Ray (2004) The late Ray Charles is conjured up in all his playful, lustful, anguished glory in this otherwise stolid, respectful biopic of the legendary musician.
However, before La Règle du Jeu, Dubost was widely seen abroad in Marcel Carné's Hôtel du Nord (1938) as the flighty wife of a stolid lock-keeper, Bernard Blier, among the residents of a run-down Parisian hotel.
Rather more furtively, he quoted Bagehot's faith in the "stupidity" of the English, by which he meant a stolid resistance to novelty, and thus to the wilder excesses of ideology.St John-Stevas was an elitist, sometimes outrageously so.
But as The Economist went to press in the early hours of May 8th, it seemed that David Cameron's party had won an extraordinary vindication for a rather lifeless campaign and the stolid economic record it was based upon.
That was made possible by migration into the district by northern businessmen and midwestern retirees: stolid Rotarians and Chamber of Commerce types, rather than the fiery southern conservatives found elsewhere in Florida.
Sometimes the result is welcome: an AVO snooper's stolid note brings back long-forgotten memories of a summer picnic.
From a politician with a taste for the grand gesture (as chancellor, he often concluded his budget speeches with a dramatic policy announcement), this was surprising.One view is that Mr Brown is making a virtue of the stolid seriousness once thought to be among his weaknesses.
Lenders may look to strengthen ties with their more stolid customers (manufacturers, utility companies and so on) at the expense of retailers, property developers and private-equity firms.One crumb of comfort for euro-zone firms is that the currency has plunged against the dollar.
Boring, stolid, small and safe Icelandic saga The twilight zone Reprints Related items Interest-rates outlook: Plumbing new depthsNov 13th 2008 Bagehot: The twilight zoneNov 13th 2008The Conservatives' plans, announced on November 11th by David Cameron, their leader, eschew any tax cuts that are not matched by cost savings.
It needs more innovation, more services and a better balance.At first sight German industry does seem stolid.
"It was clear we would get in trouble but voters thought the risk wasn't too high," says Lukas Goldber, an analyst at gfs.bern, political- and social-research institute.But as the dust settled, stolid Swiss pragmatism was also evident.
