Title	Year	Director	Series	Production	Country	Language	Length	Synopsis
BMW 6 Grand Coupe	2012	Sam Brown	Commercial		Germany	Various		This TV spot shows the BMW 6 Grand Coupe from three perspectives.  It starts with a solar eclipse.  The car only appears in silhouette.  The eclipse then fades away, revealing the car progressively.  The music is "New Dawn Fades" by Moby.
The Tree of Life	2011	Terrence Malick	n/a	Brace Cove Productions, Cottonwood Pictures, Plan B Entertainment, River Road Entertainment	USA	English	139 min	The "transit" depicted in THE TREE OF LIFE is actually a transit of Earth against the surface of a future Red Giant Sun following the end of life.  Some time later we see a crescent Earth below a small brilliant white light intended to represent the even more distant future White Dwarf Sun.  Obviously, both are special effects.  There are a number of eclipses in the movie. One certainly does look real, the others are animations. (Matt Ventimiglia)
The Eclipse	2009	Conor McPherson	n/a	Treasure Entertainement, RTE, Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, Irish Film Board	Ireland	English	88 min	Confirmation needed about possible eclipse sighting in this Irish horror film.
Total Eclipse	2009	Douglas Mackinnon	Robin Hood	Tiger Aspect Productions, BBC, Pepper's Ghost Productions	UK	English	60 min	Season 3, episode 1, original air date 28 March 2009 On the evening before the eclipse Friar Tuck points to the full moon and asks Robin if he realises what the moon will do the next day.  On eclipse day, the Moon rapidly covers the Sun and then seems to hover at totality.  A little later on, Robin makes big speech with a half moon showing over his shoulder while the Sun is well out of the way.  (Andrew White, SEML) Interestingly, it looked to me as though footage of a real eclipse was used - there are CCD 'blooming streaks' visible from the photosphere at 2nd contact. I don't think a 'faked' eclipse would include those.  Also the Sun is slightly out of focus at mid-eclipse.  (Nick Quinn, SEML)
Seven Twenty Three	2009	Daisy von Scheler Meyer	Mad Men	Lionsgate Television, Weiner Bros, AMC, Radical Media, UROK Productions	USA	English	60 min	One Saturday afternoon, protagonist Don Draper takes his daughter, Sally, to a solar eclipse observing party near their home in Upstate New York. Sally observes the eclipse, which we take to be less than total, through an over-the-head pinhole projection box. Sally's teacher uses the term "camera obscura."  One of the other dads claims that he stares at the Sun every day. Don thinks this is a bit odd, but he doesn't seem to worry about the other dad's vision. The teacher offers to let Don look through the camera obscura, but he declines, saying that he'll wait until the eclipse has progressed a little more. The teacher points out that this only happens "every ten years," so you don't want to miss it. When Don does look, he is careful to put on his (ordinary) sunglasses. Elsewhere, Don's wife, Betty, is having a business lunch with a gentleman of her acquaintance. After lunch, as they leave the restaurant, they encounter a waitress and another man using a pinhole to project an image of the eclipse onto a screen. When Betty looks up to see the eclipse, the gentleman shields her eyes with his hand, warning her not to look at it. There was indeed a solar eclipse visible from Upstate New York on 20 July 1963, and that was indeed a Saturday. The eclipse was total as seen from a path through Alaska and Canada, and would have been partial in New York State. Maximum eclipse occurred at 20:36 DT over northwestern Canada, so the timing in the show - afternoon - seems accurate. We don't get to see the eclipsed Sun, but the details seem reasonable in most other respects. (James R. Huddle)
Moon Dancers	2009		Commercial			English	30 sec	In this commercial for Bridgestone tires, whish was originally aired during the Superbowl, a couple astronauts are frolicking around a moon in a suped-up moon buggy listening to hip-hop music. They get out and start collecting rock samples all the while dancing to the heavy beat. When they come back to their vehicle, it's sitting on blocks and all four tires have been stolen. A flying saucer is seen taking off reflected in one of the astronaut's visor.  You can catch a glimpse of an eclipse sun/star itself half eclipsed by a large Jupiter like planet in the foreground on three occasions.  See it on You Tube or Metacafe.  (JML)
Passat	2009		Commercial			English	30 sec	This Passat car commercial uses an eclipse in quite a smart way. A sharp looking Passat circulates in a city for a while. Then the narrator says : "Did you notice the eclipse?" We come back to an earlier shot of the Passat rounding a corner and lo and behold, indeed you can see a totally eclipsed sun in the sky after the car rounds a tall building. I must admit I missed it myself. The shot is not held for very long but it looked pretty good. Don't know if it was a special effect or not. (JML)
Einstein and Eddington	2008	Philip Martin	n/a	BBC Drama, HBO,  Company Pictures	UK, USA	English	90 min	This film takes a closer look at the story behind the creation of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity and the personal lives of the men behind it.  Eddington's expedition to Africa to photograph light bending round the sun during an eclipse lead to his proof that Einstein's theory is right, turning Einstein into a worldwide superstar in 1919.  (Press release) The TSE of 1919 does feature prominently in "Einstein and Eddington" but since that eclipse was such an important part of their lives with the measurements made by one man vindicating the theory of the other, the film makers could hardly have left it out!  On the whole the treatment of the eclipse was pretty good, although it was clearly put together by the special effects department with no real footage being used.  Eclipse facts and figures in the film: "Eddington" mentions that "if the cloud breaks at quarter past two tomorrow..." – indeed the Sun was totally eclipsed at 14:15UT on May 29th 1919 in Principe. When totality starts he says "we have five minutes to take photographs" – correct. I was delighted to see that they got the position angles of the eclipse contact points right.  The film had conspicuous bird noises before and after totality, but not during it.  Things I was less happy with...As they showed the partial phases of the eclipse the Moon's entire disc was rendered.  The Sun appears a lot lower then the 44 degrees or so altitude that was experienced at Principe on E-day 1919; also the special effects people show stars emerging with still a large chunk of the photosphere visible. The colours for the corona and prominences are right but the corona moves in an unrealistic manner.  Lots of stars are shown during totality, however, the teapot of Sagittarius and the stinger of Scorpius are shown next to the eclipsed Sun - not the Hyades – and in addition to the Sun being shifted off the ecliptic the scaling is wrong.  (Michael Gill, SEML)
The Eclipse, Part 1	2008	Greg Beeman	Heroes	Tailwind Productions, Universal Media Co	USA	English	50 min	Season 3, episode 10, original air date 24 November 2008. A total solar eclipse robs the heroes of their superhuman powers.  (JML)
The Eclipse, Part 2	2008	Holly Dale	Heroes	Tailwind Productions, Universal Media Co	USA	English	50 min	Season 3, episode 11, original air date 1 December 2008. A total solar eclipse robs the heroes  of their superhuman powers.  (JML)
BMW	2007		Commercial			Music only	40 sec	In a new commercial broadcast in Germany, a couple in seperate BMW 1 series cars drive back and forth into daylight and night-time and both end up at a steep coastline to watch a total solar eclipse. The eclipse is a real one and it seems to be the one from Australia 2002.  The man introducing the clip is former German Formula 1 driver Hans Joachim Stuck.  (Joerg Shoppmeyer, SEML) It's certainly a real eclipse, but if the commercial's image is upright then the Moon is travelling in the wrong direction for Australia 2002. (Fraser Farrell, SEML) The idea behind this commercial seems to be that the two drivers are playing cat and mouse with the Moon's shadow, exiting it (daylight) and falling back into it (nightime), over and over, until they reach the end of the road letting the shadow overtake them and enjoying a view of totality.  The background song is Follow You by Trinah. (JML)
Inconsolable	2007		Music video		USA	English	3 min 44 sec	A few weeks after the Backstreet Boys presented their sugar-sweet new single to top 40 radio, they are now formally premiering the video for "Inconsolable."  Tuned to the sentiment of the song, the video is drenched in moody blue and red accents, and features a solar eclipse, a new mohawk and an ocean pier.
Sunblock	2007	Christine Moore	CSI :  Miami	CBS Paramount	USA	English	52 min	Season 6, episode 6, original air date 29 October 2007 Horatio and the CSI:Miami team investigate a murder during a solar eclipse. (Michael Gill) Looks like the Moon was moving at about 260,000-miles per hour . . . totality would be over in a blink of an eye. Then again, the producers of the show made it get dark almost immediately after the Moon started encroaching upon the Sun's disk. The falling shadow reminds me of the old opening of a t.v. soap opera I remember from when I was a kid: "The Edge of Night." (Joe Rao, SEML)
Sunshine	2007	Danny Boyle	n/a	DNA, Fox, Ingenious Film Partners, MPC, UK Film Council	UK, USA	English	107 min	A team of astronauts is sent to re-ignite the dying Sun.
