Word: devoide
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...none since the death of Thomas Gainsborough a century before, and Sargent, with his tremendous fluency and genuine empathy for the social levels of his sitters, filled the gap to perfection. He had no interest in politics past or present, was completely without class resentment and seemed to be devoid of irony. As a biographer who knew him pointed out, "He would have been puzzled to answer if he had been asked how nine-tenths of the population lived; he would have been dumbfounded if asked how they were governed...
...ways of primitive societies, she found evidence to support her strong belief that cultural conditioning, not genetics, molded human behavior. That theme was struck most forcefully in Mead's 1928 classic, Coming of Age in Samoa. It described an idyllic pre-industrial society, free of sexual restraint and devoid of violence, guilt and anger. Her portrait of free-loving primitives shocked contemporaries and inspired generations of college students--especially during the 1960s sexual revolution. But it may have been too good to be true. While few question Mead's brilliance or integrity, subsequent research showed that Samoan society...
...sought to pry into the great DiMaggio. It may be that there was little to pry into, but I think, rather, there was a tacit consensus that his life was too important, too elevated, to mess with. It was what a life should be: private, accomplished, well-mannered and devoid of envy, gossip and whining. As an emblem of nobility, indeed of secular religion, he could be most useful to others if let alone...
...native of the New Jersey suburbs, Gandolfini, 37, was a latecomer to acting, but in the nine years since he committed himself to it, he has managed to deliver intensely layered performances that are devoid of the promiscuous emoting and, seemingly, of the cerebral prep work that can make more experienced actors' work--Al Pacino's in the '90s, say--less than what it should be. As Tony, Gandolfini is masterly at conveying the simmering rage beneath his character's humanity. He brings all the right sweaty fidgetiness to a man whose life demands that he take his daughter...
Fernando Montenegro, Central Station: Montenegro's performance is not unlike Susan Sarandon's winning performance a few years ago in Dead Man Walking-devoid of vanity, but completely absorbing. Too bad she doesn't have a shot in hell. She's foreign (the nomination is her prize), and the movie is too small. She'll be quashed...