Narbonne: The Second Rome
More than 2.000 years ago, Narbonne in today's Département Aude was the capital of a huge Roman province in Southern Gaul - Gallia Narbonensis. It was the second most important Roman port in the western Mediterranean and the town was one of the most important commercial hubs between the colonies and the Roman Empire, thus the town could boast a size rivaling that of the city that had established it: Rome itself. Paradoxically, the town that distinguished itself for its impressive architecture, today shows no more signs of it: neither temples, arenas, nor theaters. Far less significant Roman towns like Nîmes or Arles are full of ancient sites. Narbonne today is a tranquil town in Occitania
The Rise and Fall of the Etruscans
For eight centuries, between the 9th and 1st century BC, the Etruscans, inhabitants of the Italian peninsula, were one of the most powerful peoples of the Mediterranean basin, and when they disappeared they left behind impressive necropolises, vestiges of sanctuaries and even entire cities. How did they attain such power? How far did they extend their dominion and influence? What were the causes of their decline?
Power and Paranoia of the Third Reich
The Country and Science
The Voronezh Nuclear Power Plant reactor; Novgorod’s archaeological excavations. Archaeologist Boris Rybakov on importance of historical science. Lenin’s Materialism & Empirio-Criticism. The first university dept of natural compound chemistry in the Soviet Union, located in Tashkent, Uzbek SSR. Agriculturalist Pavel Lukyanenko develops winter wheat varieties at Krasnodar Research Institute of Agriculture. French physicist Hubert Curien on USSR–France collaboration in nuclear physics. Foreign members of the USSR Academy of Sciences: Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Niels Bohr; theoretical physicist Igor Tamm on nuclear transformations in planetary & meteoritic matter, study of the Moon in relation to the Earth’s evolution. Dedicated to the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Academy of Sciences. Archival film, photographs, manuscripts, books, interviews from Academy members, explore its role in the development of science, economics, and its prominent figures throughout its history…
Prince Consorts: In the Shadow of the Crown
No profession, no say, no freedom of expression. Life as a prince consort is not exactly pleasure taxing. No constitution ascribes any function to the husband of a queen. Nowhere does it say what he must or must not do. A life in the shadow of the crown. Can that go well?
Les Grands Rivaux en musique - Schönberg vs Stravinsky
A look back at the violent conflict between the two leading figures of musical modernity, Arnold Schönberg and Igor Stravinsky, in the first decades of the 20th century. Although Arnold Schönberg and Igor Stravinsky both had a decisive influence on the fourth art, their creations remained diametrically opposed. While the Austrian developed the dodecaphonic method, placing the twelve notes of the chromatic scale at the heart of the composition technique to the detriment of tonality, his Russian rival based his practice on stylistic eclecticism. Their supporters formed two opposing camps, and the two composers - one the father of the Second Viennese School, the other of Neoclassicism - became, in the wake of their successes, the figureheads of a conflict that marked the history of music by its duration and intensity.