This podcast focuses on the Eclipse Series, box set editions of lost, forgotten, or overshadowed films recently revived by the Criterion Collection. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each set and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this last of four episodes, David and Trevor discuss six “School Films” (Two Solutions for One Problem, So Can I, Tribute to Teachers, Toothache, Orderly or Disorderly, and Homework) from Eclipse Series 47: Abbas Kiarostami – Early Shorts and Features. Eleven other films included in this set are covered in earlier episodes.

About the films:

Long before he became one of the most renowned artists in world cinema, the great Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami began his cinematic career at Tehran’s Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (a.k.a. Kanoon), where he honed his distinctive style and themes. During his first decades as a filmmaker, Kiarostami moved freely among documentary, narrative, and even animation, and between joyous short films made for children and subtle works exploring the struggles of adolescents. Often using the classroom as a laboratory, he probed social and political tensions in Iranian society during the turbulent years before and after the 1979 revolution. Spanning his very first short, Bread and Alley (which the director called the “mother of all my films”); other underseen early revelations, like Experience and The Traveler; and nonfiction masterpieces such as Homework, the graceful, warm, and playful works collected here find moments of transcendent poetry within everyday life, and use deceptively simple premises to express universal truths about the human condition.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Part 1: Beginnings and Journeys (featuring Colors, Bread and Alley, Breaktime, and The Traveler)
Part 2: Adolescence and Poverty (featuring Experience and A Wedding Suit)
Part 3: Political Allegories (featuring Solution No. 1, First Case, Second Case, The Chorus, Fellow Citizen, and First Graders)

Abbas Kiarostami

• The Criterion Collection
• The Criterion Channel
• Abbas Kiarostami’s Childhood Films (Criterion Channel documentary short, suggested viewing mentioned on inside cover of the set)
• Wikipedia
• Letterboxd
• Kiarostami Foundation
• The American Scholar
• British Journal of Photography
• Harper’s
• Henna Platform
• The Point
• Senses of Cinema
• ShotDeck
• Sight & Sound
• Mania Akbari Tells Her Story
• Criterion – In Memoriam

Box Set Reviews

• Blu-ray.com
• Home Theater Forum
• Let’s Talk Criterion (video)
• Under the Radar

Two Solutions for One Problem (1975)

• The Criterion Collection
• The Criterion Channel
• Wikipedia
• Letterboxd
• Kiarostami Foundation
• Cagey Films
• Cinephilic Musings
• The Cultural Me
• Webs of Significance

So Can I (1975)

• The Criterion Collection
• The Criterion Channel
• Wikipedia
• Letterboxd
• Kiarostami Foundation

Tribute to Teachers (1977)

• The Criterion Collection
• The Criterion Channel
• Letterboxd
• Kiarostami Foundation
• Webs of Significance

Toothache (1980)

• The Criterion Collection
• The Criterion Channel
• Wikipedia
• Letterboxd
• Kiarostami Foundation

Orderly or Disorderly (1981)

• The Criterion Collection
• The Criterion Channel
• Wikipedia
• Letterboxd
• Cagey Films
• Kiarostami Foundation

Homework (1989)

• The Criterion Collection
• The Criterion Channel
• Wikipedia
• Letterboxd
• Kiarostami Foundation
• Errata (podcast)
• Senses of Cinema

Contact us

• David Blakeslee ( TikTok / YouTube / Facebook / CriterionCast / Blog )
• Trevor Berrett ( Instagram / Website / The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast )

This podcast focuses on the Eclipse Series, box set editions of lost, forgotten, or overshadowed films recently revived by the Criterion Collection. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each set and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss five films (Solution No. 1, First Case/Second Case, The Chorus, Fellow Citizen, and First Graders) from Eclipse Series 47: Abbas Kiarostami – Early Shorts and Features. Thirteen other films included in this set are covered in other episodes.

About the films:

Long before he became one of the most renowned artists in world cinema, the great Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami began his cinematic career at Tehran’s Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (a.k.a. Kanoon), where he honed his distinctive style and themes. During his first decades as a filmmaker, Kiarostami moved freely among documentary, narrative, and even animation, and between joyous short films made for children and subtle works exploring the struggles of adolescents. Often using the classroom as a laboratory, he probed social and political tensions in Iranian society during the turbulent years before and after the 1979 revolution. Spanning his very first short, Bread and Alley (which the director called the “mother of all my films”); other underseen early revelations, like Experience and The Traveler; and nonfiction masterpieces such as Homework, the graceful, warm, and playful works collected here find moments of transcendent poetry within everyday life, and use deceptively simple premises to express universal truths about the human condition.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Part 1: Beginnings and Journeys (featuring Colors, Bread and Alley, Breaktime, and The Traveler)
Part 2: Adolescence and Poverty (featuring Experience and A Wedding Suit)

Abbas Kiarostami

• The Criterion Collection
• The Criterion Channel
• Abbas Kiarostami’s Childhood Films (Criterion Channel documentary short, suggested viewing mentioned on inside cover of the set)
• Wikipedia
• Letterboxd
• The American Scholar
• British Journal of Photography
• Harper’s
• The Point
• Senses of Cinema
• ShotDeck
• Sight & Sound
• Criterion – In Memoriam

Box Set Reviews

• Blu-ray.com
• Home Theater Forum
• Let’s Talk Criterion (video)
• Under the Radar

Solution No. 1 (1978)

• The Criterion Collection
• Letterboxd
• Kiarostami.org
• Notes on Cinematograph

First Case, Second Case (1979)

• The Criterion Collection
• The Criterion Channel
• Wikipedia
• Letterboxd
• Kiarostami.org
• Notes on Cinematograph
• Webs of Significance

The Chorus (1982)

• The Criterion Collection
• Wikipedia
• Letterboxd
• Kiarostami.org
• Notes on Cinematograph
• Asian Movie Pulse

Fellow Citizen (1983)

• The Criterion Collection
• Wikipedia
• Letterboxd
• Kiarostami.org
• Senses of Cinema
• Pierre Henry’s “Psyche Rock” (featured in soundtrack, mentioned in episode):

First Graders (1984)

• The Criterion Collection
• The Criterion Channel
• Wikipedia
• Letterboxd
• Kiarostami.org
• Notes on Cinematograph
• Filmofiles Hideout

Contact us

• David Blakeslee ( TikTok / YouTube / Facebook / CriterionCast / Blog )
• Trevor Berrett ( Instagram / Website / The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast )

This podcast focuses on the Eclipse Series, box set editions of lost, forgotten, or overshadowed films recently revived by the Criterion Collection. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each set and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss two films (Experience and A Wedding Suit) from Eclipse Series 47: Abbas Kiarostami – Early Shorts and Features. Thirteen other films included in this set will be covered in future episodes.

About the films:

Long before he became one of the most renowned artists in world cinema, the great Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami began his cinematic career at Tehran’s Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (a.k.a. Kanoon), where he honed his distinctive style and themes. During his first decades as a filmmaker, Kiarostami moved freely among documentary, narrative, and even animation, and between joyous short films made for children and subtle works exploring the struggles of adolescents. Often using the classroom as a laboratory, he probed social and political tensions in Iranian society during the turbulent years before and after the 1979 revolution. Spanning his very first short, Bread and Alley (which the director called the “mother of all my films”); other underseen early revelations, like Experience and The Traveler; and nonfiction masterpieces such as Homework, the graceful, warm, and playful works collected here find moments of transcendent poetry within everyday life, and use deceptively simple premises to express universal truths about the human condition.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Part 1: Beginnings and Journeys (featuring Colors, Bread and Alley, Breaktime, and The Traveler)

Part 3: Political Allegories (featuring Solution No. 1, First Case, Second Case, The Chorus, Fellow Citizen, and First Graders)

Abbas Kiarostami

• The Criterion Collection
• The Criterion Channel
• Abbas Kiarostami’s Childhood Films (Criterion Channel documentary short, suggested viewing mentioned on inside cover of the set)
• Wikipedia
• Letterboxd
• The American Scholar
• British Journal of Photography
• Harper’s
• The Point
• Senses of Cinema
• ShotDeck
• Sight & Sound
• Criterion – In Memoriam

Box Set Reviews

• Blu-ray.com
• Home Theater Forum
• Let’s Talk Criterion (video)
• Under the Radar
• Wall Street Journal

Experience (1973)

• The Criterion Collection
• The Criterion Channel
• Wikipedia
• Letterboxd
• In Review Online
• Senses of Cinema

A Wedding Suit (1976)

• The Criterion Collection
• The Criterion Channel
• Wikipedia
• Letterboxd
• In Review Online
• Senses of Cinema

Contact us

• David Blakeslee ( TikTok / YouTube / Facebook / CriterionCast / Blog )
• Trevor Berrett ( Instagram / Website / The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast )

This podcast focuses on the Eclipse Series, Blu-ray box set editions of lost, forgotten, or overshadowed films recently revived by the Criterion Collection. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each set and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss four films (Colors, Bread and Alley, Breaktime, and The Traveler) from Eclipse Series 47: Abbas Kiarostami – Early Shorts and Features. Thirteen other films included in this set will be covered in future episodes.

About the films:

Long before he became one of the most renowned artists in world cinema, the great Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami began his cinematic career at Tehran’s Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (a.k.a. Kanoon), where he honed his distinctive style and themes. During his first decades as a filmmaker, Kiarostami moved freely among documentary, narrative, and even animation, and between joyous short films made for children and subtle works exploring the struggles of adolescents. Often using the classroom as a laboratory, he probed social and political tensions in Iranian society during the turbulent years before and after the 1979 revolution. Spanning his very first short, Bread and Alley (which the director called the “mother of all my films”); other underseen early revelations, like Experience and The Traveler; and nonfiction masterpieces such as Homework, the graceful, warm, and playful works collected here find moments of transcendent poetry within everyday life, and use deceptively simple premises to express universal truths about the human condition.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Part 2: Adolescence and Poverty (featuring Experience and A Wedding Suit)
Part 3: Political Allegories (featuring Solution No. 1, First Case, Second Case, The Chorus, Fellow Citizen, and First Graders)

Abbas Kiarostami

• The Criterion Collection
• The Criterion Channel
• Abbas Kiarostami’s Childhood Films (Criterion Channel documentary short, suggested viewing mentioned on inside cover of the set)
• Wikipedia
• Letterboxd
• The American Scholar
• British Journal of Photography
• Harper’s
• The Point
• Senses of Cinema
• ShotDeck
• Sight & Sound
• Criterion – In Memoriam

Box Set Reviews

• Blu-ray.com
• Under the Radar

Colors

• The Criterion Collection
• The Criterion Channel
• Wikipedia
• Letterboxd
• Le Cinema Club

Bread and Alley

• The Criterion Collection
• The Criterion Channel
• Wikipedia
• Letterboxd
• High on Films
• An Awadh Boy’s Panorama

Breaktime

• The Criterion Collection
• The Criterion Channel
• Letterboxd
• Sabzian

The Traveler

• The Criterion Collection
• The Criterion Channel
• Wikipedia
• Letterboxd
• In Review Online
• Senses of Cinema

Contact us

• David Blakeslee ( TikTok / YouTube / Facebook / CriterionCast / Blog )
• Trevor Berrett ( Instagram / Website / The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss three films (Dollar, A Woman’s Face and June Night) from Eclipse Series 46: Ingrid Bergman’s Swedish Years.

About the films:

Ingrid Bergman appeared in eleven films in her native Sweden before the age of twenty-five, and while that work tends to be overshadowed by her time in Hollywood, it showcases the actor summoning an impressive depth of emotion to deliver astute, passionate performances. Under the direction of filmmakers such as the prolific studio hand Gustaf Molander, Bergman embraced a range of roles and worked with some of the most celebrated actors in the Swedish film industry, including Gösta Ekman, Karin Swanström, Victor Sjöström, and Lars Hanson. Comedies, romances, and thrillers, the six fascinating films collected here—including Intermezzo, the movie that took Bergman to America—exhibit the precociously assured talent of a young artist with an illustrious international career ahead of her.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Ingrid Bergman

• Criterion
• IngridBergman.com
• Sight & Sound
• New York Times (obituary)

Box Set Reviews

• Cinapse
• DVD Talk
• Trailers From Hell
• Wall Street Journal

Dollar

• CineMagazine
• TCM

A Woman’s Face

• Criterion Confessions
• TCM

June Night

• Criterion Confessions
• TCM

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website / The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss three films (The Count of the Old Town, Walpurgis Night and Intermezzo) from Eclipse Series 46: Ingrid Bergman’s Swedish Years.

