Word: gothic
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...their current popularity and lubricity, novel-romances are old, old stories. They began flooding the market in England during the last decades of the 18th century; they were part of the tide that engulfed the certainties of the Enlightenment. Unlike the newly invented gothic tale, which stressed the pleasures of terror, the sentimental romances emphasized the happy sensation of a good cry. They also quickly debased the emerging philosophical notion that feelings were the most reliable guide to truth. If so, reasoned the romancers, then the person with the most flamboyantly acute sensitivities must be better than less hysterical mortals...
...flecked sky. Demonstrators on the gracious lawns of Ottawa's Parliament Hill waved signs protesting a variety of U.S. policies. With all the requisite pomp, pageantry and protest, Ronald Reagan began his first state visit, a trip to America's No. 1 trading partner. Standing before the Gothic tower of Parliament, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau welcomed him: "Our long relationship has been based on more than neighborhood. It has been based on friendship and on a sharing of values." Mixing French and English diplomatically, Reagan responded: "Merci. C'est un plaisir to be here with...
Segovia, to the north of Madrid, seems to have remained firmly rooted in the distant past. Its two principle attractions would probably have inspired Ruskin, Swinburne, or Byron: a Roman aqueduct in working order and the Alcazar, an ancient fortress. Around these lie Gothic churches and Moorish ruins. Segovia includes none of the artificial modernness effected in Madrid or Barcelona: it is simply a small Spanish town in an arid wilderness...
Inside, the Saxon's Gothic architecture and broken seats fit well with a string of trailers slowly parading across the screen. There's good, clean, big-budget fun with The Final Conflict--hopefully, the last of the Omen pictures. The next preview heralds the return of The Texas Chain Saw Massacres, a picture ahead of its time. This trailer's teaser scene shows a raging lunatic perfecting his gasoline talents on a man in a wheelchair--straight down the middle. But that film's creator has a new surprise for us--Funhouse. Opening this week, Funhouse features a deformed killer...
...There were many other novels before that," he confides, "but they ought to be forgotten." He lowers his voice slightly. "They were Gothic novels, lots of mad women in mansions, inspired by Jane Eyre and The Count of Monte Cristo, and set in exotic Haiti." He shudders slightly at the memory...