The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 38 – Raffaelo Matarazzo’s Runaway Melodramas

The Eclipse Viewer – CriterionCast

English - February 01, 2016 13:00 - 39.4 MB - ★★★★★ - 20 ratings
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Previous Episode: The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 37 – Dušan Makavejev Free Radical

Next Episode: The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 39 – Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties [Part 1]

David and Trevor push back against the winter's chill with a discussion of these torrid tales of virtue, vice and emotional torment.

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 27: Rafaello Matarazzo’s Runaway Melodramas.

About the films:

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, film critics, international festivalgoers, and other studious viewers were swept up by the tide of Italian neorealism. Meanwhile, mainstream Italian audiences were indulging in a different kind of cinema experience: the sensational, extravagant melodramas of director Raffaello Matarazzo. Though turning to neorealism for character types and settings, these haywire hits about splintered love affairs and broken homes, all starring mustachioed matinee idol Amedeo Nazzari and icon of feminine purity Yvonne Sanson, luxuriate in delirious plot twists and overheated religious symbolism. Four of them are collected here, chronicles of men and women on long and serpentine roads to redemption, each less restrained and more wildly fun than the last.

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Episode Links
Rafaello Matarazzo

Criterion Explore page
Wikipedia
Short bio on Enciclopedia del Cinema (Italian)
Short bio on MyMovies.it (Italian)

Titanus Studios

Official Site (Italian)
Wikipedia
Harvard Film Archive Retrospective: Titanus, Portrait of a Studio
Amadeo Nazzari biography on Wikipedia
Yvonne Sanson biography on Wikipedia (Italian)

Box Set Reviews

David’s review on Criterion Cast
New York Times review by Dave Kehr
Slant review by Glenn Heath Jr.
AV Club review by Noel Murray
PopMatters review by Jose Solis
Movie City News review by Michael Wilmington
DVD Verdict review by Clark Douglas

Chains

cageyfilms review by Kenneth George

Raffaello Matarazzo’s “Catene”: Introduction and Panel from Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò on Vimeo.

Tormento