About the films:

Ingrid Bergman appeared in eleven films in her native Sweden before the age of twenty-five, and while that work tends to be overshadowed by her time in Hollywood, it showcases the actor summoning an impressive depth of emotion to deliver astute, passionate performances. Under the direction of filmmakers such as the prolific studio hand Gustaf Molander, Bergman embraced a range of roles and worked with some of the most celebrated actors in the Swedish film industry, including Gösta Ekman, Karin Swanström, Victor Sjöström, and Lars Hanson. Comedies, romances, and thrillers, the six fascinating films collected here—including Intermezzo, the movie that took Bergman to America—exhibit the precociously assured talent of a young artist with an illustrious international career ahead of her.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Ingrid Bergman

• Criterion
• IngridBergman.com (official)
• Sight & Sound
• Pamela Hutchinson’s blog (essayist for the Eclipse Series liner notes)

Box Set Reviews

• Cinapse
• Ion Cinema
• Trailers From Hell

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website / The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss four films from Eclipse Series 45: Claude Autante-Lara – Four Romantic Escapes from Occupied France.

About the films:

Too often overlooked after his work was spurned by the New Wave iconoclasts as belonging to the “tradition of quality,” Claude Autant-Lara was one of France’s leading directors of the 1940s and ’50s. He began as a set and costume designer and went on to direct French-language versions of American comedies in Hollywood, but it was back in his home country that Autant-Lara came into his own as a filmmaker. He found his sophisticated and slyly subversive voice with these four romances, produced during the dark days of the German occupation. Sumptuously appointed even while being critical of class hierarchy, these films—all made with the same corps of collaborators, including the charmingly impetuous star Odette Joyeux—endure as a testament to the quick wit and exquisite visual sense of the director whose name they established.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Claude Autant-Lara

• Wikipedia
• Films de France
• The Guardian (obituary)
• New York Times (obituary)

Box Set Reviews

• CageyFilms
• Cinapse
• DVDBlu Review
• Pop Matters
• Stream On Demand
• Trailers From Hell

Bertrand Tavernier on Claude Autant-Lara’s DOUCE from Criterion Collection on Vimeo.

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website / The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this final episode of a three-part series (and perhaps the podcast itself), David and Trevor are joined by Matt Gasteier to discuss two films (Late Autumn and The End of Summer) from Eclipse Series 3: Late Ozu.

About the films:

Master filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu directed fifty-three feature films over the course of his long career. Yet it was in the final decade of his life, his “old master” phase, that he entered his artistic prime. Centered more than ever on the modern sensibilities of the younger generation, these delicate family dramas are marked by an exquisite formal elegance and emotional sensitivity about birth and death, love and marriage, and all the accompanying joys and loneliness. Along with such better-known films as Floating Weeds and An Autumn Afternoon, these five works illustrate the worldly wisdom of one of cinema’s great artists at the height of his powers.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Yasujiro Ozu

• Criterion Explore Page
• Ozu and Setsuko Hara (Donald Richie)
• Wikipedia
• Ozu-San.com
• Film Comment
• Japan Times
• Roger Ebert
• Senses of Cinema (bio)
• Senses of Cinema (article: “Is Ozu Slow?”)

Box Set Reviews

• Combustible Celluloid
• Criterion Confessions
• Digitally Obsessed

Late Autumn

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times (1973)
• Ozu-San.com
• Celluloid Wicker Man
• Ozu’s World
• Pop Matters
• Senses of Cinema
• Strictly Film School
• The Film Sufi
• The Flickering Wall
• The Guardian
• Webs of Significance
• World Cinema Review

The End of Summer

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Ozu-San.com
• Boomtron
• J-Film Pow-Wow
• Japanese Culture Reflections
• Movie Rapture
• Nishikata Film Review
• Only the Cinema
• Ozekiland
• Ozu’s World
• The Film Sufi
• Webs of Significance
• World Cinema Review

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )
• Matt Gasteier ( Twitter / Facebook / Website )

… And before I wrap this up, I’d like to take a moment to thank Rob Nishimura and Trevor Berrett for being great podcasting partners in their respective stints in that role, and for providing their editing skills so that all I had to do was sit back and talk. Also gotta give credit to Rob and my son Brandon Blakeslee for brilliantly handling the graphic design chores in creating the logos, headers and feature images. Lots of love to all of our guests who graciously enhanced our conversations over the past five years:

• Scott Nye (Silent Naruse and Mizoguchi’s Fallen Women)
• West Anthony (The First Films of Samuel Fuller)
• Joshua Brunsting (The Actuality Dramas of Allan King)
• Ryan Gallagher (2012 in Review and Sabu!)
• Lauren LoGiudice (Lubitsch Musicals)
• Michael Koresky (A Conversation with Michael Koresky – former staff writer for the Criterion Collection)
• Mark Hurne (Raymond Bernard)
• Aaron West (Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties and Julien Duvivier in the Thirties)
• Pauline Lampert (Chantal Akerman in the Seventies and George Bernard Shaw on Film)
• Pablo Knote (The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara and Nikkatsu Noir)
• Keith Enright (The Documentaries of Louis Malle)
• Matt Gasteier (Late Ozu)

And finally, my sincere appreciation for everyone who’s dropped us a comment, passed along a link, told their cinephile friends about our podcast or just sent us the occasional good vibes and note of encouragement in any way. I’m really glad we got the chance to connect and I am eager to continue on with new projects, very soon!

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this second episode of a three-part series, David and Trevor are joined by Matt Gasteier to discuss the first three color films  directed by Yasujiro Ozu: Equinox Flower, from Eclipse Series 3: Late Ozu, along with Good Morning and Floating Weeds. released as spine-numbered editions in the Criterion Collection.

About the films:

Master filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu directed fifty-three feature films over the course of his long career. Yet it was in the final decade of his life, his “old master” phase, that he entered his artistic prime. Centered more than ever on the modern sensibilities of the younger generation, these delicate family dramas are marked by an exquisite formal elegance and emotional sensitivity about birth and death, love and marriage, and all the accompanying joys and loneliness. Along with such better-known films as Floating Weeds and An Autumn Afternoon, these five works illustrate the worldly wisdom of one of cinema’s great artists at the height of his powers.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Yasujiro Ozu

• Criterion Explore Page
• Wikipedia
• Ozu-San.com
• Film Comment
• Japan Times
• Roger Ebert
• Senses of Cinema (bio)
• Senses of Cinema (article: “Is Ozu Slow?”)

Box Set Reviews

• Combustible Celluloid
• Criterion Confessions
• Digitally Obsessed

Equinox Flower

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times (1977)
• Films de France
• Only the Cinema
• Ozu-San.com
• Senses of Cinema
• The Film Sufi
• 3 Quarks Daily
• Guide to Flower Symbolism – Higanbana/Equinox Flower

Good Morning

• David’s Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review
• David’s Criterion Reflections review
• Matt’s Criterion on the Brain review

Floating Weeds

• David’s Criterion Reflections review
• Matt’s Criterion on the Brain review
• Scott Nye’s Masters of Cinema Blu-ray review

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 3: Late Ozu [Part 3]

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )
• Matt Gasteier ( Twitter / Facebook / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this first episode of a three-part series, David and Trevor are joined by Matthew Gasteier to discuss two films (Early Spring and Tokyo Twilight) from Eclipse Series 3: Late Ozu.

About the films:

Master filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu directed fifty-three feature films over the course of his long career. Yet it was in the final decade of his life, his “old master” phase, that he entered his artistic prime. Centered more than ever on the modern sensibilities of the younger generation, these delicate family dramas are marked by an exquisite formal elegance and emotional sensitivity about birth and death, love and marriage, and all the accompanying joys and loneliness. Along with such better-known films as Floating Weeds and An Autumn Afternoon, these five works illustrate the worldly wisdom of one of cinema’s great artists at the height of his powers.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Yasujiro Ozu

• Criterion Explore Page
• Wikipedia
• Ozu-San.com
• Film Comment
• Japan Times
• Roger Ebert
• Senses of Cinema (bio)
• Senses of Cinema (article: “Is Ozu Slow?”)

Box Set Reviews

• Combustible Celluloid
• Criterion Confessions
• Digitally Obsessed

Early Spring

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times (1974)
• Blueprint: Review 
• Films de France
• J-Film Pow-Wow
• Only the Cinema
• Ozu-San.com
• Ozu’s World
• Strictly Film School
• TCM
• The Film Sufi

Tokyo Twilight

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Acting-Out Politics
• Adventures in Vertigo
• Blueprint: Review 
• CineSlice
• Dennis Grunes
• J-Film Pow-Wow
• Japanese Film Reflections
• MovieRapture
• Ozu-San.com
• Ozu’s World
• The Film Sufi

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 3: Late Ozu [Part 2]

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )
• Matt Gasteier ( Twitter / Facebook / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this first episode of a two-part series, David and Trevor discuss two films (The Idiot and I Live in Fear) from Eclipse Series 7: Postwar Kurosawa.

About the films:

Akira Kurosawa came into his own as a filmmaker directly following World War II, delving into the state of his devastated nation with a series of pensive, topical dramas. Amid Japan’s economic collapse and U.S. occupation, Kurosawa managed to find humor and redemption existing alongside despair and anxiety. In these five early films, which range from political epic to Capraesque whimsy to courtroom potboiler, Kurosawa revealed the artistic range and social acuity that would mark his career and make him the most popular Japanese director in the world.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Akira Kurosawa

• Criterion Explore Page
• Wikipedia
• AkiraKurosawa.info Bio (International Breakthrough and Darker Themes)
• A.V. Club
• BFI – 10 Essential Films
• Biography.com
• KurosawaMovies.com
• Senses of Cinema

Box Set Reviews

• Criterion Confessions
• DVD Talk
• PopMatters

The Idiot

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Akira Kurosawa Info
• Can’t Stop the Movies
• Celluloid Wicker Man
• Critic After Dark
• Dennis Grunes
• Films de France
• Japanese Culture Reflections
• Lewis Saul
• Ozu’s World
• Printculture
• Where the Long Tail Ends

I Live in Fear

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• A.V. Club
• Cinelogue
• Ferdy on Films
• Filmnomenon
• J-Film PowWow
• Kurosawa in Review
• Movie Martyr
• Phil-Zine!
• Slate
• TCM
• Varied Celluloid

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 3: Late Ozu [Part 1]

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this first episode of a two-part series, David and Trevor discuss three films (No Regrets for Our Youth, One Wonderful Sunday and Scandal) from Eclipse Series 7: Postwar Kurosawa.

About the films:

Akira Kurosawa came into his own as a filmmaker directly following World War II, delving into the state of his devastated nation with a series of pensive, topical dramas. Amid Japan’s economic collapse and U.S. occupation, Kurosawa managed to find humor and redemption existing alongside despair and anxiety. In these five early films, which range from political epic to Capraesque whimsy to courtroom potboiler, Kurosawa revealed the artistic range and social acuity that would mark his career and make him the most popular Japanese director in the world.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Akira Kurosawa

• Criterion Explore Page
• Wikipedia
• AkiraKurosawa.info Bio (Immediate Postwar Works)
• A.V. Club
• BFI – 10 Essential Films
• Biography.com
• KurosawaMovies.com
• Senses of Cinema

Box Set Reviews

• Criterion Confessions
• DVD Talk
• PopMatters

No Regrets for Our Youth

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Can’t Stop the Movies
• Cinelogue
• Film Comment
• J-Film PowWow
• Japanese Culture Reflections
• Kurosawa in Review
• Noel Network
• Ozu’s World
• Senses of Cinema
• TCM
• Webs of Significance
• Where the Long Tail Ends

One Wonderful Sunday

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Bill’s Movie Emporium
• Brian Camp’s Film and Anime Blog
• Can’t Stop the Movies
• Cinelogue
• Flickers in Time
• J-Film PowWow
• Japanese Culture Reflections
• Noel Network
• Washington Post (1986)
• Where the Long Tail Ends

Scandal

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Can’t Stop the Movies
• Celluloid Highway
• Cinemaholic
• Digital Fix
• Film Sufi
• Happy Otter
• J-Film PowWow
• Lone Wolves and Hidden Dragons
• Oggs’ Movie Thoughts
• Ozu’s World
• The Stop Button
• Where the Long Tail Ends

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 7: Postwar Kurosawa [Part 2]

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this first episode of a two-part series, David and Trevor discuss two films (La tête d’un homme and Un carnet de bal) from Eclipse Series 44: Julien Duvivier in the Thirties.

About the films:

Remembered primarily for directing the classic crime drama Pépé le moko, Julien Duvivier was one of the finest filmmakers working in France in the 1930s. Thanks to a formidable innate understanding of the cinematic medium, Duvivier made the transition from silents to talkies with ease, marrying his expressive camera work to a strikingly inventive use of sound with a singular dexterity. His deeply shadowed, fatalistic early sound films David Golder and La tête d’un homme anticipate the poetic realist style that would come to define the decade in French cinema and, together with the small-town family drama Poil de Carotte and the swooning tale of love and illusion Un carnet de bal, showcase his stunning versatility. These four films—all featuring the great stage and screen actor Harry Baur—are collected here, each evidence of an immense and often overlooked cinematic talent.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Julien Duvivier

• Criterion Explore Page
• Wikipedia
• Alchetron
• Films de France
• Screening the Past

Box Set Reviews

• Cagey Films
• Criterion Confessions
• DVDBlu Review
• DVD Talk
• Marvel Presents Salò 
• New York Times
• PopMatters
• Slant
• Streamline

La tête d’un homme

• DVD Classik (French, nice collection of screencaps)
• Films de France
• JB Spins

Un carnet de bal

• Pittsburgh Press (1938)
• Berkeley Daily Gazette (1939)
• Dennis Grunes
• Derek Winnert
• DVD Classik
• Films de France
• Pauline Kael

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 7: Postwar Kurosawa [Part 1]

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this first episode of a two-part series, David and Trevor are joined by Aaron West to discuss two films (David Golder and Poil de carotte) from Eclipse Series 44: Julien Duvivier in the Thirties.

