Colleges and Universities Movie Reviews

Until now,I've just had to use my imagination to actually visualise the service as it takes place in the incomparably beautiful King's College Chapel,Cambridge.Therefore,what an absolute treat to sit back and watch this beautifully presented disc,and finally see the choir and clergy stand ready for the procession in front of the glorious painting,"Adoration of the Magi" by Rubens.It's almost worth while pressing "pause" right there and then and just admiring that gorgeous still image for about half an hour or so ! In fact,you might just wear out that pause button because there is a host of sumptuous images to come and despite the fairly restricted camera angles available due to the unusually long oblong shape of the chapel,we get some stunning shots of the windows and plenty of that near-miraculous "fan-vaulted" roof that apart from defying gravity almost defies belief that it was actually built (in 3 short years from 1512-15) by human hands.

Forgive me if I leave the technical and scholarly analysis of the actual singing (glorious,in my humble opinion)to other reviewers with rather more of a musical education than I've experienced,and just tell you that I found the whole viewing of this year 2000 service a most moving and marvellous experience,despite the fact that I was watching it almost exactly three months out of season.Amongst several highlights for me was the lovely rendition of "In the bleak mid-winter".Naturally it's the Rossetti poem we all know and love,but perhaps the arrangement by Harold Darke (the choir's conductor during the war years) is not the usual one that you,or I are most familiar with.Nevertheless,it's quite gorgeous and I really thought the choir sung as a completely integrated body in this particular carol.Also particularly affecting was the touching rendition of the anonymous (set to music by B.Chilcott) "Shepherd's Carol".There is that lovely line in the second verse "Silence more lovely than music" ,which as a sentiment is completely disproved by the beautifully floated delivery from our talented choristers !

There is a menu option that allows you to cut out all the readings and spoken parts and just listen to the music in sequence,but useful as this is,I think it's a shame to so drastically edit the service as broadcast,and besides the delivery of the various college and city representatives are attractively earnest and sincere.One big surprise was the appearance of the renowned singer Robert Tear (himself a former choral scholar at King's and now Honorary Fellow) who read (most effectively) a poem by William Drummond.

The two superb bonus items on this DVD are the fascinating "time-capsule", first ever TV broadcast of the service from 1954 when Boris Ord was Director of music.The sound is understandably a bit "care-worn" but when the quality of performance is as good as this it doesn't really matter,and your ears soon adjust to the audio soundworld of nearly half a century ago.Amazing to see the iron control that Ord has over the choir and this seems to be a hypnotic rather than physical influence on his part.

The second bonus is a most civilised and charmingly courteous conversation between the three most recent Directors of Music that takes place in the studious and scholarly atmosphere of a room overlooking the college quad.The legendary Sir David Willcocks and the only slightly less legendary Sir Philip Ledger and Stephen Cleobury (Director of the 2000 service) gently reminisce about their respective periods in charge of the choir.I found it fascinating to listen in on their shared anecdotes and it really gave me some good insights on the pleasures,pitfalls and profound pride that is involved in running such a national choral treasure.

I can wholeheartedly recommend and endorse this Christmas "cracker" of a DVD to you,and quite honestly,if it has the effect of putting me in the festive mood on September the 25th;then just imagine what it will do for you on the day itself !

I normally wouldn't even write a review. Someone has done a fine job of that but I noticed two things - the gentleman didn't have surround sound and also was involved in the broadcast of this in some way in the past. So, I thought that some people might be hesitant to purchase based on those issues.

Please, if you want to hear something glorious do yourself a favor and purchase this DVD! Somehow they not only captured the terrific voices, the grand organ but they also were able to intelligently capture the reverberations off of the stone walls. You will believe that you have a ticket to the actual performance.

Caveats: The audio options are DTS 5.1 recording and 2.0 PCM Stereo. The 2.0 stereo is quite good but the DTS option is the only way to fly. So if you don't have DTS decoding you might want to pass - until you get it.

(...) Naxos of America is distributing this in the U.S. (originally a BBC/Opus Arte production). (...) This is a pity as the time to market this title was two months ago. I've also seen this listed as Chorus from King's (1954). This does this DVD a disservice as it would appear to be just some old recording made into a DVD. (...)

The choir is best known for its annual radio broadcast of "A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols" which began in 1929 and has been heard on public radio stations in the USA since 1979.

Quite frequently, BBC Television have recorded a holiday program which is like Nine Lessons and Carols but is not "it." "It" is the live radio broadcast. Full stop. This recording is of the television program.

The 1954 recording will be of interest to King's fanatics and choral directors who will enjoy the leisurely tempi of Boris Ord, the director of music in that day. And the conversation will be of interest mainly to the hardiest fans of King's and its choir and musical leadership.

The glory of this DVD is the carol service with readings from the recorded-for-television program in 2000 which is given a sumptuous visual treatment with audio to match, and a wide ranging array of Christmas music from the very well known to the ought-to-be-very well known.

