The Eclipse Viewer - Episode 9 - Three Popular Films by Jean-Pierre Gorin

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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 talk about Three Popular Films by Jean-Pierre Gorin, the French director’s so-called “Southern California Trilogy,” a collection of three films released between 1980 and 1992.

About the films:

Jean-Pierre Gorin, widely known for his collaborations with Jean-Luc Godard in the Dziga Vertov Group (including Tout va bien), established his personal voice with this trio of fascinating, nontraditional documentaries. Made in Southern California after the filmmaker relocated there in the midseventies, Poto and Cabengo, Routine Pleasures, and My Crasy Life illuminate hidden corners of our culture. With these films, Gorin revealed himself as a major chronicler of American life at its most hauntingly enigmatic.

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Timeline for the podcast:

Introduction/Tout va bien/Letter To Jane (00:00:01 – 00:17:47)

Poto and Cabengo (00:17:48 – 00:41:07)

Routine Pleasures (00:41:08 – 01:11:35)

My Crasy Life (01:11:36 – 01:35:05)

Conclusion (01:35:06 – 01:42:51)

Buy The Box Set On Amazon:

Episode Links:

Gorin Overview:

Gorin entry in Senses of Cinema’s Great Directors series by Erik Ulman
Faculty page on UC-San Diego website
Gorin’s Top 10 Criterion List
Gorin’s Rate My Professor Page
Tout va bien Criterion page
Letter to Jane Magazine (Tim Moore’s website)
- Tim’s explanation of why he chose this name for his site (via Twitter DMs, hence the brevity):
  
  What influenced me 1) they simply just tried stuff and weren’t afraid to fail, they had so many ideas they just had to cross off their list; 2) they used amateur equipment and didn’t try to do something fancy with it, they taught the audience how to use it to its strengths; 3) they were talking honestly and directly, there’s such a large element of conversation in Gorin’s work and that really interested me in LTJ. To start conversations and present it in a simple / styled way that could be used an example for others