Word: manner
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...this point Shaw is explicit. In his preface to the play, he calls Heartbreak House "cultured, leisured Europe before the war." Elsewhere he dodges the issue of what it all means: "How should I know? I am only the author." Shaw subtitled the play "A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes" as homage to Anton Chekhov, whose Three Sisters appeared earlier this semester at the Loeb. The imprint of Chekhov's style is apparent in Shaw's reliance on dialogue, rather than physical action or plot development, to express characterization and the atmosphere of pre-war England...
...Boss Mangan does not evince the "rugged strength" expected of a man whose single-minded business interests threaten to overthrow the existing social order. John instead portrays the kind of character who was kicked around during kindergarten and is only now getting his revenge on humanity. His frenzied, whining manner accords--often hysterically--the Mangan who cannot keep pace with Heartbreak House's ever-changing pretensions. But because his malice barely emerges, John's performance can perhaps best be defined as comic basrelief. Similarly, Peter Ginna is almost endearing as the burglar who not only convinces his captors to release...
...society in microcosm. In the sense that the play portrays a group of people, suspended and enclosed while their world slips away from them. Hearbreak House resembles the works of Anton Chekov. In the play's preface, Shaw expresses the desire to write "a fantasia in the Russian manner." A mixture of mystery and melancholy, Hearbreak House could be described as something of a cross between Agatha Christie and Chekhov...
Viet Nam was thrust into the forefront of most Americans' consciousness last week in a surprising but somehow fitting manner: at the Academy Award presentations witnessed by an estimated 70 million TV viewers in the U.S. So it was movies and television again that brought the war back: the technological media of illusion fancifully reconstructing what was in some ways the most illusory experience in the national history...
This horrific tale is told with marvelous shadowy indirection and delicate lyricism. It is full of enigmatic silences, which create a nice, ironic tension between the film's genteel manner and its really quite ferocious theme. It may be seen as a mature exercise in style by a young director, if for no other reason. In addition, it is the centerpiece, so far, of the revitalized Australian film industry and the first assured work by a director who could gain an international reputation. -Richard Schickel