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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 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.
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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:
- 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