 1989 • Hong Kong
Starring Kenny Bee, Joey Wong, Tony Leung Chiu-wai

Patrick Tam, perhaps the Hong Kong New Wave’s most daring modernist and a crucial influence on Wong Kar Wai, teams with cinematographer Christopher Doyle, a regular Wong collaborator, for a stylish “he...

Directed by Norbert A. Myles • 1920 • United States
Starring Esther LeBarre, White Parker, Wanada Parker

Shot in 1920 in the Wichita Mountains of southwest Oklahoma with a cast entirely made up of members of the Comanche and Kiowa tribes, THE DAUGHTER OF DAWN screened publicly only twice before ...

Directed by Stanley Kwan • 1987 • Hong Kong
Starring Anita Mui, Leslie Cheung, Alex Man Chi-leung

Cantopop superstars Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung display the androgynous magnetism that made them icons as doomed lovers in this emblematic film of Hong Kong’s Second New Wave, directed by pioneering...

Criterion Collection Edition #453

Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 1994 • Hong Kong
Starring Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Faye Wong, Takeshi Kaneshiro

The whiplash, double-pronged CHUNGKING EXPRESS is one of the defining works of 1990s cinema and the film that made Wong Kar Wai an instant icon. Two heartsick...

Directed by Claire Denis • 2017 • France
Starring Juliette Binoche, Xavier Beauvois, Philippe Katerine

Two luminaries of French cinema, Claire Denis and Juliette Binoche, unite for the first time in this piercing look at the elusive nature of true love, and the extent to which we are willing to ...

Directed by Mira Nair • 1991 • United States, Uganda
Starring Denzel Washington, Sarita Choudhury, Roshan Seth

The vibrant cultures of India, Uganda, and the American South come together in Mira Nair’s MISSISSIPPI MASALA, a luminous look at the complexities of love in the modern melting pot. Yea...

Directed by Louis Malle • 1958 • France
Starring Jeanne Moreau, Jean-Marc Bory

Louis Malle unveiled the natural beauty of Jeanne Moreau in his breakthrough, ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS. With his follow-up, the scandalous smash THE LOVERS (LES AMANTS), he made her a star once and for all. A deeply fe...

Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 1990 • Hong Kong
Starring Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing, Andy Lau Tak Wah, Maggie Cheung Man Yuk

The breakthrough sophomore feature by Wong Kar Wai represents the first full flowering of his swooning signature style. The initial entry in a loosely connected, ongoing cycle th...

Criterion Collection Edition #902

Directed by Donna Deitch • 1985 • United States
Starring Helen Shaver, Patricia Charbonneau

Donna Deitch's swooning and sensual first narrative feature, DESERT HEARTS, was groundbreaking upon its release in 1985: a love story about two women, made entirely inde...

Criterion Collection Edition #622

Directed by Andrew Haigh • 2011 • United Kingdom
Starring Tom Cullen, Chris New

This sensual, remarkably observed, beautifully acted wonder is the breakout feature from British writer-director-editor Andrew Haigh. Rarely has a film been as honest about sexualit...

Directed by Jacques Demy • 1964 • France
Starring Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo

The angelically beautiful Catherine Deneuve was launched to stardom by this dazzling musical heart-tugger from Jacques Demy. She plays an umbrella-shop owner’s delicate daughter, glowing with first love for a h...