About the films:

Remembered primarily for directing the classic crime drama Pépé le moko, Julien Duvivier was one of the finest filmmakers working in France in the 1930s. Thanks to a formidable innate understanding of the cinematic medium, Duvivier made the transition from silents to talkies with ease, marrying his expressive camera work to a strikingly inventive use of sound with a singular dexterity. His deeply shadowed, fatalistic early sound films David Golder and La tête d’un homme anticipate the poetic realist style that would come to define the decade in French cinema and, together with the small-town family drama Poil de Carotte and the swooning tale of love and illusion Un carnet de bal, showcase his stunning versatility. These four films—all featuring the great stage and screen actor Harry Baur—are collected here, each evidence of an immense and often overlooked cinematic talent.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Julien Duvivier

• Criterion Explore Page
• Wikipedia
• Alchetron
• Films de France
• Screening the Past

Box Set Reviews

• Cagey Films
• Criterion Confessions
• DVDBlu Review
• DVD Talk
• Marvel Presents Salò 
• New York Times
• PopMatters
• Slant
• Streamline

David Golder

• New York Times (1932)
• Film Alert 101
• TCM

Poil de carotte

• New York Times (1933)
• Films de France
• The Sky Kid

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 44: Julien Duvivier in the Thirties [Part 2]

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )
• Aaron West ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this second episode of a two-part series, David and Trevor are joined by Pablo Knote to discuss two films (Cruel Gun Story and A Colt is My Passport) from Eclipse Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir.

About the films:

From the late 1950s through the sixties, wild, idiosyncratic crime movies were the brutal and boisterous business of Nikkatsu, the oldest film studio in Japan. In an effort to attract youthful audiences growing increasingly accustomed to American and French big-screen imports, Nikkatsu began producing action potboilers (mukokuseki akushun, or “borderless action”) that incorporated elements of the western, comedy, gangster, and teen-rebel genres. This bruised and bloody collection represents a standout cross section of what Nikkatsu had to offer, from such prominent, stylistically daring directors as Seijun Suzuki, Toshio Masuda, and Takashi Nomura.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Joe Shishido

• Criterion Explore Page
• Midnight Eye (2005 Interview)
• Film in the Digital Age

Box Set Reviews

• AV Club
• Cineaste
• Deep Focus
• DVD Savant
• DVD Talk
• PopDose
• PopMatters
• Seanax
• Slant

Cruel Gun Story

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Cineslice
• JFilm Pow-Wow
• Japanese Culture Reflections
• Public Transportation Snob
• Screen Anarchy
• TarsTarkas.NET

A Colt is My Passport

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• A Hero Never Dies
• City on Fire
• FilmsNoir.net
• Infini-Tropolis
• JFilm Pow-Wow
•  Screen Anarchy
• SIFF Blog
• TarsTarkas.NET

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 44: Julien Duvivier in the Thirties

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )
• Pablo Knote ( Introducing Pablo [mini-bio] / Eastern Kicks [English] / Nippon-Kino [German] )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this first episode of a two-part series, David and Trevor are joined by Pablo Knote to discuss three films (I am Waiting, Rusty Knife and Take Aim at the Police Van) from Eclipse Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir.

About the films:

From the late 1950s through the sixties, wild, idiosyncratic crime movies were the brutal and boisterous business of Nikkatsu, the oldest film studio in Japan. In an effort to attract youthful audiences growing increasingly accustomed to American and French big-screen imports, Nikkatsu began producing action potboilers (mukokuseki akushun, or “borderless action”) that incorporated elements of the western, comedy, gangster, and teen-rebel genres. This bruised and bloody collection represents a standout cross section of what Nikkatsu had to offer, from such prominent, stylistically daring directors as Seijun Suzuki, Toshio Masuda, and Takashi Nomura.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Nikkatsu Studio

• Official Site / “About Us”
• A Beginner’s Guide to Japanese Noir

Box Set Reviews

• AV Club
• Cineaste
• Deep Focus
• DVD Savant
• DVD Talk
• PopDose
• PopMatters
• Seanax
• Slant

I am Waiting

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Criterion Confessions
• Edinburgh Film Guild
• J-Film PowWow
• Japanese Culture Reflections
• Mondo 70
• Screen Anarchy
• Streamline (FilmStruck)

Rusty Knife

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• CineSlice
• Criterion Confessions
• J-Film PowWow
• Japanese Culture Reflections
• Mondo 70
• Screen Anarchy
• Unseen Films

Take Aim at the Police Van

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Criterion Confessions
• Infini-Tropolis
• J-Film PowWow
• Mondo 70
• Movies in the City
• Screen Anarchy
• VCinema

Pablo’s Must-Read Recommendations

• No Borders, No Limits by Mark Schilling
• The Yakuza Movie Book: A Guide to Japanese Gangster Films by Mark Schilling
• Gun And Sword: An Encyclopedia of Japanese Gangster Films by Chris D.

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir [Part 2] 

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )
• Pablo Knote ( Introducing Pablo [mini-bio] / Eastern Kicks  / Nippon-Kino [German] / World Cinema Paradise / Taste of Cinema )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor are joined by Keith Enright to discuss Eclipse Series 2: The Documentaries of Louis Malle.

About the films:

Over the course of a nearly forty-year career, Louis Malle forged a reputation as one of the world’s most versatile cinematic storytellers, with such widely acclaimed, and wide-ranging, masterpieces as Elevator to the Gallows, My Dinner with Andre, and Au revoir les enfants. At the same time, however, with less fanfare, Malle was creating a parallel, even more personal body of work as a documentary filmmaker. With the discerning eye of a true artist and the investigatory skills of a great journalist, Malle takes us from a street corner in Paris to America’s heartland to the expanses of India in his astonishing epic Phantom India. These are some of the most engaging and fascinating nonfiction films ever made.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

[amazon_link asins=’B000MTEFPK’ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’criter-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’b592d1d6-cb32-11e6-825a-091742ab46da’]

Episode Links

Louis Malle

• Criterion Explore
• Wikipedia
• TCM
• New Wave Film

Box Set Reviews

• Senses of Cinema
• Criterion Confessions

God’s Country

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times (1985)
• TCM
• Not Coming to a Theater Near You
• The Film Sufi
• Marks in the Margin

And the Pursuit of Happiness

• David’s Journey through the Eclipse Series review
• The Film Sufi
• Film Gazette
• Molodezhnaja

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir [Part 1]

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )
• Keith Enright ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor are joined by Keith Enright to discuss Eclipse Series 2: The Documentaries of Louis Malle.

About the films:

Over the course of a nearly forty-year career, Louis Malle forged a reputation as one of the world’s most versatile cinematic storytellers, with such widely acclaimed, and wide-ranging, masterpieces as Elevator to the Gallows, My Dinner with Andre, and Au revoir les enfants. At the same time, however, with less fanfare, Malle was creating a parallel, even more personal body of work as a documentary filmmaker. With the discerning eye of a true artist and the investigatory skills of a great journalist, Malle takes us from a street corner in Paris to America’s heartland to the expanses of India in his astonishing epic Phantom India. These are some of the most engaging and fascinating nonfiction films ever made.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Louis Malle

• Criterion Explore
• New Wave Film
• New York Times (Terrence Rafferty)
• TCM

Box Set Reviews

• Austin Chronicle
• Cinema Gadfly
• Criterion Confessions
• Molodezhnaja
• Senses of Cinema

Phantom India

• BESTqUEST
• The Film Sufi
• Notes of a Film Fanatic
• Robert Christgau
• Search India

Calcutta

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series
• Dharma Documentaries
• The Film Sufi
• TCM

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 2: The Documentaries of Louis Malle [Part 3]

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )
• Keith Enright ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor are joined by Keith Enright to discuss Eclipse Series 2: The Documentaries of Louis Malle.

About the films:

Over the course of a nearly forty-year career, Louis Malle forged a reputation as one of the world’s most versatile cinematic storytellers, with such widely acclaimed, and wide-ranging, masterpieces as Elevator to the Gallows, My Dinner with Andre, and Au revoir les enfants. At the same time, however, with less fanfare, Malle was creating a parallel, even more personal body of work as a documentary filmmaker. With the discerning eye of a true artist and the investigatory skills of a great journalist, Malle takes us from a street corner in Paris to America’s heartland to the expanses of India in his astonishing epic Phantom India. These are some of the most engaging and fascinating nonfiction films ever made.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Louis Malle

• Criterion Explore
• New Wave Film
• New York Times (Terrence Rafferty)

Box Set Reviews

• Cinema Gadfly
• Criterion Confessions
• Molodezhnaja
• Senses of Cinema

Vive le Tour

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Cycling Tips
• The Bike Comes First
• The Film Sufi

Humain, trop humain

• New York Times (1975)
• New Wave Film
• The Film Sufi

Place de la république

• Ozu’s World
• TCM

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 2: The Documentaries of Louis Malle [Part 2]

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )
• Keith Enright ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor is joined by Scott Nye to discuss Eclipse Series 13: Kenji Mizoguchi’s Fallen Women.

About the films:

Over the course of a three-decade, more than eighty film career, master cineaste Kenji Mizoguchi (Ugetsu, Sansho the Bailiff) would return again and again to one abiding theme: the plight of women in Japanese society. In these four lacerating works of social consciousness—two prewar (Osaka Elegy, Sisters of the Gion), two postwar (Women of the Night, Street of Shame)—Mizoguchi introduces an array of compelling female protagonists, crushed or resilient, who are forced by their conditions and culture into compromising positions. With Mizoguchi’s visual daring and eloquence, these films are as cinematically thrilling as they are politically rousing.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Kenji Mizoguchi

• Criterion Explore
• Film Reference
• IndieWire
• I Shoot the Pictures
• Madman Entertainment
• New York Times
• Observations on Film Art
• Strictly Film School

Box Set Reviews

• Classic Art Films
• Los Angeles Times
• UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies

Women of the Night

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Criterion Confessions
• Film Sufi
• New Yorker

Street of Shame

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Criterion Confessions
• Electric Sheep
• Film Sufi
• Japan Times
• New Yorker
• New York Times (1959)
• Senses of Cinema
• Wonders in the Dark

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 2: The Documentaries of Louis Malle

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )
• Scott Nye ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David is joined by Scott Nye to discuss Eclipse Series 13: Kenji Mizoguchi’s Fallen Women. (Trevor was unable to join in this discussion, but will be back for Part 2 of this series.)

About the films:

Over the course of a three-decade, more than eighty film career, master cineaste Kenji Mizoguchi (Ugetsu, Sansho the Bailiff) would return again and again to one abiding theme: the plight of women in Japanese society. In these four lacerating works of social consciousness—two prewar (Osaka Elegy, Sisters of the Gion), two postwar (Women of the Night, Street of Shame)—Mizoguchi introduces an array of compelling female protagonists, crushed or resilient, who are forced by their conditions and culture into compromising positions. With Mizoguchi’s visual daring and eloquence, these films are as cinematically thrilling as they are politically rousing.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Kenji Mizoguchi

• Criterion Explore
• Better Than Ozu and Kurosawa (Richard Brody)
• Senses of Cinema
• Film Directors Site
• CineCollage
• Excerpt from “Patterns of Time: Mizoguchi in the 1930s” (Google Books – includes chapter length essays on Osaka Elegy, Sisters of the Gion and The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum)

Box Set Reviews

• Criterion Confessions
• DVD Savant
• DVD Talk
• New York Times
• Slant

Osaka Elegy

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• CineWiki
• The Film Sufi
• Heroic Cinema
• Senses of Cinema
• TCM

Sisters of the Gion

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Alex’s East Asian Studies
• Alt Film Guide
• Audiences Everywhere
• The Film Sufi
• Not Just Movies
• Static Mass Emporium

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 13: Kenji Mizoguchi’s Fallen Women [Part 2]

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )
• Scott Nye ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 20: George Bernard Shaw on Film.

