Artists of the 20th Century: Henri Matisse

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful pictures; soporific narration
Review: I love Matisse and have spent many happy hours gazing at a single painting, drawing, collage, sculpture -- even at a photograph of the artist, himself. This DVD is something I enjoy because of its chronological presentation of many important paintings. I enjoy it when I remember, from the beginning, to TURN THE SOUND OFF.

The narrator's monotone and the stultifying script put me to sleep every single time. What a pity! Here are some of the most exciting works of recent centuries, works that have provoked controversy and opened frontiers, and the soundtrack makes me, a would-be Matisse groupie, cry with the boredom of it all. There is one humorous moment when the narrator reads what should probably be the word "congenial" as "congenital" instead, and one can admire the narrator's pronunciation of French, to the extent that French titles are used (and they should be used more, I think, in this).

For a DVD to be watched with sound off and remote close at hand so that one may linger over what appeals on a given day and race past some of the oddly chosen close-ups, two stars is a generous rating. But any visual presentation of Matisse's work is always worth a look. Let's just hope for a better DVD on the magnificent Matisse.

Rating:
Summary: booooring!!!!
Review: This is just an art appreciation lecture on disc. I guess art lovers without access to museums or art historians' work would need something like this. However, live art lectures have a question-and-answer format that makes them interactive and fun. This work was just dull. The disc does a good job in mentioning that Matisse worked in several styles. Still, it's just one piece after another. Nothing moves on the entire disc, making everything feel so static and overly two-dimensional. This disc leaves many questions to be answered. For example, they show a painting of Madame Matisse and never once mentioned when the Matisses got married. They mention a series of dancing female nudes and then a picture of male musicians. They never say anything about the men being airbrushed or the obvious Japonisme influence on the piece. Though an average-length documentary, it feels like an eternity due to the dullness of the work. Blah! and yawn!