Kenneth Clark - Civilisation (BBC, 1969, all 13 episodes in 720p HD)

Kenneth Clark - Civilisation (BBC, 1969, all 13 episodes in 720p HD)

1. The Skin of Our Teeth
Sir Kenneth Clark begins his landmark 1969 series on the history of civilisation with the re-establishment of civilisation in Western Europe, in the tenth century after the fall of Rome to barbarism. He travels from Byzantine Ravenna to the Celtic Hebrides examining aqueducts, cathedrals, the lives of the Vikings and of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne.



2. The Great Thaw
Kenneth Clark traces the reawakening of European civilisation in the 12th Century from its first manifestations in the Cluny Abbey, to the Basilica of St Denis and finally to its high point, the building of Chartres Cathedral.

3. Romance and Reality
Kenneth Clark journeys from the Loire through Tuscany and Umbria, to the cathedral at Pisa. He explores the aspirations of the later Middle Ages in France and Italy, looking at the work of Giotto and Dante among other artists.

4. Man - The Measure of all Things
Kenneth Clark continues his personal reflections on civilisation with a look at Renaissance man.

5. The Hero as Artist
Kenneth Clark continues his personal reflections on civilisation with a look at Papal Rome in the early 16th Century.

Three great artists, Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci are the chief protagonists in Clark's 'Individuals of Genius' theme. It takes him through the gardens and courtyards of the Vatican to the rooms decorated for the Pope by Raphael, and to the Sistine Chapel.

6. Protest and Communication
Kenneth Clark investigates the Protestant Reformation in northern Europe. He looks at Holbein, Thomas Moore, Erasmus, the printing press and Durer.

7. Grandeur and Obedience
Sir Kenneth Clark presents one of the classic episodes of his history of the civilised culture of the western world. He examines the Catholic world in the 16th Century, especially the city of Rome which blossomed architecturally and sculpturally during the Counter Reformation under the hands of the baroque artist Bernini. This programme features the celebrated and stunning tracking shot through Raphael's Loggia.

8. The Light of Experience
Kenneth Clark's story takes him from the Holland of Rembrandt and Vermeer to the London of Wren, Purcell and the Royal Society.

9. The Pursuit of Happiness
Kenneth Clark reflects on the 18th Century music of Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mozart, and on the way that some of its qualities are reflected in the best of the rococo architecture, the pilgrimage churches and palaces of Bavaria.

10. The Smile of Reason
Kenneth Clark looks at the beginnings of revolutionary politics in the 18th Century.

His theme takes him from great palaces like Blenheim and Versailles, to Edinburgh, and to the hills of Virginia where Thomas Jefferson made his home in the 1760s.

11. The Worship of Nature
Kenneth Clark examines a new force - the belief in the divinity of nature. This takes him to Tintern Abbey and the Lake District of Wordsworth, to the Swiss Alps and the ideas of Rousseau, and to the landscapes of Turner and Constable.

12. The Fallacies of Hope
'Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive' wrote Wordsworth of the early days of the French Revolution, but the storming of the Bastille led not to freedom but to the Terror, the dictatorship of Napoleon and the dreary bureaucracies of the 19th Century.

Kenneth Clark traces the progressive disillusionment of the artists of the Romantic movement through the music of Beethoven, the poetry of Byron and the sculpture of Rodin.

13. Heroic Materialism
To conclude this landmark series, Kenneth Clark considers the ways in which the heroic materialism of the past hundred years has been linked to an equally remarkable increase in humanitarianism. The achievement of engineers and scientists such as Brunel and Rutherford has been matched by the work of great reformers like Wilberforce and Shaftesbury. As Clark notes, the concept of kindness only became important in the last century.

(with soft subtitles)
First broadcast: February-May 1969
Duration: 50 minutes per episode

Media info:
General
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom (isom/iso2/avc1/mp41)
File size : 843 MiB
Duration : 50mn 1s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 2 355 Kbps
Writing application : Lavf57.25.100

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : [email protected]
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 2 256 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 3 500 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.098

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 93.5 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Frame rate : 46.875 fps (1024 spf)
Compression mode : Lossy