About the films:

The hugely influential, Nobel Prize–winning critic and playwright George Bernard Shaw was notoriously reluctant to allow his writing to be adapted for the cinema. Yet thanks to the persistence of Hungarian producer Gabriel Pascal, Shaw finally agreed to collaborate on a series of screen versions of his witty, socially minded plays, starting with the Oscar-winning Pygmalion. The three other films that resulted from this famed alliance, Major Barbara, Caesar and Cleopatra, and Androcles and the Lion, long overshadowed by the sensation of Pygmalion, are gathered here for the first time on DVD. These clever, handsomely mounted entertainments star such luminaries of the big screen as Vivien Leigh, Claude Rains, Wendy Hiller, and Rex Harrison.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

George Bernard Shaw

• Bernard Shaw: a Brief Biography
• IMDb
• NobelPrize.org
• Wikiquote

Gabriel Pascal

• Wikipedia
• Criterion Reflections review of Pygmalion

Box Set Reviews

• Criterion Confessions
• DVD Talk
• Home Theater Forum
• Slant
• Wall Street Journal

Major Barbara

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Common Sense Media
• Movie Mirrors
• Movie Mom

Caesar and Cleopatra

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times (1946)
• Movie Mirrors
• The Nitrate Diva
• Viv and Larry

Androcles and the Lion

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times (1953)
• Movie Mirrors
• Turner Classic Movies

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 13: Kenji Mizoguchi’s Fallen Women

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )
• Lady P ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this first episode of a two-part series, David and Trevor are joined by Pablo Knote to discuss two films (Black Sun and Thirst for Love) from Eclipse Series 28: The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara.

About the films:

Over the course of his varied career, Koreyoshi Kurahara made meticulous noirs, jazzy juvenile-delinquency pictures, and even nature films. His free-form approach to moviemaking was perfectly suited to the radical spirit of the 1960s, when he was one of the biggest hit makers working at the razzle-dazzle, youth-oriented Nikkatsu studios. The five films collected here hail from that era of the Japanese New Wave, and encompass breathless teen escapades, cruel crime stories, a Yukio Mishima adaptation, and even a Hollywood-inspired romantic comedy.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Koreyoshi Kurahara

• Criterion Explore page
• Wikipedia

Box Set Reviews

• AV Club
• Brian Camp’s Film and Anime Blog
• Criterion Confessions
• Criterion Forum
• DVD Verdict
• Mark Bould
• Mondo Digital
• PopMatters
• Slant
• Cinema Sentries

Black Sun

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• The Tokyo Files (important background on the film, its locations and the career of Chico Roland/Laurent)
• Cinemascope
• Wild Grounds
• Reddit
• Filmbalaya
• J-Film PowWow
• William Cummings/JapanCinema.net
• Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear

Thirst for Love

• David’s Criterion Reflections review
• J-Film PowWow
• Wonders in the Dark
• Tumblr

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 20: George Bernard Shaw on Film 

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )
• Pablo Knote ( Introducing Pablo [mini-bio] / Eastern Kicks [English] / Nippon-Kino [German] )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this first episode of a two-part series, David and Trevor are joined by Pablo Knote to discuss three films from Eclipse Series 28: The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara.

About the films:

Over the course of his varied career, Koreyoshi Kurahara made meticulous noirs, jazzy juvenile-delinquency pictures, and even nature films. His free-form approach to moviemaking was perfectly suited to the radical spirit of the 1960s, when he was one of the biggest hit makers working at the razzle-dazzle, youth-oriented Nikkatsu studios. The five films collected here hail from that era of the Japanese New Wave, and encompass breathless teen escapades, cruel crime stories, a Yukio Mishima adaptation, and even a Hollywood-inspired romantic comedy.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Koreyoshi Kurahara

• Criterion Explore page
• Wikipedia

Box Set Reviews

• AV Club
• Brian Camp’s Film and Anime Blog
• Criterion Confessions
• Criterion Forum
• DVD Verdict
• Mark Bould
• Mondo Digital
• PopMatters
• Slant

Intimidation

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series
• Reluctant Habits
• Filmbalaya
• Cineburn
• JFilm Pow-Wow

The Warped Ones

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series
• Midnight Eye
• Japan Cinema
• Reel Talk
• Martin Teller

I Hate But Love

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series
• Coffee Coffee and More Coffee
• 4:3
• Martin Teller
• Yujiro Ishihara bio at the Nikkatsu Action Lounge

Next time on the podcast: Part 2 of Eclipse Series 28: The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara 

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )
• Pablo Knote ( Introducing Pablo [mini-bio] / Eastern Kicks [English] / Nippon-Kino [German] )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 16: Alexander Korda’s Private Lives.

About the films:

Though born to modest means in Hungary, Alexander Korda would go on to become one of the most important filmmakers in the history of British cinema. A producer, writer, and director who navigated toward subjects of major historical significance and mythical distinction, Korda made a name for his production company, London Films, with the Oscar-winning The Private Life of Henry VIII. He then continued his populist investigation behind the scenes and in the bedrooms of such figures as Catherine the Great, Don Juan, and Rembrandt. Mixing stately period drama with surprising satire, these films are exemplars of grand 1930s moviemaking.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links

Alexander Korda & London Films

• Criterion Explore page
• Wikipedia (Korda)
• Wikipedia (London Films)
• BFI ScreenOnline
• Hollywood Renegades

Box Set Reviews

• New York Times (Dave Kehr)
• DVD Savant (Glenn Erickson)
• Slant (Joseph Jon Lanthier)
• MTV News (Amanda Mae Meyncke)
• PopMatters (Matt Mazur)

The Private Life of Henry VIII

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Criterion Confessions (Jamie S. Rich)
• New York Times (1933, Mordaunt Hall)
• The Guardian (Alex von Tunzelman)
• Immortal Ephemera (Cliff Aliperti)

 The Rise of Catherine the Great

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Criterion Confessions
• BFI ScreenOnline (Mark Duguid)
• TCM (Jeremy Arnold)

The Private Life of Don Juan

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Criterion Confessions
• New York Times (1934, Andre Sennwald)
• William K. Everson Archive (1964)

Rembrandt

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Criterion Confessions
• New York Times (1936, Bosley Crowther)
• The Guardian (Alex von Tunzelman)

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 28: The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara 

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor are joined by Lady P from the FlixWise podcast to discuss Eclipse Series 19: Chantal Akerman in the Seventies.

About the films:

Over the past four decades, Belgian director Chantal Akerman (Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles) has created one of cinema’s most distinctive bodies of work—formally daring, often autobiographical films about people and places, time and space. In this collection, we present the early films that put her on the map: intensely personal, modernist investigations of cities, history, family, and sexuality, made in the 1970s in the United States and Europe and strongly influenced by the New York experimental film scene. Bold and iconoclastic, these five films pushed boundaries in their day and continue to have a profound influence on filmmakers all over the world.

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Episode Links

Chantal Akerman

• Criterion Explore page
• Akerman articles on CriterionCast.com
• Icarus Films (distributor of six Akerman features)
• Chantal Akerman: A Primer (BFI) by Cristina Álvarez López and Adrian Martin
• Strictly Film School
• Chantal Akerman: The Integrity of Exile and the Everyday by Jonathan Rosenbaum
• Postscript: Chantal Akerman by Richard Brody
• La Chambre Akerman: The Captive as Creator by Ivone Marguiles
• New York Times obituary (2015)
• Our Lives With (and Without) Chantal Akerman by Henry Bean
• John Powers on BAMcinématek’s Akerman retrospective (March 2016)
• Mark Olsen on Los Angeles area tribute screenings of Akerman films (April 2016)

Box Set Reviews

• AV Club
• Criterion Confessions
• DVDBlu Review
• DVD Verdict
• MTV News
• New York Times
• Paste
• Pop Matters

La chambre / Hotel Monterey / News from home

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review of “The New York Films”
• Curtsies and Hand Grenades (La Chambre)
• Only the Cinema (Hotel Monterey)
• Bomb Magazine (News from Home)

 je tu il elle

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times (1985) by Janet Maslin
• Bitch Media
• The Evening Class

Les rendez-vous d’Anna

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times (1979) by Janet Maslin
• Take One (1979) by Jonathan Rosenbaum
• Agnes Films
• Pinnland Empire
• Pop Matters

Saute ma ville (1968) – Akerman’s first film:

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 16: Alexander Korda’s Private Lives 

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• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )
• Lady P ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 6: Carlos Saura’s Flamenco Trilogy.

About the films:

One of Spanish cinema’s great auteurs, Carlos Saura brought international audiences closer to the art of his country’s dance than any other filmmaker, before or since. In his Flamenco Trilogy—Blood Wedding, Carmen, and El amor brujo—Saura merged his passion for music with his exploration of national identity. All starring and choreographed by legendary dancer Antonio Gades, the films feature thrilling physicality and electrifying cinematography and editing—colorful paeans to bodies in motion as well as to cinema itself.

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Buy The Box Set On Amazon No, don’t bother, it’s OOP and way too expensive:

Episode Links

Carlos Saura

• Criterion Explore page
• Saura articles on CriterionCast.com
• Film Comment
• The Guardian
• Enforex
• Indiewire

Box Set Reviews

• Cinema Gadfly
• Criterion Confessions
• Cinevue
• Strange Horizons
• BFI Film Forever (review of the British Film Institute release of The Flamenco Trilogy)

Blood Wedding

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times (1981)
• I Have My Intentionalities

Carmen

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times (1983)
• Twitch
• I Have My Intentionalities
• M/C Journal

El amor brujo

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times (1986)
• Los Angeles Times (1986)
• Bulletin of Spanish Studies (downloadable .pdf)
• I Have My Intentionalities

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 19: Chantal Akerman in the Seventies

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor are joined by Aaron West to conclude their conversation about Eclipse Series 21: Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties. They discuss Sing a Song of Sex,  Japanese Summer: Double Suicide and Three Resurrected Drunkards, the final three films in the set.

About the films:

Often called the Godard of the East, Japanese director Nagisa Oshima was one of the most provocative film artists of the twentieth century, and his works challenged and shocked the cinematic world for decades. Following his rise to prominence at Shochiku, Oshima struck out to form his own production company, Sozo-sha, in the early sixties. That move ushered in the prolific period of his career that gave birth to the five films collected here. Unsurprisingly, this studio renegade was fascinated by stories of outsiders—serial killers, rabid hedonists, and stowaway misfits are just some of the social castoffs you’ll meet in these audacious, cerebral entries in the New Wave surge that made Japan a hub of truly daredevil moviemaking.

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Episode Links

Nagisa Oshima

• Criterion Explore page
• Oshima articles on CriterionCast.com
• Perspectives on Oshima Nagisa (book-length pdf) edited by M. Downing Roberts
• The Films of Oshima Nagisa: Images of a Japanese Iconoclast (preview) by Maureen Turim
• Emperor of the Senses: RIP Nagisa Oshima 1932-2013 – Film Studies for Free – tribute page and link collection edited by Catherine Grant

Sing a Song of Sex

• David’s Criterion Reflections review
• (A Nutshell) Review – Stefan S
• J-Film PowWow – Marc Saint-Cyr
• Cinema of the World – Anybody
• Mondo 70 – Samuel Wilson

Japanese Summer: Double Suicide

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• David’s Criterion Reflections review
• 366 Weird Movies – G. Smalley
• Deeper Into Movies – Brandon
• Twin Cities Film Geek Galore – Kathie Smith

Three Resurrected Drunkards

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Village Voice – John Belton (1974)
• Senses of Cinema – Ioana-Lucia Demczuk
• J-Film PowWow – Bob Turnbull
• World Cinema Review – Douglas Messerli
• Next Projection – Matthew Blevins
• (A Nutshell) Review – Stefan S

“Saigon Execution”: Pulitzer Prize winning photograph of 1969 by Eddie Adams,
featured as a re-enactment in Three Resurrected Drunkards.

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 6: Carlos Saura’s Flamenco Trilogy 

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )
• Aaron West ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor are joined by Aaron West to discuss Pleasures of the Flesh and Violence at Noon, the first two films in Eclipse Series 21: Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties.

About the films:

Often called the Godard of the East, Japanese director Nagisa Oshima was one of the most provocative film artists of the twentieth century, and his works challenged and shocked the cinematic world for decades. Following his rise to prominence at Shochiku, Oshima struck out to form his own production company, Sozo-sha, in the early sixties. That move ushered in the prolific period of his career that gave birth to the five films collected here. Unsurprisingly, this studio renegade was fascinated by stories of outsiders—serial killers, rabid hedonists, and stowaway misfits are just some of the social castoffs you’ll meet in these audacious, cerebral entries in the New Wave surge that made Japan a hub of truly daredevil moviemaking.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

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Episode Links

Nagisa Oshima

• Criterion Explore page
• Wikipedia
• Biography – Lenin Imports
• Cinema, Censorship, and the State: The Writings of Nagisa Oshima 1956-1978
• “You Have to Tell the Truth about your Country, no Matter what it is” – The Japan Times by Roger Pulvers
• Great Director profile – Senses of Cinema by Nelson Kim
• “A Samurai Among Farmers” – Film Comment by Tony Rayns
• Nagisa Oshima and the Struggle for a Radical Cinema – Harvard Cinema Archive
• Capsule reviews of select Oshima films – Strictly Film School by acquarello
• Obituary – The Guardian (January 2013)

Box Set Reviews

• Criterion Cast review by Joshua Brunsting
• Slant review by Fernando F. Croce
• A.V. Club review by Scott Tobias
• New York Times review by Dave Kehr
• Criterion Confessions review by Jamie S. Rich
• Film.com review by Jen Yamato
• DVD Savant review by Glenn Erickson
• Twitch review by Rodney Perkins
• seanax.com review by Sean Axmaker

Pleasures of the Flesh

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• J-Film PowWow review by Eric Evans
• dcpfilm review
• Review by Dennis Grunes
• PopOptic review by Brian Welk

Violence at Noon

• David’s (and Aaron’s) Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• David’s Criterion Reflections review
• Electric Sheep review by John Berra
• Ozu’s World review by Dennis Schwartz
• Strictly Film School review by acquarello
• Program Notes from Austin Film Society by Chale Nafus

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties [Part Two] 

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )
• Aaron West ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 27: Rafaello Matarazzo’s Runaway Melodramas.

