Civilisation: Romance and Reality
Cast & Crew
Michael Gill
Kenneth Clark
Kenneth Clark
Joe Cooksey
Roger Crittenden
Michael Shah Dayan
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
The film explores the Gothic world of 14th century Europe, an age of chivalry, courtesy, and romance. Architecture reached a point of unequaled extravagance, and the image of women in art reflected a uniquely chivalrous approach, with the madonna as the highest representation of this ideal. Courtly love was the subject of lengthy stories and poems which influenced romantic writers of later centuries. Among the great patrons of art and learning was Jean de France, the Duke of Berry, whose manuscripts depicted court life and country scenes in medieval France. Francis of Assisi, rejecting material comforts for a life of poverty dedicated to aiding the unfortunate and rebuilding churches, was so influential that Pope Innocent III gave him permission to found a new order. The basilica erected after his death and decorated by all the famous painters of 13th and 14th century Italy was a masterpiece of Gothic architecture and an ironic memorial to the man whose cult of poverty would be belied by the Church and its expanding financial empire. Banking and capital were concentrated in a few families; the bankers were also art patrons, encouraging artists like Giotto, whose figures reflected a solidity and concrete reality that anticipated the Renaissance. Dante's writing, particularly The Divine Comedy , belonged to the earlier Gothic era of great cathedrals; his counterpart in sculpture was Giovanni Pisano.
Director
Michael Gill
Crew
Kenneth Clark
Joe Cooksey
Roger Crittenden
Michael Shah Dayan
Colin Deehan
A. A. Englander
Michael Gill
Dave Griffiths
Basil Harris
Peter Heelas
Maggie Houston
Carol Jones
June Leech
Kenneth Macmillan
Peter Montagnon
Bill Paget
Jesse Palmer
Jack Probert
John Taylor
Ann Turner
Ann Turner
Allan Tyrer
Malcolm Webberley
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Location scenes filmed in Tuscany, Umbria, and Pisa, Italy; and at the Cluny Museum in Paris and the Arena Chapel in Padua. First shown in Great Britain March 9, 1969 on BBC 2; the third in Sir Kenneth Clark's series on the history of Western civilization.
