Word: wonderful
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Unlike a U.S. President, a British Prime Minister is the first among supposed equals in the Cabinet. Cajolery is as vital a quality as conviction, and some Tories wonder whether Thatcher has the skills necessary to keep dissident ministers in line. Because of her authoritarian air, she sometimes appears to be rather like a headmistress dealing sternly with rowdy students. In discussions around the shadow cabinet table, says one associate, "she can be very sharp, steely in cutting somebody short if she has lost interest in what is being said...
Society has grown so complicated that there is renewed interest in the possibility of a "science court" that might deal impartially with arcane controversy. It has grown so technical that some lawyers wonder whether ordinary electors can still adequately function as jurors. Says Attorney Gary Ahrens, a professor at the University of Iowa: "Practically nothing is commonsensical any more." Surely the spectacle of the public making decisions in semidarkness is an affront to common sense...
...wonder, then, that the Cannes Festival is a perfect subject for Director Michael Ritchie, a satirist who has previously assaulted such institutions as competitive sports (Downhill Racer), beauty pageants (Smile), political campaigns (The Candidate) and est (Semi-Tough). For his new film, An Almost Perfect Affair, Ritchie went to the 1978 festival to record the goings-on in all their vulgar glory. He eavesdrops on the manic deal making that transpires daily on the Carlton Hotel terrace, the pretentious black-tie screenings, the endless parade of female pulchritude for commercial purposes. Such real-life luminaries as Rona Barrett, Edy Williams...
...expense of classical eloquence. During his tirades against mankind, Beaulieu runs through the Alexandrines and casts caesuras to the winds. But he builds sympathy by the low-key, unstylized way he plays the love scenes. Agenin, too, is better at intimacy than poetic elegance. She is a wonder, though, at dispensing petits fours and nasty court gossip to a fine pair of dandies whose wigs make them resemble Bert Lahr playing the Cowardly Lion. When she leans back and says lovingly to poor, scoldy Alceste, "How boring you are!" while deliciously wriggling her toes, the night belongs to France. Moli...
...Small Wonder--Jack...