Word: charm
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Anton Chekhov, is no great shakes. These tales are early Chekhov, written under the name Antosha Chekhonte for sale to various humor magazines. They are merely anecdotes, where character is subordinate to the twist ending (which Chekhov was to chop off in his later, masterful works), deriving their charm from the compassionate tone, the airy, economical descriptions, and the flashes of pain in between chuckles. Neil Simon shatters Chekhov's mood, replacing it only with his shrill Broadway yocks, heavy-handedness, and sentimentality; moreover, the inherent Semitism of his phrasing transforms the peasants of Moscow and St. Petersburg into citizens...
...should mark down this Sunday's showing as a must-see. One screening will quickly dispel all doubts about Bunuel's unswaying commitment to art over politics--although we would be forgiven for getting the wrong impression from such bourgeois-baiting as "Phantome de la Liberte" and "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie." While some of the symbolism gets a bit murky--or worse yet, overdone--"Belle de Jour" does leave the movie-goer speechless the first time around. And if all the above are tree, there's still another reason why campus movie-goers should plan on catching "Belle...
...most enduring characters of European folklore is the gnome, a gnarled night creature who lives for centuries, stands only 6 in. when full grown but is seven times stronger than man. With exhilarating wit and tongue-in-cheek charm, Dutch Physician Wil Huygen and Illustrator Rien Poortvliet put together a mock sociological history of the gnome that is proving to be an astonishing money spinner. Ponderously titled leven en werken van de Kabouter (The Life and Work of the Gnomes) in The Netherlands, the book is a spoof that solemnly reports that, among other things, Mozart's gnome...
...moment under "glamour" and consider all that De Niro-Pacino-Hoffman talk going around as so much well-intentioned rooting interest. The movie star Travolta most clearly calls to mind is Montgomery Clift. Travolta may lack the depth of Cliffs gifts, but he has much the same quicksilver charm. He too can give an audience the sense of immediate but always fragile intimacy, of shared secrets, of private truths known without speaking...
...talent, indeed, was tripping him up in school, distracting him and keeping his grades marginal. He tried to charm and con his teachers with conversation, or, as he puts it now, "I tried to communicate with them on a more adult level." This ploy kept him hanging in, but mostly what he learned to do in high school was dance. At Dwight Morrow High, recalls his schoolmate Jerry Wurms, now working for Travolta's production company and still his closest friend, "we were both taught to dance by the blacks. Somebody in the corridors or outside always had a radio...