Word: torpor
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Despite its institutional torpor in the waning days of John Paul II's papacy, the Vatican could still keep a secret. Trusted insiders like the Pope's personal secretary Mons. Stanislaw Dziwisz and his press spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls (as well as several key Cardinals) did remarkably well at keeping the Curia speaking with one voice even as the pontiff grew ever weaker...
...actors find precision in the volcanic gestures of Italian opera. In one scene, Batŕ sits alone in the town square to confess the origin of his ailment, and a flashback shows the infant Batŕ in a field at night, his huge eyes transfixed by the harlot moon. No minimalist torpor for the Tavianis--every frame is over the top and on the money...
...have a little more fun. Gone are dreams of Che Guevara and a quick, painless revolution, replaced by the allure of pyramid schemes and cheap trips to India. Although it's too late to buy the love of Iran's youth, the mullahs seem happy to settle for torpor. "You have a situation," says my friend Karim Sadjadpour, an analyst in Tehran for the International Crisis Group, "where the majority of Iranians have neither the luxury to risk their livelihoods waging political protest nor the nothing-to-lose desperation and rage that result from penury...
...jump—hard. It’s these moments—when some random horrific element comes from nowhere—that make the first act of The Grudge, Hollywood’s latest attempt at remaking a foreign blockbuster, extremely enjoyable. Yet tension gives way to torpor as the first act crawls to a close: the slow reserved pace that initially generates bloodcurdling moments soon begins to retard the motion of the film. Even the supposed surprise ending becomes an “Oh, okay” moment instead of a “Wow, no way, that?...
...jump—hard. It’s these moments—when some random horrific element comes from nowhere—that make the first act of The Grudge, Hollywood’s latest attempt at remaking a foreign blockbuster, extremely enjoyable. Yet tension gives way to torpor as the first act crawls to a close: the slow reserved pace that initially generates bloodcurdling moments soon begins to retard the motion of the film. Even the supposed surprise ending becomes an “Oh, okay” moment instead of a “Wow, no way, that?...