Customer Reviews

From Czars to Commissars: Museum Survive [VHS]

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Please read the informative editorial reviews given for the separate single tapes. I just wish to endorse this set of 3 tapes which are very worth watching. You not only get exposure to so many diverse and exquisite treasures of the collections, a feel for the whole museum, but also a pictorial and enthralling account of the Russian history as the background to the development and crisis of the museum. There is no analysis of any individual masterpiece. It is an excellent introduction to anyone interested in St. Petersburg and the Hermitage Museum.

These three tapes do a fine job of placing the development of the Hermitage within the context of Russian history. Having viewed "The Face of Russia" 3-tape series just a few weeks before, I found this series to be substantially better, although more limited in its scope.

Since writing the foegoing, Russian Ark: The Masterworks Edition has come out, a wonderful film cetered in the Hermitage. Highly recommended.

After viewing every video/DVD about the Hermitage that I could get my hands on since Christmas, I can say this one is the best. While others had some facet that detracted from the whole, such as over-analysis of individual works of art, inappropriate background music, bad camera work, unbalanced history examples, etc., this production excelled on every level. MacLeish's narration is heads above the other academics chosen for their respective docs, the soundtrack is pitch perfect with selection for the corresponding pieces or art, architecture of the museum itself, other parts of St.Petersburg or just the still photos as they help to explain Russian history, not only the museum's history. And the mix of it all, done so well, makes this the perfect documentary for students of Russian history, whether one has any interest in art or the Hermitage museum or not. I sought it out for the museum, but its presentation of the country's history is reason alone to purchase it, if you can't borrow it from your local library.

While the other videos/DVDs, most listed here on the amazon site, were disappointing in one way or another, a book about the museum "The Hermitage: The Biography of a Great Museum" by Geraldine Norman, is the next best thing for a companion piece. I'd leave the other documentaries alone, grab this wonderful 3-volume video set ($3.75 !) and try your local library for the Norman book. Both highly recommended.