tiresome journey meaning

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[ tahyuhr -s uh m ]

a tiresome job.

Synonyms: humdrum , dull

Antonyms: interesting

/ ˈtaɪəsəm /

• boring and irritating; irksome

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Derived forms.

• ˈtiresomeness , noun
• ˈtiresomely , adverb

Other Words From

• tiresome·ly adverb
• tiresome·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of tiresome 1

Example Sentences

For example, building blocks have been a popular choice for decades, and with good reason, they allow for free form creative play, elementary building, and engineering skills, all without tiresome rules and branded characters.

The tendency to go to Lincoln or FDR or George Washington or whatever, I find it kind of tiresome, to be honest.

But how could you a call a signature talent that shone for more than four decades in show business tiresome?

The reason Price of Fame ultimately becomes tiresome is our increasing awareness of how adrift the woman at its center is.

But it was so tiresome that even the biggest Broadway baby was fantasizing about the possibility of a CSI repeat to end our pain.

Thankfully, those tiresome steps lead to a lovely reward: You get to eat bacon.

If that strikes us as tiresome and tedious, we might as well just hang it up and trigger some global thermonuclear war.

This was somewhat tiresome; and, after a rather feeble attempt at a third laugh, Davy said, "I don't feel like it any more."

I thought this young man was going to read us some of his poetry; it's too tiresome of him to stop to tell us about his bull-dog.

"It is very tiresome," said Ethel, nearly convinced, but in a slightly petulant voice.

What an unpleasant and tiresome awakening from my dreams I experienced on my friends return!

Nearly all that she says would be tiresome amplification if any other was speaking of Phædra's passion.

Related Words

• uninteresting

Synonyms of tiresome

• as in boring
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Thesaurus Definition of tiresome

Synonyms & Similar Words

• uninteresting
• monochromatic
• mind - numbing
• unrewarding
• unimaginative
• uninspiring
• unsensational
• unspectacular
• discouraging
• debilitating
• dispiriting
• disheartening
• demoralizing
• commonplace
• pleasureless
• unsurprising
• unnewsworthy
• suspenseless
• unexceptional

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• interesting
• astonishing
• spectacular
• sensational
• exhilarating
• entertaining
• stimulating
• breathtaking
• electrifying
• fascinating
• enthralling
• invigorating
• eye - opening
• galvanizing
• rip - roaring
• hair - raising
• provocative
• suspenseful
• tantalizing
• captivating
• spellbinding
• mesmerizing

Thesaurus Entries Near tiresome

tiresomeness

Cite this Entry

“Tiresome.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tiresome. Accessed 18 May. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on tiresome

Nglish: Translation of tiresome for Spanish Speakers

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tire•some

You say that someone or something is tiresome when they make you feel annoyed, irritated, or bored.

Something which is tiring makes you feel tired.

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Definition of tiring adjective from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

• It had been a long, tiring day.
• Shopping can be very tiring.
• She finds it very tiring to talk for too long.
• We'd had a long and extremely tiring journey.

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Difference between TIRING and TIRESOME

Published by my lingua academy on 6 jul 2021 6 jul 2021.

Difference between TIRING & TIRESOME

What’s the difference between tiring and tiresome? Are they synonyms? Well, they are not. What’s more, they have completely different meanings.

Let’s look at the example sentences:

• Our trip to Sydney was extremely tiring.
• His stories are so tiresome. I almost fell asleep.

Tiring is an adjective that refers to something which makes you feel exhausted or worn out.

For example:

• It was a long and tiring day at work. All I want is to have a shower and get some sleep.
• Flying a plane is a very tiring job.
• I can’t believe you were paid so little for that tiring work.

Something that is tiresome is usually irritating and dull.

• This lecture is so tiresome. I wish I could get up and leave.
• Building a house can be a really tiresome business.
• While Mark was infected with COVID-19, he suffered from a tiresome cough.

To sum up, tiring is something which causes exhaustion and tiresome is something dull and annoying.