The Racing Rats	2007		Music video	Kitchenware Records	UK	English	4:18	From the album An End Has a Start :  Set in a sterile suburbia, the members of the band Editors play while a small child draws a large chalk circle in the middle of the street and makes the Sun disappear behind the Moon along with all the neighbourhood's inhabitants.  Wins a prize for the most hard-edged filmic eclipse.  (JML)
Tin Man	2007	Nick Willing	Series	Imagiquest Entertainement	USA	English	270 min	A remake of the Wizard of Oz set on a planet that two suns and where the whole plot line revolves around a double eclipse. (Alan Rifkin, SEML) A three part series.  (JML)
The Day of the Black Sun, Part 2: The Eclipse	2007	Michael Dante DeMartino, Brian Konietzko	Avatar - The Last Airbender	Nickelodeon Studios	USA	English	30 min	Episode 51 of 68 of this animated series which was produced and aired between 2005 and 2008.
Apocalypto	2006	Mel Gibson	n/a	Icon Productions	USA	Maya w/ English s/t	139 min	This is Mel Gibson’s brutal tale of human sacrifice set in the great Mayan civilization before its fall.  After being kidnapped and dragged through the jungle, our hero, Jaguar Paw, is set to be sacrificed to the Sun god.  But before his heart can be cut out a total eclipse of the sun takes place.  This impresses the kingdom’s chief and he proclaims an end to their sacrificial ways.  The mechanics of the eclipse are badly misrepresented as is so often the case when eclipses are employed by filmmakers to influence their story lines. The Moon moves very quickly to cover the Sun, then stops for a while, then moves quickly off again.  Even Mel can’t change the velocity of the Moon.  The computer generated image of the totally eclipsed Sun is very ring-like and no portrayal of the corona is attempted.  An additional error in celestial mechanics comes after night fall on eclipse day when a full Moon is pictured in the sky. (David Makepeace)
Basilisk:  The Serpent King	2006	Louie Myman	n/a		USA	English		For a made-for-TV movie, the eclipse sequence was fairly authentic, showing the moon's shadow racing across the desert and the solar corona.  The exhibit opening ceremony is timed to coincide with the eclipse. At the ceremony, eclipse viewing shades are distributed two minutes before the eclipse. The camera pans, first to a monitor showing the shrinking solar cresent, then to the onlookers at the museum putting on their solar filter glasses, then finally to a skylight opening in the museum's ceiling where we see the second contact diamond ring and the beginning of totality, then back to the people with their solar shades on looking up as the serpent begins to come to life in the museum. (Jordan Sutton)
Children of Men	2006	Alfonso Cuaron	n/a	Universal Pictures, Strike Entertainment, Hit & Run Productions, Ingenious Film Partners, Toho-Towa	Japan, UK, USA	English, German, Italian, Romanian, Spanish, Arabic	109 min	In 2027, in a chaotic world in which humans can no longer procreate, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea, where her child's birth may help scientists save the future of humankind. (IMDb) At the end of a short promo video for this film there is a blackened sun with orange yellow corona pulsating around it. (Dr. Eric Flescher, SEML)
Eclipse - Hide and Sleuth	2006		Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends	Nelvana	Canada	English	30 min	Season 2, episode 12, original air date 17 September 2006 In this children's television show, the insects create pinhole viewers and watch the Moon cover the sun.  Unlike many   film eclipses, the Moon moves at a comparatively realistic rate. As the eclipse progresses, I believe there is an attempt to portray the shadows as getting sharper.  At totality, however, the insects continue to use their pinhole viewers!  During that time, the sky becomes dark, stars appear, and most importantly, night-time insects come out to play.  In summary, probably a more realistic total eclipse than we've seen in films for grown-ups.  (Bob Morris, SEML)
Jealousy Rides with Me	2006		Music video	Atlantic Recording Corporation	USA	English	3 min	In this music video, a series of couples watch the Sun and a full Moon glide along the sky until they meet for a total solar eclipse.  This video is also part of the compilation of music videos entitled Directions for Death Cab for Cutie's album Plans. (JML)
Kardia	2006	Su Rynard	n/a	Alcina Pictures	Canada	English	85 min	A pathologist in her late forties who survived open heart surgery as a child in the mid-1950s has a series of philosophical revelations about love and the meaning of the heart.  In a flashback scene, the young girl observes a total eclipse of the sun with her father who explains the phenomenon to her.  Although the onset of darkness comes much too quickly and all phases of the eclipse are played in about two minutes, the image of totality is one of the most realistic I have seen.  (David Makepeace)
Täydellisen pimennyksen vyöhyke (The Zone of Total Eclipse)	2006	Mika Taanila	n/a	Kinotar	Finland	none	6 min	In this experimental, Mika Taanila has re-edited scientific film footage made of a solar eclipse in Finland in 1945. From this he produced two separate reels – one positive (The Sun), the other negative (The Moon) – that are superimposed on one another in projection, creating a kind of "additive eclipse." A richly rewarding visual experience and an homage to the pioneers of scientific filmmaking, The Zone of Total Eclipse evokes any number of metaphoric interpretations. It is awesome in the true sense of the word. (Toronto International Film Festival catalogue)
The Key	2006	David Barrett	Cold Case	Jerry Bruckheimer Television, CBS Paramount, Warner Brothers	USA	English	52 min	Season 4, episode 7, original air date 5 November 2006 The team reopens a 1979 murder of a schoolteacher when new evidence, including a key-chain belonging to a man with whom the victim had been having an affair, turns up in the wooded area where the body was found. (IMBd) This episode of the crime drama Cold Case features the total eclipse of February 26, 1979, the last total eclipse to have occured over the continental US. But contrary to what is alleged in the show, Philadelphia was not in the path of totality - poetic licence, I suppose. There were a couple of shots showing the eclipse at 2nd contact. It looked legit to me, despite the overexposure. (JML)
Casa de Areia (House of Sand)	2005	Andrucha Waddington	n/a		Brazil	Portuguese	115 min	Set in Northern Brazil from 1910-1970, Casa de Areia spans three generations of women trapped in a harsh landscape by circumstance. The cinematography is beautiful, the setting is stunnning and the acting strong.  Halfway through the movie, the main character Fernanda Torres witnesses the Brazillian 1919 Einstein eclipse & meets the scientific party. She tries to convince them to take herself, her mother and daughter out of the remote wilderness. The cinematic rendition of the eclipse whilst not perfect is vastly better than some others I've had the misfortune of seeing. They get the eclipse date wrong by a few weeks but otherwise the movie is worth seeing without the eclipse.  (Joe Cali, SEML)
Eclipse	2005		Jimmy Dean		USA	English	30 sec	TV commercial for Jimmy Dean's Breakfast Bowls.  Two actors dressed up to look like the Sun and the Moon stand in front of a large window in an office building.  The Moon shuffles in front of the Sun while eating their Breakfast Bowl and commenting on how good it is.  At the moment of totality, the Sun is told by his secretary that he has a caller on line 1.  The Sun asks that she take a message since "we're in the middle of an eclipse".  The Sun ends by asking the secretary to schedule an eclipse for the next day. (JML)
Grundy's Night	2005	Sam Liu	The Batman	Warner Brothers, DC Comics	USA	English	30 min	Season 2, Episode 11, original air date 27 August 2005 Legend says that swamp giant Solomon Grundy will return to Gotham City on a Halloween with a lunar eclipse. Supposedly, Grundy will return to get revenge on the descendants of Gotham's founding fathers. On Halloween night, the eclipse begins, and Batman receives word that Grundy is wreaking havoc in Gotham. The caped crusader is skeptical about the legend. Still, he must battle this dangerous villain who is bent on terrorizing certain residents of the city. (Ken Miller, IMDb)
Naina	2005	Shripal Morakhia	n/a	iDream Productions	India, UK	Hindi	104 min	On a day of solar eclipse, five year old, Naina, loses her eyesight and her parents in a road accident in London. Twenty years later, she is bestowed with the gift of sight thanks to the marvels of modern science. Her period of darkness is over; or is it?
Sleeping Sun	2005	Sami Käyhkö	n/a		Findland		4 min 24 sec	This music video shows Tarja, the singer of the Scandinavian symphonic rock band Nightwish, singing in the woods. At the end of the song a partial eclipse is visible (an animation). The song is also known as "Eclipse". (Klaas Wiersema)
Some Real Fangs	2005	Desiree Lim	n/a		Canada	English	34 min	Tara is the last heir to the Vampire heritage of her family. Now the time has come for her to grow her fangs. She drinks tomato juice to quench her thirst for blood until she can find her true love and have the first fateful kiss on a special lunar eclipse that happens once in 120 years.
