Word: sardonicism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
The Secret Room, by Uri Shulevitz (Farrar, Straus & Giroux; $15). Once upon one more time, we have the slightly dippy king who craves the answer to a riddle ("Why is your head gray and your beard black?"), the humble but clever man who provides it and the nasty court counselor...
The result of this relentless passion is not perfect. What enterprise of this scope and intensity possibly could be? In concentrating on the scope of their suffering, the film has lost a certain particularity among the victims. It lacks highly individual characters who would embody and dramatize their suffering. Something...
The first part of the book interweaves Genet's early years with excerpts from his highly autobiographical novels, creating a rich fabric of the facts and the fiction they gave rise to. The biography tracks Genet to Paris, where he became Cocteau's literary find, his "golden thug," and later...
One sardonic Kennedy scene still intrigues. After the summit meeting with Nikita Khrushchev in 1961, the weary President with an aching back had a few friends in for dinner in the old mansion where he stayed in Palm Beach. Frank Sinatra crooned from records in the background. There were daiquiris...
The film rendition presents a vivid visual elaboration of this classic tale. The camera's eye allows certain emotions, facial expressions and attitudes to be expressed in their full-fledged wry and sardonic wit and irony. In one concise scene, Kubrick quickly establishes Humbert's desirability to both of his...