Word: prates
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...this vacuum of affections, the film is played out in what amounts to musical form. Other directors may prate of their McLuhanesque approaches to movies. Bergman has quietly composed nonlinear work for more than two decades. The Passion is like a string quartet in which four master players reciprocally sound enigmatic variations on a theme. Nature evaporates into images and dreams; the irrational becomes the true ruler of the universe; in graphic scenes, eros and death are exposed like lovers caught in flagrante...
...Guys and Dolls. Major Barbara is a vehicle for a social philosophy: "the Gospel of St. Andrew Undershaft." Undershaft is Barbara's munitions-manufacturer father, who preaches a religion of "money and gunpowder." He insists that the worst crime of all is poverty. They who disdain wealth and prate morality are hypocrites. "Money is the most important thing in the world," says Shaw in his Preface, "It is the counter that enables life to be distributed socially." It is better to be a wicked rich man than a poor honest one. The former has power that can be turned...
...individual. His mission, he proclaims, is to be a brutal predator in this world of sheep. Then Playwright Schisgal tips his plot upside down like an hourglass. Shortly, Gloria is chatterboxing Ben's ears with lists of suburban conformities: pulling crabgrass, going bowling, bed-hopping around. While they prate of the lack of communication among moderns, each spills a major grievance. Gloria's husband is an unread clod. Ben flunked a French exam that meant getting into college. When Ben and Gloria go to bed together, and then agree to meet weekly for more extracurricular love and French...
...included in the FCC testimony was this directive issued by the Prate, Preen and Blough Agency for Blastwell, Inc., small-arms manufacturer: "Competitive methods of 'death' dealing, such as head-bashing, ax-hacking, plank-walking or feeding to soldier ants are prohibited on our private-eye show, Johnny Contusion. Not all actors need be armed, but where it seems 'natural,' Blastwell pistols should be worn. It is absolutely essential that all pistol shots hit their targets. 'Death' should be swift and sure, but on the other hand there should be no shots of messy...
...things that Paddy is are hard at work in this film, but often they are working at cross-purposes with something he is not but would apparently like to be: the father of his country. In other plays he has sometimes shown a tiresome tendency to prate, but in this one he spends rather more than an hour in mounting the pulpit and clearing his throat. When at last he thunders forth his text, the congregation is ready to hear the wisdom of the ages. Instead, the message runs something like this: "Don't cheat on your wife. Because...