Word: phryne
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...thing and that books should not be judged by their covers. I wholeheartedly agreed. Goodness that involved moral merit, intelligence and perseverance were productive, but beauty seemed like a perfectly worthless quality. I remember being very puzzled when I browsed through the encyclopedia and came across an article on Phryne, a Greek courtesan from the 4th century B.C. who earned such wealth through her beauty that she offered to rebuild the walls of Thebes on the condition that they should be inscribed, "Destroyed by Alexander, Restored by Phryne the Courtesan." I couldn't understand how she got to share space...
...Candaules were, and which one had the wife whose silky white backside was the real pretext for Gerome's painting in the 1859 Salon. It no longer mattered, at least from the viewpoint of painting, who won the Battle of Gaugamela, or which model was standing in for Phryne and which for Aspasia. In due course, movies like Spartacus and The Ten Commandments would satisfy the need once felt for Bible scenes, Greek agoras and Roman battles. What was left to painting was the here and now, and that was where Impressionism, child of Courbet's realism, came into...
...three senior officers of Fatah, the main faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization, were killed by explosives hidden under the seat of their car and detonated by remote control. Although the P.L.O. denies it, the three were apparently in Limassol to arrange the purchase of the Sol Phryne, a rundown ferryboat that the P.L.O. intended to use for a voyage dramatizing the plight of 130 Palestinians deported by Israel...
...basically a theatrical gesture. But it promised to be an effective public relations ploy and infuriated the Israelis, who vowed to prevent the ship's arrival in Haifa. About 18 hours after the killing of the Fatah trio, a magnetic mine attached below the waterline of the Sol Phryne exploded, causing no injuries but leaving a 3 1/2-ft. by 1 1/2-ft. gash that disabled the vessel and prompted the P.L.O. to postpone el awda indefinitely. Israel officially denied complicity in the car bombing but hardly bothered to conceal its role in disabling the ferry...
...doubt the paradox is pressed too far. Godard does not seriously mean to say that every little phryne is a saint with eyeshadow. He simply means to say, and he says it eloquently, that the pursuit of pleasure may also be a search for the self. The theme is illustrated with utmost art in the portrait of the heroine. Not since Stiller's camera turned to stare at Garbo has a man made such searing love with a lens. Godard's camera never lets the girl out of its sight. It circles her endlessly, kisses her hands, caresses...