Cheap Great Streets - The Grand Canal with Nathan Lane (Video) Price

Don't expect a traditional tour of Venice's Grand Canal when Nathan Lane is the host, even if it is a PBS effort. Yes, you'll get to join a gondola ride, but you'll also see Lane fail miserably--albeit comically--in his own attempt to row. He brings that same light touch to other aspects of the enormous history of the six-century-old waterway (give or take a few decades). He takes viewers to the Accademia Galleries for a quick peek at work by the masters but contrasts it with a tour of the eclectic modern collection of "kooky" American heiress Peggy Guggenheim. Other behind-the-scenes visits include the studio of the maker of gondola oar supports, a luxury waterfront apartment inhabited by a glassmaking member of one of Italy's old families, and a vineyard inside the cloisters of San Francisco Della Vigna. He throws in an interview probing the environmental cause of the canal's decay, a potshot at Bob Dole, and a grand finale at the pigeon- and tourist-laden Piazza San Marco--making for a swift and informative 56 minutes. --Kimberly Heinrichs

CATEGORY:	Video
THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE:	01 January, 2000
MANUFACTURER:	PBS Home Video
MPAA RATING:	Unrated
FEATURES:	NTSC
TYPE:	Documentary, Movie
MEDIA:	VHS Tape
# OF MEDIA:	1
UPC:	841887002998