Word: ruritanian
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Connecticut, a mere pinprick even on a large world map. Its 1.3 million people make up less than 1% of the population of the Russian Federation from which it is trying to secede. But the war in this mountain enclave in the northern Caucasus involves stakes that are hardly Ruritanian. Obviously, there are the lives of many thousands of Chechens and Russian soldiers that could be snuffed out in the promised guerrilla struggle; at week's end, at least 16 and possibly 70 Russians -- counts differed wildly -- and hundreds of Chechens had already fallen in heavy fighting. Even more ominous...
...frieze of roly-poly figures enacting scenes from the Wars of the Roses, is so curiously ungrand. Not all of that is Blore's fault -- the squat thrones themselves, one with EIIR embroidered on it and the other with P for Philip, were done in 1953 and look Hollywood-Ruritanian, if not suburban. You can't help reflecting on the amount of lobbying from aspirant title seekers that has focused on this red room over the past century...
...setters, the Von Bulows seem positively Ruritanian -- starched anachronisms, prisoners of good taste when hardly anyone else bothers. So screenwriter Nicholas Kazan and director Barbet Schroeder have woven a cunningly old-fashioned artifice -- a drawing-room comedy with a toxic tinge ^ -- told from three points of view. Alan (Ron Silver) is the detective, groping for a truth he may never know or, knowing, accept. Claus (Jeremy Irons) is the cagey chameleon, resigned to a notoriety he also enjoys. "I'm wondering," Alan muses, "who you are," and Claus replies, "Who would you like me to be?" And Sunny (Glenn Close...
...premier policymaking body, and he has held more Cabinet sessions in five months than Botha did in his final two years. More refined than the boorish Botha, De Klerk has done away with some of the trappings of autocracy: the plumes and feathers of the State President's Ruritanian guard have been relegated to a museum. While Botha relaxed by shooting wild animals, De Klerk plays golf...