Word: iambic
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...with Foer, whose novel uses an array of unusual visual and literary devices to convey the characters’ fragmentation, Potter’s film is not a straightforward storytelling expereince. Most startlingly, all the dialogue is in iambic pentameter...
Just as a Shakespearean actor can make iambic pentameter sound natural, so McShane brings Milch's profane yet lofty dialogue to life. And he makes Swearengen the embodiment of the feral, vital greed that fueled a nation's growth. His character is loathsome but, McShane notes, also "the galvanizing force behind what the camp would become--a legitimate place for people to live." Civilization may be closing in on Al Swearengen's mining town, but his rich character offers Ian McShane plenty of gold yet to strike. --Reported by Jeanne McDowell/Los Angeles
JANUARY. Ken wins sixth million. Begins to show signs of boredom. Plays a game standing on his head; another blindfolded; another in which he phrases his responses in iambic pentameter; another in which he refuses to give any answers that contain the letter e. Loses $16,000 when Final Jeopardy! answer (in the category Long Words Having to Do with Money) turns out to be eleemosynary; still wins. Ratings increase...
...which is vulgar but well crafted, even oddly formal. ("If you're going to murder me, I'd appreciate a quick dying. And not getting et by the pigs. In case there is resurrection of the flesh.") As with NYPD Blue's mannered police slanguage--or, for that matter, iambic pentameter--no human speaks this way. But the writing does what good dialogue should, which is firmly establish its own world and its own logic...
...like Beauty and the Beast have put fannies in the seats and songs on the Top 40. And lately, even the cartoons are doing without a lot of new songs. Today the notion of people opening their mouths to sing their hearts out is as anachronistic as speaking in iambic pentameter...