escapes

Recommended The Collection: The four films in Criterion's most recent Eclipse set, Claude Autant-Lara: Four Romantic Escapes from Occupied France, are interesting for two historical reasons*. The first reason is right there in the title of the set: these films were made (or in the case of the last entry, conceived) during the Nazi occupation of France during World War II. Only escapist films that didn't comment upon the war were permitted to be made, which proved to be a balm to shell-shocked French audiences anyway. The second cause for notability is that director Claude Autant-Lara's handsomely mounted productions are…