A Quibble

[poliphilo]

I'm quite liking Robert Bartlett's series on the Normans, but it does annoy me how he- or his director- is muddying the water with anachronism. William I was religious- cue pictures of a late medieval madonna. The harrying of the north was horrific- I know what, we'll shoot a sequence in a Victorian churchyard. William was crowned in Westminster Abbey- just look how pretty that Renaissance choir loft is. And ooh- look- stained glass- and bugger the fact that it hasn't been invented yet.  If the object of the exercise is to give us some idea not only of Norman politics but also of Norman culture then this continual pointing of the camera at unNorman things is downright misleading.

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think the problems are (a) that the budget is risibly small and (b) the director is trying to express himself.

I'm in it mainly for the art and architecture, but I learned some stuff about the Normans in Ireland and Scotland that I didn't know before.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Ditto, with regards to the Irish. I knew about Earl David, who introduced burghs and town planning to Scotland, but I never knew that Margaret was related to Anglo-Saxon royalty!

Must go visit Dunfermline again some time. It's a classy building.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I was in Dunfermline Abbey a couple of years back. It's my favourite building in Scotland.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I'd say Linlithgow Palace has the edge - just!! But then I'm biased towards James IV...