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Great Scott! Back to the Future has hit the big 4-0, roughly half the speed required to send Doc Brown's DeLorean back and forth in time. But the Robert Zemeckis-directed movie doesn't feel like ancient history, even if it first zipped into theaters in the distant past of the 1980s. Fueled by pedal to the metal pacing, ingeniously-designed set-pieces and the dynamic duo Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, Back to the Future, released on July 3, 1985, remains an eternally youthful summer blockbuster even while other studio films of that era are rattling around with broken parts.

Genius isn't always recognized in its time, though, which is why the movie's relatively poor showing at the 58th Academy Awards — held on March 24, 1986 — hangs extra-heavy four decades later. Back to the Future received four nominations and took home a single statue as Sydney Pollack's Out of Africa emerged as the evening's big winner.

Each week, the fine folks at Fandor add a number of films to their Criterion Picks area, which will then be available to subscribers for the following twelve days. This week, the Criterion Picks focus on seven films featuring the music of Nino Rota.

Celebrate iconic Italian films in a new way: ears first, through the scores composed by this long-time collaborator of Fellini (and many others).

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Marcello Mastroianni plays Guido Anselmi, a director whose new project is collapsing around him, along with his life. One of the greatest films about film ever made, Federico Fellini turns one man’s artistic crisis into a grand epic of the cinema.

Amarcord

This carnivalesque portrait of provincial Italy during the fascist period, the most personal film from Federico Fellini, satirizes the director’s youth and turns daily life into a circus of social rituals,...

We are half-way through 2011. This Tuesday marks the release of the last three June titles that Criterion is releasing: Zazie Dans Le Metro, Black Moon, and People On Sunday. We thought that we’d take some time out of our busy lives to reflect upon the past six months of releases (34 releases, not including the Eclipse sets) from the Criterion Collection, and share our thoughts on our favorite releases.

Top Ten lists are usually formed around the end of the year, but it’s a nice exercise to keep those titles that were released in the first half, so we don’t fall prey to our short attention spans and heap praise on those titles that were released closer to the winter.

When I proposed this assignment to the group, I just asked for their “X” favorite titles of 2011 so far, with very little direction given as to how many to choose,...