Rossellini's History Films/Dvd, Criterion Collection, DVD

In the final phase of his career, Italian master Roberto Rossellini embarked on a dramatic, daunting project: A series of politically minded televisions films about knowledge and history, made in an effort to teach, where the contemporary media was failing. Looking at the western world's major figures and moments, yet focusing on the small details of daily life, Rossellini was determined not to recount history but to bring it back to life, as it might have been, unadorned yet full of the drama of the everyday. In this selection of Rossellini's history films, Eclipse presents Blaise Pascal, the three-part the Age of the Medici, and Cartesius-works that don't just enliven the past but illuminate the ideas that brought US to where we are. Films include Blaise Pascal, the Age of Medici, and Cartesius.