Let’s look at more examples:

• Their work at the factory was repetitive and tiring.
• Quarantined people mustn’t leave their homes, which can be pretty tiresome.
• Their journey from New York to Tokyo was extremely tiring, not to mention the time difference.
• Their daughter, who likes to ask too many questions, can be very tiresome at times.

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tiresome adjective

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What does the adjective tiresome mean?

There are three meanings listed in OED's entry for the adjective tiresome , one of which is labelled obsolete. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

How common is the adjective tiresome ?

How is the adjective tiresome pronounced, british english, u.s. english, where does the adjective tiresome come from.

Earliest known use

early 1500s

The earliest known use of the adjective tiresome is in the early 1500s.

OED's earliest evidence for tiresome is from before 1513, in the writing of William Dunbar, poet and courtier.

tiresome is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: tire v. 1 , ‑some suffix 1 .

Nearby entries

• tire-maid, n. 1871–
• tire-maker, n. 1611
• tire-man, n. 1601–1709
• tirement, n. a1400–1555
• tiremoelle, n. 1669–
• tire-pin, n. a1450
• tirer, n. 1856–
• tire-room, n. 1681–
• tire-setter, n. 1889–
• tiresol, n. 1613
• tiresome, adj. ?a1513–
• tiresomeness, n. 1646–
• tiretaine, n. 1863–
• tire-tête, n. 1754–
• tire-upsetting-machine, n. 1877–
• tire-woman, n. 1615–
• tirful, adj. c1275
• tiriness, n. 1697
• tiring, n.¹ c1450–
• tiring, n.¹ & adj.¹ 1594–
• tiring, n.² 1552–

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Meaning & use

Pronunciation, compounds & derived words, entry history for tiresome, adj..

tiresome, adj. was first published in 1912; not yet revised.

tiresome, adj. was last modified in September 2023.

Revision of the OED is a long-term project. Entries in oed.com which have not been revised may include:

• corrections and revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
• new senses, phrases, and quotations which have been added in subsequent print and online updates.

Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into tiresome, adj. in September 2023.

Earlier versions of this entry were published in:

OED First Edition (1912)

• Find out more

OED Second Edition (1989)

• View tiresome, a. in OED Second Edition

Please submit your feedback for tiresome, adj.

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Citation details

Factsheet for tiresome, adj., browse entry.

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adjective as in irritating, exasperating

Strongest matches

• uninteresting

Weak matches

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Example sentences.

For example, building blocks have been a popular choice for decades, and with good reason, they allow for free form creative play, elementary building, and engineering skills, all without tiresome rules and branded characters.

The tendency to go to Lincoln or FDR or George Washington or whatever, I find it kind of tiresome, to be honest.

But how could you a call a signature talent that shone for more than four decades in show business tiresome?

The reason Price of Fame ultimately becomes tiresome is our increasing awareness of how adrift the woman at its center is.

But it was so tiresome that even the biggest Broadway baby was fantasizing about the possibility of a CSI repeat to end our pain.

Thankfully, those tiresome steps lead to a lovely reward: You get to eat bacon.

If that strikes us as tiresome and tedious, we might as well just hang it up and trigger some global thermonuclear war.

This was somewhat tiresome; and, after a rather feeble attempt at a third laugh, Davy said, "I don't feel like it any more."

I thought this young man was going to read us some of his poetry; it's too tiresome of him to stop to tell us about his bull-dog.

"It is very tiresome," said Ethel, nearly convinced, but in a slightly petulant voice.

What an unpleasant and tiresome awakening from my dreams I experienced on my friends return!

Nearly all that she says would be tiresome amplification if any other was speaking of Phædra's passion.

