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Simon Schama’s, Power of Art is a three disc set that explores eight key figures of Western Art. The series is by far the best produced, most insightful, and well told of any art series I have yet to see. Schama is a passionate story-teller, capturing our attention at the beginning of each segment with a dramatic presentation of a particular work by the featured artist. After rousing the viewer’s interest with the premise of a mystery, Schama then takes the viewer back to an earlier time in the artist’s life, eventually tying it in with the original work. Through keen observations, he skillfully weaves the chronicles of both art and artist.

There are several other factors that make this series so compelling. For starters, Schama has chosen a wide variety of artists whose careers collectively span from the Italian Renaissance through the Modern Art era: Disc 1 features Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Rembrandt van Rijn; Disc 2 with Jacques-Louis David, Joseph Mallord William Turner and Vincent Van Gogh; and Disc 3 has Pablo Picasso and Mark Rothko.

The Best Comedies for the Home Collection

“Monty Python and the Holy Grail” is the best comedy ever made. An historical spoof by the British comedy troupe Monty Python, it is not only hysterically funny but is also one of the few movies ever made that puts the Arthurian Legend in it’s proper time-frame. This is probably due to co-director Terry Jones’ fondness for medieval history (his 2004 “Terry Jones’ Medieval Lives” was nominated for an Emmy). I’m sure the rest of the cast would have loved to work with much less mud in more comfortable costumes but that wouldn’t have been proper.

It could have been worse, I suppose. The cast could have been chafed while riding horses across Scotland but the small budget wouldn’t allow it. So, instead, they used “empty halves of coconuts and bang[ed] them together”. This only added to the humorous quality of the movie and, today, “Holy Grail” fans couldn’t imagine the movie without the running coconut jokes.

The year 2009 has gotten off to an undistinguished start as far as offerings on the big screen are concerned. X-Men: Wolverine, the Origin, was okay as far as it went, but it didn’t even begin to match its predecessors. The hope for moviegoers is in the offerings from across the two big ponds from 2008.

The Class. A French offering, this tightly woven tale is about a year in the life of a French high school teacher and his students. This film by Laurent Cantet has already been awarded the Palm d’Or at Cannes. It approaches its subject with a frankness and authenticity that has been missing of late in many American films.

Ponyo on the Cliff. This is an animated feature from Japan, the wellspring of anime movie until Pixar came along to knock the Japanese animators off their pedestal. Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, it is the story of a baby mermaid who runs away from home and the sea and befriends a five-year-old boy who lives on the cliffs near the sea. The cute, big eyed characters (which are a trademark of Japanese animation) might be too much for some, but it is a great movie for kids.