Word: zeus
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...film brings new meaning to the expression, "man with a Godcomplex." The story is inspired in part by the Greek legend of Amphitryon, whose body Zeus inhabited to seduce Amphitryon's wife. In the Godard version, God, a presence with a terrifying, gravelly voice straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon, decides to manifest Himself in the guise of ordinary Simon Donnadieu, played by ubiquitous French film star Gerard Depardieu. (Donnadieu means "given to God," and Depardieu means "on behalf of God," Get it?). Simon starts using "thine" and "thou" in conversation, much to the astonishment of his wife, Rachel...
...Keillor, whose Lake Wobegon monologues established him as the funniest American writer still open for business, leaves off direct argument just as women readers are taking a deep breath and checking their 3-by-5 note cards, and craftily retreats to parable. Zeus, lolling at a seaside cafe, is confronted by Hera's lawyer, who threatens litigation. The father of the gods turns the twit into vinaigrette dressing, pours the stuff over salad, then tells a waiter the greens are wilted and should be fed to pigs. "And bring me a beautiful young woman, passionate but compliant, with small, ripe...
...exhibition features many large-scale dramatic paintings accomodated in galleries normally reserved for the museum's permanent collection. A highlight is Rubens's "Prometheus Bound" (1611-12), which shows Prometheus bound to Mount Caucasus as punishment by Zeus for stealing fire from the gods. Prometheus's pain is tangible to the viewer. His muscular body writhes and twists as an eagle digs his claws into the man's foreshortened body. With a bold diagonal composition and bravado brushwork, Rubens conveys human agony in the dynamic, engaging style typical of the Baroque period...
...Kritios Boy (circa 480 B.C.), which was found on the Acropolis. And it demonstrates this in considerable detail, through marvelous examples of 5th century sculpture that include the titanically grave and simple group of Atlas presenting the golden apples of the Hesperides to Herakles (from the Temple of Zeus at Olympia) and the famous low-relief carving of the armed goddess Athena, leaning on her spear, absorbed in thought, the body fixed in a space of almost pure geometry (from the Acropolis Museum in Athens...
Inevitably, though, the athletes will make a splash -- as they have since the ancient Games. The antique spectacle was especially ferocious, even if the prize was not gold, silver or bronze, just a simple olive wreath from the sacred tree outside the Temple of Zeus in Olympia. But those leaves were the sole prize; there was no concept of place and show -- only winning. Contestants cried, "The wreath or death!" In fact, the Greek word for contest, agon, has become rather painful in English. But the rewards of victory were enormous: places of honor, money, sinecures and the admiration...