Related Words

Words related to tiresome are not direct synonyms, but are associated with the word tiresome . Browse related words to learn more about word associations.

adjective as in uninteresting

• characterless
• commonplace
• interminable
• platitudinous
• repetitious
• stereotyped

adjective as in troubling

• aggravating
• distressing
• exasperating
• incommodious
• inconvenient
• rebarbative
• troublesome

adjective as in clumsy, awkward

• embarrassing
• unmanageable

adjective as in unmanageable socially

• argumentative
• hard-to-please
• intractable
• obstreperous
• unaccommodating

adjective as in disquieting

• consequential
• disagreeable
• discomforting
• discommoding
• discomposing
• disconcerting
• discouraging
• frightening
• pessimistic
• threatening

Viewing 5 / 38 related words

On this page you'll find 93 synonyms, antonyms, and words related to tiresome, such as: annoying, boring, dull, exhausting, ho-hum, and laborious.

From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.

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When Did Everything Become a ‘Journey’?

Changing our hair, getting divorced, taking spa vacations — they’re not just things we do; they’re “journeys.” The quest for better health is the greatest journey of all.

By Lisa Miller

Drew Barrymore has been talking with Gayle King about her perimenopause “journey ,” and the soccer phenom Carli Lloyd has just divulged her fertility “journey .” By sharing her breast cancer story, Olivia Munn has said she hopes she will “help others find comfort, inspiration, and support on their own journey.” A recent interview with Anne Hathaway has been posted on Instagram with a headline highlighting her “ sobriety journey ,” and Kelly Clarkson has opened up about what Women’s Health calls her “ weight loss journey .” On TikTok, a zillion influencer-guides lead pilgrims on journeys through such ephemeral realms as faith, healing, grief, friendship, mastectomy, and therapy — often selling courses, supplements or eating plans as if they were talismans to help safeguard their path.

Listen to this article with reporter commentary

“Journey” has decisively taken its place in American speech. The word holds an upbeat utility these days, signaling struggle without darkness or detail, and expressing — in the broadest possible way — an individual’s experience of travails over time.

It’s often related to physical or mental health, but it can really be about anything: “Putting on your socks can be a journey of self-discovery,” said Beth Patton, who lives in Central Indiana and has relapsing polychondritis, an inflammatory disorder. In the chronic disease community, she said, “journey” is a debated word. “It’s a way to romanticize ordinary or unpleasant experiences, like, ‘Oh, this is something special and magical.’” Not everyone appreciates this, she said.

According to the linguistics professor Jesse Egbert at Northern Arizona University, the use of “journey” (the noun) has nearly doubled in American English since 1990, with the most frequent instances occurring online. Mining a new database of conversational American English he and colleagues are building, Egbert could show exactly how colloquial “journey” has become: One woman in Pennsylvania described her “journey to become a morning person,” while another, in Massachusetts, said she was “on a journey of trying to like fish.”

Egbert was able to further demonstrate how the word itself has undergone a transformative journey — what linguists call “semantic drift.” It wasn’t so long ago that Americans mostly used “journey” to mean a literal trip, whereas now it’s more popular as a metaphor. Egbert demonstrated this by searching the more than one billion words in a database called COCA for the nouns people put before “journey” to clarify what sort they’re on. Between 1990 and 2005, the most common modifier was “return,” followed by words like “ocean,” “train,” “mile,” “night,” “overland,” and “bus.”

But between 2006 and 2019, usage shifted. “Return” remains the most common noun modifier to journey, but now it’s followed closely by “faith,” “cancer,” and “life.” Among the top 25 nouns used to modify “journey” today are: “soul,” “adoption,” and “hair.”

In almost every language, “journey” has become a way to talk abstractly about outcomes, for good reason: According to what linguists call the “primary metaphor theory,” humans learn as babies crawling toward their toys that “‘purpose’ and ‘destination’ coincide,” said Elena Semino, a linguist at Lancaster University who specializes in metaphor. As we become able to accomplish our goals while sitting still (standardized tests! working from home!), ambition and travel diverge. Yet we continue to envision achievement as a matter of forward progress. This is why we say, “‘I know what I want, but I don’t know how to get there,’” Semino explained. “Or ‘I’m at a crossroads.’”