About the films:

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, film critics, international festivalgoers, and other studious viewers were swept up by the tide of Italian neorealism. Meanwhile, mainstream Italian audiences were indulging in a different kind of cinema experience: the sensational, extravagant melodramas of director Raffaello Matarazzo. Though turning to neorealism for character types and settings, these haywire hits about splintered love affairs and broken homes, all starring mustachioed matinee idol Amedeo Nazzari and icon of feminine purity Yvonne Sanson, luxuriate in delirious plot twists and overheated religious symbolism. Four of them are collected here, chronicles of men and women on long and serpentine roads to redemption, each less restrained and more wildly fun than the last.

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Episode Links

Rafaello Matarazzo

• Criterion Explore page
• Wikipedia
• Short bio on Enciclopedia del Cinema (Italian)
• Short bio on MyMovies.it (Italian)

Titanus Studios

• Official Site (Italian)
• Wikipedia
• Harvard Film Archive Retrospective: Titanus, Portrait of a Studio
• Amadeo Nazzari biography on Wikipedia
• Yvonne Sanson biography on Wikipedia (Italian)

Box Set Reviews

• David’s review on Criterion Cast
• New York Times review by Dave Kehr
• Slant review by Glenn Heath Jr.
• AV Club review by Noel Murray
• PopMatters review by Jose Solis
• Movie City News review by Michael  Wilmington
• DVD Verdict review by Clark Douglas

Chains

• cageyfilms review by Kenneth George

Raffaello Matarazzo’s “Catene”: Introduction and Panel from Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò on Vimeo.

Tormento

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times review (1953) by Bosley Crowther

Nobody’s Children & The White Angel

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Films Worth Watching review by Jon

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties 

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 18: Dušan Makavejev Free Radical.

About the films:

There’s never been another filmmaker quite like Dušan Makavejev. Even in the 1960s, when all of cinema’s rules seemed to be breaking down and artists such as Godard, Cassavetes, and Marker were dissolving the boundary between fiction and documentary, Yugoslavia’s Makavejev stood alone. His films about political and sexual liberation were revolutionary, raucous, and ribald. Across these, his wild, collagelike first three films, Makavejev investigates—with a tonic mix of earnestness and whimsy—love, death, and work; the legacy of war and the absurdity of daily life in a Communist state; criminology and hypnosis; strudels and strongmen.

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Episode Links

Dušan Makavejev

• Criterion Explore page
• Wikipedia
• Film Museum retrospective summary
• Manifesto (1989 video interview) from SBS on Demand
• AFS Archives article (featuring video interview clip) by Lars Nielsen
• Dusan Makavejev: A Film-maker Teaches Film, from the Harvard Crimson (1977) by Talli Nauman
• Senses of Cinema intereview by Ray Privett
• Interview with Roger Ebert
• Outtakes: Dusan Makavejev, from The Hindu by Srikanth Srinivasan
• The Last Yugoslav: On Dusan Makavejev by Richard Byrne
• Bright Lights Film Journal review by Gary Morris

Box Set Reviews

• New York Times review by Dave Kehr
• Los Angeles Times review by  Dennis Lim
• ArtMargins review by Milena Michalski
• DVD Talk review by Jamie S. Rich
• DVD Verdict review by Joel Pierce
• PopMatters review by David Ray Carter
• Home Theater Forum reviewhttp://www.hometheaterforum.com/topic/287272-htf-dvd-review-dusan-makavejev-free-radical-eclipse-series-18/ by Matt Hough

Man is Not a Bird

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times review (1974) by Vincent Canby
• Senses of Cinema review by Constantin Parvulescu
• Only the Cinema review by Ed Howard
• Movie Morlocks review by Jeff Stafford
• A.V. Club review by Noel Murray

Love Affair, or The Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Review by Roger Ebert
• Strictly Film School review by Acquarello
• The Seventh Art review  by Just Another Film Buff
• Eastern European Film Bulletin review by Konstanty Kuzma
• Review by Dennis Grunes

Innocence Unprotected

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Review by Roger Ebert
• New York Times review (1971)  by Roger Greenspun
• Review by Dennis Grunes
• National Gallery of Art review by Ksenya Gurshtein

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series ??: 

Contact us

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• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 40: Late Ray.

About the films:

The films directed by the great Satyajit Ray in the last ten years of his life have a unique dignity and drama. Three of them are collected here: the fervent Rabindranath Tagore adaptation The Home and the World; the vital An Enemy of the People, based on the Henrik Ibsen play; and the filmmaker’s final work, the poignant and philosophical family story The Stranger. They are complex, political, and humane depictions of worlds both corrupt and indescribably beautiful, constructed with Ray’s characteristic elegance and imbued with autumnal profundity. These late-career features are the meditative works of a master.

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Episode Links

Satyajit Ray

• SatyajitRay.org
• Explore on the Criterion Collection
• Satyajit Ray: A Moral Attitude on Sight & Sound magazine by Andrew Robinson
• Director’s Page on Senses of Cinema by Helen Goritsas
• Satyajit Ray Film and Study Center at University of California, Santa Cruz
  – link to Poster Collection
• Interview with Satyajit Ray (1968) in Film Comment by James Blue
• “An Inheritance of Endless Possibilities” – Career retrospective article in The Wire by Sharmila Tagore (actress who debuted in Apur Sansar and worked with Ray in four other films.)

Box Set Reviews

• DVD Talk review by Jamie S. Rich
• Slant review by Jordan Cronk
• Crave Online review by Witney Siebold
• DVDBlu review by Christopher S. Long
• Between Civility and Civilization: PopMatters review by Andrew Grossman
• The Film Stage review by Danny King

The Home and the World

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Interview with Swatilekha Sengupta (female star of The Home and the World)
• New York Times review (1985) by Vincent Canby
• Review by The Film Sufi
• Ellipsis: The Accents of Cinema review by @bressonian
• Review (1984) by Roger Ebert
• Schoolwork Helper summary and review

An Enemy of the People

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times review (1989) by Barbara Crossette
• The Guardian review (from a political science perspective) by Alice Bell
• Review by The Film Sufi
• Let’s Talk About Bollywood! review by yves
• Next Projection review by Doug Heller

The Stranger

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times review (1992) by Vincent Canby
• Los Angeles Times review (1995) by Peter Rainer
• Words from Solitude review by shubho
• Let’s Talk About Bollywood! review by yves
• Next Projection review by Adam Kuntavanish
• Projected Perspectives review by Sachin Shrijith

Satyajit Ray’s 1992 acceptance speech for an honorary career-achievement Oscar, presented by Audrey Hepburn:

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 18: Dušan Makavejev—Free Radical 

Contact us

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• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 29: Aki Kaurismäki’s Leningrad Cowboys.

About the films:

In the late eighties, Aki Kaurismäki, a master of the deadpan, fashioned a waggish fish-out-of-water tale about a U.S. tour by “the worst rock-and-roll band in the world.” Leningrad Cowboys Go America’s posse of fur-coated, outrageously pompadoured hipsters struck such a chord with international audiences that the fictional band became a genuine attraction, touring the world. Later, Kaurismäki created a sequel, Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses,and filmed a gigantic outdoor concert that the band put on in Helsinki, for the rollicking documentary Total Balalaika Show. With this Eclipse series, we present all three crackpot musical and comic odysseys, along with five Leningrad Cowboys music videos also directed by Kaurismäki.

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Episode Links

Aki Kaurismäki

The Criterion Collection

The Match Factory

Senses of Cinema

Film Comment interview

The Guardian interview

Leningrad Cowboys

Official Band Site / Facebook / Twitter / YouTube

Spotify / Discogs / Setlist / AllMusic

Box Set Reviews

David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review

Criterion Confessions review by Jamie S. Rich

DVD Verdict review by Gordon Sullivan

PopMatters review by Jose Solis

Slant Magazine review by Bill Weber

Cine Outsider review by Slarek (UK release)

Leningrad Cowboys Go America

New York Times review by Vincent Canby

Washington Post review by Hal Hinson (1991)

Spirituality and Practice review by Frederick and Mary Ann Brussat

Not Coming to a Cinema Near You review by Tina Hassannia

Lenin Imports review

Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses

Variety review by David Stratton

Lenin Imports review

Total Balalaika Show

Lenin Imports review

Full original concert (1′ 48″) on YouTube

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 40: Late Ray 

Contact us

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• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 43: Agnès Varda in California.

About the films:

The legendary French filmmaker Agnès Varda, whose remarkable career began in the 1950s and has continued into the twenty-first century, produced some of her most provocative works in the United States. After temporarily relocating to California in the late sixties with her husband, Jacques Demy, Varda, inspired by the politics, youth culture, and sunshine of the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas, created three works that use documentary and fiction in various ways. She returned a decade later, and made two other fascinating portraits of outsiderness. Her five revealing, entertaining California films, encompassing shorts and features, are collected in this set, which demonstrates that Varda was as deft an artist in unfamiliar terrain as she was on her own turf.

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Episode Links

Agnès Varda

• Biography at the European Graduate School
• Senses of Cinema “Great Directors” essay by Helen Carter
• Agnès Varda: The Punk-Spirited Grand-Mère Terrible – AnOther essay  by Laura Havlin
• IndieWire interview by Susan Kougell
• Interview in The Guardian (2009)
• Roger Ebert essay (2009)
• Variety archive of Varda coverage
• Top 10 Best Varda Films on NewWaveFilm.com

Box Set Reviews

• New York Times review by J. Hoberman
• IonCinema review by Jordan M. Smith
• Metro review by Matt Prigge
• DVD Savant review by Glenn Erickson
• RogerEbert.com review by Steve Erickson
• J!-Ent Online review by Dennis Amith

Uncle Yanco

• Not Coming to a Theater Near You review by Evan Kindley
• Only the Cinema review by Ed Howard

Black Panthers

• Senses of Cinema review by Beth Mauldin
• Only the Cinema review by Ed Howard (scroll down)

Lions Love (… and Lies)

• New York Times review by Vincent Canby (1969)
• Not Coming to a Theater Near You review by Leo Goldsmith
• Rupert Pupkin Speaks review by Brian Saur
• Brandon’s movie memory review
• Review by Dennis Grunes
• James Rado, Gerome Ragni and “Hair”
• Viva’s account of the shooting of Andy Warhol in 1968
• Shirley Clarke’s website

Mur Murs

• New York Times review by Janet Maslin (1981)
• Not Coming to a Theater Near You review by Evan Kindley
• JustSeeds Artist Cooperative review by icky
• ArtPrize official website

Documenteur

• Not Coming to a Theater Near You review by Matt Bailey
• AFI Fest 2015 capsule review by Doug Cummings
• That Fuzzy Bastard and the Belgian review by Daniel McKleinfeld

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 29: Aki Kaurismäki’s Leningrad Cowboys

Contact us

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• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 36: Three Wicked Melodramas from Gainsborough Pictures.

About the films:

During the 1940s, realism reigned in British cinema—but not at Gainsborough Pictures. The studio, which had been around since the twenties, found new success with a series of pleasurably preposterous costume melodramas. Audiences ate up these overheated films, which featured a stable of charismatic stars, including James Mason, Margaret Lockwood, Stewart Granger, and Phyllis Calvert. Though the movies were immensely profitable in wartime and immediately after, Gainsborough did not outlive the decade. This set brings together a trio of the studio’s most popular films from this era—florid, visceral tales of secret identities, multiple personalities, and romantic betrayals.

