Word: witting
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...genuinely poignant and inventively funny. Further installments - Mon Oncle (1958) and Playtime (1967), photo graphed in 70 mm. and yet to be released in the U.S. - have grown progressively more precious. Often the complexity of a Tati gag outweighs the punch line. In Traffic, it overwhelms it. Ingenuity, not wit, is the real point of the exercise, and laughter is strangled by mechanics...
...Take, for example, a Gucci bracelet (see overleaf) formed from a silver spike in a parody of the iron nails used by carpenters. Or Otis Creative Craft's silver wristlets, hammered from antique forks into dazzling abstract shapes. Rings, too, are subject to the New Jeweler's wit, as with the illusory double ring by Elsa Peretti: worn only on the little finger, it extends across the ring finger, appearing to encircle both. At first glance Noma Copley's engagement ring appears to hold an ordinary solitaire complete with 58 facets. On closer examination, the "stone" turns...
...Crimson. "Harvard," he says "bred a healthy skepticism in me." A handsome, dark-haired six-footer, Weinberger was host of a popular San Francisco TV talk show on public affairs, and once worked as a book reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle. He retains a wry and self-deprecating wit. At the height of bureaucratic tension around Washington over Nixon's call for Government resignations, Weinberger briefed top department heads on their budget cuts. "I can't imagine why," he joked later, "but I couldn't seem to hold their attention." Weinberger and his wife Jane have...
...among mezzos) only Marilyn Home might match. Conductor Claudio Abbado not only has opted for a newly cleaned-up version of the score (with spurious arias discarded, and some of Rossini's original instrumentation restored), but has produced a performance totally dedicated to the opera's unceasing wit, sane dramatics and will-o'-the-wisp musical acrobatics...
...nerve center of the production. Handling Lenny Bruce's words with a sure feel for their comedy and poignancy, Franken makes it needless to debate the accuracy of his portrayal, Franken is not imitating Bruce, but he infuses the role with a vitality which recreates Lenny's charm, wit and concern. Making the transition to convincing desperation when he is finally convicted of obscenity charges proves difficult for the ebullient actor, but he recovers his depth of characterization as Bruce's degradation increases...