Mediaeval to Renaissance: The Mid-Millenial Avant Garde

This mini-series looks at the crucial cultural transformation in Europe that lead to the Renaissance and beyond. Beginning with a Medieval whodunnit, the series then works through some of Chaucer’s choicest Canterbury Tales and Rosselini’s magnificent three-part examination of the Medici family in Florence, to arrive at the High Renaissance with the sumptuous costume drama of Shakespeare’s The Merchant Of Venice, all cinematically exploring the rebirth of classical values and the emergence of European Humanism.

14 March The Name Of the Rose

Jean Jacques Annaud, Italy/France/Germany, 1986, 130 minutes. Sean Connery, F. Murray Abraham and a very young Christian Slater star in this coy murder-mystery set in the superstition-ridden gloom of a late medieval monastery. Adapted from Umberto Eco’s best-selling novel, the film hints at the classical influences--and Aristotle’s missing book on Comedy-- that will help lead out of the Dark Ages to the Renaissance.

21 March The Canterbury Tales

Pier Paulo Pasolini, Italy, 1971, 109 minutes. Travelers making the pilgrimage to Canterbury entertain each other with four of the tales from Chaucer’s great classic, itself influence by Boccacio’s The Decameron. Pasolini appears in a cameo as Chaucer and the stories range from idealistic to earthy to the deeply moving, revealing a society on the cusp of change.

28 March  Age Of The Medici. Part One: Cosimo De Medici. 81 minutes.

4 April  Age Of The Medici. Part Two: The Power Of Cosimo. 81 minutes.

11 April  Age Of The Medici. Part Three: Leon Battista Alberti: Humanism. 91 minutes.

Roberto Rossellini, Italy/USA, 1973, 254 minutes total. One of architects of Italian Neo-Realism, the influential filmmaker Rossellini turned to rich historical subjects in his later years. One of his last projects was a massive reconsideration of early Italian Renaissance art and artists, and their mighty sponsors, filmed--oddly enough--in English. Using a deft blend of historical re-creation and outright artifice, Rossellini summons a vision of Florence under the influence of the famous Medici family who advanced the arts and sciences through direct patronage. Portraying major artists such as Brunelleschi and Massaccio onscreen along with their groundbreaking works, Rossellini presents landmarks of the early Italian Renaissance in a style that has been described by turns  as magical, absorbing, disconcerting and confounding.

18 April The Merchant Of Venice

Michael Radford, Italy/UK, 2004, 131 minutes. A stellar cast (Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Lynn Collins, Joseph Fiennes) powers this ravishing big-budget film of one of Shakespeare’s most controversial comedies. Shot in Venice itself with lush period detail--the costumes and sets are deliriously rich--this Merchant among the best of recent cinematic treatments of the Bard.