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Criterion Reflections is David Blakeslee’s ongoing project to watch all of the films included in the Criterion Collection in chronological order of their original release. Each episode features panel conversations and 1:1 interviews offering insights on movies that premiered in a particular season of a year in the past, which were destined to eventually bear the Criterion imprint. In this episode, David is joined by Martin Kessler, Jordan Essoe, Doug McCambridge, Jason Beamish and Trevor Berrett to discuss six titles from the Winter of 1969: Jaromil Jires’s The Joke, Juraj Herz’s The Cremator, Wim Winders’s Silver City Revisited, Fellini: A Director’s Notebook, Luis Bunuel’s The Milky Way and Pierre Etaix’s Le Grand Amour.

Episode Time Markers: Introduction: 0:00:00 – 0:09:47 The Joke: 0:09:48 – 0:36:30 Silver City Revisited: 0:36:31 – 0:54:30 The Cremator: 0:54:31 – 1:17:...

Le Monde reports that Pierre Étaix, the Oscar-winning French comedian and filmmaker, has died at the age of 88. He’s best known for his acclaimed short- and feature-length films in the 1960’s, all of which were tied up in rights disputes for over 20 years until their eventual restoration and revival in 2012, courtesy of Janus Films. These films include “Le Grand Amour,” “As Long as You’ve Got Your Health,” “Land of Milk and Honey,” “Rupture,” “The Suitor,” and “Yoyo.”

Read More: A Comic Master Gets His Due

Étaix began his career as a designer before meeting director Jacques Tati in 1954 when he worked as a gagman and assistant director on his film “Mon Oncle.” His apprenticeship with Tati eventually led to his collaboration with Jean-Claude Carrière, whom he wrote his short film “Happy Anniversary,” which won the Oscar for Best Short Subject in 1963. Étaix and Carrière would collaborate on the...

Each week, the fine folks at Fandor add a number of films to their Criterion Picks area, which will then be available to subscribers for the following twelve days. This week, the Criterion Picks focus on the brilliant French comedian: Pierre Étaix.

Now re-discovered and restored after decades suppressed by distribution red-tape, enjoy “greatest hits” from this clever, warm-hearted clown’s directorial oeuvre and highlights from his acting career.

If you’ve never seen any of his films, this is a perfect opportunity watch some of his finest work. Don’t have a Fandor subscription? They offer a free trial membership.

Order the Pierre Etaix Blu-ray collection from Amazon, currently only $31.99 (47% off)

As Long as You’ve Got Your Health

In this endlessly diverting compendium of four short films, Pierre Etaix regards the 1960s from his askew but astute perspective. Each part is as technically impressive as it is riotous:...

Last night I watched Pierre Etaix's Yo Yo and the first thing I thought of was Quentin Tarantino's foot fetish (for more on that click here). Strangely (to me at least), the scene actually is a little sexy. Etaix's Yo Yo is now on Criterion Blu-ray in a box set of Etaix's films including The Suitor, As Long as You've Got Your Health, Le grand amour and Land of Milk and Honey. For more information click here or pick up a copy for yourself amazon asin="B00B2BYXQI" text="right here".

Pierre Etaix (Criterion Collection) My familiarity with Pierre Etaix is virtually zero. I only just received this brand new collection of the French director's five films a couple of days ago and only last night was I able to begin screening any portion of it, watching 30 minutes of Yo Yo, and taking in the zaniness for the first time. I watched his introduction to the film, him talking about the death of his father, his love of the circus and of Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 and I knew there was going to be something of a kinship here, but I can't give you a full report just yet. This Criterion set includes all of Etaix's films including five features -- The Suitor,Yoyo, As Long as You've Got Your Health, Le grand amour and Land of Milk and Honey -- and three shorts -- Rupture, the Oscar-winning Happy Anniversary and Feeling Good.

Moviefone's Blu-ray of the Week "Jurassic Park 3D" What's It About? God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs... Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth. Why We're In: It's "Jurassic Park 3D" from the comfort of your home. What more do you need? Moviefone's New Release of the Week "The Impossible" What's It About? Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor star as the parents of a vacationing family that gets separated from each other during the devastating 2004 tsunami of Southeast Asia and struggle to locate each other and their missing children. Why We're In: Watts earned an Oscar nomination and it's easy to see why; as harrowing as the story can be at times, it's an incredibly moving, and even more remarkably, true tale that will keep you captivated. New on DVD & Blu-ray "Any Day Now" What's It About? Alan Cumming stars in...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: April 23, 2013

Price: 3-Disc DVD $49.95, 2-Disc Blu-ray $59.95

Studio: Criterion

Nicole Calfan and Pierre Étaix snuggle in Le Grand Amour.

A French master whose comedy films went unseen for decades as a result of legal tangles, director-actor Pierre Etaix and his movies have been rediscovered in recent years.

Pierre Etaix’s work can be placed in the spectrum of physical comedy with that of Jacques Tati and Jerry Lewis, but it’s also undeniably his own. The films, influenced by Etaix’s experiences as a circus acrobat and clown and by the silent film comedies he adored, are delightfully deadpan, but as an on-screen presence, Etaix radiates remarkable warmth. This collection includes all of his films, led by the following five feature-length efforts:

The Suitor (1962) • A shy young man who must get married within a few days in order to inherit a fortune.

Yoyo (1965) • In the 1920s, a...