So it’s not surprising, perhaps, that as Americans started seeing good health as a desirable goal, achievable through their own actions and choices — and marketers encouraged these pursuits and commodified them — the words “journey” and “health” became inextricably linked. In 1898, C.W. Post wrote a pamphlet he called “The Road to Wellville,” which he attached to each box of his new product, Grape-Nuts. In 1926, the Postum Cereal Company republished the pamphlet as a small book , now with the subtitle, “A Personally Conducted Journey to the Land of Good Health by the Route of Right Living.”

The language (and business) of self-help so completely saturates culture, “it gets kind of hard to trace where a word started and where it came from,” said Jessica Lamb-Shapiro, author of “Promise Land: My Journey Through America’s Self-Help Culture.” Americans like to put an optimistic, brave spin on suffering, and “journey” seeped in because, Lamb-Shapiro speculated, it’s bland enough to “tackle really difficult things,” yet positive enough to “make them palatable and tolerable.”

“Journey” had fully entered medical speak by the 2010s. Many cancer patients recoiled from the “battle” language traditionally used by doctors, as well as by friends and relatives. In “Illness as Metaphor,” Susan Sontag had noted back in 1978 that “every physician and every attentive patient is familiar with, if perhaps inured to, this military terminology.” But now, opposition to the notion of disease as an enemy combatant reached a crescendo. To reflexively call an experience of cancer a battle created “winners” and “losers,” where death or long suffering represented a failure — of will, strength, determination, diet, behavior, or outlook — on the part of the patient.

Many patients “detest” the military metaphor, Robert Miller conceded in Oncology Times in 2010. Knowing this, Miller, then a breast cancer oncologist affiliated with Johns Hopkins, said he struggled to find the right words in composing a condolence note to a patient’s spouse. “I welcome suggestions,” he wrote.

“Journey” seemed less judgmental, more neutral. In Britain, the National Health Service had started to almost exclusively use “journey” language in reference to cancer (treatments were “pathways”). Semino, the metaphor expert whose father had died of cancer at a time when patients’ diagnoses were hidden from them, wanted to examine how patients talked about it — and whether that language caused them harm. In a research paper Semino published with colleagues in 2015, she looked at how patients talked about their cancer on forums online and found that they still used “battle” as often as they did “journey,” and that “journey” could be disempowering, as well.

For some people, talking about cancer as a “journey” gave them a sense of control and camaraderie — buddies traveling the same path — but others used the term to convey their exhaustion. Having cancer “is like trying to drive a coach and horses uphill with no back wheels on the coach,” one man wrote. Patients used “journey” to describe just how passive they felt or how reluctant to bear the burden of their disease. Separately, patients have told Semino how much they hate the word “journey,” saying it trivializes their experience, that it’s clichéd.

But it was too late: The metaphor already was everywhere. In 2014, Anna Wintour was asked which word she would like to banish from the fashion lexicon and she said, “journey.” The following year, Yolanda Foster, the mother of Gigi and Bella Hadid, told People magazine that while she was on her Lyme disease journey, two of her children were afflicted, too. Medical journals and government publications began describing insomnia , the effort to achieve health-care reform , diabetes , and the development of RSV vaccines as a journey. The term “healing journey,” in use since at least the mid-2010s, blew up around 2021. The phrase in news media referenced the experience of cancer , celebrity weight loss , trafficking of Indigenous children , Sean Combs’s creative process , spa vacations , amputation , and better sex .

On the Reddit channel Chronic Illness, one poster eloquently fumed that persistent sickness is not a journey. “It’s endless, pointless and repetitive. There’s no new ground to gain here.” The cultural insistence on illness as a journey, from which a traveler can learn useful, or even life-changing lessons, becomes something to “disassociate from, survive, endure.” It “causes social isolation.”

