Customer Reviews

"Jane Austen's Life, Society, Works"

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This 2-disc DVD is nothing but a slide show with audio commentary. We see green meadows with dogs running, seashores, flowers, and more meadows while listening to a commentary. No reference to the meadows, etc. was ever made until Bath, England. It was more like a travel DVD than a documentary of Jane Austen. I thought I would see the Jane Austen Centre at the very least. Instead, there were more shots of modern day Bath with no reference to what we were seeing. I was disappointed in this dvd set to say the very least. There was nothing new or interesting in this DVD in my opinion.

This video series was rather boring. So boring that I returned it. They keep showing mostly the same pictures over and over again. They also show current pictures of various places in England and if you are trying to visualize say what Bath looked like in her time, the bus going by and the people in modern dress throw you off. The narrator, while somewhat informative, has a very monotone voice. I just couldn't wait for this set to arrive and after I made it through the first tape, there was nothing that prompted me to watch the second and third right away!

I found this video set to be boring and very uninformative. The video was not very sophisticated and appears to be shot by a hand-held videocamera. The lighting in many of the scenes was atrocious and unfocused. The same images (most of them still images) were used in all three tapes. The analysis of Ms. Austen's life, society, and works were puerile and very simple. Some of the information was downright incorrect.

On the whole, I was truly disappointed with this video and would suggest borrowing it from a poor soul who had the misfortune to purchase it rather than purchasing it yourself.

I am a great Jane Austen fan, so I was eager to see a documentary on her life. This was a slide show of photos that kept recycling during the audio commentary. The audio commentary was unorganized and uninteresting.
Life, Society and Works was poorly conceived and executed DVD. I have never thrown out a DVD collection until now. It's not even worth donating.

I, for one, enjoyed these three tapes and plan to keep mine to watch again, along with all my other Jane Austen movies and DVD's about her life. I am not sure what others expected, but I was not dissapointed in the least. These were made in England, so naturally the narrator has an English accent. DUH!! Yes, they did show some of the same views over again, but I have seen this same technique used on many, many documentaries. It is true they show Bath, and other places Jane lived or visited, as they are today, with people walking about and modern cars on the streets. But as I said before, many documentaries use this technique and I was not put off by it. Because there was no film in Jane Austen's time to draw on, no photographs, and few paintings of these areas, I don't see how they could have done otherwise. Most of the buildings are still there-The Royal Cresent for example-the flavor of the towns and areas as they were in Austen's time shine thru despite modern traffic or clothing on the people. Indeed, little has changed in Lyme Regis since Jane wrote of Anne Elliot's walking the Cobb with Capt. Wentworth and the others.

I found the film quality high, the color just lovely, and the narrative very imformative.

I would like to have seen more views of The Cobb itself,and the "granny's teeth", but overall I really enjoyed these three tapes, learned a lot more to add to my knowledge of all things Jane and to top it all off, I only paid $5- for my tapes! A real treat all around!