Word: never
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...latest outburst of spy mania, the English may be said to have embarked upon the last stages of the long drawn-out obsequies of the upper classes. Never again, we may be sure, shall we hear any serious suggestion that so-and-so, being a gentleman, may be relied on to tell the truth, be loyal to his country and behave with sexual propriety. The eclipse of the gentleman has happened stage by stage, as did that of the medieval knight at arms, with P.O. Wodehouse playing the part of Cervantes in affectionately revealing the absurdity of knight errantry...
...memoirs and a note from Anthony Eden in his own hand thanking Burgess for being so attentive during a visit to Washington. These would scarcely rate as revolutionary trophies. Philby, the only one of the four I knew at all well, he being my wartime boss at M16, never gave me an impression of having any serious intellectual interests. I regarded him as just an adventurer, who found in Stalin's very ruthlessness something to admire, as his father, St. John Philby, the Arabist, had found in King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia. Anyway, his appalling stutter would have...
...word decadence, whose reality I first encountered in Weimar Germany, and which so easily turned into Hitler's Third Reich. In England they have coincided with the decline of British power and influence in the world, and the transformation of an empire on which the sun never set, into a ramshackle and absurd commonwealth in which it never rises. Whereas our grand fathers found their heroes in empire builders celebrated by Rudyard Kipling, we have had to make do with expertise in espionage celebrated by Ian Fleming and Le Carr...
...rare movie that finds its tone, its focus and its poetry in its very first image. The image: a close-up of an anguished woman, her face surrounded by darkness. The shot is so intimate that the audience at first yearns for some relief. But the relief never really comes. Kramer vs. Kramer is composed almost entirely of actors' faces, of intense passions and of winter light...
...Kramer its lifelike quality by clearing away the artifice that most American film makers use to shape human experience into so-called entertainment. His screenplay strips away unnecessary detail and background from Gorman's novel; his direction concentrates on the characters' feelings above all else. Music is never used to heighten a scene, and the camera moves only when the actors' wanderings force it to do so. Benton's focus is so tight that Kramer shows a far more domestic and grittier view of Manhattan than the Allen and Mazursky films. The cinematographer is Nestor Almendros...