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Episode Links

Gainsborough Pictures

• BFI Screenonline studio history by Sue Harper
• Gainsborough Melodramas: A Unique Phenomenon by Gerry Cobb
• Project Gutenberg article
• Guardian article about the conversion of Gainsborough Studios to luxury flats (2001) by Steve Rose
• The Hitchcock Zone–Gainsborough Pictures
• The Hitchcock Zone–On Memorialising Gainsborough Studios by Pam Cook
• The Guardian: “The Final Reel” by David Thomson
• Who is Leslie Arliss? – BFI ScreenOnline Biography
• Who is Arthur Crabtree? – BFI ScreenOnline Biography

Box Set Reviews

• New York Times review by Dave Kehr
• Steamy Screen: The Melodramas of Gainsborough Pictures by Kenneth George Godwin
• Criterion Confessions review by Jamie S. Rich
• PopMatters review by Sarah Boslaugh
• DVD Savant review by Glenn Erickson
• The Morton Report review by Chaz Lipp
• New York Times review by Dave Kehr

The Man in Grey

• David’s Journey through the Eclipse Series review
• Cinema Enthusiast review by Catherine Stebbins
• 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die review by Kim Wilson
• BFI ScreenOnline review by Michael Brooke
• New York Times review (1945) by Bosley Crowther

Madonna of the Seven Moons

• David’s Journey through the Eclipse Series review
• Cinema Enthusiast review by Catherine Stebbins
• New York Times review by Hal Erickson

The Wicked Lady

• David’s Journey through the Eclipse Series review
• Cinema Enthusiast review by Catherine Stebbins
• The Girl with the White Parasol review by Aubyn Eli
• BFI ScreenOnline review by Michael Brooke

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 43: Agnès Varda in California

Contact us

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• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor conclude their two-part discussion of Eclipse Series 32: Pearls of the Czech New Wave.

About the films:

Of all the cinematic New Waves that broke over the world in the 1960s, the one in Czechoslovakia was among the most fruitful, fascinating, and radical. With a wicked sense of humor and a healthy streak of surrealism, a group of fearless directors—including eventual Oscar winners Miloš Forman and Ján Kadár—began to use film to speak out about the hypocrisy and absurdity of the Communist state. A defining work was the 1966 omnibus film Pearls of the Deep, which introduced five of the movement’s essential voices: Věra Chytilová, Jaromil Jireš, Jiří Menzel, Jan Němec, and Evald Schorm. This series presents that title, along with five other crucial works that followed close on its heels, one from each of those filmmakers—some dazzlingly experimental, some arrestingly realistic, all singular expressions from a remarkable time and place.

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Timeline for the podcast:

Introduction (00:00:01 – 00:08:05)

Return of the Prodigal Son (00:08:06 – 00:46:16)

Capricious Summer (00:46:17 – 01:05:55)

The Joke (01:05:56 – 01:24:08)

Conclusion (01:24:09 – 01:40:01)

Buy The Box Set On Amazon:

Episode Links

Czech New Wave Links

• History page on Brittanica.com
• Lisa’s Academic Film Archive article by Lisa Draski
• The New Wave and Beyond: Czech Cinematic Classics on The Culture Trip

Box Set Reviews

• Next Projection review by Rowena Santos Aquino
• Wall Street Journal review by David Mermelstein

Return of the Prodigal Son

• David’s Criterion Reflections review
• Nursing Shorelines review by TJ
• I Love Czech Film review by eugenehl

Evald Schorm (director)

• Director Biography on CSFD.cz
• Evald Schorm – Moviemaker on Karamazovi.cz

Capricious Summer

• David’s Journey through the Eclipse Series review
• dcpfilm review by anonymous
• E Street Film Society review by Daniel Barnes
• Expats.cz review by Jason Pirodsky

Jiri Menzel (director)

• Director page on Central Europe Review
• Guardian interview (2008) by Steve Rose

The Joke

• David’s Journey through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times review (1969) by Vincent Canby
• Eastern European Film review by Francisco Lopez

Jaromil Jires (director)

• Film Reference page
• Obituary (2001) from The Guardian by Ronald Bergen

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 36: Three Wicked Melodramas from Gainsborough Pictures

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor conclude their two-part discussion of Eclipse Series 32: Pearls of the Czech New Wave.

About the films:

Of all the cinematic New Waves that broke over the world in the 1960s, the one in Czechoslovakia was among the most fruitful, fascinating, and radical. With a wicked sense of humor and a healthy streak of surrealism, a group of fearless directors—including eventual Oscar winners Miloš Forman and Ján Kadár—began to use film to speak out about the hypocrisy and absurdity of the Communist state. A defining work was the 1966 omnibus film Pearls of the Deep, which introduced five of the movement’s essential voices: Věra Chytilová, Jaromil Jireš, Jiří Menzel, Jan Němec, and Evald Schorm. This series presents that title, along with five other crucial works that followed close on its heels, one from each of those filmmakers—some dazzlingly experimental, some arrestingly realistic, all singular expressions from a remarkable time and place.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Timeline for the podcast:

Introduction (00:00:01 – 00:25:52)

Pearls of the Deep (00:25:53 – 01:05:46)

Daisies (01:05:47 – 01:33:00)

A Report on the Party and Guests (01:33:01 – 01:48:02)

Conclusion (01:48:03 – 01:50:22)

Buy The Box Set On Amazon:

Episode Links

Czech New Wave Links

• FAMU home page
• FAMU’s list of “the best of the Czech New Wave”
• Czech and Slovak Cinema by Andrew James Horton on Green Cine
• Czechoslovak New Wave by Simon Hitchman on NewWaveCinema.com
• Czech Surrealism and Czech New Wave Realism by Alison Frank on Kinema
• Taste of Cinema’s 10 Essential Films of the Czech New Wave

Box Set Reviews

• Slant review by Jordan Cronk
• A.V. Club review by Noel Murray
• DVD Talk review by Christopher McQuain
• Criterion Confessions review by Jamie S. Rich

Borumil Hrabel (author)

• The Close Watcher of Trains
• London Review of Books article by James Wood

Pearls of the Deep

• David’s Criterion Reflections review / Journey through the Eclipse Series review
• Martin Teller’s Movie Reviews
• Reeling Reviews by Laura Clifford

Daisies

• David’s Criterion Reflections review / Journey through the Eclipse Series review
• Senses of Cinema review by Dylan Rainforth
• Cult and World Cinema Connection review by Rob Talbot
• CineScene review by Chris Dashiell
• Distant Voices review by Reehan Miah
• Shock Cinema review by Stephen Puchalski
• Lost in the Movies review by Joel Bocko

Vera Chytilova (director)

• Homage by Jan Velinger on Radio Prague
• New York Times Obituary from 2014

A Report on the Party and Guests

• David’s Criterion Reflections review / Journey through the Eclipse Series review
• Closely Watched Frames review by Noli Manaig
• East European Film Bulletin review by Moritz Pfeifer
• Not Coming to a Theater Near You review by Ian Johnston
• Scribblings of a Cinema-Obsessed Mind review by Aditya Gokhale
• Mubi Notebook review by Glenn Kenny

Jan Nemec (director)

• Master of the Czech New Wave (retrospective film series hosted at Cinefamily)
• Enfant Terrible of the Czech New Wave by Peter Hames on Central European Review
• Fr. Dennis  at the Movies retrospective review by Fr. Dennis Zdenek Kriz

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 32: Pearls of the Czech New Wave, Part Two

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor conclude their two-part discussion of Eclipse Series 39: Early Fassbinder.

About the films:

From the very beginning of his incandescent career, the New German Cinema enfant terrible Rainer Werner Fassbinder refused to play by the rules. His politically charged, experimental first films, made at an astonishingly rapid rate between 1969 and 1970, were influenced by the work of the Antiteater, an avant-garde stage troupe that he had helped found in Munich. Collected here are five of those fascinating and confrontational works. Whether a self- conscious meditation on American crime movies, a scathing indictment of xenophobia in contemporary Germany, or an off-the-wall look at the dysfunctional relationships on film sets, each is a startling glimpse into the mind of a twentysomething man who was to become one of cinema’s most madly prolific artists.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Timeline for the podcast:

Introduction/Background (00:00:01 – 00:15:07)

Gods of the Plague/The  American Soldier (00:15:08 – 01:04:05)

Beware of a Holy Whore (01:04:06 – 01:42:30)

Conclusion (01:42:31 – 01:49:11)

Buy The Box Set On Amazon:

Episode Links

Director Overview

• Film Directors Site
• Rotten Tomatoes
• TSPDT

Box Set Reviews

• Press Play/Indie Wire video essay by Matthew Cheney
• Illusion Travels by Streetcar podcast
• DVDBlu review by Christopher Long

Gods of the Plague

• David’s Journey through the Eclipse Series review
• Three Movie Buffs review by Patrick Nash
• Slant magazine review by Ed Gonzalez
• Swimming to Casablanca review by Ed

The American Soldier

• David’s Journey through the Eclipse Series review
• Only the Cinema review by Ed Howard
• Ozu’s World review by Dennis Schwarz
• Bill’s Movie Emporium review by Bill Thompson

 Beware of a Holy Whore

• David’s Journey through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times review (1976) by Vincent Canby
• The New Yorker review by Richard Brody
• Scanners review by Jim Emerson
• Jim’s Reviews review by Jim Clark
• Film Comment review by Steven Mears\
• Nick’s Flick Picks review by Nick Davis

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 32: Pearls of the Czech New Wave

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 39: Early Fassbinder.

About the films:

From the very beginning of his incandescent career, the New German Cinema enfant terrible Rainer Werner Fassbinder refused to play by the rules. His politically charged, experimental first films, made at an astonishingly rapid rate between 1969 and 1970, were influenced by the work of the Antiteater, an avant-garde stage troupe that he had helped found in Munich. Collected here are five of those fascinating and confrontational works. Whether a self- conscious meditation on American crime movies, a scathing indictment of xenophobia in contemporary Germany, or an off-the-wall look at the dysfunctional relationships on film sets, each is a startling glimpse into the mind of a twentysomething man who was to become one of cinema’s most madly prolific artists.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Timeline for the podcast:

Introduction/Background (00:00:01 – 00:33:32)

Love is Colder than Death (00:33:33 – 01:02:34)

Katzelmacher (01:02:35 – 01:28:48)

Conclusion (01:28:49 – 01:30:45)

Buy The Box Set On Amazon:

Episode Links

Director Overview

• The Fassbinder Foundation – His Life – His Art
• Senses of Cinema
• Jim’s Reviews
• The Playlist
• Wikipedia
• Criterion
• Dangerous Minds (features video clip of 1969 Berlin Biennale, with Love is Colder than Death in competition.)
• Film.com ranking of all Fassbinder films from worst to best (one person’s opinion)

Box Set Reviews

• RogerEbert.com review by Steve Erickson
• The Dissolve review by Noel Murray
• PopMatters review by John Oursler
• Home Theater Forum review by Matt Hough
• DVDBlu review by Christopher S. Long

Love is Colder than Death

• David’s Journey through the Eclipse Series review
• Only the Cinema review by Ed Howard
• Cinepassion review by Fernando F. Croce
• Ozu’s World review by Dennis Schwartz

Katzelmacher

• David’s Journey through the Eclipse Series review
• Combustible Celluloid review by Jeffrey Anderson
• Strictly Film School review by Acquerello
• EFilmCritic review by Scott Weinberg

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 39: Early Fassbinder [Part 2]

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 42: Silent Ozu – Three Crime Dramas

About the films:

The great Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu is best known for the stately, meditative domestic dramas he made after World War II. But during his first decade at Shochiku studios, where he dabbled in many genres, he put out a trio of precisely rendered, magnificently shot and edited silent crime films about the hopes, dreams, and loves of small-time crooks. Heavily influenced in narrative and visual style by the American films that Ozu adored, these movies are revelatory early examples of his cinematic genius, accompanied here by new piano scores by Neil Brand.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Timeline for the podcast:

Introduction/Background (00:00:01 – 00:22:10)

Walk Cheerfully (00:22:11 – 00:51:19)

That Night’s Wife (00:51:20 – 01:17:24)

Dragnet Girl (01:17:25 – 01:37:34)

Conclusion (01:37:35 – 01:50:23)

Buy The Box Set On Amazon:

Episode Links:

Director Overview:

• Ozu-san.com
• Ozu page on Strictly Film School
• An Introduction to Yasujiro Ozu on Open Culture
• Great Directors: Yasujiro Ozu on Senses of Cinema
• Ozu Archive on Observations on film art (David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson)
• Discovering Ozu series on Arthouse Cowboy (Moisés Chuillan)
• Criterion Collected podcast (Moisés Chuillan)

Box Set Reviews:

• Slant review by Carson Lund
• DVD Talk review by Matt Hinrichs
• Pop Matters review by Michael Curtis Nelson
• Parallax View review by Sean Axmaker
• Disc Dish review by Ed Grant
• J!-Ent review by Dennis Amith

Walk Cheerfully:

• Ozu-san.com review
• Sporadic Scintillations review by D.
• Life in the Cheap Seats review by Webcowgirl
• Ewan at the Cinema review by Ewan

That Night’s Wife:

• Ozu-san.com review
• Sporadic Scintillations review by D.
• Cinema Talk review by Jake Savage
• Films de France review by James Travers

Dragnet Girl:

• Ozu-san.com review
• The New Yorker review by Richard Brody
• San Francisco Silent Film Festival review by Eddie Muller
• The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World review by Kevyn Knox
• Silent Volume review by Chris Scott Edwards
• Senses of Cinema review by Freda Freiberg

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 39: Early Fassbinder

Contact us:

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 33: Up All Night with Robert Downey Sr.

