Civilisation Quotes

Narrator: [on the Abbot Suger] He said, "The dull mind rises to truth through that which is material". Well, this was really a revolutionary concept in the Middle Ages. It was the intellectual background of all the sublime works of art of the next century and in fact has remained the basis of our belief in the value of art until today.

Movie: Civilisation
Narrator: And later Baroque artists, like Bernini, delighted in the emotive close-up, the tears and open lips and restless movement - all those devices that were to be rediscovered in the movies. The extraordinary thing is that Baroque artists did it in bronze and marble, and not on celluloid. Of course, in a way, it's a frivolous comparison, because however much one admires the films, one must admit that they are often vulgar, always ephemeral, whereas the work of Bernini is ideal and eternal.

Movie: Civilisation