5 comments about Biography - Queen Noor: Between Two Realms.

1. I thought this was an excellent compilation of information on Queen Noor and King Hussein. It was candid (Queen Noor talks about her father's idealistic views and the pressure to live up to them and the video also makes reference to a period of strife in the couple's marriage). The interviews with Queen Noor, friends and observers are enlightening. All in all, it is a very well done production, lending credible insight into the lives of this royal couple. It is invaluable to those who wish to know more about a fairly low-profile family in Jordan and how they lived and coped with all that came their way. Like many who saw her as a distinctly privileged person, I came away with greater understanding of how hard she has worked to be a credible influence in her adopted country on the lives of women and children, in particular, and the economic status of Jordan. It was not easy. She, as most ground-breakers are was lonely and challenged. Yet she persevered. I highly recommend this video to those who want to know more about Jordan, the reign of Queen Noor and King Hussein, as well as those who enjoy and value the stories of real people who encounter change and obstacles and face them head on. I highly recommend this video.



2. A fascinating story of an American woman who became the Queen of Jordan.

   The former Lisa Halaby is certainly a worthy role model for women every where.

   Highly recommend!




3. Due to recent events, the media of the world, especially in the states has painted a very dark view of the Mid-East. This videos reminds us that this region of the world is very exotic and intriguing. HM Queen Noor, freely emerged herself into the Jordanian culture and yet has never turned her back on America. She is a brilliant example of humanity and compassion.



4. This is a great video, it could be longer and have more info. on the Queen. But, it's a great biography episode to watch. If you want to know more about her majesty get this video and her audio-bio "Leap of Faith": memoirs of an unexpected life.



5. This is an 50 minute A & E production, part of their award-winning "Biography" series chronicling the life of Lisa Halaby, the beautiful 27 year old American who married King Hussein of Jordan in the late '70's. It's the romantic true story of the woman who was to become Queen Noor, the "Light of Hussein."
   
   Positives: This is the usual well constructed presentation that A & E is known for. Nothing speculative or fabricated, just the basic facts with lots of reviews with the Halaby family and old school friends.
   
   Negatives: All of the footage of Lisa's childhood and college years are still photos. I would have liked to have seen some film footage, but if none exists there's nothing you can do about that. More importantly, I really would've enjoyed seeing some on camera interviews with members of the royal family other than Queen Noor, particularily at least one or two of her eight step-children.
   
   All in all a worthwhile watch, specially if you're a big Queen Noor fan like I am.

1 comments about Biography: Burt Reynolds - Downfall.

1. The life and times of the reknowned TV-movie actor Burt Reynolds is superbly shown on this A&E Biography.Burt,we all love you!!

2 comments about Biography: Steve Rubell - Lord of the.

1. In the 70's, i was too young to be in the Studio54 and meet Steve Rubell.
   Now, i can say that Steve has been certainly one of the famous stars the nightlife will allways need.
   Take a look at this video and you'll see how impressive was the man with the eternal smile.
   Enjoy !
   Only one regrets : no more interviews of Steve...



2. This biography is a 'must have' for anyone that is fascinated with or still loves the disco era. There will never be another Studio 54 although many have tried. It was all because of Steve Rubell who was a genius at creating the perfect disco. This biography tells the story of Steve Rubell, how he created Studio 54 and how his ego landed him in jail. It even has a few behind-the-scenes photos showing the club while it was still under construction. The only problem with this disc is it's too short. I wish it was 3 hours long!

2 comments about Biography - Lucrezia Borgia - Pretty Poison.

1. I haven't actually seen it but hell, any movie called Pretty Poison with Lucrezia Borgia must be good, Right? I give it 5 stars. Now where's my 50 bucks.