Above: The Suitor (Pierre Etaix, France, 1962). French double grande poster (63" x 94.5") by André François

Film Forum’s retrospective of the films of Pierre Etaix, which starts today, brings belated recognition to a filmmaker, writer and comedian who is beloved in France (where he is regarded as the French Buster Keaton) but has too long remained unknown in the States. I was shamefully unaware of M. Etaix (although I would have seen his appearances in such disparate films as Pickpocket and Henry & June) until I saw him in Aki Kaurismaki’s Le Havre last year and someone—une Française naturally—told me of his renown. When I started to look into him I was bowled over to discover that not only had Etaix—who, at the age of 83 will be appearing at Film Forum tonight—been a close confidante of Jacques Tati in the mid 1950s, but had also designed...

The celebrated 'French Buster Keaton' has finally won his battle over distribution rights to get his films shown again

Pierre Étaix is back, by popular demand. Jerry Lewis acclaimed him as a genius and Terry Gilliam is a devoted fan, but until very recently, the 83-year-old Étaix, a comedian, magician and clown who Paris-Match called "the French Buster Keaton", was in danger of being forgotten entirely. His films are timeless treasures of whimsical, physical comedy, but copyright difficulties meant that his movies had not been distributed, let alone released on home video, for decades. Étaix's signature on a disastrous distribution contract cast his films into oblivion, but 56,000 more, including those of Jean-Luc Godard, David Lynch and Woody Allen, on a petition in 2009, have rescued them for posterity. The end to this long-running legal dispute should be a cause for celebration among film fans, even though many, quite understandably, will never...

Imagine stepping into a time machine and listening to Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton discuss their films. Last week, hundreds of people had the privilege of sharing an evening with a living master of screen comedy, 82-year-old Pierre Étaix, at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Many of them had never seen his work before, but they came away fans and converts. I was delighted to host the evening, which included his Academy Award-winning 1962 short 'Happy Anniversary' and the 1969 feature 'Le Grand Amour'/'The Great Love'.   The spry octogenarian charmed his audience (with the help of Geneviève Bujold, who served as interpreter)...

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London, Sep 8: Hollywood celebrities George Clooney and Tilda Swinton have been honoured at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado for their contributions to the film world.

Contactmusic.com reports that Clooney gave a discussion on 'The Descendants' and received a Silver Medallion award for his significant contribution to the cinema world.

Whereas, Swinton and Pierre Etaix masterpiece 'Le Grand Amour' was screened at the event, also received the honour.

The 38th annual festival started.

George Clooney and Tilda Swinton have been honoured at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado for their contributions to the world of film.

The stars turned out for the 38th annual festival in the ski resort town, which saw movies including The Descendants, The Artist and Albert Nobbs, and Butter receive favourable receptions over the weekend (02-04Sep11).

Clooney, who gave a discussion on The Descendants, received a Silver Medallion award for his significant contribution to the cinema world.

Swinton and Pierre Etaix, whose lost masterpiece Le Grand Amour was screened at the event, also received the honour.

New York (Reuters) - The Telluride Film Festival wrapped up on Monday after a long weekend of screenings, seminars and other programs, with George Clooney and Tilda Swinton receiving top honors.

The 38th annual festival in the Colorado ski resort town saw Alexander Payne's "The Descendants" win a rapturous reception, with star George Clooney on hand to discuss the comic drama being released in November.

Other films that drew strong response included silent film "The Artist," which also made a splash in Cannes, and "Albert Nobbs," a period piece in which Glenn Close's character lives most of her life disguised as a man. Close was also in town for the festival.

The festival's three surprise films, which were not announced in advance, included Jim Field Smith's "Butter," starring Jennifer Garner and Ty Burrell, all of whom made appearances. "Crazy Horse," Frederick Wiseman's look at the glamorous Paris cabaret,...

Since the announcement of this year’s selected films, the Cannes film festival machine has whirred on, with additions to that line-up and confirmation of some of the Out of Competition activities that attendees can look forward to.

One particular highlight is the Cannes Classics programme of films, a selection of restored films and rediscovered lost films, as part of the build up to their re-release in cinemas or on DVD. The programme traditionally includes some massively important films: the 2009 fest offered the mouth-watering triptych of Powell and Pressburger’s The Red Shoes (1948), Leone’s A Fistful of Dynamite (1971) and Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959), and this year’s line-up is just as eye-catching.

This year’s Cannes Classic programme lines up as follows (with additional detail of their restoration, and the ceremony attached to the screening):

- La Bataille Du Rail (The Battle of the Rails) (France,...

Mrinal Sen’s Khandahar will be screened in Cannes Classics 2010. Cannes Classics, created in 2004, accompanies contemporary films from the Official Selection with a programme of restored films and lost films that have been found again, as part of their re-release in cinemas or on DVD.

The film has been restored by Reliance MediaWorks with the support of the National Film Archive of India. Mrinal Sen will attend the screening of Khandahar at Cannes.

Programme - La Bataille Du Rail (The Battle of the Rails) (France, 1946, 82’) by René Clément, awarded the Jury Prize in 1946, restored by Ina and Full Images, will be screened in the presence of Mrs. Johanna Clément.- Boudu Sauve Des Eaux (Boudu Saved from Drowning) by Jean Renoir (France, 85’, 1932), a restoration presented by Pathé in a never-before-seen version that includes scenes that were cut in the original. A Pathé restoration in association with the laboratries L’immagine...