Criterion Cast: The Eclipse Viewer

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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… 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:

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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