Eclipse News and Discussion

[w/o horse]

Why are they fucking with me.  They haven't even updated with the release of the Samuel Fuller box.

[Gold Trumpet]

Why are they fucking with me.  They haven't even updated with the release of the Samuel Fuller box.

It's become obvious that Eclipse isn't every month.

[w/o horse]

I wish they'd update with the next release is all.  And why didn't they update it for Fuller for so long?

[edison]

Perhaps best known for his action-packed samurai classics, Akira Kurosawa began his career by delving into the state of his nation immediately following World War II, with visual poetry and direct emotion. Amid Japan's economic collapse, moral waywardness, and American occupation, Kurosawa managed to find humor and redemption existing alongside despair and anxiety. In these five films, which range from the whimsically Capraesque to the icily Dostoyevskian, from political epics to courtroom potboilers, Kurosawa established both the artistic range and social acuity that would inform his entire career.

I Live in Fear



Both the final film in which Kurosawa would so directly wrestle with the demons of the second world war and his most literal representation of living in an atomic age, Akira Kurosawa's galvanizing I Live in Fear presents Toshiro Mifune as an elderly, stubborn businessman so fearful of a nuclear attack that he vows to move his reluctant family to South America. With this mournful film, the director depicts a society emerging from the shadows but still terrorized by memories of the past and anxieties of the future.

The Idiot



After finishing what would become his international phenomenon Rashomon, Akira Kurosawa immediately turned to one of the most daring—and problem-plagued—productions of his career. The Idiot, adapted faithfully from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's nineteenth-century masterpiece about a wayward, pure soul's reintegration into society, yet updated to capture Japan's postwar aimlessness, was a victim of studio interference and, finally, public indifference. Today, Kurosawa's onetime "folly" looks ever more fascinating, a stylish, otherworldly evocation of one man's wintry mindscape.

No Regrets for Our Youth



In Akira Kurosawa's first film after the end of World War II, Japanese film star (and eventual Ozu regular) Setsuko Hara gives an astonishing performance as Yukie, Kurosawa's only female protagonist and one of his strongest heroes. Transforming herself from genteel bourgeois daughter to independent social activist, Yukie journeys across a decade of tumultuous Japanese history.

One Wonderful Sunday



Akira Kurosawa examined the harsh economic truths of postwar Japan with this affectionate tribute to young love. Trying to make their meager thirty-five yen last during a Sunday trip into a war-ravaged Tokyo, Yuzo and Masako look for work and lodging, as well as affordable entertainments to pass the time. Reminiscent of Frank Capra's social realist comedies as well as contemporaneous Italian neorealist films, One Wonderful Sunday touchingly offers a bit of hope amidst misery.

Scandal



A handsome, suave Toshiro Mifune lights up the screen as painter Ichiro, whose circumstantial meeting with a famous singer (Yoshiko Yamaguchi) is construed by the tabloid press as a torrid affair. When Ichiro files a lawsuit against the incriminating gossip magazine, he hires the ethically dubious lawyer Hiruta (Kurosawa stalwart Takashi Shimura)—who's playing both sides. A portrait of moral decline during Japan's postwar reparations, Scandal is also a compelling courtroom drama and a tale of human redemption.[/quote]

[w/o horse]

YES!

[Gold Trumpet]

That's an amazing box set. My poverty has forced me to skip a lot of Criterion releases, but I might save pennies to get that one.

[edison]

[w/o horse]

I'm curious.

[cine]

i'm definitely buy curious.

[Alexandro]

as healthy as it is for a any human being's sense of humbleness, sometimes the fact that every day that passes it becomes clearer that I'm light years away from seeing and enjoying all the films that i want to becomes too much to bear. it just never ends.

[Gamblour.]

I think Scorsese once talked about film scholarship and how it is logistically impossible, especially as the years go on, to see anywhere close to all the movies that have been released. It's sad to know that one's life will be narrowed or limited in its scope.

[Gold Trumpet]

It's sad to know that one's life will be narrowed or limited in its scope.

I find it to be a great relief. Now that I know my most ridiculous attempt to see every film is futile I can try to enjoy and appreciate the ones I like even more. People pride themselves too much on the number of films they have seen.

[Gamblour.]

Well, I have no idea how many movies I've seen. But I enjoy seeing new films and knowing that some will be neglected, I dunno, makes me feel like I'm perpetually missing out.

[w/o horse]

I've got some wicked cravings for today's Lubitsch Musicals release.  I wish V-Day was more oriented towards giving the gift of Lubistch Musicals release to me instead of spending an outrageous sum on dinner and romantic gestures.

Silent Ozu soon.  Yes!

[edison]

Box Set Includes:
The Ascent
Larisa Shepitko, 1976
Shepitko's emotionally overwhelming final film won the Golden Bear at the 1977 Berlin Film Festival and has been hailed around the world as the finest Soviet film of its decade. Set during the darkest days of World War II, The Ascent follows the path of two peasant soldiers, cut off from their troop, who trudge through the snowy backwoods of Belarus evading the Nazis and seeking refuge among villagers. Their harrowing trek leads them on a journey of betrayal, heroism, and ultimate transcendence. 


Wings
Larisa Shepitko, 1966
For her first feature after graduating from the State Institute for Cinematography (VGIK), Larisa Shepitko trained her lens on the fascinating, beloved Russian character actress Maya Bulgakova, giving a marvelous performance as a once heroic Russian bomber pilot now living in quiet, disappointingly ordinary life as a school principal. Subtly portraying one woman's desperation with elegant, spare camerawork and casual, fluid storytelling, Shepitko, with Wings, announced herself as an important new voice in Soviet cinema.