|
John Calvin (DVD)Christmas with CalvinJOHN CALVIN (DVD) This DVD is produced for private use only and is a good introduction to John Calvin. It would make an ideal Christmas gift. The programme is in three parts : Introduction, The Institutes, and Calvin's Influence. The whole is well put together with some 11 commentators — Gordon Fulton, Iain D. Campbell, Richard Doherty, Chris Richards, Ivan Foster, Christian Adjemani, Alan Cairns, Robert McCallum, David McKay, Isabelle Graeselle (International Museum of the Reformation) and Sinclar Horne. One cannot help but feel that it might have been better if a David Starkey or Simon Schama-type narrator had conducted us through the material and the various locations of the film. The quality of the photograhpy and filming is excellent, though some more detail could have been given about Geneva itself and the other places of historical interest. Various sculptures of Calvin, engravings of him and of places, along with paintings and texts, are shown but with no comments on them. The beautiful rural scenes of ponds, sunflowers, woods, bluebells and sparrows bathing in a fountain, though enjoyable in themselves, add nothing to the content of the theme. The organ music and background singing (of Psalms) are by the Reformed Presbyterian North Presbytery Choir. However, Mr. McClelland and his key presenter have done a very good job in using all the commentators successfully without breaking the flow of the narrative in any way. There is a lot of potential in this type of production. How enjoyable and instructive would be an audio-visual presentation of something like the Travels with... series published as booklets by Day One Publications. I will certainly watch it again.David J. Ellis, © Evangelicals Now - January 2010 |