The Age of Cosimo

Rossellini's The Age of Cosimo is a four-hour TV production. It is unabashedly educational. I found that the only way that I could watch the film was to schedule it with my weekly TV -- I have certain shows I watch each week (24, Medium, Ghosthunters, The Office, and Thirty Rock). Just putting the DVD in my player at an unscheduled hour -- usually later in the evening -- invariably resulted in my rapt attention for ten minutes, my theoretical but annoyed admiration for another 10 minutes, and, beyond that, pleasant dreams. Scheduled, however, in one hour increments, as the director intended the series to be seen, the picture not only watchable, but also fascinating. Rossellini intends an exploration of the essence of the renaissance and, although the movie, revolves around Cosimo de Medici, generally gravely whispering to his confederates about debts and interest while tugging at his lapels, a wide variety of other characters appear, declaim their poetry or essays, and, after interacting briefly with the great Banker, withdraw to the margins -- we see Alberti, Brunnelleschi and other humanists. In small doses, the picture is optimistic, bracing, and inspirational. The images are beautiful -- indeed, the more stylized the better: there is splendid painted matte shot of the Florence tightly enclosed in its walls in a lush Tuscan valley, a couple peasants plowing in the foreground, that is a ravishing copy of early renaissance pictures in the Tres Riches Heures du Duc du Berry Everyone should see this picture which is a paean to light and intelligence. Even the bad guys are noble and wise: one deposed gonfalonier leaving Florence for exile says that it would be ignoble for him to denounce Fortuna or his misfortune, "since I disregarded my good luck as I was ascending in power as wall, knowing all things are subject to change." Everyone should see this picture -- High School kids should be chained to their desks to watch it -- but, who am I kidding: this is four hours of people in ornate costumes preaching from the pulpit, engaging in closely observed trade activities, debating tariffs and taxes, discussing Arabian accounting techniques and business practices, and arguing about the place of human excellence and achievement in God's world -- who could possibly care about such things...

And listening to Public Radio this morning, before departing for Turkey, I heard something inspiration along the lines of the remark by Gonfalonier quoted above. There was a baseball player nicknamed Bird. He made his way up through the minor leagues to the Major League, was named Rookie of the Year, but, then, got hurt, had a bunch of surgeries, got demoted to the Minor Leagues where he played for a decade again before retiring. He was just killed in a dump truck accident -- I think he was in his mid-fifites. People remarked about how kind and gracious Bird was to little kids and fans during the ten years he spent playing in the Minor Leagues before he retired. When people asked him if he felt bad about ending his career in the Minor Leagues, Bird said: "If it was good enough for me going up, it's certainly good enough for me on the way down."

So who would have thought that the luminous spirit of the Italian renaissance remains alive to this very day.