Word: ennui
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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IVANOV is the first of the Chekhovian unheroic heroes, who fall not from grace to sin but from enthusiasm to ennui, who do not so much lose their souls as their spirit. John Gielgud's listless acting and direction unfortunately seem infected with a similar malaise...
...vegetarian and assorted rebellious Haitians. These people do have a purpose in life, and I guess we are supposed to notice how much richer their lives are even though their projects fail. But this obvious meaning sticks in our throats. Greene has so infused his narrator's personality with ennui and detachment that we cannot imagine his caring about anything under any circumstances, with any upbringing. And the people who are committed are all such pitiful, blundering fools that we almost prefer the narrator to them. Perhaps their lives have more meaning, but when forced to compare their world views...
...theater settled for the old teacup comedies, some Eliot and Rattigan works and some stunning performances of the classics by Guinness, Olivier and Gielgud. Taken singly, the plays that London offered were often first-rate achievements by first-rate actors and directors. Taken together, there was something missing, an ennui in the audience and on the stage itself. "Apart from revivals and imports," complained Critic Kenneth Tynan in 1954, "there is nothing in the London theater that one dares discuss with an intelligent man for five minutes." Looking back, Director Peter Brook says that "the role of the theater based...
...Manned Spacecraft Center as Astronauts Frank Borman and James Lovell monotonously orbited the earth last week. By week's end, as Gemini 7 completed its seventh uneventful day in space, the flight had indeed escaped the spine-tingling crises that enlivened-and plagued-earlier shots. But the ennui in Houston and elsewhere in the U.S. was a high accolade. It demonstrated that flawless performance has become commonplace, that near-perfect timing, preparation and execution of Gemini flights have become routine...
Throughout Europe, both within the Common Market and outside it, a sort of ennui and despair has settled over the economic tasks that remain to be accomplished. Items...