About the films:

Rarely do landmark works of cinema seem so . . . wrong. Robert Downey Sr. emerged as one of the most irreverent filmmakers of the New York underground of the sixties, taking no prisoners in his rough-and-tumble treatises on politics, race, and consumer culture. In his midnight-movie mainstay Putney Swope, an advertising agency is turned on its head when a militant black man takes over. Like Swope, Downey held nothing sacred. Presented here are five of his most raucous and outlandish films, dating from 1964 to 1975, each a unique mix of the hilariously crude and the fiercely experimental.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Timeline for the podcast:

Introduction/Background (00:00:01 – 00:27:50)

Babo 73 (00:27:51 – 00:50:31)

Chafed Elbows (00:50:32 – 01:04:14)

No More Excuses (01:04:15 – 01:15:09)

Putney Swope (01:15:10 – 01:38:17)

Two Tons of Turquoise to Taos Tonight (01:38:18 – 01:47:22)

Conclusion (01:47:23 – 01:55:38)

Buy The Box Set On Amazon:

Episode Links:

Director Overview:

• Wkipedia
• IMDb
• 2008 New York Times article by Stuart Klawans
• The Last Exit capsule reviews by Zev Toledano

Late 2014 Media Blitz Sampler:

• CineFamily “Truth and Soul” Retrospective
• Daily Beast by Marlow Stern
• Daily Mail by Hanna Flint
• Los Angeles Times by Mark Olsen
• IndieWire by Shipra Harbola Gupta
• Interview by Kaleem Aftab

Box Set Reviews:

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Slant review by Bill Weber
• A.V. Club review by Nathan Rabin
• DVD Talk review by Ian Jane
• Filmmaker review by Eddie Mullins
• DVD Verdict review by Gordon Sullivan
• Mondo Digital review by Nathaniel Thompson

Babo 73:

• Robert Downey Sr. and Paul Thomas Anderson in conversation (video)
• Ozu’s World review by Dennis Schwarz

Chafed Elbows:

• New York Times review (1967) by Bosley Crowther
• Village Voice review by J. Hoberman
• Ozu’s World review by Dennis Schwarz

No More Excuses:

• Robert Downey Sr. and Paul Thomas Anderson in conversation (video)
• New York Times review (1968) by Vincent Canby
• Shock Cinema review by Steven Puchalski

Putney Swope: 

• Robert Downey Sr. and Paul Thomas Anderson in conversation (video)
• Vice review by Mike Pearl
• Cinepassion review by Fernando F. Croce
• Film Guinea Pig review by Michael Rajnovic
• Film Monthly review by Jon Bastian
• Hammer to Nail review by Nelson Kim
• Ozu’s World review by Dennis Schwarz
• Clayholio Watches Movies review by Clayton Hollifield

Two Tons of Turquoise to Taos Tonight:

• Robert Downey Sr. and Paul Thomas Anderson in conversation (video)
• IFC capsule review by Aaron Hillis
• Dangerous Minds capsule review (uncredited)
• Next Projection review by Matthew Blevins

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 42: Silent Ozu – Three Crime Dramas

Contact us:

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 34: Jean Grémillon During the Occupation.

About the films:

Though little known outside of France, Jean Grémillon was a consummate filmmaker from his country’s golden age. A classical violinist who turned to directing, he went on to make almost fifty films—from documentaries to avant-garde works to melodramas with major stars—in a thirty-year career. Three of his richest came during a dire period in French history: Remorques, starring Jean Gabin, was begun in 1939 but finished and released after Germany invaded France, and Lumière d’été and Le ciel est à vous were produced during the occupation. These character-driven dramas, the first two cowritten by legendary screenwriter Jacques Prévert, are humane, entertaining, and technically brilliant, and prove Grémillon to be one of cinema’s true hidden masters.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Timeline for the podcast:

Introduction/Background (00:00:01 – 00:24:15)

Remorques (00:24:16 – 00:47:31)

Lumière d’été (00:47:32 – 01:18:00)

Le ciel est à vous (01:18:01 – 01:39:15)

Conclusion (01:39:16 – 01:45:00)

Buy The Box Set On Amazon:

EPISODE LINKS

Director Overview:

• French Film Site biography by James Travers
• Film Museum biography
• Jean Grémillon: Realism and Tragedy by Ted Fendt
• Singular and Plural: The Films of Jean Grémillon by Imogen Sara Smith
• Harvard Film Archive retrospective
• Museum of the Moving Image retrospective

Box Set Reviews:

• Criterion Cast review by David Blakeslee
• Keyframe review by David Hudson
• New York Times review by Dave Kehr
• Slant review by Joseph Jon Lanthier

Remorques:

• World Cinema Review review by Douglas Messerli
• French Film Site review by James Travers

Lumière d’été:

• Flickering Myth review by Simon Columb
• World Cinema Review review by Douglas Messerli
• French Film Site review by James Travers
• Wonders in the Dark review by Alan Fish

Le ciel est à vous:

• Bravery in Hiding by Jonathan Rosenbaum (also includes Lumière d’été)
• Wonders in the Dark review by Alan Fish
• French Film Site review by James Travers

Contact us:

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

Next time on the podcast:

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 23: The First Films of Akira Kurosawa.

About the films:

Years before Akira Kurosawa changed the face of cinema with such iconic works as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, and Yojimbo, he made his start in the Japanese film industry with four popular and exceptional works, created as World War II raged. All gripping dramas, those rare first films—Sanshiro Sugata; The Most Beautiful; Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two; and The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail—are collected here and include a two-part martial arts saga, a portrait of female volunteers helping the war effort, and a kabuki-derived tale of deception. These captivating films are a glorious introduction to a peerless career.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Timeline for the podcast:

Introduction/News/Background (00:00:01 – 00:16:23)

Sanshiro Sugata (00:16:24 – 00:36:45)

Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two (00:36:46 – 00:55:00)

The Most Beautiful (00:55:01 – 01:15:39)

The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail (01:15:40 – 01:34:19)

Conclusion (01:34:20 – 01:39:08)

Buy The Box Set On Amazon:

EPISODE LINKS

Director Overview:

• Akira Kurosawa page on Senses of Cinema by Dan Harper
• Encyclopedia Brittanica article on Kurosawa by Tadao Sato

Box Set Reviews:

• Criterion Cast review by David Blakeslee
• DVD Verdict review by Dan Mancini
• Film Intuition review by Jen Johans
• Slant review by Christian Blauvelt

Sanshiro Sugata:

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Bright Lights Film Journal review by Brian Libby
• Kung Fu Cinema review by Albert Valentin
• Where the Long Tail Ends review by Robert Reineke

Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two: 

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Where the Long Tail Ends review by Robert Reineke
• Kung Fu Cinema review by Albert Valentin
• Can’t Stop the Movies review by Andrew Hathaway and Kyle Miner

The Most Beautiful:

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times review (from 1987) by Vincent Canby
• Brian Camp’s Film and Anime Blog review by Brian Camp
• Defining The Most Beautiful: Women in the Films of Kurosawa 1940-1970 by Sarah Anne Lloyd

The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times review (from 1960) by Howard Thompson
• Lard Biscuit Enterprises review by D. Trull
• Constantine in Tokyo review by Constantine
• Toho Kingdom review by Miles Imhoff

Contact us:

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 34: Jean Grémillon During the Occupation

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 41: Kinoshita and World War II.

About the films:

Hugely popular in his home country of Japan, Keisuke Kinoshita worked tirelessly as a director for nearly half a century, making lyrical, sentimental films that often center on the inherent goodness of people, especially in times of distress. He began his directing career during a most challenging time for Japanese cinema: World War II, when the industry’s output was closely monitored by the state and often had to be purely propagandistic. This collection of Kinoshita’s first films—four made while the war was going on and one shortly after Japan’s surrender—demonstrates the way the filmmaker’s humanity and exquisite cinematic technique shone through even in the darkest of times.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Timeline for the podcast:

Introduction/News/Background (00:00:01 – 00:20:19)

Port of Flowers (00:20:20 – 00:34:01)

The Living Magoroku (00:34:02 – 00:44:29)

Jubilation Street (00:44:30 – 00:56:03)

Army (00:56:04 – 01:19:07)

Morning for the Osone Family (01:19:08 – 01:31:19)

Conclusion (01:31:20 – 01:47:57)

Buy The Box Set On Amazon:

EPISODE LINKS

Director Overview:

• Kinoshita biography on Wikipedia
• Kinoshita 100 Project on Shochiku.co.jp (visual filmography)
• Film Society of Lincoln Center Kinoshita Retrospective
• Hollywood Reporter review of Dawn of a Filmmaker: The Keisuke Kinoshita Story by Clarence Tsui

Box Set Reviews:

• Battleship Pretension review by West Anthony
• DVD Savant review by Glenn Erickson
• DVD Talk review by Matt Hinrichs
• CageyFilms review by Kenneth George Godwin
• Movie Metropolis review by Christopher Long
• J!-ENT review by Dennis Amith
• Parallax View review by Sean Axmaker

Contact us:

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 23: The First Films of Akira Kurosawa

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 4: Raymond Bernard, a collection of films from the early 1930s by the French director, a pioneer of big budget historical epics in the silent and early sound eras.

About the films:

One of the greatest and least-known directors of all time, Raymond Bernard helped shape French cinema, at the dawn of the sound era, into a truly formidable industry. Typical of films from this period, Bernard’s dazzling dramas painted intimate melodrama on epic-scale canvases. These two masterpieces—the wrenching World War I tragedy Wooden Crosses and a mammoth, nearly five-hour Les misérables, widely considered the greatest film adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel—exemplify the formal and narrative brilliance of an unjustly overshadowed cinematic trailblazer.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Timeline for the podcast:

Introduction/Background (00:00:01 – 00:17:22)

Wooden Crosses (00:17:23 – 00:57:19)

Les misérables (00:57:20 – 02:02:46)

Conclusion (02:02:47 – 02:07:30)

Buy The Box Set On Amazon:

Episode Links:

Director Overview:

• French Film Site biography by James Travers
• Wikipedia entry
• Filmography on MUBI

Box Set Reviews:

• Cineaste review by Philip Lopate
• New York Times review by Dave Kehr
• DVDTalk review by Jamie S. Rich
• PopMatters review by Michael Buening

Wooden Crosses:

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Screencap images from film|captures
• New York Times review (from 1932) by Herbert L. Matthews
• French Film Site review by James Travers
• Antagony & Ecstasy review by Tim Brayton
• 2015 release announcement by Eureka Video

Les misérables:

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series reviews: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3
• Screencap images from film|captures
• French Film Site review by James Travers
• TCM review by James Steffen
• Movies Over Matter review by Jason Marshall
• Ferdy on Films review by Marilyn Ferdinand
• IndieWire/Movie Crazy review by Leonard Maltin
• Criterion Blues review by Aaron West (comparison of the 1934 and 2012 adaptations)
• Masters of Cinema page from Eureka Video (UK)
• Factoids and background info from the MoC release, courtesy of Rossa Crow (SilverBlueSnow.blogspot.ie @SilverBlueSnow on Twitter):

  • Hugo was a playwright first and foremost and this influenced his novels where his characters and scenes are theatrical and dialogue-heavy.

    Imagery and composition of the barricade scene singing of La Marseillese mirrors a famous piece of art by Delacroix.

    Henry Krauss who plays Monseigneur Myriel played Jean Valjean in the 1912 silent version.

    There is an excellent 1979 interview with Bernard :

    What comes across was his passionate commitment to be faithful to the literary source. He says that the success and quality of the film was due to this passion and love they had for Hugo’s novel. His collaborator Andre Lang was a playwright and so added to the theatrical feel of the production.

    Interestingly the 3 films were released together – contemporary audience had the option to watch all together on same day or separately.

    Bernard placed special emphasis on the casting to match the physical description, manner and speech of the characters in the novel.

    He relates story of auditioning about 200 boys for Gavroche – he needed a particular accent and slang. One day a caretaker from Saint Denis sent Bernard a message delivered by his son – Bernard knew immediately that this boy was Gavroche and cast him. The boy never acted again.

    Bernard fought hard for this 5 hour version arguing that it could not be made in a shorter version.

    Then there is an interesting supplement with Raymond Chirat that describes the extraordinary authenticity of the period detail in the film. Harry Baur was undoubtedly a favourite for the role not just because of his suitability but also his fame at the time. Baur had suffered typhoid leaving him with partial facial paralysis which is a feature of his facial expressions.

    I was amazed at his physical strength – he carries Marius (I presume he weighed around 70 kilo) through the sewer with such ease. He was 53 at the time! When he descends the steps and stands up that is akin to squatting with a 70 kilo weight and he does it so effortlessly! Perfect as Jean Valjean!

