Jules Verne Forum

<jvf@Gilead.org.il>

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 19961997199819992000200120022003200420052006200720082009

Re: Nano

From: Brian Taves <btav~at~loc.gov>
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 18:40:13 -0500 (EST)
To: Garmt de Vries <G.deVries~at~phys.uu.nl>
Cc: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>, Jules Verne Club <Mail~at~Jules-Verne-Club.de>, volker dehs <volker.dehs~at~web.de>, andreas.fehrmann~at~de.abb.com, Dieter Michaelis <DieterMichaelis~at~web.de>, jvg yahoogroup <jvg~at~yahoogroups.com>

Garmt, This must be the A&E Biography show that I skewered in BSJV some
years back. See "Les Récentes émissions documentaires sur Jules Verne à
la télévision." Tr. Jean-Michel Margot. Bulletin de la Société Jules
Verne. No. 125 (1998): 44-52. Olivier Dumas wondered at the time why
review a bad show, but then it has now been so widely broadcast around the
world that the need for a critique has become evident! There was another
US show a couple of years back on The Learning Channel specifically about
20,000 Leagues that was not quite so bad, and at the last NAJVS gathering
Andrew Nash, I believe, had a tape of a new US show that had not generally
been shown yet (perhaps he can bring it again or supply some more
details), which looked to be of higher calibre, although we only saw the
first third or so. But sadly the American shows tend to be so focused on
arresting color or cgi visuals and snippets of interviews accompanied by
narration, and structured around commercial breaks, that possibilities for
any intellectual discourse, such as Nano seems to have been able to offer,
are almost nil. The American tv documentary industry has gone into a
drastic decline in the last dozen years just at the very time, and largely
because of, the commercial needs of a proliferating number of cable
television stations. My compliments to our German friends! Brian

Brian Taves
email: <btav~at~loc.gov>

Disclaimer--All opinions expressed are my own.

On Wed, 26 Feb 2003, Garmt de Vries wrote:

> Dear friends,
>
> Today I (finally) saw the German tv show Nano, featuring the Jules Verne
> Club Berlin (interviews with Andreas and Dieter) and Verne expert Volker
> Dehs in the studio.
>
> I would like to compliment our German friends on this performance. Getting
> so many members together in so little time: good job! Also, I was glad
> with the serious way Verne was discussed. This is the merit of the guests
> as well as of the makers of the program.
>
> Two months ago, there was a documentary on Dutch television (an American
> production, I believe; you may have seen it), that focused completely on
> Verne the SF writer. The speakers: a NASA guy, the writer of Secret
> Adventures of JV, a guy that built a giant ship, and a couple of others.
> The only one who had to say anything reasonable was great-grandson Verne,
> but he didn't manage to take away my disappointment with this show.
>
> This documentary was about 50 minutes long. Compare this with the 10-15
> minutes of the Nano feature, and you will see that more time doesn't mean
> a better program. Quite on the contrary!
>
> In short, a big round of applause for the German Vernians!
>
> One question: what did they mean with the remark about a 'Folge' this
> summer?
>
> All the best,
> Garmt.
Received on Fri 28 Feb 2003 - 01:40:23 IST

JV.Gilead.org.il
Copyright © Zvi Har’El
$Date: 2009/02/01 22:36:11 $$