What’s Happening on Hulu

This week’s free festival on Hulu, Body Parts, highlights a selection of films whose titles pay tribute to various parts of the anatomy. Ranging from a scorching work of Italian social realism to a pre-Code Hollywood comedy, the series lineup includes Clyde Bruckman’s Feet First, Ronald Neame’s The Horse’s Mouth, Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face, Francesco Rosi’s Hands over the City, Jun Fukuda’s Ironfinger, Robert Downey Sr.’s Chafed Elbows, and Eric Rohmer’s Claire’s Knee.

Also among these titles is an essential work of the Czechoslovak New Wave, Karel Kachyňa’s 1970 drama The Ear. Combining pitch-black humor with harrowing scenes of domestic dysfunction, this intimate portrait of political paranoia follows a government official and his alcoholic wife as they discover their home has been bugged. Over the course of one claustrophobic night, long-hidden secrets are exposed, and the couple’s marriage begins to crumble. Banned by the Communist party at the time of its completion, The Ear received its long-overdue official release in 1989 and went on to earn international acclaim and a Palme d’Or nomination at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival.

Watch the film below or over at Hulu—and remember, if you subscribe to Hulu for just $7.99 a month, you can see more than 900 Criterion films commercial-free, anytime.

from The Criterion Current http://ift.tt/2aX7q64