Star Wars 3 : Revenge of the Sith	2005	George Lucas	n/a	Lucasfilm	USA	English	140 min	The central theme of the rise of darkness in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is dramatized in the journey of the protagonist, Anakin Skywalker.  Symbols of his seduction by the dark side of the Force and the rise of shadow can be found throughout the film.  One such symbol is a total solar eclipse – long invoked by artists and filmmakers as a portent of doom.  The eclipse scene comes on the fiery planet of Mustafar soon after Anakin has become an apprentice of the evil chancellor and hope for the young Jedi seems lost.  As he stands overlooking the hell fire of the planet, brooding and tortured by his journey, a totally eclipsed sun can be seen in the sky beyond him.  It remains until the beginning of the great light saber battle with Obi-Wan when the total eclipse appears to move to a ‘diamond ring’ phase signaling its end.  (David Makepeace)
The Brothers Grimm	2005	Terry Gilliam	n/a	Various	UK	English	118 min	The brothers Grimm attempt to rescue twelve young virgins from the evil Mirror Queen whose youth and beauty depends on their sacrifice during an eclipse. (JML)
Wolf Creek	2005	Greg Mclean	n/a	Various	Australia	English	104 min	Despite the fact that it doesn't make any sense in the plot and that it is followed by a gibbous Moon, the close-up images of the eclipse vastly suppass all other such shots in any other movies I've seen, including the fake TSE used in "Dolores Claiborne" or the real one in the German "Im Juli". (Daniel Fischer)
Suriyakhaat (Curse of the Sun)	2004	Kittipong Panyataweesap Anat Yuangngern	n/a	CM Film	Thailand	Thai		While driving to see his girlfriend, Totsapark gets into a car crash and dies instantly. At the same time, a solar eclipse is taking place. Dr. Pun, a scientist with intimate knowledge of reincarnation, awakens Totsapark's spirit from the dead in order to use the spirit to be a killer weapon.
The Alice	2004	Kate Dennis			Australia	English		This telemovie introduces four separate stories, each heading towards Alice Springs, in Autralia, for an impending solar eclipse, all destined to intersect. The eclipse is handled as badly as it can be.  For example they show the shadow slowly moving across the ground at a few metres per second during the partial phases. Totality is portrayed using what appeared to be a really bad digital simulation with dancing sparkling coronal streamers. A ghost kills a man during totality to the horror of a group of eclipse chasers. The eclipse chasers are dressed up in full body satin jump suits with capes. These eclipse chasers sit in a circle chanting and holding hands during the eclipse because they think they will be transported into space like a heavensgate cult.  (Joe Cali, SEML)
Alexander	2004	Oliver Stone	n/a	Warner Brothers, Intermedia Films, Pacifica Film, Egmond Film, France 3, IMF, Pathe Renn	Germany, USA, Netherlands, France, UK, Italy	English	175 min	Features a partial lunar eclipse.  (Matt Vintimiglia)
Hellboy	2004	Guuillermo del Toro	n/a	Revolution Studios, Lawrence Gordon Productions, Starlite Films, Dark Horse Entertainement	USA	English	122 min	A lunar eclipse highlights the climax of this fantasy film based on characters from the Dark Horse comic book series. (Matt Ventimiglia)
Schwarze Sonne (Black Sun)	2003		Music video	Polydor Record	Germany	German	3 min 49 sec	An operatic rock song by the German musical project E Nomine.  Set in a post-apocalyptic world a total eclipse of the sun is glimpsed a few time.  Looks like a real shot which was then superimposed in post-production.  (JML with thanks to Joerg Shoppmeyer from the SEML)
Darkness	2002	Jaume Balaguero	n/a	Dimension Films	Spain	English	100 min	An American family move to an isolated house in Spain only to discover it was the stage of the death of six children forty years ago.  A mediocre horror film about a haunted house that uses a total eclipse of the sun both as a narrative device and a visual effect.  But as is so often the case, the filmmakers here have manipulated the event to satisfy the sensibility of their dramatic construct and misrepresent the facts and the mechanics of eclipses. (David Makepeace)
Eclipse	2002	Herbert Brödl	n/a		Germany	Portuguese	86 min	This movie features both a total lunar and at least one total solar eclipse! The story is about a writer who is inspired by the 1919 TSE relativity test to travel to Sao Tome & Principe (apparently she, or rather the script writer, was unaware of the parallel expedition to Brazil!  She is murdered by a smuggler whose photograph she has taken while taking snaps of a total lunar eclipse with a telephoto lens. The movie features several still photographs of a real TLE (with the contrast set too high) and footage of the 2nd contact of a TSE, which I haven't identified yet (with very low contrast but a lot of prominences). There is also a nice image of a corona (1994?) on the box of a video cassette. (Daniel Fischer, SEML)
Identity Crisis	2002		Power Rangers:  Wild Force	BVS Entertainment	USA	English	20 min	Season 11, episode 432, original air date 4 May 2002 During a lunar eclipse, however, Zen-Aku suddenly transforms to his real human form - that of Merrick, a powerful warrior.
The Ring	2002	Gore Verbinski	n/a	Dream Works	USA	English		A young journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone in a week of viewing it. Eclipse ?
The Wild Thornberries	2002	Cathy Malkasian Jeff McGrath	n/a	Klasky-Csupo Nickelodeon Movies Paramount Pictures Viacom Productions Inc.	USA	English	85 min	On an African safari, Eliza Thornberry discovers that thanks to a shaman, she can now talk to animals. When Eliza discovers that poachers in Africa's Serengeti Desert plan to kill an elephant herd with an electrified fence, she and her chimpanzee friend Darwin must somehow find a way to stop them. (IMDb) Features a TSE in Africa, AND, the night before the eclipse, it actually represents the proper phase of the moon.  For those not familiar, this is a children's cartoon movie made out of the popular show from Nickolodeon. It is quite cute and entertaining, especially if you have children.  (Joel M. Moskowitz)
When Night Meets Day	2002		ER	Warner Brothers	USA	English	60 min	In the Emmy Award-winning series' landmark 200th episode, an innovative dual storytelling device contrasts Pratt's night shift with Carter's day shift. On the night scheduled to be his last in the emergency room, Pratt treats a woman whose unborn child was brutally cut out of her,  prompting a search for the baby. He also takes care of a burned firefighter and victims from a mass cult poisoning related to the day's unnerving solar eclipse. Pratt relays the patients to Carter, whose frustration grows as he treats two of the cult members, a wounded gang member, a dying Buddhist nun and a heart attack victim. Meanwhile, Romano experiences what it's like to be a patient when he undergoes surgery. I was pleased that the writing team spent some time to include some correct facts about eclipses and didn't mind the computer graphic of the solar eclipse overhead.   (David Makepeace) It was remarked by someone that eclipses are rare and occur 18 years 11 days apart.  At least they had heard of the Saros even if they didn't know!  (Sheridan Williams)
Cell C	2001				South Africa	English	28 sec	Television commercial for Cell C, a South African cell phone company.  A single time lapse shot of an extremely tight annular eclipse (a hybrid, really) from just prior to second contact to past third contact.  The Moon's motion is from left to right thus showing an inverted "C" transforming into a "C".  A woman's voice is heard half-way through the video :  "We would like to thank Mother Nature for announcing our imminent arrival.  Cell C is coming."   (JML)
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider	2001	Simon West	n/a	KFP Produktions GmbH & Co, BBC, Lawrence Gordon Productions, Marubeni Corporation	Germany, Japan,UK, USA	English	100 min	Video game adventurer Lara Croft comes to life in a movie where she races against time and villains to recover powerful ancient artifacts. (IMBd) Every 5000 years, all of the planets in our Solar System come into alignment at the precise moment there is a solar eclipse. At that instant, when the eclipse is full, a power will be unleashed that will give man the power of God, the power to control time.  (Robin Clifford) The type of planetary alignment depicted in the movie where all nine planets would line up does not match the current location of the planets, assuming that the movie is set in 2001. The last planetary alignment occurred on 5 May 2000 when six of the nine planets lined up with the Moon and the Sun, and the next significant alignment won't be until 2438 when it will include every planet except Neptune. Astronomical modeling suggests that all nine planets have not lined up so far in the 4.6 billion year history of the Solar System and that it is unlikely that they ever will.  (IMDb)
Pizzas	2001	Györgi Balogh	n/a	Rabbit Film	USA, Hungry	Hungarian	102 min	A surreal comedy featuring an eclipse.
