Culture penance

To make up for skipping out on Secret Garden, and to make up for the entire lack of TV, I hit the media library hard for some high culture DVDs. Bunch of girlie, period movies, and a BBC documentary called How Art Made the World.

This 5-part series looks at ancient cultures for the origins of art. At first I was totally rapt with the accents and interesting theories. And lots of Greek art. In general, the series is pretty good about relating to modern day. However, as I watched more and more, I realised how frightfully Euro-centric it was. I understand that being government sponsored, you should probably focus on Britain, at least as a grounding example. Yet, Dr. Nigel Spivey only ventured out of Eurasia once, to South Africa, mostly to compare San rock painting to the much older cave paintings in France and Spain. And it is really focused on visual arts, which doesn't really include performing arts. It is thought-provoking, and pretty. But now I feel the need to check out some DVDs on Bunraku or something.

Additionally, I checked out Becoming Jane. While I can't say it was hugely historically accurate (let me tell you about the hairstyles in the last scene - so 1860s, when Austen died in 1819!), it was lovely. I love watching James McAvoy pine. And it was a fun homage to the Austen novels. Also fun - the pop-up video special feature. It makes me want to dig out my BBC Pride and Prejudice.