Word: chekhovian
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...this sounds like the umpteenth rewrite of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, the best defense Brian Friel might offer for his superb play, now off-Broadway, is that his characters seem Chekhovian only because they are so candid and self-aware. Kaiulani Lee is the older sister who sacrificed by staying home to tend to her father, Haviland Morris the sister who opted to marry for money, Margaret Colin the one who drowned herself in the Molotov cocktail of alcohol laced with utter honesty. John Pankow excels as the village lad who romanced each girl in turn, settled...
...confusion is understandable. While "Errand" is full of Chekhovian touches--surprises delivered in a complete prose deadpan, methodically thorough detail, small paradoxical moments that reveal character--the touches sound contrived and unnatural in Carver's hands. If "Errand" were akin to Harold Bloom's apophrades, a return from the dead of an old literary influence, the styles of Carver and Chekhov would merge without seams. Instead they...
...exceedingly well written, and Waterston reaches the heights of shiftiness at precisely those moments when he most openly proclaims his emotions. But all these people are relentlessly and statically articulate, especially when they are obscuring motives from themselves and one another. The humor of their humorlessness is often Chekhovian, and the flow of Allen's camera and cutting, together with the elegance of Cinematographer Carlo Di Palma's light, grants them a certain grace and dignity. But sometimes the members of this precious circle are too glibly elucidated; other times they are backed away from silently. In September, Allen...
They could be Eugene O'Neill's soul-wizened Tyrones, or an extended Chekhovian family chatting its way toward collapse, or the Ewings under sedation. And Tarkovsky is happy to display them in their dolors, at his pace, with all the spare majesty of his style. In the morning, Alexander celebrates his birthday by planting a tree with his son -- an ordinary bucolic tableau, captured in a ravishing shot that lasts almost ten minutes. That afternoon, when the daughter playfully balances a pear on the doctor's knee, it seems a daring bit of coquetry; nothing more need be revealed...
...family after his father became a bankrupt and a drunk. Chekhov never shirked this responsibility; it became one reason not to start a family of his own. The other, more powerful rationale was his attraction to writing. In this matter, Troyat is particularly poignant, one might even say Chekhovian: "What was a woman to him, no matter how desirable, when his life was all pen and paper...