Word: plotting
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...with a series of careful character sketches, a rapidly moving plot, and detailed scene descriptions that Donoso's novel moves, sometimes tortorously and awkwardly, as if trying to imitate the horrific lives of the people it portrays. Within Curfew's chapters of machine guns and blood, moreover, Donoso's novel proves that even in an area where police stand on every street corner and seem planted for protection, it is unclear who is the object of their guard. In Donoso's Chile nothing is sacred, no one is safe, and even love perishes in the face of political complications...
...Curfew's plot centers on the wake and funeral of Matilde Neruda, widow of the Nobel Laurate Pablo Neruda, who was also a well known communist and recipient of the Stalin Prize. During the course of the wake, a debate ensues as to whether the widow's last wishes should be granted...
...Curfew's plot skips around, it seems intentional. By making events take on an almost haphazard quality, Donoso shows that to live under a military dictatorship is to learn that death, imprisonment and torture are unregulated and arbitrary things. Though the action is somewhat difficult to follow, the novel itself is intriguing, and one can only hope that Donoso's words will inspire a new generation of Chileans to fight for the freedom and love they deserve...
...same as producing something suitable for Masterpiece Theater. That is what Director Charles Sturridge and Producer Derek Granger are good at. They worked on the TV adaptation of Brideshead Revisited, a novel more in tune with the filmmakers' earnest approach. They are respectful, gently pruning and rearranging Waugh's plot to suit the imperatives of another medium. They have a nice taste in period decor, and they can tap the mannerly acting styles of Judi Dench, Alec Guinness, Anjelica Huston and Pip Torrens...
...Leaphorn, is coping with his wife's death and his impending retirement. But Hillerman's most striking virtue is his evocation of the Southwest: the barren, craggy land and the complex social interactions between whites and Native Americans and among mutually mistrustful Navajo, Hopi and Apache. Here the plot centers on traditionalists who want to preserve ancient burial places, anthropologists and archaeologists who seek to study them, and "pot hunters," who pillage the sites for quick profit. Hillerman offers plenty of surprise and danger. But what lingers is the scenes of digging by moonlight and the diggers' reveries about...