The Criterion Collection Is Coming to Fandor. Here Are Three Reasons to Celebrate.

We're a pretty big fan of movie theaters around these parts (maybe you've heard), so even when it comes to classical movies, Film Journal International's preference is watching at a theater vs online if at all possible. There's nothing like seeing Metropolis for the first time on a big screen with live musical accompaniment. Nothing. But hey, the Internet's good too, and not everyone lives in cities with a bustling assortment of theaters that play repertory films.

So we count it as a good thing that movie streaming site Fandor--like Netflix, but with an indie, foreign and classic bent--is getting its mitts on some of the Criterion Collection by way of Hulu, which currently owns the streaming rights. Every week will see a curated collection of seven films, based around a theme, come to Fandor, for a rough total of 30 per month. The films will be available for only 12 days each, which is a bit of a bummer, but if you miss one thing you want to see, something else will surely come cycling through.

Here, for your convenience, is a list of the currently running (Island Life) and upcoming (Family Troubles) slate of films.

Launch Date: 11/18/14 Series: Island Life
1. L'avventura (1960) dir. Michelangelo Antonioni
2. Bergman Island (2006) dir. Marie Nyreröd
3. Lord of the Flies (1963) dir. Peter Brook
4. Naked Island (1960) dir. Kaneto Shindô
5. Profound Desire of the Gods (1968) dir. Shohei Imamura
6. Stromboli (1950) dir. Roberto Rossellini
7. Through a Glass Darkly (1961) dir. Ingmar Bergman
Launch Date: 11/25/14 Series: Family Troubles
1. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
2. A Nos Amours (1983) dir. Maurice Pialat
3. The Ceremony (1971) dir. Nagisa Oshima
4. The Demon (1964) dir. Kaneto Shindo
5. Fists in the Pocket (1965) dir. Marco Bellocchio
6. The Housemaid (1960) dir. Kim Ki-young
7. Seduced and Abandoned (1964) dir. Pietro Germi
8. A Woman Under the Influence (1974) dir. John Cassavetes
 
Click here to check them out; if you don't already have a subscription, you can sign up for a free trial. Do so, then start off by watching these three classics.

Through a Glass Darkly, dir. Ingmar Bergman 
  

This 1961 classic about a woman (Harriet Andersson) slipping back into insanity after a stay at a mental hospital has all the bleak humanism and religious metaphor you could possibly want from a Bergman film.
 
A Woman Under the Influence, dir. John Cassavetes

If you're a fan of indie film, it behooves you to see this, one of the most notable entries in the filmography of the godfather of independent cinema. The brilliant turn from Gena Rowlands as a housewife losing grip on her sanity doesn't hurt.

Lord of the Flies, dir. Peter Brook

Sucks to the assmar of anyone who hasn't seen Peter Brook's 1963 adaptation of William Golding's classic novel about a group of English students who get stranded on a deserted island shortly after World War II. Much like their adult Cold War counterparts, the boys behave perfectly and nothing bad happens to them. Wait.