Word: speechless
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Sagan's speculations are sound, the prospects of using physical laws to establish contact with such a civilization are encouraging. So are the prospects of communicating with it. Many of the scientists now beaming signals into the ether might find themselves speechless if someone - or something - should answer. They can always use the author as an interpreter. Carl Sagan already knows how to communicate with lay men. Any scientist who can perform that feat should find talking to extraterrestrials as easy...
This is not exactly news. At this late date, one would be hard-pressed to find anyone who is unaware of that accusation. Yet the movie assumes that a President (nicely played by Charles Durning as an ordinary man growing under pressure) would be shocked speechless by this revelation and his advisers would conspire to have him assainated rather than let him acknowledge something everyone knows. There is all kind of talk about the country's not being able to stand the shock, but the script insists on quoting some of the infamous documents that are preying on Lancaster...
...Beckett's stingy way with words captures her existence fully:"... parents unknown ... unheard of... he having vanished ... thin air ... no sooner buttoned up his breeches... she similarly... eight months later ... almost to the tick ... so no love ... spared that ... no love such as normally vented on the ... speechless infant..." In a phrase as simple as "spared that," Beckett blends savage humor and poignancy...
...intangible, but no less real, symbol of the couple's fears and desires. He is able simply by his presence to drive Edward to destroy himself and to bring Flora new life. But when awkwardly portrayed in concrete terms, the Matchseller appears to be little more than a speechless idiot who mystifyingly turns Edward into a raving maniac. The enigma of the Matchseller figure is lost and the play becomes a joke...
Opening scene: the trustees are interviewing the Parkers in Artist Helen Frankenthaler's Manhattan digs. The Parkers are bemused by the Volvo station wagon in the middle of Frankenthaler's studio, virtually speechless, and slowly beginning to realize that Bennington is serious about them as candidates. A month later, the couple is chosen and introduced to the students at commencement as "Gail and Tom." Scene fades as the commencement "speaker," a black jazz musician (obviously either sloshed or stoned) gets up to play a bass solo. Close-up of Gail: a look of amazement. "What have we done...