Although she concedes its downsides, Stephanie Swanson likes to think of herself as on a journey. Swanson, who is 37 and lives in Kansas City, was an engineer by training, with three young children, a career and a sideline as an aerialist, when she got long Covid in the summer of 2022. The things that had made her successful — her physical stamina, her ability to solve problems — evaporated. “I’ve had to give up my career, my hobbies, my physical abilities,” she said. “I’ve gained 30 pounds on my tiny dancer body. I’m doing the best I can with what I have.”

Swanson makes a distinction between “journey” and “trip”: The latter is circumscribed by a start, an end, and hotel and restaurant reservations along the way. She sees “journey” as a way to capture the arc of a whole life.

When she was running operations at a medical center at the University of Kansas, she always imagined slowing down to enjoy her kids more or to read a book, but “I felt like my head was going to explode.” Now Swanson has become a person who must rent a wheelchair for her upcoming trip to New York City, and she likes how “journey” accommodates all the challenging, unexpected circumstances she confronts. “To me, the word ‘journey’ resonates with choosing to be on a path of acceptance but not standing still,” she said. “I’m not giving up, but recognizing that this is the path I’m on.”

Ramani Durvasula uses “journey” advisedly. A clinical psychologist in Los Angeles who treats women in emotionally abusive relationships, she recognizes how “journey” has been “eye-rollingly cheapened” and has started to experiment with alternatives. She’s tried “process.” She’s tried “healing trajectory.” But she falls back on journey, because it, more than any other word, expresses the step-by-step, sometimes circular or backward nature of enduring something hard. “Arguably, a journey doesn’t have a destination,” she said. “Have you ever taken a hike in a loop? And you end up exactly where you parked your car?”

But Durvasula does object to the easy-breezy healing so many journey hashtags promote, what she calls the “post-sobriety, post-weight-loss, now-I’m-in-love-again-after-my-toxic-relationship” reels. Too many TikToks show the crying in the car then the cute party dress, skipping over the middle, when people feel ugly, angry, self-loathing, and hopeless. “I want to see the hell,” she said. “I want to see the nightmare.”

When in 2020 a Swedish linguist named Charlotte Hommerberg studied how advanced cancer patients describe their experience, she found they used “battle” and “journey,” like everyone else. But most also used a third metaphor that conveyed not progress, fight or hope. They said cancer was like “imprisonment,” a feeling of being stuck — like a “free bird in a cage,” one person wrote. Powerless and going nowhere.

Read by Lisa Miller

Audio produced by Tally Abecassis .

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A life’s journey devoted to giving back comes full circle.

Awa Cisse (Photo by David Liebowitz)

There’s a word that carries deep cultural meaning in Awa Cisse’s native Senegal; Téranga , which comes from the Wolof language, connotes the values of selflessness and generosity, and the importance of giving back to one’s community.

For Cisse, the word téranga  isn’t just a reminder of her Senegalese roots, it’s a sort of guidepost for how she wants to live her life.

As a young girl she frequented hospitals for a variety of reasons. Throughout these visits, she developed a profound appreciation for all the people who give care to patients — the doctors and nurses, of course, but also those who don’t typically receive accolades.

“ There is this whole ecosystem of care, from the people who greet you at the front door to those who assist you when you’re leaving,” said Cisse, who is part of Trumbull College. “Every single piece of the puzzle is important, and it all helps make everything work. This is what inspired me to pursue a life in health care.”

For Cisse, a member of the Eli Whitney Students Program (EWSP), who graduates from Yale with a degree in molecular, cellular, developmental biology and French studies, that journey has taken many turns — some of which even she can’t believe.

She enrolled in nursing school straight out of high school, and over the next few years she worked in clinics and hospitals in her native city, Dakar, and later in Diembering, a remote village of southern Senegal. Eventually, she returned to Dakar to become the head nurse in a clinic.

While her journey began in Senegal, in 2018 it brought her to Georgia, where she was reunited with her father, who had come to the United States earlier. For Cisse, the change meant a temporary pause in her health care career; for a year, she worked at a call center, which not only provided a much-needed paycheck but also an opportunity to practice her English.

