Word: metaphoritis
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...feeling good," but that is too simple. The scientific definition would be a "condition in which discomfort has been avoided," but that is too negative. Since Rybczynski is not a scientist but an architect, and a subtly witty analyst of how people live, he prefers to end with a metaphor, "the Onion Theory of Comfort." In this, the slowly evolving attributes of comfort -- privacy, intimacy, domesticity, pleasure, ease, leisure, efficiency, convenience -- form a series of layers, partly transparent so that all can be partly seen at once. And then, "common sense will do the rest...
...cool artsy line-and-shadow shot after another flashes on the screen. Wheatfields stretch into the distance, crooked fences reflect sunlit weeds, the world becomes one large poetic image as French director Agnes Varda transforms one girl's story into a supposedly universal metaphor; life is an aimless wander, meeting people and passing through places until you die. And, believe it or not, the film's beautiful cinematography and Saundrine Bonnaire's quiet naturalness as the girl actually make this work...
...free oneself from convention, and the director's major problem is that she cannot quite decide whether Mona is a person or a symbol. The fact that we learn nearly nothing about her personal history and that she rarely speaks or thinks would indicate that she is a metaphor, not an individual. But occasionally, Varda strays from her reservedly elegant direction and portrays Mona in human-dilemma situations. These are often very moving in themselves. For example, just as Mona begins to develop a believable emotional relationship with a man, his friends return and make her leave...
...cannot serve as a cautionary tale about today's athletes, Playwright Lawrence Kelly's vision is at least a compelling metaphor for the way decent people in all walks of life slip into dishonesty. Kelly's perception is that the Black Sox did not cheat as individuals. They did so, following the basic tenet of their sport, as a team. Money may have been the bait but loyalty and comradeship were the motives that persuaded them, some with great reluctance, to betray their talents. As Chick Gandil (Paul Christie), the sour ringleader of the scam, remarks in an aside, people...
...gruesome murder, with details of the victim and perpetrator withheld. It soon develops that both must be part of the triangle, but Brett defines his characters so that any combination of killer and prey seems possible. That is a neat trick, but it is also a persuasive metaphor for Brett's underlying theme: that most of mankind is tortured by dark impulses and that chance plays a major role in determining which people actually commit crimes...