Safar e Ghandehar (Kandahar)	2001	Mohsen Makhmalbaf	n/a	Bac Films, Makhmalbaf Productions	France, Iran	Farci English	85 min	Nafas is a reporter who was born in Afghanistan, but fled with her family to Canada when she was a child. However, her sister wasn't so lucky; she lost her legs to a land mine while young, and when Nafas and her family left the country, her sister was accidentally left behind. Nafas receives a letter from her sister announcing that she's decided to commit suicide during the final eclipse before the dawn of the 21st century.  Desperate to save her sister's life Nafas tries to make her way to Kandahar. The few opening shots of the eclipse are very disappointing and, other than a narrative pretext, the eclipse is scarcely mentioned in the film. (JML)
Werckmeister Harmóniák, (Les Harmonies de Werckmeister, Werckmeister Harmonies, Die Werckmeisterschen Harmonien)	2001	Bella Tarr, and Ágnes Hranitzky (co-director)	n/a	Numerous European production and television companies	Italy, Hungry, Germany, France	German Hungarian	145 min	In this political drama, the conflict between light and dark provides much of the thematic fodder. In an astonishing opening scene, the camera smoothly zooms and pans around a dilapidated pub, as János, the film’s hero and an amateur astronomer, uses his drunken compatriots to demonstrate a solar eclipse. (Jeremy Heilman)
Eclipsa (The Eclipse)	2000	Mitko Serafimovici	n/a		Romania	Romanian
Eclipse Machine	2000	Abe Lechner	n/a					(IMDb)
Im Juli (In July)	2000	Fatih Akin	n/a	Argos Filmcilik Turizm, Quality Pictures, Wüste Filmproduktion	Germany	German Bulgarian Turkish	110 min	Juli, a charming street vendor, in Hamburg, sells a ring to Daniel, a student teacher, telling him that it's magical : indeed the next woman he meets wearing a symbol like the sun on his ring will be the woman he marries, she foretells him.  She also gives him a pass to a festival that evening where she plans to attend wearing a sun symbol herself.  But she gets there too late, Daniel has already met another woman wearing a sun T-shirt.  The following day, she starts on her summer vacation as always, by allowing the first car that stops to pick her up determine her destination.  That car, of course, is driven by Daniel.  "It worked," he tells her. "What worked," she asks. "The ring, I've met the woman of my destiny and I'm on the way to Istanbul to tell her of my love." Daniel and Juli set off for Istanbul with entirely different agendas.   (Adapted from file by John W. Stiles, IMDb) Actual footage of the 1999 total eclipse shot in Hungry is used. (Daniel Fischer, SEML)
Pansion za kucheta (Dog's Home)	2000	Stephan Komandarev	n/a	Marten Visual Design Studio	Bulgaria	Bulgarian	84 min	August 1999, around the time of the total solar eclipse. A rundown villa on the edge of the sea is transformed into a dogs' home. The lady who owns it was once a famous opera singer who now shares her loneliness with an old friend. Her extravagant shows are a daily occurrence for the visitors. Every year she plays out her own death like an opera performance, the date of which has been predicted by a famous clairvoyant without specifying the year. One evening, a 20-year-old man turns up at the home. The singer falls in love with him and tries in every way possible to attract his attention. Eclipse ?
Pitch Black	2000	David N. Twohy	n/a	Interscope Communications, Intrepid Pictures	USA, Australia	English	108 min	A group of marooned space travelers struggle for survival on a seemingly lifeless sun-scorched world.  Features an extraterrestrial eclipse. (JML)
Poes Poes Poes	2000	Frank Van Passel	n/a	Victoria	Belgium		5 x	This is a story of a group of people going to watch the eclipse of 1999 in a Walloon village in the south of Belgium. The production consists of a five part film series, announced as 'a serial, theatre on big screen'. The scenario is after the work of the Flemish author Paul Mennes. The film will be directed by Frank Van Passel, known from Manneken Pis , Terug naar Oosterdonk and Villa des Roses. The film will only be shown in theaters in Belgium and Europe, at a rate of one episode per week. In the Kaaitheater they will all be shown in one marathon session between 24 and 28 June 2003. I don't know much what the story is about and whether some images of the real eclipse will be shown. It is rather low budget production. Apparently it is about 2 rivaling television teams that want to shoot the most exclusive pictures on the event, much to the disgust of the local population.  (Kris Delcourte)
The 13th Sign	2000	Jonty Acton, Adam Mason	n/a	Paranoid Celluloid	UK	English	85 min	A young girl is drawn back to the village where her father went on a killing spree fifteen years earlier to the day of this solar eclipse.  At first, it seems disturbingly quiet. Then all hell breaks loose... (IMDb)
Angela's Ashes	1999	Alan Parker	n/a	David Brown Productions, Dirty Hands Productions, Scott Rudin Productions, Universal Pictures International	USA, Ireland	English	145 min	The film shows the main character (Frankie McCourt) watching a lunar eclipse on the eve of his emigration from Ireland to the USA. When I read McCourt's follow-up  book ('Tis: A Memoir) I found that McCourt set sail for America in October 1949, so the lunar eclipse depicted in the film is that of October 7th 1949.  I remember that the eclipse in the movie was speeded up greatly (use of artistic license?), it was clearly done via special effects, with the real shots of the Moon prior to the 'eclipse' being followed by a special effects Moon for the eclipse itself. Unfortunately, the 'special effects Moon' was inverted and the Moon entered the Earth's shadow on the Mare Crisium side (the reverse  of a real eclipse).  Once the eclipse was over, McCourt is shown looking at the Moon in a once-again-empty street. Again real shots of the Moon are used (as opposed to a special-effects Moon) but the Moon (which should be Full) appears to be ever so slightly gibbous (about 1-day from Full).  (Michael Gill)
Channelling Baby	1999	Christine Parker	n/a	New Zealand Film Commission Oceania Parker Production	New Zealand	English	92 min	After being blinded by taking drugs in the 1970's during an eclipse, a woman marries her Vietnam soldier boy friend. However, as she remains very flaky, he eventually disappears and takes their child with him. 20 years later, the woman decides to use a medium to try to find her daughter. (Joe Sacksteder, IMDb)
Eclipse	1999	Joshua Smith	n/a	Para-Noir Productions	Australia	English	15 min	Trapped within the walls of her home indefinitely, Julia yearns to experience real-world sensual stimulation as it is conveyed to her through her mother's romantic photograph displays.  Led to believe that she is infected with a potentially lethal photosensitive condition, Julia fears reality until she stumbles across a photograph of Lance. This new human presence in her life compels Julia's escape. But reality is not as pleasant as she imagined... Joshua Smith (IMBd) Eclipse ?
Judy Berlin	1999	Eric Mendelsohn	n/a	Caruso/Mendelsohn Productions	USA	English	93 min	A solar eclipse turns a Long Island town, in New York State, into an eccentric stage for the transformed residents. A lonely, but talented teacher enjoys a flirtation with  her married principal who returns her affections but is  hampered by his high-strung wife. He is also hampered by a  deadbeat son, who supposedly is becoming a filmmaker. The  teacher also has a clueless daughter, who is an aspiring  actress. Filmmaker & actress manage to get together, while the teacher &  principal can steal their own fleeting moments and a quick kiss during an  eclipse. (John Sacksteder, IMDb)
Outcast Ashley	1999		Recess		USA	English	30 min	Ashley A. is thrown out of the Ashley's for committing a major social faux pas. No longer repressing her interest in astronomy, she starts to hang out with Gretchen and gives her fashion advice while they both await the arrival of an upcoming total solar eclipse. (Daniel Timothy Dey, IMDb)
The Mummy	1999	Stephen Sommers	n/a	Alphaville Films, Universal Pictures	USA	English	124 min	Deep in the Egyptian desert, a handful of people searching for a long-lost treasure have just unearthed a 3,000 year old legacy of terror. A "typical" Hollywood special effect solar eclipse with the full orb of the dark Moon visible during the whole of the partial phase which last approximately 15 seconds from time of first to second contact !  In the few seconds just prior to totality, the protagonists are seen from a high overhead shot looking up at the sky as a very hard hedged shadow sweeps across the frame from bottom to top and envelops them in darkness.  At that rate of lunar motion totality should have lasted but a fraction of a second, but the Moon magically hits the brakes and settles in over the Sun for what seems  a very long time since in the next scene the same people are no longer standing but seated discussing what to do about the mummy's curse in definitely subdued lighting conditions leading one to believe that the Sun is still eclipsed.  In the defense of the filmmakers, it could be argued that this unrealistic eclipse is dramatically consistent since it is the work of the mummy and not a naturally occurring phenomena.  That still doesn't excuse the inaccurate depiction of the partial phase.  Since it is hard to believe the normally very meticulous special effects experts would be unaware of the appearance of the Moon during partiality, it appears they deliberately chose to show the full lunar orb  advancing over the Sun in the belief that, otherwise, the viewers would be confused as to what is happening.  I must admit that this is not entirely inconsistent with my own limited eclipse experiences since I have heard locals wonder how come the full lunar disk is not visible during the partial phase. (JML)
Yue shi (Lunar Eclipse ; Éclipse de Lune)	1999	Quanan Wang	n/a		China	Mandarin	94 min	Newly-weds Ya Nan and her husband Guo Hao meet a young photographer, Xiaobing, who says he knew a girl who looked exactly like Ya Nan. He tells the story of Jia Niang, an aspiring actress whose family had a history of mental illness. After that Ya Nan's life begins to show signs of trouble. Xiaobing takes his father's photo, right in the middle of the eclipse that gives the film its title – as the shutter falls, the old man dies.
