Customer Reviews

French Impressionism at the Musee D'Orsay - Art and Splendor Series

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The good news is that the run time is 40 minutes. I have been searching for a French Impressionist dvd appropriate for the classroom, but many are too long and would require copious fast forwarding to limit the viewing time to 45 to 60 minutes.

The bad news is that there are several Manet nudes, which does not bother me, but it does make this dvd unacceptable for my fifth and sixth grade French class. However, it will work nicely for my all female H.S. French I class.

The ugly part is that the images of the art are not very clear, even in comparison to a regular dvd format. Which means we are talking leagues apart from HD! Also,the pronunciation of the French names in English by the narrator are poor. I will have to teach my students the correct way to say words like "musee" which the narrator says like "moo-zay" instead of the correct "mew-zay". The French narrator who reads the captions to the paintings is very good, obviously a native speaker.

All in all,I would say the historical information is good and the dvd moves along at a very fast clip. The students will have to pay attention to keep from missing something (like the nudes in the Manet paintings!) Botttom line: worthwhile for some, but definitely not exceptional.

When my niece and I visited Paris in May 2011 we didn't find time to visit Musee D'Orsay. I bought this for her and browsed through it when it arrived. So many beautiful paintings - it is a must for those who enjoy the impressionist painters.