Eclipse (brand)
Eclipse is a brand for a line of DVD film series released by The Criterion Collection. It debuted on March 27, 2007.[1] The brand was created to produce budget-priced, high-quality DVD editions of hard-to-find films. The DVDs are released in boxed sets that have contained between two and seven films, and focus on a specific director, film studio, genre, or theme. Typically, they are released monthly. In order to keep prices low, the films do not receive the same degree of remastering or any of the special features generally associated with Criterion Collection titles. When Criterion announced that all of their future releases would be in dual format (DVD + Blu-ray) they specifically said that Eclipse was meant to be available in a cheaper form and thus would continue to be on DVD only.[2]
History
Eclipse was conceived of as a possible subsidiary label for cult films.[3]
Mission statement
Eclipse presents a selection of lost, forgotten, or overshadowed films in simple, affordable editions. Each series is a brief cinematheque retrospective for the adventurous home viewer.
— Peter Becker, president of The Criterion Collection[4]
Peter Becker, in his blog On Five from The Criterion Collection Web site, explained, "We want [important, hard to find films] to be more readily available, and that’s why we’re creating Eclipse. Each month we’ll present a short series, usually three to five films, focusing on a particular director or theme. There will be no supplements and the master materials will be the best we can find, but they won’t be full Criterion restorations."[4]
Pricing
From Peter Becker's blog: "Retail pricing for each set will average under $15 per disc, and we are examining the logistics of making the sets available at an even more favorable rate on a subscriber or club basis. The goal here is to make these films available, to make sure that Criterion’s own work style doesn’t contribute to the continuing unavailability of these films."[4] Because these are multiple disc box sets, the total suggested retail price depends on the set. The Documentaries of Louis Malle, for example, is six discs, and it has a suggested retail price of $79.99.
Eclipse boxed sets
| Title | Film | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Series 1: Early Bergman | Torment | 1944 |
| Crisis | 1946 | |
| Port of Call | 1948 | |
| Thirst | 1949 | |
| To Joy | 1949 | |
| Series 2: The Documentaries of Louis Malle | Vive le Tour | 1962 |
| Phantom India | 1969 | |
| Calcutta | 1969 | |
| Humain, trop humain | 1973 | |
| Place de la République | 1974 | |
| God's Country | 1985 | |
| And the Pursuit of Happiness | 1986 | |
| Series 3: Late Ozu | Early Spring | 1956 |
| Tokyo Twilight | 1957 | |
| Equinox Flower | 1958 | |
| Late Autumn | 1960 | |
| The End of Summer | 1961 | |
| Series 4: Raymond Bernard | Wooden Crosses | 1932 |
| Les Misérables | 1934 | |
| Series 5: The First Films of Samuel Fuller | I Shot Jesse James | 1949 |
| The Baron of Arizona | 1950 | |
| The Steel Helmet | 1951 | |
| Series 6: Carlos Saura's Flamenco Trilogy | Blood Wedding | 1981 |
| Carmen | 1983 | |
| El Amor Brujo | 1986 | |
| Series 7: Postwar Kurosawa | No Regrets for Our Youth | 1946 |
| One Wonderful Sunday | 1947 | |
| Scandal | 1950 | |
| The Idiot | 1951 | |
| I Live in Fear | 1955 | |
| Series 8: Lubitsch Musicals | The Love Parade | 1929 |
| Monte Carlo | 1930 | |
| The Smiling Lieutenant | 1931 | |
| One Hour with You | 1932 | |
| Series 9: The Delirious Fictions of William Klein | The Model Couple | 1977 |
| Mr. Freedom | 1969 | |
| Who Are You, Polly Maggoo? | 1966 | |
| Series 10: Silent Ozu: Three Family Comedies | I Was Born, But... | 1932 |
| Passing Fancy | 1933 | |
| Tokyo Chorus | 1931 | |
| Series 11: Larisa Shepitko | The Ascent | 1977 |
| Wings | 1966 | |
| Series 12: Aki Kaurismäki's Proletariat Trilogy | Ariel | 1988 |
| The Match Factory Girl | 1990 | |
| Shadows in Paradise | 1986 | |
| Series 13: Kenji Mizoguchi's Fallen Women | Osaka Elegy | 1936 |
| Sisters of the Gion | 1936 | |
| Street of Shame | 1956 | |
| Women of the Night | 1948 | |
| Series 14: Rossellini's History Films: Renaissance and Enlightenment | The Age of the Medici | 1973 |
| Blaise Pascal | 1972 | |
| Cartesius | 1974 | |
| Series 15: Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu | Japanese Girls at the Harbor | 1933 |
| The Masseurs and a Woman | 1938 | |
| Mr. Thank You | 1936 | |
| Ornamental Hairpin | 1941 | |
| Series 16: Alexander Korda's Private Lives | The Private Life of Henry VIII | 1933 |
| The Rise of Catherine the Great | 1934 | |
| The Private Life of Don Juan | 1934 | |
| Rembrandt | 1936 | |
| Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir | I Am Waiting (Koreyoshi Kurahara) | 1957 |
| Rusty Knife (Toshio Masuda) | 1958 | |
| Take Aim at the Police Van (Seijun Suzuki) | 1960 | |
| Cruel Gun Story (Takumi Furukawa) | 1964 | |
| A Colt Is My Passport (Takashi Nomura) | 1967 | |
| Series 18: Dušan Makavejev Free Radical | Man Is Not a Bird | 1965 |
| Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator | 1967 | |
| Innocence Unprotected | 1968 | |
| Series 19: Chantal Akerman in the Seventies | La Chambre | 1972 |
| Hotel Monterey | 1972 | |
| News from Home | 1976 | |
| Je, tu, il, elle | 1974 | |
| Les rendez-vous d'Anna | 1978 | |
| Series 20:George Bernard Shaw on Film | Major Barbara (Gabriel Pascal) | 1941 |
| Caesar and Cleopatra (Gabriel Pascal) | 1945 | |
| Androcles and the Lion (Chester Erskine) | 1952 | |
| Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties | Pleasures of the Flesh | 1965 |
| Violence at Noon | 1966 | |
| Sing a Song of Sex | 1967 | |
| Japanese Summer: Double Suicide | 1967 | |
| Three Resurrected Drunkards | 1968 | |
| Series 22: Presenting Sacha Guitry | Confessions of a Cheat | 1936 |
| The Pearls of the Crown | 1937 | |
| Désiré | 1937 | |
| Quadrille | 1938 | |
| Series 23: The First Films of Akira Kurosawa | Sanshiro Sugata | 1943 |
| The Most Beautiful | 1944 | |
| Sanshiro Sugata Part II | 1945 | |
| The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail | 1945 | |
| Series 24: The Actuality Dramas of Allan King | Warrendale | 1967 |
| A Married Couple | 1969 | |
| Come On Children | 1972 | |
| Dying at Grace | 2003 | |
| Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company | 2005 | |
| Series 25: Basil Dearden's London Underground | Sapphire | 1959 |
| The League of Gentlemen | 1960 | |
| Victim | 1961 | |
| All Night Long | 1962 | |
| Series 26: Silent Naruse | Flunky, Work Hard | 1931 |
| No Blood Relation | 1932 | |
| Apart From You | 1933 | |
| Every-Night Dreams | 1933 | |
| Street Without End | 1934 | |
| Series 27: Raffaello Matarazzo's Runaway Melodramas | Chains | 1949 |
| Tormento | 1950 | |
| Nobody's Children | 1952 | |
| The White Angel | 1955 | |
| Series 28: The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara | Intimidation | 1960 |
| The Warped Ones | 1960 | |
| I Hate But Love | 1962 | |
| Black Sun | 1964 | |
| Thirst for Love | 1967 | |
| Series 29: Aki Kaurismäki's Leningrad Cowboys | Leningrad Cowboys Go America | 1989 |
| Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses | 1994 | |
| Total Balalaika Show | 1994 | |
| Series 30: Sabu! | Elephant Boy (Robert Flaherty and Zoltán Korda) | 1937 |
| The Drum (Zoltán Korda) | 1938 | |
| Jungle Book (Zoltán Korda) | 1942 | |
| Series 31: Three Popular Films by Jean-Pierre Gorin | Poto and Cabengo | 1979 |
| Routine Pleasures | 1986 | |
| My Crasy Life | 1992 | |
| Series 32: Pearls of the Czech New Wave | Pearls of the Deep (Various Directors) | 1966 |
| Daisies (Věra Chytilová) | 1966 | |
| A Report on the Party and Guests (Jan Němec) | 1966 | |
| Return of the Prodigal Son (Evald Schorm) | 1967 | |
| Capricious Summer (Jiří Menzel) | 1968 | |
| The Joke (Jaromil Jireš) | 1969 | |
| Series 33: Up All Night with Robert Downey, Sr. | Babo 73 | 1964 |
| Chafed Elbows | 1966 | |
| No More Excuses | 1968 | |
| Putney Swope | 1969 | |
| Two Tons of Turquoise to Taos Tonight | 1975 | |
| Series 34: Jean Grémillon During the Occupation | Remorques | 1941 |
| Lumière d'été | 1943 | |
| Le ciel est à vous | 1944 | |
| Series 35: Maidstone and Other Films by Norman Mailer | Wild 90 | 1967 |
| Beyond the Law | 1968 | |
| Maidstone | 1970 | |
| Series 36: Three Wicked Melodramas from Gainsborough Pictures | The Man in Grey (Leslie Arliss) | 1943 |
| Madonna of the Seven Moons (Arthur Crabtree) | 1945 | |
| The Wicked Lady (Leslie Arliss) | 1945 | |
| Series 37: When Horror Came to Shochiku | The X from Outer Space | 1967 |
| Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell | 1968 | |
| The Living Skeleton | 1968 | |
| Genocide | 1968 | |
| Series 38: Masaki Kobayashi Against the System | The Thick-Walled Room | 1953 |
| I Will Buy You | 1956 | |
| Black River | 1957 | |
| The Inheritance | 1962 | |
| Series 39: Early Fassbinder | Love Is Colder Than Death | 1969 |
| Katzelmacher | 1969 | |
| Gods of the Plague | 1970 | |
| The American Soldier | 1970 | |
| Beware of a Holy Whore | 1971 | |
| Series 40: Late Ray | The Home and the World | 1984 |
| Enemy of the People | 1989 | |
| The Stranger | 1991 | |
| Series 41: Kinoshita and World War II | Port of Flowers | 1943 |
| The Living Magoroku | 1943 | |
| Jubilation Street | 1944 | |
| Army | 1944 | |
| Morning for the Osone Family | 1946 | |
| Series 42: Silent Ozu: Three Crime Dramas | Walk Cheerfully | 1930 |
| That Night's Wife | 1930 | |
| Dragnet Girl | 1933 | |
| Series 43: Agnès Varda in California | Uncle Yanco | 1967 |
| Black Panthers | 1968 | |
| Lions Love (...and Lies) | 1969 | |
| Mur Murs | 1980 | |
| Documenteur | 1981 | |
| Series 44: Julien Duvivier in the Thirties | David Golder | 1930 |
| Poil de carotte | 1932 | |
| La Tête d'un homme | 1933 | |
| Un carnet de bal | 1937 | |
| Series 45: Claude Autant-Lara: Four Romantic Escapes from Occupied France | Le Mariage de chiffon | 1942 |
| Lettres d'amour | 1942 | |
| Love Story | 1943 | |
| Sylvie et le fantôme | 1946 | |
| Series 46: Ingrid Bergman's Swedish Years | The Count of the Old Town | 1935 |
| Walpurgis Night | 1935 | |
| Intermezzo | 1936 | |
| Dollar | 1938 | |
| A Woman's Face | 1938 | |
| June Night | 1940 | |
References
- Rich, Jamie S. (March 2007). "Early Bergman - Eclipse Series". DVD Talk. Retrieved 2007-08-09.
- "Nobuhiko Obayashi's House: Come Inside". January 13, 2010. Retrieved July 18, 2010.
- Becker, Peter (December 2006). "Mission Accomplished (gulp)". On Five: The Criterion Collection Blog. The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
