University of Virginia Library

A-School Purchases Film Series;
All Showings Open To Public

The film series, "Civilisation" has been
purchased by the University School of
Architecture and will be shown to the
public beginning October 5.

A series of 13 films, "Civilisation" is a
personal view of the ideas and events of
the last 1,600 years as pictured in
painting, sculpture, architecture, music
and philosophy.

Produced by the British Broadcasting
Corporation, the films were written and
narrated by Kenneth Clark, Lord Clark of
Saltwood. Focusing on the University's
founder, Thomas Jefferson, a portion of
one film was made at the University and
at Monticello.

Universal Man

Sir Kenneth describes Mr. Jefferson as
"the typical universal man of the 18th
century."

The University, says Sir Kenneth, "is full of
his character... There are 10 pavilions for 10
professors, and between them, behind a
colonnade, the rooms of the students, all within
reach, and yet all individual: the ideal of
corporate humanism."

He calls Monticello "the beginning of that
simple, almost rustic classicism that stretched
right up the eastern seaboard of America, and
lasted for 100 years, producing a body of
civilised, domestic architecture equal to any in
the world."

Former chairman of the Arts Council of
Great Britain, Director of the National Gallery
in London and chairman of the Independent
Television Authority, Sir Kenneth has written a
number of books and essays including "The
Gothic Revival," "Landscape into Art" and
"Rembrandt and the Italian Renaissance."

First shown in the United States at the
National Gallery of Art in Washington and to
guests of New York University and the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York the
film series was purchased by the University's
architecture school through a grant from the
Powder River Foundation Incorporated. It will
be placed in the permanent architecture library
for use throughout the University.

Free Films

The films, each of which is 52 minutes long,
will be shown free of charge in Wilson Hall
auditorium. Each film will be shown at 4:30, 7,
and 8:30 p.m. on the day it is scheduled.

The series opens October 5 with "The Skin
or Our Teeth." Following will be "The Great
Thaw" on October 19; "Romance and
Reality," November 2; "Man - The Measure of
All Things," November 16; "The Hero as
Artist," November 30, and "Protest and
Communication," December 14.

The series will continue with "Grandeur and
Obedience" on January 4; "The Light of
Experience," January 18; "The Pursuit of
Happiness," February 8; "The Smile of
Reason," February 15; "The Worship of
Nature," March 1; "The Fallacies of Hope,"
March 15, and "Heroic Materialism," March 29.