Word: curios
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Judith Hearne took up permanent residence in the literary world's case load in 1955 when Novelist Brian Moore anatomized her "lonely passion." In Peter Nelson's screenplay, however, she is more a curio than a figure of powerful emotional relevance. This classic spinster (to whose portrayal Maggie Smith brings all the right moves but nothing very individual) is a Dublin piano teacher. Naturally she drinks a bit. Sometimes she drinks a lot. Her timorous gentility suggests to her landlady's brother (Bob Hoskins, with some of his spark plugs missing) the possibilities of untapped wealth -- enough of it, anyway...
...past woe. Viola (Elizabeth McGovern) has lost her twin brother in a tempest at sea, and assuming him dead, disguises herself in his clothing to pay tribute to his memory. This causes her considerable discomfort, however, since she is forced to hide her love for her "fellow" friend Curio (James Bodge). Add to this Curio's lover Olivia (Margaret Reed) falling unwittingly head over heels for McGovern, and you have the makings of a maze that keeps both actors and audience in a perpetual state of dizzy motion...
...certainly no lack of African and Oceanic tribal art on public view. There was also plenty to be bought-though much of it, including some of the masks and figures that influenced Derain, Matisse and Picasso, was poor stuff made, even then, in Africa for the souvenir-and-curio market...
...Avid curio seekers have always flocked to Government auctions. Selling everything from Army canteens to abandoned lighthouses, the General Services Administration offered myriad bizarre bargains. Increasingly, however, the GSA has turned to fancy real estate brokering. Starting Oct. 22, the GSA will hold a series of auctions in Florida to dispose of prime property that once belonged to some of the state's most self-indulgent drug kingpins; estimated value: over $6 million...
This seriocomic drama is a relentlessly pumped-up footnote to Stalinist repression. It is a police-state curio dating from 1932. After 18 months of rehearsals, The Suicide was banned by the Moscow censors on the night of its dress rehearsal, and its author, Nikolai Erdman (1902-70), fell into abject disfavor...