I have never seen the chapel and choir shown as magnificently as it is here. This DVD is the very closest thing to being in the chapel as the afternoon light fades to blackness, and this choir of sixteen boys and fourteen men, carries your spirit into places you can only imagine.

(I produced the original Christmas Eve radio broadcast in the USA over two decades ago, so I have been to the chapel and heard the choir often over the last twenty-five years. This is a "must have" recording, and if you don't have a DVD player, then this recording alone should be the strongest encouragement to do so.)

Surround sound is included, and based on a couple of hearings, I guess I'm going to have to invest in that new technology to hear the remarkable acoustic of King's Chapel even more wonderfully than it already is in stereo.

[Update as of 2/26/02: A "[...] colleague" encouraged me to upgrade to surround sound, and needing no more excuse than that, I have, and can report that the result produces in me the same emotional effect that being in the chapel for Evensong does. It just takes my breath away.]

A remarkable accomplishment in terms of program, images, and sound. In a word, "awesome," but in the original sense of that word.

And what happens after high school? Well, you start making decisions more-or-less on your own that will affect the entire future course of your life. It's scary and one is tempted to duck out... but the decisions have to be made.

What college? What major? College at all? Go to a college that looks good on a resume, or one that actually fits your own needs or desires? And many others.

Daria is stuck choosing between two schools -- the prestigious Ivy League-ish school that boyfriend Tom's family almost owns and which he will certainly be attending, and which Tom will attend, or the rather less prestigious school that her parents attended.

Jane is panicking; she had intended to attend Boston Fin Arts College, but now she's beginning to have second thoughts; essentially, beginning to doubt whether she's good enough.

And so on.

For what is apparently the last hurrah of the series, we see the characters all being gloriously themselves; one of the first things Daria says as she and Jane share a pizza is "I wanted some sisterhood, just so long as it didn't involve my actual sister."

Daria's acceptance speech as she receives a surprise award at graduation is a masterpiece of anome and sardonicism, summing up neatly some of the core concepts of the series.

Daria, as a character, resonates deeply with many viewers, of course -- all too many of us barely survived high school intact (sometimes even in physical terms), and the loner who ignores or even actively disdains the values and enthusiasms of the majority and suffers for it is a classic archetype (or stereotype, depending on what you think of the character).

Daria, of course, is the uninvolved sardonic onlooker carried to the extreme -- so far, sometimes, that she herself becomes the butt of the joke.

This is probably not the place to begin with Daria; too many of the situations in this film depend on knowledge of the characters and of what has gone before -- but for the experienced Daria viewer, or for the newbie willing to take certain things as givens, it's a fitting farewell to the characters and milieu of the series.

(A follow-on of Daria and Company in college/later life might be fun. Or, of course, it might be a disaster...)

Included are two episodes of the MTV series, "Lucky Strike", in which the teachers go on strike and Daria winds up substitute teaching, and "Boxing Daria", which was the final episode of the last season on MTV, and which examines Daria's relations with her parents and looks back to her childhood to give us a slightly different take on the givens of the sereis.

((Also included is an easter egg featuring an early Daria appearance on "Beavis and Butthead" (she is the cousin of one of them) -- but, since it's "Beavis and Buttheead", i'm not going to tell you how to find it...))

There is one particular scene in COLLEGE that is quite outdated (and which some will find offensive) where Keaton's character is dressed in blck paint. Be forewarned and take it for what it is.

Once the company gets your credit card number, they put you on an automatic mailing list. You start receiving more of their collection, and the box has no invoice, just the tape. If this happens to you, look carefully at your next credit card bill. You may have gotten the first one at a bargain price via those seductive TV ads, but they charge full price for each of those.

You also have to research the web site on the box to find return information. If you don't do it within 30 days, you're sunk. When you do call to cancel, you get a hard sell to buy more products, and you have to insist to get taken off the list.

It's too bad this business practice leaves such a bad taste in your mouth, as the product is pretty good. So enjoy, but be careful.

I was a little disappoined with The Big Broadcast of 1938. The only really funny bits in the film are the W.C. Fields scenes. Ben Blue comes off as annoying in this film and Hope just doesn't seem to have a chance to show off his talents. There are some musical numbers that seem to make things drag. Overall, it looks like a very hastily put-together mish-mash of unrelated scenes.

The W.C. Fields golf scene is one of the funniest I've ever seen.

It just doesn't get any better than this guys -- YOU WILL LOVE EVERY SEX-CRAZED MINUTE!! These young, gorgeous, hard-bodied college girls get OUT-OF-CONTROL! Each of these sexy co-eds are HOT HOT HOT, totally REAL -- not models or actresses faking it! -- and caught on tape taking it ALL off & doing things you always WISH the girl next door would show you.

I'm never getting suckered into buying another boring Girls Gone Wild video ever again!!!

It was non-stop in your face heaven from start to finish -- This is a video you will watch OVER & OVER again!

My only complaint: Why can't there more videos out there like this one!?!?!?! 5 out of 5 stars