Reel: How do you select films that are part of the three-hundred-plus Criterion DVD library?

PB: In some way, the film has to be an exemplary film of its kind. There are some filmmakers that every film they do is exemplary. The same thing is true in literature. Almost everything Melville wrote is important. There are geniuses in film. Kurosawa is one of them. Ozu and Renoir are certainly others. There are great classic auteurs, and then there are films that open up a window into filmmaking or film culture. For example, The Battle of Algiers, which I think is a really extraordinary film that is more timely in the last three or four years than any film I can think of. It's the only film I can think of where people went out and re-lived their history in front of cameras.

The short answer is, the first thing we are thinking of is our viewers, and we are trying to give them a legendary diet. When they pick up a movie from a Criterion shelf, it will be worthy of their attention. They might not love everything we put out, but they won't feel that they wasted their time.

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