Eclipse	1998	Irene Turner	n/a	Oil & Water Productions				(IMDb)
Nohoi oron (State of Dogs)	1998	Peter Brosens, Dorjkhandyn Turmunkh	n/a	Inti Films, Tobch Toli	Belgium, Mongolia, Finland	English / French	91 min	In Ulan Bator, Mongolia, the human population numbers 800,000 and the stray dog population is estimated at 120,000.   Fearful of disease, city authorities have hired dog hunters. The film is seen through Baasar's eyes, an abandoned sheep dog who once roamed the steppes but now struggles to survive as a stray in the city. He meets his faith at the hands of a dog hunter but then his souls sets out on a journey to prepare himself to be reborn as a man on the day of the total solar eclipse of 1997. Artfully constructed, this poetic tale's cinematography is stunning.  The eclipse myth of the dragon Rah consuming the sun, bringing chaos, destruction and death is cleverly woven throughout the film. At the end, there are some beautiful shots of the eclipsed landscape. One of the best and most intelligent use of an eclipse in a dramatic film.  (JML)
Sleeping Sun	1998							This music video shows Tarja, the singer of the Scandinavian symphonic rock band Nightwish, singing in the woods. At the end of the song a partial eclipse is visible (an animation). The song is also knwon as "Eclipse". (Klaas Wiersema)
Bram Stoker's Shadowbuilder	1997	Jamie Dixon	n/a	Apple Creek Productions	Canada, USA	English	120 min	A demon who is constructed of shadows unleashes his reckless power on the world during a solar eclipse.
Out to Sea	1997	Martha Coolidge	n/a	20th Century Fox, Davis Entertainment	USA	English	109 min	Two old men board a cruise ship with the intent of defrauding rich widows. A full moon is seen two nights before the solar eclipse occurs, and one night after. (IMDb)
The 5th Element	1997	Luc Besson	n/a	Gaumont	France	English, Swedish, German	126 min	Bruce Willis tries to save the Universe with the help of friends.   As the spacecraft turns in space a a total eclipse is visible.  (Dr. Eric Flescher, SEML)
Eclipse	1996	Jason Ruscio	n/a	New York University	USA		25 min	Short in black and white (IMDb) Eclipse ?
Quand les étoiles rencontrent la mer (When the Stars Meet The Sea)	1996	Raymond Rajaonarivelo	n/a	Jacques Le Glou Audiovisuel, La Sept Cinéma	France, Madagas-car	French Malagasy	87 min	Tracing the destiny of Kapila, an outcast child who had been deemed by his fellow villagers to have supernatural powers of destruction, because of the timing of his solar eclipse birth. As a result, Kapila rides through his alienating adolescence and tumultuous adulthood while constantly having to come to terms with the fact that everyone in his former native Madagascan village--his father foremost--wished his immediate death, upon his being born. As a newborn infant, he had been put in a cattle pen to be trampled to death--the traditional way superstitious villagers get rid of babies born during this astronomical alignment. The baby was rescued by a brave girl, Raivo, who relocated to another village and raised him as her own child. Named Kapila (cripple) because of the leg injury sustained in the cattle pen, of which he only has a vague memory, the misanthropic child matures into an outcast teen who must learn to rise above his stigma-- and face his own demons by returning to his native village.
Quest for the Holy Pail	1996							Animation.  Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Klasky-Csupo, 1996. An eclipse sends Ickis on a quest (for a garbage pail) inspired more by Indiana Jones and Monty Python than authentic Arthurian sources.
Up Close and Personal	1996	Jon Avnet	n/a	Cinergi Pictures Entertainment, Touchstone Pictures	USA	English	124 min	An ambitious young woman, determined to build a career in TV journalism, gets good advice from her first boss, and they fall in love. (IMBd) Brief shot of a partially eclipsed Moon.  (Olivier Staiger)
Total Eclipse	1996	William Brayne	Road to Avonlea	CBC, Disney Channel, Long Road Home Productions, Sullivan Entertainment	Canada, USA	English	60 min	Everyone observes totality through dark filters! (Randy Atwood)
Casa de Lava Down to Earth	1995	Pedro Costa	n/a	Gémini Films	Portugal France Germany	Portuguese	110 min	Leao, a Cape Verdian man working on a construction site in Portugal has a fall and ends up in a coma. While still comatose, arrangements are made from his hometown to have him sent back. A nurse, Mariana, ready for a change of scene, volunteers to accompany him. Upon her arrival, nothing is as she expects. No one seems to be waiting for Leao. (Fred Patton, DVDBeaver.com) Eclipse ?
Dolores Claiborne	1994	Taylor Hackford	n/a	Castle Rock Entertainment, Colombia Pictures	USA	English	132 min	An adaptation of Stephen King's novel Gerald's Game.  A big-city reporter travels to the small town where her mother has been arrested for the murder of an elderly woman for whom she worked as a maid.  Stephen King uses the awesomeness of totality well in this thriller.  However, the 1963 eclipse was not seven minutes as claimed in the film but around 100 seconds. The shot is a special effect, not a real eclipse. (Olivier Staiger) Totality began with three magnificent Baily's Beads, spanning an arc of about 40 degrees around the lunar disc.  Baily's Beads spanning such a long arc are not possible during a seven minutes total solar eclipse. In such eclipse, the apparent lunar disc is much larger than the apparent solar disc and Baily"s Beads can only appear relatively close to one another.  For Baily's Beads to span such a large arc the apparent size of the Moon and Sun would have to be nearly equal and hence totality on the central line would last at most half a minute.  (Wil Carton) A scene shows Dolores driving the night before a total solar eclipse. The scene shows a full moon, which is impossible since a full moon cannot occur less than 14 days before a total solar eclipse.  (IMDb) The film was shot on location in Nova Scotia, Canada, which stands in for Maine, in the USA.  Interestingly, Nova Scotia was blessed with two total eclipses in a two and a half year span: 7 March 1970 and 10 July 1972.  One of these two eclipses is referred to by Carly Simon in her famous song Your So Vain: "Well I hear you went up to Saratoga, and your horse, naturally, won. Then you flew your Lear jet up to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun." (JML)
Eclipse	1994	Jeremy Podeswa	n/a	Fire Dog Films, Malo Film, TiMe Medienvertriebs GmbH	Canada, Germany	English	95 min	Set in Toronto during the two weeks preceding a total solar eclipse, the film tells the complex story of how the events affects ten diverse (and occasionally perverse) people, primarily through their sexual liaisons.  The eclipse paradoxically casts light into the souls of the ten protagonists and also works as a powerful, primal mythic event. As it approaches, like moths flying into a celestial flame, the ten plunge themselves into a series of sexual trysts, gay, bi-sexual and straight.  Meanwhile, the film chronicles the carnival-like atmosphere surrounding them in the city itself. The eclipse is both symbolic and real.   In anticipation of shooting the film, Podeswa and a small team shot actual 35 mm footage of a total eclipse that passed over Baja California, Mexico, in 1991. So this is the real thing, not digital effects, and seems to harbor a greater power for being so. (Bruce Kirkland, Canadian Movie Guide)
Eclipse	1994	Julio Castillo (I)	tv-series		Mexico	Spanish		Tv-series (IMDb)
Farinelli : il castrato	1994	Gérard Corbiau	n/a	Le Studio Canal +, Sony Pictures Classics	Belgium, France, Italy	French Italian / English	111 min	Farinelli, is the artistic name of Carlo Broschi, a young singer in Haendel times. He was castrated in his childhood in order to preserve his voice. During his life he becomes a very famous opera singer, managed by his mediocre brother Riccardo.  (IMDb, Michel Rudoy) The Moon travels from left to right rather than right to left as it should in the Northern hemisphere.
