Word: dourness
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...holds in the secret places of his heart starched cuffs and high collars, a company with "transcontinental" in its name, pince-nez, muttonchops, and dourvisaged exclamations like "There are laws against that sort of behavior, sirrah." The trouble with America today is that there are too few men with dour visages who exclaim "sirrah" and too many who skip, leak, jam, run out quickly and can be replaced for 69¢. Robert E.L. Richards Westfield...
...bravura. "I love you," murmurs David Blakely (Rupert Everett), a spoiled, sodden rich boy with a passion for racing cars and a taste for tarts. "Everybody does," Ruth shrugs. "Why should you be different?" An older man, Desmond Cussen (Ian Holm), is Ruth's pal and protector, the one dour celibate in this tatty Sodom. Des is used to being used by Ruth; it is his way of feeling needed. He has the patience for her; David has the hots. Together, these qualities might make a decent lover. Opposed, they tear Ruth apart...
Obviously the Disney people hoped to accomplish a similar sort of generic revivification for younger children with One Magic Christmas, which is about a little girl's attempt to get her dour mom (Mary Steenburgen) into the holiday spirit. The child is given a guardian angel and Santa Claus as helpers, but the script lacks a clear narrative line, the supporting cast is woefully weak, and Director Borsos' touch is too heavy for the light fantastic. --By Richard Schickel
Like their English-speaking compatriots, the Afrikaners share an unresolved dilemma: how to prepare their country for the future. The Afrikaners in particular are frozen in a time frame by their dour Calvinist faith and their history. Immigrants who first arrived from Europe almost 350 years ago, they are most conscious of the fact that, unlike the former colonialists of the Gold Coast or Mozambique, they have no place to go back to. Out of hand they reject all talk of one man, one vote, maintaining that it would be "one man, one vote, one time," and then black tyranny...
It’s not quite Nietzche, but it has a similar dour finality that may at first strike the viewer as overblown. After watching Mondovino, however, audiences may well find themselves as passionate about the high-stakes game of winemaking as Guibert...