Rodin. - video recording review

Arts & Activities, May, 2002 by Barbara Herberholz

Video/35 min./$29.95. Level: Secondary and Adult. Crystal Productions, P.O. Box 2159, Glenview, IL 60025, (800) 255-8629.

This documentary video is of a practical length for classroom use. It covers the life of French sculptor Auguste Rodin, who gained fame in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His dynamic work is vividly portrayed in this video, which also reveals the setbacks, triumphs and crises that he experienced during his life. Viewers visit his studio where a large collection of the forms which Rodin used in his work is seen, along with preliminary studies of his sculptures. Archival photography adds richness to the program, as do extensive close-ups of Rodin's famous The Gates of Hell, The Burghers of Calais, Balzac and Victor Hugo. This video visit to the Rodin Museum and surrounding gardens in Paris is the next best thing to actually being there.--B.H. For information about this program, circle No. 392 on the Reader Service Card.