Much Ado	1994		Party of Five	Colombia Pictures Television, High Productions, Keyser/Lippman Productions	USA	English	30 min	Season 1, episode 7, original air date 24 October 1994 The coming of a rare solar eclipse puts a shadow of gloom over Claudia's plans when Bailey forgets to take her to a planetarium. (IMDb)
Witchcraft VI: The Devil's Mistress	1994	Julie Davis	n/a	Vista Street Entertainment	USA	English	88 min	As the lunar eclipse draws near, Satan's disciples, the evil Jonathan and lusciously sexy "Cat," search for a virginal sacrifice.  Their bloody campaign leaves a string of lovely young victims in its wake. Eclipse ?
Eclipse	1993	Stephen Cragg	The Wonder Years	New World Television, The Black/Marlens Co.	USA	English	26 min	Seaon 6 episode 17, original air date 3 March 1993 This episodes begins with movies of a total eclipse of the sun, and then moves on to a class trip to the planetarium to see the 1973 total solar eclipse, which was not a real event in California.  Students are told not to look at the eclipse and so they look down at a piece of paper during totality, which is truly bad dvice. (Jay Pasachoff, SEML) What I remember most about this is that the show was seemingly set back east because Kevin (Fred Savage) was always wearing a New York Jets football jacket but the one-day field trip was to the Griffith Observatory.  (Evan Zucker)
Green With Evil - Part 4	1993	Robert Hughes	Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers	MMPR Productions, Renaissance-Atlantic Films, Saban Entertainment, Toei Co.	USA, Japan	English / French	30 min	Season 1, episode 20, original air date 8 October 1993 Rita casts a spell to eclipse the sun and cut off Megazord solar power reserves. (IMBd)
Mille Bolle Blu	1993	Leone Pompucci	n/a	Sorpasso Film	Italy	Italian / English	87 min	A bubbly, nostalgic look at the motley residents of a single block in Rome on the eve of a rare solar eclipse. School is out so the neighborhood kids gather in the courtyard and try to figure out what to do to keep from getting bored. Soccer, farting contests, playing airplane on the roofs ? No.  They have the most fun spying on their grown up neighbors.  A delightful comedy about lovers, dreamers and an eclipse that changes everything.
Tintin et le temple du soleil - 1 & 2 (Prisoners of the Sun, Part 1 & 2)	1993	Stéphane Bernasconi	Les aventures de Tintin The Adventures of Tintin	Ellipse, Nelvina Limited, La Fondation Hergé	France, Canada	French / English	2 x 30 min	While searching for Professor Tournesol, in Peru, Tintin and his friends are saved from being burned at the stake after having been made prisoners by a lost tribe of Incas by deliberately choosing the time of their execution to coincide with a fortuitous total solar eclipse.  The Incas, believing that Tintin can command the Sun, free their captors. Tintin's ruse is lifted from Mark Twain's novel of 1889 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.(JML)
Das Geheimnis des schwarzen Dschungels aka The Mysteries of the Dark Jungle	1991	Kevin Conor	n/a		Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Austris	English	98 min	Set in 19th century India, "the climax is the day of the black sun,. i.e. an  annulair eclipse. (Jorg Schoppmeyer)
Mermaids	1990	Richard Benjamin	n/a		USA	English	95 min	After another relationship has ended, Mrs. Flax moves to a new town. But now, it's her elder daughter who is love-sick. (IMBd) Eclipse ?
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court	1989	Mel Damski	n/a	Consolidated Productions	USA	English	96 min	Made for TV movie.  Adaptation of the Mark Twain novel.  After a horse accident, Karen wakes up to find herself in past Britain, close to Camelot,  the famous castle of King Arthur. During the eclipse, the moon passes across the sun from left to right, which is opposite to the way an eclipse appears from the northern hemisphere. (IMBd)
Ghostbusters 2	1989	Ivan Reitman	n/a	Columbia Pictures	USA	English	108 min	The Ghostbusters have been put in a mental hospital to keep them out of business but on the day of an eclipse they are released so they can save New York once again. (JML)
Dni zatmeniya (Days of the Eclipse)	1988	Aleksandr Sokurov	n/a	Lenfilm Studio	USRR	Russian	133 min	The film Days of Eclipse is based on a novel by famous Soviet science fiction writers - brothers Arcady and Boris Strugatsky. The action has been transferred to the Central Asia where a young Russian doctor gives treatment to children and tries his hand at writing.  (Alexandra Tuchinskaya) Eclipse ?
Laho (Eclipse)	1988	Franco Corre, Fruto Corre	n/a		Phillipine		7 min	(IMDb)
Superman 4 - The Quest for Peace	1987	Sidney J. Furie	n/a	Cannon Films, Golan-Globus, Warner Bros.	UK	English	90 min	The Man of Steel crusades for nuclear disarmament and meets Lex Luthor's latest creation, Nuclear Man. Eclipse ?
Don't Give Up	1986	Godley & Creme	music video			English	6 min	Music video of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush song featuring a solar eclipse.  Gabriel and Bush stand tightly holding each other in their arms while, in the background, a giant sun undergoes a total eclipse from first to fourth contact.  During totality, the sun first goes entirely dark, but then is ringed by an extremely active chronosphere and photosphere as if seen through an coronograph. (JML)
Little Shop of Horrors	1986	Frank Oz	n/a	The Geffen Company	USA	English	94 min	Seymour, an orphan and a nerd, is taken in and given a job by Mr. Mushnik, the owner of a run down florists in the seedy part of town. Seymour spends his time doing menial tasks and dreaming of the shop assistant, Audrey. One day, just after an eclipse of the Sun, Seymour discovers a strange plant. He buys it and names is Audrey II. While caring for Audrey II, Seymour discovers the plant's rather unique appetite. (Mark Harding, IMBd)
Willy/Milly	1986	Paul Schneider	na		USA	English	86 min	Milly wondered what it would be like to be a boy.  After drinking a strange potion during a total eclipse her wish comes true. (JML)
Ladyhawke	1985	Richard Donner	n/a	20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers	USA	English	121 min	A fictitious solar eclipse saves England from the rule of an evil sorcerer. The eclipse is fake as can be and a bad fake at that since, as is often the case in other movies, the full orb of the Moon is visible during the partial phase which last less than a few minutes - just long enough for a good sword battle with the bad guys. That's unfortunate since the eclipse is well worked into the storyline.  Captain Navarre and Lady Isabeau, have been cursed by an evil Bishop who wants Isabeau for himself, Navarre turning into a wolf at nightfall and returning to human form at daybreak, whereas Isabeau turns into a hawk at daybreak and returns to her human form at nightfall.  To break the curse the lovers would need to exchange a kiss, but that no longer seems possible, until the sudden onset of darkness in midday during totality, when Isabeau takes on her human form before Navarre transforms into a wolf. (JML)
Il Truno di fuoco (Throne of Fire)	1983	Franco Prosperi	n/a	Visione Cinematographica	Italy	Italian	89 min	A mighty hero battles the son of Satan who seeks to take the throne of evil on the day of an eclipse. (JML)
Neúplné zatmení (Partial Eclipse)	1982	Jaromil Jires	n/a		Czecho-slovakia	Czech		(IMDb)
Pok hoh ka fe (Eclipse ; Thin Lotus Coffee ; Bo he ka fei)	1982	Stephen Shin			Hong Kong	Cantonese		nominated 1983 Hong Kong Film Award, best actress, Cherie Chung (IMDb)
The Doors	1982	Oliver Stone	n/a	Carolco Pictures Inc.	USA	English	140min	This film is Oliver Stone's trippy love letter to Jim Morrison and The Doors. In a scene where Jim is seeking the shamanic spirit on a drug-induced trip to the desert outside Los Angeles, Stone employs the visual of a total eclipse in the sky to effectively mirror the climactic state of the heavens with the character's magical, spiritual quest.  The eclipse images look real to be although the exposure shows nothing of the corona making it difficult to determine which eclipse it is.  Anyone care to make a guess ?  Nice touch when the blinding moment of third contact gives birth to a desert eagle that shoots like a bullet from the eclipse to soar across the sky (David Makepeace) Later on in the court room scene the wall lamps reproduce the very same eclipse motif as in the desert scene, but this time Jim Morrison is definetely on a bad trip.  (JML)