    Charles Vanel really impressed me as inspector Javert – also in the excellent Le Grand Jeu, Wages of Fear, Wooden Crosses, Les Diaboliques.

    Cinematographer Jules Kruger (born in Strasbourg – part of Germany at the time) has an impressive filmography – Abel Gance’s Napoleon (noted as having some of the most innovative and brilliant camerawork ever), L’Argent by Marcel L’Herbier (brilliant silent film with photography that really impressed me), Wooden Crosses, Pepe le Moko, etc.

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 41: Kinoshita and World War II

Contact us:

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )
• Mark Hurne ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 22: Presenting Sacha Guitry, four urbane, sophisticated French comedies of the late 1930s.

About the films:

Sacha Guitry was once a household name. Something of a Gallic Noël Coward, this disarming, multitalented artist served up some of 1930s French cinema’s tastiest dishes. The son of a beloved theater actor, Guitry was devoted to the footlights, first turning to the silver screen only as a way of bringing his plays to a wider audience. His films were anything but stage-bound, however: often the director, writer, and star of his popular movies, Guitry brought a witty inventiveness to the cinema and deployed radical techniques with such aplomb and control that he’s considered one of the medium’s first complete auteurs. With these four films, American audiences can finally sample Guitry’s creative, comic confections.

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Timeline for the podcast:

Introduction/Background (00:00:01 – 00:20:05)

The Story of a Cheat (00:20:06 – 00:39:45)

The Pearls of the Crown (00:39:46 – 01:02:00)

Désiré (01:02:01 – 01:25:34)

Quadrille (01:25:35 – 01:41:09)

Conclusion (01:41:10 – 01:52:30)

Buy The Box Set On Amazon:

Episode Links:

Director Overview:

• French Film Site bio by James Travers
• Film Comment bio by Andrew Sarris
• Wikipedia entry on Sacha Guitry
• Criterion Cast review of La Poison by Scott Nye
• 246 quotes of Sacha Guitry (in French)
• Death of Sacha Guitry (1957 newsreel footage) from British Pathé

Jacqueline Delubac:

• “The Choice of Modernity” art collection exhibit at Musee des Beaux-Arts de Lyon
• YouTube preview of the exhibit (in French)
• Obituary (1997) in The Independent by Gilbert Adair

Box Set Reviews:

•  New York Times review by Dave Kehr
• DVD Talk review by Jamie S. Rich
• Slant Magazine review by Fernando F. Croce
• PopMatters review by Thomas Britt
• DVD Verdict review by James A. Stewart

The Story of a Cheat:

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Strictly Film School review by acquarello
• CinePassion review by Fernando F. Croce
• Boba_Fett1138 review by Frank Veenstra

The Pearls of the Crown:

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• TCM review by Nathaniel Thompson
• French Film Site review by James Travers
• Wonders in the Dark review by Allan Fish

Désiré:

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• L’Oiel sur L’Ecran review (French original, in English via Google Translate)

Quadrille:

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• French Film Site review by James Travers
• Cinematic Threads review by Matthew Lotti

Contact us:

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 4: Raymond Bernard 

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 37: When Horror Came to Shochiku.

About the films:

Following years of a certain radioactive beast’s domination at the box office, many Japanese studios tried to replicate the formula with their own brands of monster movies. One of the most fascinating, if short-lived, dives into that fiendish deep end was the one by Shochiku, a studio better known for elegant dramas by the likes of Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujiro Ozu. In 1967 and 1968, the company created four certifiably batty, low-budget fantasies, tales haunted by watery ghosts, plagued by angry insects, and stalked by aliens—including one in the form of a giant chicken-lizard. Shochiku’s outrageous and oozy horror period shows a studio leaping into the unknown, even if only for one brief, bloody moment.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Timeline for the podcast:

Introduction/Background (00:00:01 – 00:13:57)

The X from Outer Space (00:13:58 – 00:28:59)

Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell (00:29:00 – 00:51:53)

The Living Skeleton (00:51:54 – 01:16:45)

Genocide (01:16:46 – 01:36:30)

Conclusion (01:36:31 – 01:48:05)

Buy The Box Set On Amazon:

Episode Links:

Shochiku Studio:

• Shochiku Films (international site publicizing movies produced by the studio)
• Official History from Shochiku.com (note: it does not mention the films discussed in this episode.)
• Film Comment overview of Shochiku’s history by Chuck Stephens
• “Shochiku Drives Into Classic Films” from Variety Magazine (October 2013), by John Hopewell

Box Set Reviews:

• PopMatters review by Marco Lanzagorta
• DVD Drive-In review by Paul Tabili
• Austin Chronicle review by Richard Whittaker

The X from Outer Space:

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• The Escapist video review by Bob Chipman
• CineMassacre review by Mike Matei
• BadMovies.org review by Andrew Borntreger
• Braineater review by Will Loughlin

Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell:

• Film Society of Lincoln Center review (uncredited)
• 1000 Misspent Hours review by Scott Ashlin
• Doomed Moviethon review (uncredited)
• Horror Movie A Day review by Brian (no last name given)
• The Ladders commercial featuring Guilala

The Living Skeleton:

• Wtf-Film review by Kevin Pyrtle
• Black Hole review by Mark Hodgson
• Talk of Horrors review by Joseph Howell
• CineFantastique review by Steve Biodrowski
• Seven Days review by Ethan De Seife

Genocide:

• Movie Morlocks review by Kimberly Lindbergs
• Sequart Organization review by Harry Edmundson-Cornell
• RoweReviews (uncredited)
• This Dark Exegesis review by Alex DeLarge
• Lone Wolves and Hidden Dragons review by Shaun Anderson

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 22: Presenting Sacha Guitry

Contact us:

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor interview Michael Koresky, author of a book on Terence Davies for the University of Illinois Press, as well as the staff writer at the Criterion Collection and a cofounder and editor of the online film magazine Reverse Shot. His writing has also appeared in Film Comment, Cinema Scope, Moving Image Source, Sight & Sound, and the Village Voice.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Episode Links:

• The Eclipse Series in the Criterion Collection
• Reverse Shot
• Museum of the Moving Image
• Terence Davies book website (University of Illinois Press)

Films and Sets Mentioned in this Episode:

• Equinox
• Monsters and Madmen (David’s reviews at Criterion Reflections: The Haunted Strangler / Corridors of Blood / The Atomic Submarine / First Man into Space)
• Eclipse Series 37: When Horror Came to Shochiku (David’s review of The X from Outer Space)
• Eclipse Series 41: Kinoshita and World War II
• Eclipse Series 29: Leningrad Cowboys (David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review)
• Satyajit Ray’s The Stranger (David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review)
• Eclipse Series 24: The Actuality Dramas of Allan King (The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 6 and Episode 7)
• Eclipse Series 32: Pearls of the Czech New Wave (David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series reviews: Pearls of the Deep / Daisies / A Report on the Party and Guests / Return of the Prodigal Son / Capricious Summer / The Joke )
• Eclipse Series 23: First Films of Akira Kurosawa (David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series reviews: Sanshiro Sugata / Sanshiro Sugata Part 2 / The Most Beautiful / The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail)
• Eclipse Series 38: Masaki Kobayashi Against the System (The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 15)
• Eclipse Series 15: Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu (The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 18)
• Eclipse Series 10: Silent Ozu – Three Family Comedies (The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 1)
• Eclipse Series 13: Kenji Mizoguchi’s Fallen Women (David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series reviews: Osaka Elegy / Sisters of the Gion / Women of the Night / Street of Shame)
• Eclipse Series 7:Postwar Kurosawa (David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series reviews: No Regrets for Our Youth / One Wonderful Sunday / Scandal / The Idiot / I Live in Fear)
• Eclipse Series 1: Early Bergman (The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 13 and Episode 14)
• Eclipse Series 11: Larisa Shepitko (The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 3)
• Eclipse Series 19: Chantal Akerman in the 1970s (David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series reviews: New York Films / je tu il elle / Les rendez-vous d’Anna)
• Eclipse Series 8: Lubitsch Musicals (The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 12)
• Eclipse Series 35: Maidstone and Other Films by Norman Mailer (The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 5)
• Eclipse Series 9: The Delirious Fictions of William Klein (The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 10)
• Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse (The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 2)
• Eclipse Series 14: Rossellini’s History Films – Renaissance and Enlightenment (The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 19)
• Eclipse Series 12: Aki Kaurismaki’s Proletariat Trilogy (The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 11)
• Eclipse Series 20: George Bernard Shaw on Film (David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series reviews: Major Barbara / Caesar and Cleopatra / Androcles and the Lion)
• Eclipse Series 16: Alexander Korda’s Private Lives (David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series reviews: The Private Life of Henry VIII / The Rise of Catherine the Great / The Private Life of Don Juan / Rembrandt)
• Eclipse Series 33: Up All Night with Robert Downey Sr. (David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review)

Contact us:

• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website / Facebook )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website / Facebook )
• Michael Koresky ( Twitter / Website / Facebook )

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 37: When Horror Came to Shochiku

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 14: Rossellini’s History Films: Renaissance and Enlightenment.

About the films:

In the final phase of his career, Italian master Roberto Rossellini embarked on a dramatic, daunting project: a series of television films about knowledge and history, made in an effort to teach, where contemporary media were failing. Looking at the Western world’s major figures and moments, yet focusing on the small details of daily life, Rossellini was determined not to recount history but to relive it, as it might have been, unadorned but full of the drama of the everyday. This selection of Rossellini’s history films presents The Age of the Medici, Cartesius, and Blaise Pascal — works that don’t just enliven the past but illuminate the ideas that brought us to where we are today.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Buy The Box Set On Amazon:

Episode Links:

Director Overview:

• Criterion Collection “Explore” page
• New York Times career retrospective by Manohla Dargis
• Biographical summary on TCM
• Rossellini filmography on Senses of Cinema

Box Set Review:

• DVD Talk review by Jamie S. Rich
• New York Times review by Dave Kehr
• Slant review by Fernando Croce
• Wall Street Journal review by David Mermelstein
• Hammer to Nail review by Cullan Gallagher
• Movie Metropolis review by Christopher Long

The Age of the Medici:

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times review by Vincent Canby
• Review by Dennis Grunes
• Senses of Cinema review by Tag Gallagher

Cartesius:

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Ozu’s World review by Dennis Schwartz
• Onlyne review by S.M. Rana

Blaise Pascal:

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• TCM review by Richard Harlan Smith
• Frame by Frame review by Wheeler Winston Dixon

Contact us:

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee (Twitter / Website)
• Trevor Berrett (Twitter / Website)

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 37: When Horror Came to Shochiku

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 15: Travels With Hiroshi Shimizu.

About the films:

Of all the directors who made names for themselves during the Japanese studio golden age of the 1930s, Hiroshi Shimizu was one of the most respected—and, today, one of the least well-known. A curious, compassionate storyteller who was fascinated by characters on the outskirts of society, Shimizu used his trademark graceful traveling shot to peek around the corners of contemporary Japan. In these four lyrical, beautifully filmed tales, concerning geisha, bus drivers, and masseurs, Shimizu journeys far and wide to find the makings of a modern nation.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Timeline for the podcast:

Introduction/Background (00:00:01 – 00:26:44)

Japanese Girls at the Harbor (00:26:45 – 00:47:40)

Mr. Thank You (00:47:41 – 01:07:17)

The Masseurs and a Woman (01:07:08 – 01:23:22)

Ornamental Hairpin (01:23:23 – 01:41:56)

Conclusion (01:41:57 – 01:50:15)

Buy The Box Set On Amazon:

Episode Links

Director Overview:

• Senses of Cinema essay by Alexander Jacoby
• Midnight Eye essay by William M. Drew
• DavidBordwell.net essay by David Bordwell

Box Set Reviews:

• New York Times review by Dave Kehr
• DVDTalk review by Jamie S. Rich
• Slant review by Rob Humanick
• Film.com review by Mark Bourne
• Lost in Translation review by Patrick McCoy

Japanese Girls at the Harbor:

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• The Film Sufi review by the Film Sufi
• Strictly Film School review by acquarello
• Silent Volume review by Chris Scott Edwards
• Digital Silents review by Kevin M. Wentink

Mr. Thank You:

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Midnight Eye review by Jasper Sharp
• Japan Navigator review by Ad Blankestijn
• Sporadic Scintillations review by D.
• Shomingekiblog review by Rüdiger Tomczak

The Masseurs and a Woman:

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Alt Film Guide review by Doug Johnson
• Film Static review by Jarrod White
• Sporadic Scintillations review by D.
• Some Words Some Places review

Ornamental Hairpin:

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Strictly Film School review by acquarello
• Japan Navigator review by Ad Blankestijn
• Sporadic Scintillations review by D.
• I’m Nothing in Particular review by Jesse Freeman

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 14: Rossellini’s History Films – Renaissance and Enlightenment

Contact us:

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )