278 L'eclisse

[Nothing]

No matter how hard I try I cannot view the scene without wincing and being disappointed that someone as intelligent as Antonioni even shot, let alone included, the scene in the film.

blinkered, knee-jerk 21st century PC strikes again... And people wonder why nothing as good as L'Eclisse ever gets made these days...

[swo17]

Dual format upgrade coming June 10th.

[ellipsis7]

Superb news, and L'AVVENTURA, already released in the theatrical new resto by Janus Films, will not be far behind...

[warren oates]

I hope this new transfer completely solves that annoying flicker problem that afflicted the old one.

[oh yeah]

Wonderful news. I've always thought that, slight flicker excepted, the Criterion DVD is one of the clearest, most pristine-looking DVD transfers of a B&W film, so the blu should be orgasm-inducing. (Well, maybe..)

[warren oates]

Though it's not nearly as bad as the first run of the SD DVD, you can still sort of see the flicker on the HD transfer that's up on Criterion's Hulu channel, so I hope this new release will be an improvement on that too.

[feihong]

When the Criterion disc was first released, I complained about the flicker to Mulvaney, and he replied there was nothing they could have done about it. That same year, I saw the film in 35mm, and the flicker was present in the print.I can't remember if Mulvaney said what had caused the flicker.

[colinr0380]

Extremely glad that this film is getting upgraded. I find it difficult to think of another narrative film in which every single individual scene seems to be the 'key, central scene' around which the whole of the rest of the film turns, both in the way that the other scenes add context to the individual and are enriched themselves in turn by the ideas in a particular, specific scene. That is a magnificent achievement and I think is what adds to its endless rewatchability (along with the easy on the eyes Vitti and Delon of course!)

[Lachino]

Having had the chance to see the (Japanese, I believe) Bluray of L'Eclisse that's on the market - and it was pretty terrible, with really woeful contrast - I can't wait for the criterion. My favorite of the trilogy and probably favorite Antonioni.

[colinr0380]

A nice appreciation of the final sequence of L'eclisse from the Shadowplay blog, with a couple of important contextualising comments from David Ehrenstein underneath.

[FrauBlucher]

blu-ray.com

[aox]

That's disappointing.

[ellipsis7]

It's just they have not added to existing package of extras, the film itself looks fine in its HD rendition... Monica Vitti has been out of the public gaze for nearly 20 years, unable to give new interviews as she suffers from Alzheimers... The Antonioni muse still doing appearances is Lucia Bose...

[pro-bassoonist]

I would like to clarify something: The fact that Monica Vitti suffers from Alzheimers and has not been active is hardly breaking news. It certainly isn't to me. The comment at the end of the review address the possibility of including new and final exclusive interviews with the two stars for what is most certainly going to be the last U.S. home video release of L'Eclisse. There is plenty of content that could have been included which would be 'exclusive' in the U.S.

As far as the possibility of producing 'new' content is concerned, this probably would have been very difficult as well. Reports confirm that Alain Delon was extremely difficult to approach for the new interview included on StudioCanal's release of René Clément's Plein soleil. Hence, the perhaps bit.

At the end of the day, this new release of L'Eclisse is somewhat underwhelming because it is essentially an upgrade of the existing DVD release, not the definitive release I, and I suppose quite a few other people, wanted it to be.

[Werewolf by Night]

So is every Criterion DVD-to-Blu-ray upgrade by default "underwhelming" if it doesn't add any new supplements? That's an awful lot of disappointment to contend with.

[domino harvey]

Why wasn't Jules et Jim decreed to be underwhelming, as it too was just an upgrade of the existing two-disc set?

[pro-bassoonist]

With this particular film, yes, I believe that this is the case.

Why wasn't Jules et Jim decreed to be underwhelming, as it too was just an upgrade of the existing two-disc set?

Because there is a lot more supplemental content on that release. A would also add that the transfer used for the Blu-ray is technically superior to the one used for L'Eclisse. (Edit: Swo17 actually posted what I meant to say).

[swo17]

With 3-1/2 hours of extras, one might argue that the DVD was already definitive to begin with.

[domino harvey]

(Edit: Swo17 actually posted what I meant to say).

I don't think he did, since he's talking about L'Eclisse in terms of nearly three and a half hours of extras already being included

[swo17]

Yes to domino, although to be fair, Jules and Jim has over 7 hours of extras (counting both commentaries).

[FakeBonanza]

With 3-1/2 hours of extras, one might argue that the DVD was already definitive to begin with.

Given this, I can't imagine how a pair of retrospective interviews would be the difference between what is and isn't a definitive edition.

[ellipsis7]

There is plenty of content that could have been included which would be 'exclusive' in the U.S.

I really don't know what you mean. There's a BBC Arena documentary 'Dear Antonioni', but that covers some of the same ground as 'The Eye that Changed Cinema', and while I guess some 'L'Eclisse' specific content could have been created it would have tended to be pretty static, lacking the availability of the Director, his Stars, his co-Writer, and his DoP... I suppose a short video returning to the original locations in EUR could have been added, but it's much of muchness in the general scheme of things...

[tenia]

In the worst case, I guess you can always get a scholar to do an exclusive piece specific to the movie.
Plenty of movies have this. Spontaneously, I think of Melville : Le cercle rouge and L'armée des ombres are 2 quite loaded Criterion releases, but it didn't prevent Studio Canal to have plenty of new and exclusive extras on their releases (respectively 2.5 and 1.5 hrs).
For L'eclisse, they could have tried to get Wenders or Tassone on board, for instance.

[ellipsis7]

Yes, another academic commentator & practising artist Jacopo Benci has done some recent cultural and geographical referencing of 'L'Eclisse' also... And there is always preeminent MA scholar Carlo di Carlo...

[ellipsis7]

Beaver on the CC Blu...

Black levels return to their inky richness, detail is striking and there is depth. Criterion have transferred to a dual-layered disc, with a very high bitrate...

...Criterion diligently completes an amazing package. My favorite Antonioni and a must-own for digital librarians everywhere.