Word: rite
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...late 20th century's most succinct text on the metaphysics of terrorism. There, on a mellow May afternoon at St. Peter's Square, beneath the encircling Bernini columns, the most vigorously gregarious of Popes rides slowly through a sea of tourists and pilgrims. It is a rite of sweet human communion. The Pope reaches out for babies in the crowd. He gently blesses the faces that give back a radiant daze of whatever it is that they see in the man-celebrity, charisma, holiness or, at least, a huge friendliness...
...spring, a middle-aged man's fancy ponderously turns to thoughts of airline hostesses. This despite the fact that Nick Callan (Len Cariou) is engaged in a less taxing rite of renewal-joining with his wife (Sandy Dennis) and their best friends the Zimmers (Jack Weston and Rita Moreno) and the Burroughses (Alan Alda and Carol Burnett) to open the latter's vacation house for the season...
...luggage and passports, Anne's pregnancy and the pull of events taking place back in Paris. Most of the film is devoted not to the young people's efforts at escape, but to their attempt to return and link up with what seems to them a generational rite of passage. That is original, and Director Kurys has a shrewd and sympathetic eye for adolescent foibles. In Caron the director has found a youngster who, though she has never acted before, has vulnerability and intelligence. Still the film seems inconsequential. Anne and her friends learn a few things...
...predictable New york cultural rite: a gala fund-raising performance by the American Ballet Theater. The audience, lavishly dressed for the party that will follow, sits through a numbing succession of virtuoso turns: gaudy pas de deux and solo flights by resident stars, international étoiles and great names of the past who walk through famous old roles. Even the curtain calls are a production, usually choreographed more carefully than the rest of the show. The balletgoers finally leave, convinced that they have seen something unique but vowing to themselves "Never again...
...sacred rite of democracy to hail each Administration before it takes office for its wisdom, daring and competence, none of which has yet been demonstrated. It is an equal privilege of those who await the future to lament the inevitable shortcomings that will plague the new team in town. We are joyous participants now in this old ritual, traveling the uproad toward Ronald Reagan's Inauguration. The rocky decline will follow soon. But there are some things that Reagan might do to ease a few of the predictable jolts...