2. A product of the Italian Renaissance, Lucrezia Borgia's name has been synonymous with evil for over half a millennium, but this video reveals little truth to the scandalous stories associated with her name. She was certainly an unusual woman, the illegitimate daughter of the man who, when Lucrezia was 11, became Pope Alexander VI. Actually, I learned as much about late 15th century Italy as I did Lucrezia Borgia in this documentary. It is hard to imagine a Roman Catholic cardinal with three illegitimate children becoming pope, but of course the history of the papacy throughout the Middle Ages is less than sterling. Borgia deeply loved her father, and he loved her. It didn't stop him from using her as a pawn in his own political manipulations for power, however. She was to be married, in fact, at age 11, but her father's plans changed when he became the pope. At age 13, she did become a bride, but the marriage was doomed from the start. I was shocked to learn that the pope, like many fathers of brides in that era, attended the wedding night ceremonies (behind a sheet) to make sure that the marriage was consummated. This becomes quite ironic given the fact that Lucrezia's father soon had the marriage annulled. This move was the impetus of the gossip and scandal that would hang over Lucrezia forevermore, as her first husband responded angrily and accused his wife of having an incestuous relationship with her father. The pope's enemies took up these charges and added new ones: by age 16, Lucrezia was supposedly a depraved young woman who poisoned her enemies with arsenic, even bearing a special ring equipped with a tiny needle for subtly delivering the poison.

   Lucrezia's life went from bad to worse when one of her brothers was killed; the murder was never solved, but another brother, Cesare, was suspected of the crime. At 16, Lucrezia was married to a son of the king of Naples (another politically motivated marriage); this immediately became a true love affair that produced a child but ended rather quickly when an assassin murdered her husband (again, suspicion fell on her brother Cesare). A third marriage was arranged soon thereafter, and Lucrezia was forced to leave her son behind and move a considerable distance away from Rome to live with a family that shunned and disliked her. She had a platonic love affair with a poet but eventually found happiness with her husband, dying during the birth of the couple's sixth child. She was greatly mourned by her husband and the people of the area.

   According to this video, there is basically no truth behind any of the awful scandals and accusations that have tainted the name of Lucrezia Borgia all these many years; the historians interviewed here identify her as an extraordinarily unfortunate but by no means an evil woman. Unfortunately, the documentary does not cover as much material as it could have. The dark deeds committed by her brother Cesare and the lascivious nature of her father, Pope Alexander VI, are not explored in detail, there is no mention of charges that Lucrezia had incestuous relationships with two of her brothers, and not a hint is dropped about a rumored pregnancy during Lucrezia's time in a convent after the end of her first marriage (of course, there seems to be little truth to the charges of incest and early pregnancy). Frankly, from what I saw here, I cannot understand why this woman has been treated with such malevolence over the years; any search for evil in the Borgia family should focus on her brother Cesare and, to some degree, her father, Pope Alexander VI. It is a credit to Lucrezia that she remained loyal to family members who used and abused her for their own selfish reasons. With so much information left unexplored, this interesting look at the life of one of history's most maligned women seems, in the end, to be a little less than definitive.

No comments about Biography: Halston.

1 comments about Biography - Marconi.

1. Today we take for granted the pictures on our televisions, the music we hear from our radioes and the information we receive over our wireless phones and computers. We are able to enjoy these miracles of technology because of one man; Guglielmo Marconi, the Father of Wireless.

   Biography delves into the life of this man who was determined to be the master of the airwaves. Uneducated by our standards, this driven man defied the scientific skeptics of his day and challenged the monopoly of the cable companies. He succeeded in conquering one and staying in constant battle with the other.

   Guglielmo Marconi was an obsessed man and was determined to succeed. In his myopic quest for his dream he paid a heavy price in his personal life but opened the vast doors of communication to the world. In viewing this film you see Marconi's world unfolded through interviews with his daughter, a grandson and one of his workers. Old film clips show you the failures and triumphs of him bringing his new technology into the 20th Centuring. You see a man disparaged by his father, indulged by his mother and later praised by the world.

