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The 1960s were a period of tumult and change across the world, and this was definitely echoed in iconic art that was created during the decade. From music, to fashion, to film and television, artists pushed the boundaries and limits of their disciplines by exploring controversial themes and experimenting with new techniques to comment on them, in the process.

Among these, film was one of the most adventurous, with several projects from this decade inspiring the future generation of filmmakers. Several classic films of the 1960s have held up to today's standards. In fact, many pioneered the method for much of modern film. For example, Stanley Kramer's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, discussed important societal issues of race and interracial relationships, while artistic French new wave movies like The Umbrella's of Cherbourg, used technicolor and experimental cinematography to expand the visual capabilities of film. In these instances, these 1960s...

Criterion’s Eclipse Series, an ever-expanding line of esoteric dvd releases, ensures that lesser known titles of important filmmakers remain available to the movie-loving public. They’ve just added another worthy edition to the mix with four films by French film director Claude Autant-Lara: Four Romantic Escapes from Occupied France. In keeping with the wallet-friendly nature of the series, the set contains no extras but features fine transfers, simple but elegant packaging and astute liner notes.

Claude Autant-Lara: Four Romantic Escapes from Occupied France

DVD

Eclipse

1942-46/ 1:33 / 103 Min., 92 min., 109 min., 98 min. / Street Date January 23, 2018

Starring Odette Joyeux, Marguerite Moreno, Jacques Tati

Cinematography by Philippe Agostini,

Written by Jean Aurenche, Pierre Bost

Music by Maurice Yvain, René Cloërec

Edited by Madeleine Gug

Produced by Pierre Guerlais

Directed by Claude Autant-Lara

In the late fifties, François Truffaut launched a diatribe against a select number of French directors with the phrase...

Simone Simon in 'La Bête Humaine' 1938: Jean Renoir's film noir (photo: Jean Gabin and Simone Simon in 'La Bête Humaine') (See previous post: "'Cat People' 1942 Actress Simone Simon Remembered.") In the late 1930s, with her Hollywood career stalled while facing competition at 20th Century-Fox from another French import, Annabella (later Tyrone Power's wife), Simone Simon returned to France. Once there, she reestablished herself as an actress to be reckoned with in Jean Renoir's La Bête Humaine. An updated version of Émile Zola's 1890 novel, La Bête Humaine is enveloped in a dark, brooding atmosphere not uncommon in pre-World War II French films. Known for their "poetic realism," examples from that era include Renoir's own The Lower Depths (1936), Julien Duvivier's La Belle Équipe (1936) and Pépé le Moko (1937), and particularly Marcel Carné's Port of Shadows (1938) and Daybreak (1939).[11] This thematic and...

“Brute!” exclaims wife Danielle Darrieux, fainting; “Comédienne!” accuses husband François Périer, lowering his pulled punch. So goes the first—and finest—10 minutes of Marcel L’Herbier’s Au petite Bonheur (1946), a.k.a. Happy Go Lucky, which has that frantic-nonchalant speed of high society of late 30s Leo McCarey comedies, as well as the facetious charm of the indignant rich. We’d probably hate the type if they didn’t expend so much energy on wasted playacted huffing, the acrobatics of storming out of and into bedrooms, and instant-switch declarations of hate and love. The rest of the picture gets bogged down in imprecise writing, too much of actor André Luguet, and their combination into obnoxious misunderstandings. But before that—when Darrieux’s heckling, scheming jealousy (brilliant: stitching absurd patterns onto the back of her husband’s back so he can never remove his jacket; firing a maid for her...