Word: torment
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FROM THE BLUE underworld of guilty fantasy to the idyllic greens and pinks of Providence, where all is forgiven, through a series of stylized, surreal encounters between characters devoid of will and wracked by literary torment--this is where Alain Resnais guides us. In Providence,authorial control--both Resnais's and that of his novelist-narrator Clive Langham (John Gielgud)--is harnessed to the nightmare vision of the unconscious, whose repressed contents spill over with a force that blights efforts at artistic ordering...
Hali was born a beautiful child, so the tale tells. He was the darling of all the women in his town. The gods, however, decide to torment him and haunt him. Katharine Weiser plays Bhava, the mean and brutal god who torments Hali. Weiser's performance tops the cast. Her countless hideous facial expressions, all of which keep the audience frozen in their seats, make her performance as a wicked god convincing. Her acting is so demonesque that it causes the other players to react to her intensely. At times however, her cruelly bellowing voice too often strikes the same...
...gods torment Hali by causing him to witness his mother's death. Even Hali's love, Rooh (Maura Moynihan), dies. Halie tires of these divine pranks and challenges the gods. He renounces their influence. He discards his belief in them, so they no longer can control his mind. Hali takes his own life in the end, proving to the gods that he is master of his own destiny. But he also proves that he cannot live without the dreams and visions, good or bad, that the gods provide. Bonsey's death is quick and shocking, far removed from drawn...
OSBORNE'S DESCRIPTIONS of sailing, childhood and adolescent play are good, and add some breadth to the book. By themselves, his narrative of a sailing cruise down the Baja coast or of the mental torment involved in sliding down a swinging rope in his grandfather's huge hay barn don't say much of anything, but provide pleasant interludes between the fights Robert has with his father...
...poetry McCarthy recited was a mixed bag. The political message of many of the poems rang clear, but others dwelt on the personal torment of the individual and the yearning for religious faith...