Word: rituals
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...official. Bertucelli persuaded the inhabitants of a remote village-who had never seen a motion-picture camera-to perform their lives without a trace of self-consciousness or restraint. As a result, watching Ramparts of Clay is like looking at the sun-almost unendurable for long. The ritual slaughter of a ram, for instance, becomes a cataract of blood and pain...
There are several fine moments: a peasant father rubbing spit in his eye and kissing his crucifix when he suspects Sharif of Satanic evil, or a ritual killing of the hothead who breaks away from Caine and attempts to destroy the village. He charges at the Captain, brandishing a battleaxe; his target calmly raises a pistol, and fires at his groin. A child strikes the felled warrior two glancing blows with a mace; the villagers look on. The rebel dies in agony...
Cosmic Longings. Beckett is a defrauded priest, a God-intoxicated man who has joined some celestial A.A. If God did exist, Beckett would have to un-invent him so that he could carry on his distinctly Irish ritual, the wake. All of Beckett's plays are wakes for God. His desperate cosmic longings are deeply felt; but prolonged mourning, like anything else, does grow tedious. That is why Beckett is best in small doses. A brief cloudburst of tears like the one-acter, Krapp's Last Tape, is morosely refreshing, but a full-length downpour like Godot leaves...
...Four ambassadors meeting in Berlin to negotiate the city's status had developed a ritual of retiring after each session for a long and lavish luncheon at the residence of one or another. In an effort to accomplish more business, it was decided that the Americans would cater the meal during one meeting. The arrangement did little to promote détente, however. The mistrustful Russians brown-bagged their own caviar and vodka. The Americans-chacun son goût-served hamburgers. No agreement on Berlin is in sight...
...20th Century, at Brooklyn's Academy of Music, were trying to demonstrate why European audiences regard them as the most avant of the avantgarde. At 43, Béjart is famous for dealing in shock effects, trying to interest the young and preaching that dance is mass ritual best staged in, say, Yankee Stadium. Other Béjart proclivities include a fondness for propaganda and a belief that the union of male and female, explicitly demonstrated, is a major balletic theme. For music he mixes Wagner with Indian ragas, rock with military marches, and makes use of whistles, thumps...