Dark Crystal	1982	Jim Henson, Frank Oz	n/a	ITC, Jim Henson Productions, Henson Associates	USA, UK	English	93 min	Features an alignment of multiple suns as seen from the fantasy-planet of the story. (Matt Ventimiglia)
Bloody Birthday (aka Creepers)	1981	Ed Hunt	n/a	Judica Productions	USA	English	85 min	In 1970, three children are born at the height of a total solar eclipse. Due to the Sun and Moon blocking Saturn, which controls emotions, they have become heartless killers ten years later, and are able to escape detection because of their youthful and innocent facades. A boy and his teenage sister become endangered when they stumble onto the bloody truth.  (Ed Sutton, IMDb)
Coup de Torchon	1981	Bertrand Tavernier	n/a	Films A2, Les Films de la Tour,  Little Bear	France	French / English	128 min	Lucien Cordier is the village cop in a French African colony in the 30's.  He is a washout and everyone, including his wife Huguette, humiliates him. He never arrests anyone and generally turns a blind eye to what goes on around him.  But one day, he turns into a machiavellian exterminating angel.  (Adapted from Yepok, IMDb) As the film starts, Philip Noiret (playing a local colonial police officer) is looking at  a total eclipse of the Sun together with a small African boy.  As totality arrives the boy becomes frightened and feels chilly.  Noiret gathers some firewood and builds a fire around which they gather to overcome their cold and their fear.  From this description one can see that the scene isn't very realistic.  First, the temperature drop as depicted is extreme.  Second,  by the time it would have taken to build and start the fire totality would have been finished.  Third, wouldn't the characters been more interested in watching totality than building a fire ?  Fourth, as the police commissioner one would think that Noiret would have known about the eclipse in advance and would have informed the villagers, whereby the whole thing seems like a complete surprise to everyone.  Apart from the unnatural reaction of these people, I also seem to remember (but not very precisely) that the picturing of the eclipse itself was nothing like a real eclipse.(Katherine Low)
Dragonslayer	1981	Matthew Robbins	n/a	Paramount Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures	USA	English	108 min	A king has made a pact with a dragon where he sacrifices virgins to it, and the dragon leaves his kingdom alone. An old wizard, and his keen young apprentice volunteer to kill the dragon and attempt to save the next virgin in line - the Kings own daughter.  (IMDb, Colin Tinto)
Altered States	1980	Ken Russell	n/a	Warner Brothers	USA	English	103 min	A research scientist believes other states of consciousness are as real as everyday reality.  Using deprivation, then adding powerful, hallucinogenic drugs, he expolores these altered states. In one of the many hallucinogenic sequences, there is a brief shot of a total solar eclipse.  (JML)
The Awakening	1980	Mike Newell	n/a	EMI Films, Orion Pictures	UK	English	105 min	An archeologist discovers his daughter is possessed by the spirit of an Egyptian queen. To save mankind he must destroy her.  Eighteen years after his discovery of the regal tomb, a visitor arrives from Egypt to inform the archeologist  that following an eclipse, the perfectly preserved items he brought back have begun to decay.
The Watcher in the Woods	1980	John Hough, Vincent McEveety	n/a	Walt Disney Pictures	UK, USA	English	84 min	When a normal American family moves into a beautiful old English house in a wooded area, strange, paranormal appearances befall them in this interesting twist to the well-known haunted-house tale.  Their daughter Jan sees, and daughter Ellie hears, the voice of a young teenage girl who mysteriously disappeared during a total solar eclipse decades before... (Michael Ducharme, IMDb) Eclipse ?
Christo si è fermato a Eboli (Christ stopped at Eboli)	1979	Francesco Rosi	n/a	Various	France, Italy	Italian	120 min 213 min	The story of real life anti-fascist intellectual, Carlo Levi, who in 1935 is forced into exile in a small, isolated village in a remote region of Southern Italy.
A Connecticut Rabbit in King Arthur's Court, Bugs Bunny in King Arthur's Court	1978	Chuck Jones	n/a	Chuck Jones Enterprises, Warner Brothers Television	USA	English	60 min	On a travel tip from Ray Bradbury, Bugs ends up in King Arthur's time and is mistaken for a "dwagon" by the always astute Sir Elmer of Fudde. Eclipse ?
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court	1978	David Tapper	Once Upon a Classic		USA	English	60 min	Made for TV children special.  aka Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.  Nominated in 1978 for Emmy as Outstanding Children's Special and Outstanding Individual Achievement in Children's Programming Eclipse ?
Grahana (Eclipse)	1978	T.S. Nagabharana	n/a	Hersha Pictures	India	Kannada	121 min	(IMDb)
Hi No Tori (The Firebird)	1978	Kon Ichikawa	n/a	Various	Japan	Japanese	137 min	An adventure film in the Samurai vein, the heroes try to escape during an eclipse. (JML)
Journey to the Black Sun	1976	Ray Austin, Lee H. Katzin						TV.  The Moon gets thrown out of its orbit by a nuclear explosion. Eclipse ?
Nar hirtsenjil (The Year of the Total Eclipse)	1975	Dshamjangijn Buntar			Mongolia			(IMDb)
Lucifer Rising	1973	Kenneth Anger	n/a		USA		30 min	The forces of nature--volcanic eruptions, lightning, turbulent water, an eclipse of the moon--awaken Lucifer.  A great classic of the experimental genre. (JML)
El Eclipse	1970		n/a		Mexico	Spanish	32 min	Short (IMDb)
Knyaz Igor (Prince Igor)	1970	Roman Tikhomirov	n/a	Kultur Video	USRR	Russian w/ English subtitles	199 min	Loosely based on the opera and ballet of the same name, this film features an eclipse that is seen as a bad omen for the prince as he prepares to go to war.  This would have been the eclipse of May 1, 1185.  Though I have yet to screen this movie, one person reports that the eclipse looks real.  (JML)
Tintin et le temple du Soleil (Seven Crystal Balls and the Prisoners of the Sun Tintin and the Temple of the Sun)	1969	Eddie Lateste	Tintin	Belvision, Dargaud Films, Raymond Leblanc	Belgium, France	French / English / and others	77 min	While searching for Professor Tournesol, in Peru, Tintin and his friends are saved from being burned at the stake after having been made prisoners by a lost tribe of Incas by deliberately choosing the time of their execution to coincide with a fortuitous total solar eclipse.  The Incas, believing that Tintin can command the Sun, free their captors. Tintin's ruse is lifted from Mark Twain's novel of 1889 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.(JML)
2001 :  A Space Odyssey	1968	Stanley Kubrick	n/a	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Polaris	USA, UK	English	139 min	Stanley Kubrik's classic screen adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's equally classic science fiction novel. The film opens with a lunar eclipse as seen from a point just beyond the Moon.  As the camera rises from behind the normally hidden face of the Moon (hidden from earthbound observers, of course), it reveals the Moon-Earth-Sun alignment.  As the camera rises further into space, the Sun, in turn, is seen slowly rising from behind the Earth. Of course it could be argued that this sequence simply depicts a full Moon alignment and not necessarily a lunar eclipse.  That argument has some merit since it does seem that the Sun appears from behind the Earth too soon after the camera clears the lunar limb, when one should still be in the Earth's umbra which is several Moon diameters large at that point in space .  On the other hand, the nighttime face of our planet does not seem to be lit by much moonshine, which would be the case during a lunar eclipse.  Perhaps someone using an appropriate astronomical software can simulate this shot and let me know.  In the meantime, since the debate is mostly academic, I will side with the lunar eclipse theory, if only to include this cinematic masterpiece in the database.  (JML)
Réquiem para el gringo (Duel in the Eclipse)	1968	Eugenio Martín, José Luis Merino	n/a	Hispamer Films P.C. , Prodimex Film	Spain, Italy	Spanish	90 min	Western.  (IMDb) Eclipse ?
Eclipse of the Sun Virgin	1967	George Kuchar	n/a		USA	English		(IMDb)
Per amore... per magia (For love... for magic)	1967	Duccio Tessari	n/a	Rizzoli Films Vides Cinematografica	Italy	English, Italian	110 min	The story of Aladdin.  After escaping from prison, Aladdin finds a magic lamp on the night of a lunar eclipse. (JML)
Soleil Noir	1966	Denys de La Patellière			France, Italy	French		Eclipse ?
