jv-20 Reviews

Simon Schama's Power of Art (2006)

Beautifully shot, well-produced, and ego-driven

[4 December 2009]

Watching a documentary like this one you can't help but think of Schama as a sort of English version of "Carl Sagan" for the artistically curious. Although shot on a relatively big budget for this kind of documentary with an impressive BBC collaboration of cinematography, editing,and writing, subjectivity permeates the entire film. The choice of works is compelling and to his credit Schama does offer deep and powerful insights into the artists and art itself, but his own tastes and biases become apparent the longer you watch. He seems to have a slight disdain for the Italians and the French, and the portrayal of Caravaggio was laughable, thrusting swords repeatedly into the camera like a drugged, hippie freak. And calling Bernini a "bastard" for avenging his mistress and brother without fully explaining the context of the period he lived in is not exactly the professional tone of an art historian. Schama then seems to gush over British Turner and American Rothco unapologetically.

The re-enactments were very melodramatic (especially the music) and other performances that were over the top were Van Gogh in particular. All art is indeed subjective but when Schama tries to balance populism and academics the result can sometimes be a little shaky. He glosses over many important stories and works of the artists' lives confidently in search for a truth without admitting the art historian cannot accurately know everything about events that happened long ago. Art doesn't need to necessarily be political or propaganda-driven to be powerful, and anyone who watches this believing these eight works of art are the the most 'powerful' in history (according to Schama) would be hopelessly mistaken. But it is worth watching.

The Body (2001)

Well-made but poor adaption

[28 May 2003]

Written in 1983, the late Israeli New Yorker Richard Ben Sapir's novel The Body is a brilliant, gripping and scholarly look at religion, archaeology, politics, and human nature. This movie, trying valiantly to adapt a 350+ page novel to the big screen by Jonas McCord succeeds in provoking the viewers mind but at the expense of changing many key elements that made the book so engaging and vivid. Antonio seems to have had his role tailor-made for the film as the original character was an irish-american named Jim Folan, and in the script editing many things were cut out, including the love affair he has with the beautiful archaeologist and the most important, the inscription of King of the Jews on the body. My assumption could only be that McCord averted these elements to avoid being chastisement from fundamentalists and lobby groups. At any rate, the acting is solid and performances are very good,although too plot-driven for such a great story. Vilos Zigmond makes the movie watchable with his first-rate photography, and having been shot in Israel and Italy adds credibility. Worth seeing but the book is far greater.