   A remarkable life such is this shows how determination and a clear focus can drive one to the top. It also shows the misguided foibles of the man who ended up destroying his family and succumbing to facist politics merely to gain glory. This enjoyable film will unfold for you a great pioneer in physics to whom we owe a great debt.

2 comments about Biography - H.G. Wells.

1. H.G. Wells is still well-known for his science fiction classics (The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, etc.), but I doubt that many people today realize just how famous and influential, not to mention provocatively independent, the man was during his own time. The man's output was incredible, numbering some 160 books on a wealth of topics - in addition to science fiction, he wrote books of political commentary, rather shocking books about the sexual revolution and women's rights, and a very popular and influential account of the history of the world. I actually found out some information I would rather not have known about Wells, one of the writers I most admire, as he lived his life in a manner completely opposite from the mores of the Victorian Age in which he was born.

   The story of Wells' childhood is fascinating. Born in 1866 to a working class family, Wells managed to break away from the roots of poverty, eventually winning a scholarship to attend the university in London. At age 7, nursing a broken leg, he discovered the joy of reading; by age 10, he was writing and illustrating his own novels (only one of which, unfortunately, survives). His mother tried her best to establish him as a draper's apprentice, but Wells despised the job and threatened to kill himself if forced to go back. He married his cousin in 1891, but the marriage was doomed because Isabel was frigid and H.G. Wells was most definitely not. Totally rejecting the Victorian society he found so oppressive, Wells left his wife after two years and began living openly with a fellow rebel, whom he married a couple of years later. His second wife gave her husband free rein to practice the art of womanizing, and Wells would boast a number of famous female companions over the years.

   The Time Machine was published in 1893 and made Wells famous; the bulk of his science fiction classics would be published within the next five years. As the twentieth century dawned, Wells turned his attention to a number of different causes. Fearing the severity of future warfare, such as that of World War I, Wells began writing on the future of man and what he must do in order to survive - this usually involved the establishment of a one-world government. He was hailed for his writings on the conditions of the poorer classes, but he achieved great notoriety for his books on the sexuality of men and women. Wells was quite a wild man on this topic; while he was a strong proponent of women's rights, he also attacked such sacred topics as the nuclear family. The New Woman he envisioned took human shape in the form of Amber Reeves, a 19-year-old girl who soon gave birth to a child of the 50-ish Wells; this was quite the scandal, but Wells, his wife, and Reeves got on famously together.

   After World War I, Wells began to grow disillusioned and bitter; society had not heeded his warnings about global warfare, and his hopes for the League of Nation were quickly dashed, as the doomed institution had little in common with the one-world government he espoused. He desperately wanted to teach people the dangers of nationalism, and this led him to write The Outline of History, a history of the world in 1000 pages. The book, largely forgotten today, stands nevertheless as one of the best-selling books of the century. Wells died in 1946, depressed and disillusioned over the course of world events and the bleak future of mankind.

   This documentary covers all of this information and much more. As hard as it is to cram the extraordinary life of such a man into 45 minutes, A&E Biography does a stellar job of it. I don't approve of many of Wells' social and political views, but his surprisingly libertine lifestyle and socialistic thinking make him a much more fascinating study of subject than most science fiction readers will probably ever realize.




2. Not as in-depth as i would personally prefer. Too much emphasis on The Time Machine.. at the expense of anything personally revealing of H.G. 50 mins not long enough for any lifetime, let alone H.G. Wells.
   I wish more work would have been done on this dvd. Don't waste your money.
   
   The Invisible Man The Life and Liberties of H.G. Wells

No comments about Vol. 4-Hadrian.

1 comments about Biography - Calvin Klein.

1. This facinating Biography tells the story of how Calvin Klein became what he is today, and what he had to go through to get there. His story is an inspiring tale for anyone who ever wonders if hard work can really make dreams come true. Follow Calvin Klein through the ups and downs of his business and personal life, and see how he came out on top. This is a great opportunity to see the man behind the clothes America loves.

No comments about Biography: Dinah Shore - Sealed With a.