Word: ennui
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Middle-class ennui in a faltering social system is certainly an acceptable subject for a film, and even an imperfect treatment is far better than another commercial exploitation of the revolution. The subject, though, is too vague and ill-defined to be reduced to the microcosm of three lives. In his rambling, understated style, Cassavetes does stumble on moments of revelation-Archie not knowing what to say to his whore, Harry drinking tea in his London illusion, Gus coming home to his crying daughter. But he tries to make a great work out of understatement and understatement resists greatness...
...resembles the buddy-buddy army of Hollywood's World War II. There is jovial scowling at work details, the obligatory lunchroom ogling of a big-bosomed French wench. There is no mention of union work or political organizing. There is little manager-inspired tension, or sense of monotony and ennui in the work processes...
...Karel Čapek, it deals with a 342-year-old woman who calls herself Emilia Marty. She has not aged much physically, but she has seen, heard and had just about everything and everybody. Longevity has drained away all feeling and left only a beautiful monster of ice and ennui. "There is no joy in goodness, no joy in evil," she says. "When you know that, your soul dies within you." Nevertheless, she is still human enough to be terrified of death, and the opera observes her ruthlessly searching and seducing her way toward a document that holds the prescription...
...still undecided. To Nixon, this uncertainty -some call it apathy-represents opportunity. With the Democrats lacking national leadership, the President is able to define issues as the G.O.P. would have them, and with little contradiction. He monopolizes news-media coverage. He injects excitement into state contests that have evoked ennui. Hence the President will have covered at least 22 states in the campaign's final 21 days. Last week he sent Pat to Michigan, Minnesota, Florida and Nevada; Spiro Agnew continued to sweep across the country juggernaut-style, scourging radic-libs (see ESSAY...
...definition, a bore is someone whose presence or persistence creates in others a galloping case of ennui, an urge to hide in the nearest closet, a yearning to down another martini. The ranks of the world's bores are not limited by hierarchy or elitism: they include both the heroes of the minute, beaming amiably across the tube, as well as the inglorious Miltons who prattle on about stamp collecting. Institutions can be boring, like the Organization of American States, and so can events. Is it possible for even the most politicized Italian to care any more about those...