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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786302891027 Format: Box set, Color, NTSC ISBN: 6302891027 Label: Home Vision Manufacturer: Home Vision Number Of Items: 7 Publisher: Home Vision Release Date: April 01, 1997 Running Time: 700 minutes Sales Rank: 23470 Studio: Home Vision
Amazon.com: Lord Clark (formerly Sir Kenneth Clark), perhaps the most celebrated historian of art in the 20th century, takes a wide-ranging look at Western culture in Civilisation, Vol. 1. Starting with a segment titled The Skin of Our Teeth, he "illuminates the Dark Ages" with visits to historic sites from the Mediterranean to the Arctic, looking at the remnants of both classical life and the more recent art and architecture created after the fall of Rome. Later, in The Great Thaw, Clark focuses on the 12th-century European proto-Renaissance, in particular the construction of the Chartres cathedral. The innovations (stained glass and flying buttresses, for example) developed at this time influenced the Western world for centuries to come.
Despite his brilliance, Clark always manages to capture exactly the right sentiment as simply as possible, offering the viewer his unparalleled understanding like a friendly uncle. Civilisation can best be described as relaxing--no MTV-style jump cuts, no annoying computer graphics, just a wise older man chatting with us about the societies that preceded ours. In today's fast-paced world, that's quite a treat. --Rob Lightner
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Demanding but essential viewing of European history through art
Kenneth Clark's Civilisation is important because without this format there would not have been Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man, or any of David Attenboroughs nature programs or Carl Sagan's Cosmos. This is the brand that started them all however the subject matter is very different from those science-orientated programs.
Clark believed that he could encapsulate the development of European civilization (he does a little bit on America too) through its art. It is a very audacious project and to some extent Clark is making television history by doing something that has never been ... Read More
Rating: - Far more limited than the title would imply
The title of this series is highly misleading. Far from being an examination of the development of civilization - which would imply looking at Mesopotamia, Sumer, Egypt, Greece, Rome, China and perhaps parts of South America - Kenneth Clark focuses entirely on post-classical western civilization. And even within this limited remit he doesn't really address the wider theme of civilization at all. Instead, he gives us an art historian's take on some of the elaborations of civilization: the sculptures, the paintings, the architectural wonders, most especially of the Catholic branch of the Christian ... Read More
Rating: - The very best very personal view of Western culture. A complete joy.
The aim of education is to end up with the investment, the passion, that Lord Clark brings to this overview of our roots. Watching this series is to profit from his erudition and his delightful personality.
Rating: - One of the most important documentaries ever made
I bought the DVDs at the store on the spur of the moment, and having never heard of Kenneth Clark. I have watched the whole thing many times now and have since spent time looking at art in Italy, France, and Spain.
What really impressed me the first few times watching the videos were the slow pace at which the camera showed the art and architecture. The viewer actually gets time to dwell on and think about what is on the screen, instead of, as in more modern documentaries, getting half a second before moving on.
What really impressed me in later viewings was the fact that ... Read More
Rating: - A Walk Through Art and Time with Kenneth Clark
There have been many attempts at a comprehensive history of Western art on film, but none have succeeded as well as this wonderfully opinionated and often-wrongheaded series. The photography remains among the best in the genre, with skillful use of contemporaneous music adding to the charm. What comes through most clearly is Clark's love of his subject, a warmth which covers a multitude of sins. One cannot always agree with his conclusions, and subsequent scholarship has not always borne out his theories, but the series is never less than stimulating, and is an enduring joy to watch.
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