Word: backdrop
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...placement of the accompanying Harvard-Radcliffe choruses along the walls of the theater, the sound engulfed the audience from all sides, rather than just from the orchestra pit. And the visual scene was intensified by the moving colored lights and the looming shadows of the dancers projected onto a backdrop. And the choreography even stretched the body lines out of frame; a prevailing mode of movement used shoulders and elbows in a fluid geometry of angles and wedges thrust into shace...
...mess of a sinister inbroglio. Robert Benton, screenwriter and director, does a lot of borrowing, from both classic and more recent detective flicks, but does his cribbing in style. The actors, meanwhile, are heavily, and affectingly, into themselves: particularly the kharma and vibrations-obsessed Tomlin. With the same L.A. backdrop that the great Chandler stories grew out of, this one proves as well-oiled as the barrel on a Smith and Wesson Model 19 .357 Magnum...
...EDOUARD MANET painted At the Railroad Station; four years later Claude Monet painted a similar scene. Manet chose to depict two pretty women sitting under a sunny sky with the station creating a bland industrial backdrop. Monet omitted the smiling women, painting only the dark, smoky blue train station; and the opening shot of Julia is a technicolor replica of his ominous image--an image that is repeated frequently throughout the film. Julia is the story of Lillian Hellman (Jane Fonda) and her childhood friend (Vanessa Redgrave) whom she christens "Julia," who together lost the insular beauty of their adolescence...
...Administration's push on the Middle East took place against a backdrop of ominous new fighting between Israeli and Palestinian forces in southern Lebanon. This provided an extra note of urgency as the first visitor, Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, arrived in Washington after a mysterious side trip for some personal diplomacy of his own. He was followed by his counterpart from the most moderate of Israel's adversaries, Ismail Fahmy of Egypt. This week, when Carter and Vance meet with Jordanian Premier Mudar Badran and Syrian Foreign Minister Abdel Halim Khaddam, the talk may turn tougher. Khaddam...
...apartment-house setting with a threatening feeling that recalls De Chirico's art as well as the character of Fascist architecture; he floods the sound track with a blaring radio broadcast of the off-screen Hitler rally. Ultimately, A Special Day's apocalyptic atmosphere provides the perfect backdrop for its star's performance. When Antonietta seizes her moment of passion in this frigid world, Loren's warmth can-and does-burn up the screen.-Frank Rich