Simon Schama's Power of Art | 
 enlarge | Actor: Simon Schama
Studio: BBC Warner
Category: DVD
List Price: $49.98
Buy New: $23.49
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Rating:  62 reviews
Sales Rank: 2302
Format: Box Set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number Of Discs: 3
Running Time: 400 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.8
MPN: WARDE2996D
UPC: 794051299628
EAN: 0794051299628
ASIN: B000NTPG84
Release Date: June 19, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 06/05/2007 Run time: 400 minutes Rating: Nr
Amazon.com
Watching ISimon Schama's Power of Art/I is like taking an Ivy League course in art appreciation, with the folksy but knowledgeable Schama as guide and interpreter. A collection of hour-long films on eight seminal artists and their groundbreaking works, which originally aired on British television, this boxed set is as entertaining as it is enlightening, with Schama doing for Western art what, say, Steve Irwin did for Australian natural history. Eight artists are featured--Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso, and Rothko--and each portrait of the artist weaves biography and historical context to help explain the true Ipower/I of his works. p The segment on Van Gogh is, as expected, emotional, yet Schama convincingly portrays Van Gogh as not consumed by madness, but fighting off the episodes with painting. Van Gogh painted one of his most evocative works, IWheat Field With Crows/I, which even his brother, Theo, recognized was about to put his brother on the artistic map. Yet, as Schama points out, within weeks, Van Gogh had killed himself. "Now why would he want to do that?" Schama muses--and then proceeds to narrate the tormented tale of the answer. Along the way, the viewer gains new appreciation for Van Gogh's signature works, including his famous sunflowers. "Technically, these are still lives," Schama says, "but there's nothing still about them... the sunflowers [seem to be] organisms landing violently from a burning sun." If the reenactments of the artists' lives are a bit overdone, it's forgivable, since the cumulative effect, in an hour, is a new appreciation of the work and the man. p Extras include frank and very funny commentaries by Schama and his co-producer, and lots of behind-the-scenes dish on how certain scenes were achieved. The teeming French opera scene in the "David" episode, for instance, was cast using just 20 French extras and then the rest created by CGI--"the scene works better, really, than [the film] iKing Kong/i," Schama says with delight. I--A.T. Hurley/I
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| Customer Reviews: Read 57 more reviews...
 needs to be on bluray October 24, 2008
taki renzaburo (antarctica)
This is one of the best documentaries I have ever seen. Schama is a witty, insightful and thoroughly entertaining host, and the series has excellent production values. Each segment is like a little film, composed around a central drama in the artist's life. It is a novel way to look at art, quite contrary to our normal view of art as a rather sedate, passive experience involving staring quietly in sterile galleries. Schama really gets across the passion and force of these artists and how powerful their works were in their original context. To some degree, he chose artists with interesting lives rather than interesting work so we dont get velazquez, hals, rubens, or sargent, but we do get david, picasso, and rothko. Even if you dont particularly like the artist in question, Schama's commentary still makes it worthwhile. br / If this series is ever released on bluray I will definately purchase it. (really art this spectacular (thinking mainly of rembrandt here) needs to be on bluray.) Also, I would love to see a sequel with 8 more artists!
Best Insight to understanding these artists! October 6, 2008
Fwagner (Houston, TX)
Currently, I am an adult student in The Glassell Art School, a part of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, TX. I am taking an abstract painting class and these CD's have helped me understand the who, why and how much better than reading a book. I love them and have recommended them to the rest of my class.
Introspective Gold September 11, 2008
S. Matsuo (CA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A beautifully produced series on the lives and times of 8 artists, capturing the mastery of each. The individual genius which separates their art from their contemporaries, discussion on technique, uniqueness, balanced with the intrigues, personal and political of their times, makes this into a must-have for artist information. I have not tired of looking at this collection, each replay giving me more information and appreciation that I had missed in a previous viewing. The narration takes place in numerous venues throughout the individual programs, so it never feels like a monotonous reading from a script -- and Schama's sense of proportion; historical, individual, relation to the times coupled with a nice sense of humor makes this an informative, yet totally enjoyable series to watch.
 Great video, lousy audio September 10, 2008
Roger Eriksen (Colorado)
This set of videos is great. He brings the artists to life and gives us a better understanding of their character and the context in which they created their work. However, the audio quality is poor. The volume level will go from good to bad often enough to be distracting.
More, more... August 27, 2008
Suat Guler (Izmir, TURKEY)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I am a serious photographer, who is trying to find his way through the hassle of the modern world. What makes you to shoot a really "good" photograph? That's the search for every individual, who is in the need of expressing himself/herself in an artistic form. Is it equipment? Well! May be. But surely not exactly. So, I decided to dig deeper and try to understand how visual art was created in the good old ages when people were not technologically strongly supported to create an image as they are now. And during my research, I came across with this set of DVDs. Each episode is concentared on one masterpiece that the artist created. In the creation phase of the masterpiece, additional background information about the social happenings, the personality of the artist, the important steps in the artist's life on the way to the creation of the masterpiece are mentioned. It's very very useful for art enthusiasts to create awareness abour certain concepts, trends and styles. But surely an entry tool to warm you up to go further. In the endless sea of art, 8 artists are really not too much. But these 8 artists are selected to cover a significant poriton of the understanding of art history. When you watch the DVDs, I believe you would wish to know at least this much information about the other masters of art and their famous work. You will surely feel yourself richer and your approach to look at a visual art subjects or sculpture will surely change.
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