Word: themes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...rumor or you get someone's anecdotal version of something," he said, "I think it's dangerous to extrapolate it to all over the place." Demonstrating the kind of tenacious dedication to a line of argument that made him a successful Mob prosecutor, Chertoff reprised the same theme last week in a briefing with House members on Capitol Hill, insisting that the federal response had been far better than advertised. In essence, he was telling politicians to believe the Administration rather than their own eyes. Some Democrats walked out of the briefing in disgust. "He's a great lawyer, very...
...power, the freedom." But novelists, those eternal spoilsports, keep pointing out the fantasy's downside. Wells' protagonist eventually despaired of himself as a "helpless absurdity" before being hunted down and beaten to death. Now two contemporary writers, an artful veteran and a clever newcomer, offer variations on the theme that are hardly more optimistic. Their central characters, while not quite killed, lose virtually everything else along with their visibility -- jobs, apartments, girlfriends, respectability. Invisibility, these novels suggest, is a difficult and dangerous condition, and there is no fun in it. Except, happily, for the reader...
...just as much trouble getting them to believe in his unseen self as in his presence. "I'm sorry, Fred," says his bored doctor after Wagner has disappeared and reappeared before the man's eyes, "we just don't have time for any more shenanigans." Berger's sly theme: invisibility is almost beside the point. Character, not circumstance, is Wagner's dilemma, and a very funny and touching one it is. As might be expected from the author of such novels as Sneaky People and Neighbors, Berger surrounds Wagner with a gallery of vividly tacky secondary figures, notably a crude...
...much fine material, put to such shoddy use. Like Woody Allen's Zelig, Heaven raids archives for vintage film clips; like Warren Beatty's Reds, it calls on witnesses to describe and argue about its theme. But both sources are compromised by the directorial sneer. Keaton rarely lets a remark or a film sequence run complete; instead she bends its intent to her skewed reading. The interviewees are photographed through cookie-cutout shadows, distracting the audience as well as the subjects. These are the techniques of a filmmaker short on trust, and the condescending tone rankles throughout. Sitting through Heaven...
...Giving works a fresh perspective is a big advantage of a thematic show. The disadvantages: pieces that fit the theme may seem confusingly out of context and may not represent the best of the collection. Still, as Dorment said, "It ought to be possible to combine the intellectual stimulation such a shake-up undoubtedly achieves with the visual thrill you get from seeing works of art of the highest quality displayed perfectly...