Word: frisson
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...same way. But that's clearly not the case. Some people enjoy roller coasters; others won't go near them. Some skydive; others can't imagine it. Not only are thrill seekers not put off by risk, but they're drawn to it, seduced by the mortal frisson that would leave many of us cold. "There's an internal thermostat that seems to control this," says risk expert John Adams of University College London. "That set point varies from person to person and circumstance to circumstance...
...successful fashion photographer husband, whose powerful need to make some sort of artistic statement of her own is thwarted by her lack of a subject, something that might mobilize her compassion and engender a style with which to express it. Lionel not only supplies her first inspirational frisson, but also introduces her to the circle of freaks with whom he consorts, thus providing her with the subjects-and the obsession-that would rule his career. The fact that he is covered in fur also provides her with a rebellious cross-reference; her domineering parents were, in fact, famous New York...
WHEN A MYSTERIOUS and beautiful newcomer took her seat at the Valentino show in Paris in March sporting a 20-carat diamond ring on one hand and a 200-carat emerald on the other, her appearance sent a frisson of intrigue through the front-row crowd. Was she a couture client slumming it at the ready-to-wear shows...
...summer began, for me, at the Cannes Film Festival, where I was granted a partial view seat for The DaVinci Code. I saw enough of it to be mystified at the failure of the estimable Tom Hanks and the enigmatic Audrey Tatou to generate the slightest romantic frisson (pardon my French) as they darted around Europe on their anti-clerical rounds. It ended, for me, with The Illusionist, a rather handsome gaslit period piece in which I failed to understand what Edward Norton saw in the blandly beautiful Jessica Biel, even though I did like his magic tricks...
Here's a play that needs no introduction. Or, rather, shouldn't have one, because to say too much could spoil the frisson of Conor McPherson's odd, unsettling drama with supernatural overtones. In contemporary Dublin, a man (Oliver Platt) who thinks he has seen the ghost of his dead wife seeks the help of a therapist (Brían F. O'Byrne) who has his own problems. In a series of simple, two-character scenes, we learn more about the sadly self-involved lives of each, before McPherson abruptly sends us out into the night, gasping...