Big News: Criterion Collection eVideo (!!!) |

Dear eReaders: I am going to try to maintain a professional demeanor as I share with you the most exciting piece of news I’ve heard since libraries started stocking 3D printers (and offering free e-subscriptions to The Economist):

THE LIBRARY NOW HAS *ahem*

The library now has over 350 Criterion Collection eVideos available to stream, for free.

I repeat: Over 350. Criterion Collection eVideos. Available to stream. For free.

!!!!!

No holds required! No waiting! Over 350 of the best films ever made, from around the world, right here in your browser. With transcripts, and biographical information.

In related news, did you know that you can get groceries delivered to your home? There is no longer any reason to ever leave your house. (Pokemon Go fans may disagree.)

Here are a few of the classics of world cinema that I plan to commence binge-watching immediately:

	Did you know that Fellini’s dizzying midlife masterpiece gets more relevant every time you watch it (at least until your mid-forties)? Marcello Mastroianni is literally dreamy as a Felliniesque director in the throes of creative crisis; now, you can spelunk around his overpopulated subconscious to your heart’s content.
Do you like to be sad and charmed at the same time? Before Lasse Hallstrom met Johnny Depp; before he made Leonardo DiCaprio a star; before he got too sentimental, he made this just-sentimental-enough little gem about the philosophical struggles of twelve-year-old Ingemar, the pluckiest child hero since Antoine Doinel in The 400 Blows (see below).
	If just-sentimental-enough is too sentimental for you, but you still want a story about the trials of childhood, try The 400 Blows. Truffaut’s dry-eyed catalogue of boyhood injustices is put across by a very self-possessed young Jean-Pierre Léaud.
Have you ever wondered what the meaning of life might be? Kurosawa makes a convincing case for an answer in this story of a petty civil servant confronting his own death. (Hint: it’s to help others! But don’t let that deter you! This movie is so, so good.)
	Having gotten engrossed in Campion’s weirdo-feminist mystery TV drama, Top of the Lake, last year, I’m excited to discover the film that launched her career back in 1989. Roger Ebert said, “…this movie is real, it’s the genuine article, and it’s there on the screen in all of its defiant strangeness. Most movies slide right through our minds without hitting anything. This one screams and shouts every step of the way.” I consider myself warned.