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Sundance Channel to Partner with The Criterion Collection

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Sundance Channel will partner with The Criterion Collection to present landmark works of world cinema in "Sundance Channel Presents Classic World Cinema from The Criterion Collection." This special thirteen-week series launches Thursday, June 7th at 9:00 p.m. (Eastern Time), with a different title airing every Thursday night. Included in the series are works by renowned directors such as Jean Renoir, Roman Polanski, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa and Federico Fellini. The program launches on June 7 with L'Avventura (Italy, 1960), Michelangelo Antonioni's meditation on spiritual and moral emptiness set in motion by the mysterious disappearance of a wealthy woman during a yachting trip.

Each film is preceded by Sundance Channel's original program "Conversations in World Cinema," which becomes a weekly series on Thursday June 7 at 8:30 p.m. (Eastern Time). Past guests have included Liv Ullmann, Faithless; Ang Lee, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; and Ed Harris, Pollock.

The thirteen films airing as part of "Classic World Cinema" were jointly selected by Sundance Channel and The Criterion Collection and represent a cross-section of essential cinema, from revolutionary milestones and bona fide masterpieces to internationally beloved hits and lesser-known titles by master filmmakers. Spanning five decades of artistic daring and excellence, each installment of "Classic World Cinema" epitomizes film's power to delight, transport, and inspire.

The titles included in "Sundance Channel Presents Classic World Cinema from The Criterion Collection" are as follows in chronological order:

• L'Avventura ("The Adventure") (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1960) -Antonioni's ravishing meditation on spiritual and moral emptiness is set in motion by the mysterious disappearance of a wealthy woman during a yachting trip. 6/7 (VHS HOME VISION/DVD CRITERION coming 6/19/2001)
   
• High and Low ("Tengoku To Jigoku") (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1963) - The legendary Toshiro Mifune stars as a wealthy industrialist whose family becomes the target of a ruthless kidnapper in Kurosawa's exemplary film noir, adapted from Ed McBain's detective novel King's Ransom. 6/14 (VHS HOME VISION/DVD CRITERION)
   
• Mr. Hulot's Holiday ("Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot") (Jacques Tati, France, 1953) - Director, co-writer,. and star Tati created one of cinema's most beloved characters with this magical comedy about a hapless bachelor's seaside vacation. 6/21 (VHS HOME VISION/DVD CRITERION)
   
• Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, Russia, 1966) - Tarkovsky's epic masterpiece is a sweeping medieval tale about Russia's greatest icon painter. 6/28 (VHS HOME VISION/DVD CRITERION)
   
• Wages of Fear ("Le Salaire de la Peur") (Henri-Georges Clouzot, France, 1953) - An American oil company enlists four tough drifters for a high-paying suicide mission: transporting explosives across the rough terrain of Central America. 7/5 (VHS HOME VISION/DVD CRITERION)
   
• Wild Strawberries ("Smultronstallet") (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden, 1957) - An elderly physician, about to receive an honorary degree, is prompted by a dream and by circumstance to revisit key moments in his life. 7/12 (VHS HOME VISION/DVD CRITERION coming 2001)
   
• Knife in the Water ("Noz w Wodzie") (Roman Polanski, Poland, 1962) - Polanski's brilliant, blackly comic first feature follows a couple whose boating weekend becomes an exercise in tension after they pick up an enigmatic young hitchhiker. 7/19 (VHS HOME VISION/DVD coming 2001)
   
• Blood of a Poet ("Le Sang d'un Poete") (Jean Cocteau, France, 1930) - Cocteau's dreamlike first film stretches the medium to its limits in an effort to evoke the creative process. 7/26 (VHS HOME VISION/DVD CRITERION)
   
• The Seventh Seal ("Det Sjunde Inseglet") (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden, 1957) - A knight returning from the Crusades tries to outwit Death in Bergman's stunning allegory of man's apocalyptic search for meaning. 8/2 (VHS HOME VISION/DVD CRITERION)
   
• Cleo from 5 to 7 ("Cleo de 5 a 7") (Agnès Varda, France, 1961) - Visionary of the French New Wave, Varda captures the atmosphere of Paris in the '60s with this portrait of a singer searching for answers as she awaits the results of a biopsy for cancer. 8/9 (VHS HOME VISION/DVD CRITERION)
   
• Nights of Cabiria ("Le Notti de Cabiria") (Federico Fellini, Italy, 1957) - Oscar® winner for Best Foreign Language Film, this haunting masterpiece stars the great Giulietta Masina as a naive prostitute searching for true love in the seediest sections of Rome. 8/16 (VHS HOME VISION/DVD CRITERION)
   
• Grand Illusion ("La Grande Illusion") (Jean Renoir, France, 1938) - A moving drama about a group of World War I POW's trying to escape from a German prison camp, many consider this the greatest antiwar film ever made. 8/23 (VHS HOME VISION/DVD CRITERION)
   
• Seven Samurai ("Shichi-Nin No Samurai") (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1954) - A desperate village hires a group of mercenary samurai to protect it from marauders in this crown jewel of Japanese cinema. 8/30 (VHS HOME VISION/DVD CRITERION)