Word: sin
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...apple in Cornwell's tale of sin is papal power. Pius, born Eugenio Pacelli, hailed from a family of Vatican loyalists dedicated to tightening Rome's rein on its semi-independent European churches. As a diplomat in Germany, he pursued the long-term goal of a church-state pact granting Rome near total control over its Teutonic flock. No German leader would sign--until Hitler...
...religion correspondent David Van Biema. "An indulgence is a much more complicated thing than it used to be," says Van Biema. "Now, instead of just handing over some cash to shave years off your time in purgatory, you enter into a healing process with God after confessing to a sin." So tossing those cigarettes now qualifies as a spiritual act? Van Biema acknowledges that the Vatican anti-smoking edict may "elicit a few giggles," but he believes it could be a boon to the Vatican. "If the curiosity surrounding this new proclamation calls attention to the processes of confession...
...Code" era of 1930-34 is getting its due in two excellent books and a film retrospective. Mark A. Vierra's Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood (Abrams; 240 pages; $39.95) mixes gorgeous photos with tart memos and anecdotes from the period. Thomas Doherty's Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema 1930-1934 (Columbia University Press; 430 pages; $19.50) cogently examines the pictures and their political impact. Those in New York City can see the fabulous evidence firsthand. Film Forum, the town's invaluable rep house, is mounting a series of 44 key films, unspooling...
...first knowing viewers to Blair Witch, and that is the film's bold sense of withholding. Horror, after all, is a genre that gravitates to the lurid edge. The jaded audience wants more--more teasing sex, more gross-out gore. So directors make their young minor characters play the sin-and-repent game: you have sex, then you die horribly. Makeup maestros like Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead) dream up (or nightmare up) grotesque faces and prostheses. Screeching violins italicize the killer's abrupt entrance as he raises his knife behind the fair maiden...
...Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. But what will she do with that darn dress? "It's not in my closet," she laughs. "After the scene ended, the wardrobe people ripped it off my body, and I turned back into a plain Cinderella again." And there's no sin in that...