The Bible: In the Beginning	1966	John Huston	n/a	Dino de Laurentiis, Seven Art Production, Thalia, 20th Century Fox	USA, Italy	English	174 min	Features documentary footage of a TSE (long lens at 3rd contact) during the dream of Abraham". (Matt Vintimiglia)
The Cat and the Fiddle	1966	Don Weiss	Batman	20th Century Fox, Greenway Productions	USA	English	30 min	Series 2, Episode 4.   In the preceeding episode, Hot Off the Grill, Batman and Robin, in their secret identities of Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, are looking through what appears to be a 4-inch reflecting telescope at the Sun. Dick is excitedly commenting to Bruce about "tomorrow's eclipse; that several countries are sending geophysical teams to Gotham City to observe the phenomenon.  Fast forward to the end of the episode and we find our heroes on the roof of a building, binded to tin griddles positioned under two giant magnifying lenses ( ! ); the Catwoman intends to incinerate Batman and Robin using the heat of the Sun! How can they possibly escape? That was the cliffhanger end to part 1.  Of course, part 2, The Cat and the Fiddle, reveals the answer, which will involve the solar eclipse. Gotham City's totality will last only 30 seconds . . . but will it be enough for Batman and Robin to foil Catwoman? (Joe Rao)
The First Men in the Moon	1964	Nathan Juran	n/a	Colombia Pictures	UK	English	103 min	This classic Harryhausen film adaptation of H.G. Wells's novel uses artwork and animation to depict a total lunar eclipse as seen from the Moon, that is, a "solar eclipse" as the Earth blocks out the Sun. (Matt Ventimiglia)
Barabbas	1962	Richard Fleischer	n/a	Colombia Pictures, Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica	USA	English	144 min	The story of Barabbas, the criminal who was set free by Pilate instead of Jesus Christ. The crucifixion scene was actually shot during totality on February 15, 1961, at Roccastrada,  120 miles northwest of Rome, using three cameras and... some artificial lighting !  I have found two sources of information about the eclipse sequence in Barabbas. The first article, Totality, Cinema and Crucifixion, appeared in Astronomy, Nov. 94. It quotes an interview with Dino de Laurentis, the film's producer, which appeared in the New York Times on Oct. 7th, 1962 and is entitled A Producer's Siege of Barabbas. Both articles are informative. A later issue of Astronomy, quite possibly that of Dec.94 contains a letter to the editor and makes a few corrections to the initial Astronomy article.  The decision to stage and shoot the crucifixion scene during the eclipse was not part of the original plan, but once told about it Fletcher and his director of photography decided it was worth the risk.  They used three cameras. One with a telephoto lens was used to shoot the eclipse itself. A second camera framed a close-up of the cross on which Christ was crucified. And a third was a wide shot of the three crosses and the eclipse. (JML) The onset of totality is shown quite well by camera 2.  During totality we see the corona quite well with a shot from camera 3 with some front lighting on the crosses.  Another camera 3 shot shows the sky brightening as the shadow leaves.  During the diamond ring at the end -- in one fleeting shot -- you can see the inner corona quite well.  (Bob Morris)
Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation	1962	Henry Koster	n/a	20th Century Fox	USA	English	116 min	Mr. Hobbs wants to spend a quiet holiday at the beach, but his wife has invited all their family to stay with them. Lame partial eclipse seen from boat.  At least his son was interested enough to bug Jimmy Stewart to go see it.
The Day the Earth Caught Fire	1961	Val Guest	n/a	Anchor Bay Entertainment Home Box Office  Republic Pictures Universal Pictures	UK	English	98 min	Sci Fi film about simultaneous nuclear blasts that send the Earth hurtling toward the Sun.  Scientists get a hint that something is terribly wrong when a total solar eclipse occurs over London -- a full week earlier than anticipated  !
Felix and the Mid-Evil Age or The Wizard and Sir Rock or The Professor's Ancestor? The Wizard	1960		Trans-Lux tv series 60-61					I also seem to remember seeing as a kid, an episode of Felix the Cat (Trans-Lux version) with a take- off on "Connecticut Yankee," complete with an eclipsing Sun.
Incident of the 100 Amulets	1960	Stuart Heisler	Rawhide	CBS	USA	English	60 min	Season 2, episode 27, original air date 6 May 1960 As the episode opens, the herd is restless. The drovers are nonplussed as the light begins to fail, until one announces, "Mr. Favor! The Sun's goin' out!" Gil Favor declares:  "That 's an eclipse, when the Moon comes between the Sun and us."  A drover expresses the alternate hypothesis that this might also be the endthe created world.  The partially-eclipsed Sun is depicted in the sky as a circle with a bright crescent on the left, the rest of the circle being black. It looks to me as if the Sun was shot normally, and then the obscured part of the Sun was colored in artificially. However, it occurred to me that I have never seen nor photographed a partial eclipse without a safe solar filter. Therefore, I don't know whether this portrays the partial phase faithfully or not. (Jim Huddle w/ info from Debra Hamel)
Forbidden Planet	1956	Fred M. Wilcox	n/a	MGM	USA	English	98 min	A starship crew goes to investigate the silence of a planet's colony only to find two survivors and a deadly secret that one of them has. (IMDb) About 10 minutes into the film, there is a great shot of a total eclipse, as viewed from the "spaceship" , and, for 1956, not a bad shot at all !  (R.Brown)
A Connecticut Yankee	1955	Max Liebman	Studio One		USA	English		Made for TV from Mark Twain's story.  Cast :Eddie Albert, Janet Blair, Boris Karloff Eclipse ?
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court	1949	Tay Garnett	n/a	Paramount Pictures	USA	English	106 min	Adaptation of the Mark Twain novel.  A turn of the century singing blacksmith (Bing Crosby) finds himself in Arthurian Britain after suffering a blow to the head.  His life is saved when a total solar eclipse occurs on the day of his execution. The action takes place in June, but the picture of the eclipse shown is that of January 24, 1925 in which leafless trees and snow on the ground are visible in the coronal glow.
Eclipse de sol (Eclipse of the Sun)	1943	Luis Saslavsky	n/a	Estudios San Miguel	Argentina	Spanish	84 min	Comedy. (IMDb) Eclipse signthing to be confirmed.
The Song of Bernadette	1943	Henry King	n/a		USA	English French	156 min	In 1858, France, Bernadette, an adolescent peasant girl has vision of Mary, the Mother of Christ, in the city dump. Eclipse ?
Fantasia	1940		n/a	Walt Disney Pictures	USA	English	124 min	A collection of animated interpretations of great works from the classical music repertoire. In the closing chapter of The Rite of Spring, the great dinosaurs die off following a catastrophic and lengthy drought.   This is followed by a total solar eclipse.  As the Moon moves over the Sun at a brisk pace, in what is a common movie mistake, the full lunar disk is clearly visible during the partial phase.  Before second contact, an earthquake and then a great flood of biblical proportion transform the face of the parched landscape.  During this time the eclipse continues unabated until the onset of totality.  At that time, the corona appears with streamers and is depicted quite accurately, save for a slow pulsating effect.  The episode ends with an artistic "wide" shot of Earth as seen from space as it, in turn, eclipses the eclipsed Sun, which of course makes for a mighty big umbra.  Since the apparent lunar and solar disks are shown as similar in size, that would clearly be impossible. (JML)
Rose Hobart	1936	Joseph Cornell	n/a		USA	Silent	19 min	This film from one of the most original and accomplished filmmakers to emerge from the Surrealist movement  consists almost entirely of footage taken from East of Borneo, a 1931 jungle B-film starring the nearly forgotten actress Rose Hobart. Cornell condensed the 77-minute feature into a 20-minute short, removing virtually every shot that didn't feature Hobart, as well as all of the action sequences. (Brian Frye)
A Connecticut Yankee	1931	David Butler (I)	n/a	Fox Film Corporation	USA	English	95 min	Adaptation of the Mark Twain novel.  Eclipse ?
East of Borneo	1931	George Melford	n/a	Universal Pictures	USA	English	77 min	A jungle adventure film whose footage was heavily re-edited by  Joseph Cornell five years later in his experimental film "Rose Hobart".
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court	1921	Emmett J. Flynn	n/a	Fox Film Corporation	USA	Silent		Adaptation of the Mark Twain novel.  Eclipse ?
A Trip to the Moon	1914	George Melies				Silent		Eclipse ?
Eclipse de sol (Eclipse of the Sun)	1912	Fructuoso Gelabert	n/a	Fructuoso Gelabert	Spain	Silent		José Pineda (actor) Eclipse ?
L'Éclipse de soleil en pleine lune  (The Eclipse)	1907	George Méliès	n/a		France	Silent	12 min	An astronomer of age, wealth, and erudition conducts classes in his home.  His students are not always respectful, and he suffers their pranks and high jinks. Then, at noon, everything darkens and the astronomer hurries upstairs to his telescope. It is an eclipse of the Sun, and through his glass, he sees a female Moon coming toward a masculine Sun, flirting as they move closer to what becomes a consummation. The heavens erupt with showers of stars that become women. In his excitement, the astronomer loses what little dignity he has left. (J. Hailey, IMBd)
How He Saw the Eclipse	1900	Arthur Marvin (cinematographer)	n/a	American Mutoscope & Biograph	USA	Silent		A comedy picture, showing how a small boy interrupted an astronomer's vision, by pouring a bucket of water into the telescope.