A year later, she enrolled in Georgia State University’s Perimeter College to resume her studies. She quickly discovered that the dimensions of health care were much wider than she’d ever imagined. “I had previously a very narrow view of what being in health care meant,” she says. “I didn’t really associate science as a component that is integral to being in health care.”

At Perimeter College, mentors helped Cisse discover new opportunities and provided life-changing support. And as she built up what her advisor described as a “ladder of knowledge” in the sciences, she began to fully appreciate the link between scientific research and the delivery of clinical health care.

Cisse was completing her associate’s degree when she learned about the Eli Whitney Student Program (EWSP), which offers students with “non-traditional” backgrounds an opportunity to receive a Yale College education. While she admits she couldn’t locate Yale on a map at the time, and was skeptical that she would be accepted, she applied for admission and was accepted.

In 2021 Cisse moved to New Haven and immersed herself in her new community. (“Community is important to me,” she says. “That’s what téranga, is all about. That’s what was instilled in me!”) She enrolled in as many different kinds of courses as she could. She discussed school projects with classmates over pizza. She savored hours spent talking with friends about school, and about life, in Yale’s dining halls.

And she continued to explore the science underpinning potential public health solutions — including in the lab of Amy Bei, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health, where researchers use pathogen genomics and field epidemiology to test the role of genetic diversity in combatting malaria.

Working in Bei’s lab, Cisse even had the chance to conduct fieldwork in Senegal and be again reconnected with the rural communities.

“ I returned to these places where I’d first learned to challenge myself and to learn about health care,” Cisse said. “But this time I was returning to my country as an apprentice scientist.”

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Definition of 'tiresome'

tiresome in British English

Tiresome in american english, examples of 'tiresome' in a sentence tiresome, trends of tiresome.

View usage for: All Years Last 10 years Last 50 years Last 100 years Last 300 years

In other languages tiresome

• American English : tiresome / ˈtaɪərsəm /
• Brazilian Portuguese : enfadonho
• Chinese : 讨厌的
• European Spanish : aburrido
• French : pénible
• German : lästig
• Italian : noioso
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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, cannes 2024: the second act, abel gance's napoleon.

The first two screenings of the 77th Cannes Film Festival were of a silent classic so gargantuan that the festival screened only the first half, which itself ran longer than last year's " Killers of the Flower Moon ," and of a meta farce that negates itself so thoroughly that it's tempting to ask whether it counts as a movie at all.

The silent epic was a long-gestating restoration of " Abel Gance 's Napoleon ," reconstituted to a seven-hour version that is said to have gone unseen since 1927 . (Cannes-goers had to settle for just part one; the two parts are scheduled to show together in Paris in July.) The meta farce, Quentin Dupieux's "The Second Act,"  was the festival's official opening-night feature. A self-conscious goof centered on actors shooting a film, it gave the fest an opportunity to rib an audience of sitting-duck cinephiles and send them on their way after a mere 80 minutes.

A dark-minded absurdist, Dupieux (whose " Deerskin " opened the parallel festival Directors' Fortnight five years ago ) does his best to misdirect from his intentions, at least until acknowledging his authorial hand in the final image. The first significant scene consists of a lengthy dolly shot of David ( Louis Garrel ) and Willy ( Raphaël Quenard ) walking and talking. Willy can't fathom why David, who is in the process of being pursued by a supposedly gorgeous woman, would rather hand her off to Willy. Willy makes an offensive remark, which prompts David to tell him to cut it out—because they're being filmed.

David and Willy are actually actors making a romantic comedy, and they are soon joined by their co-stars, Florence ( Léa Seydoux ) and Guillaume ( Vincent Lindon ). Except the line between actor and character—and the line between the movie's world and the world of the movie within the movie—is never firmly established, and the film's central conceit is to keep the boundaries porous.

Actions that appear unscripted turn out to be scripted, until the scripted action bleeds into actual behavior. Willy's ad-libbed, politically incorrect remarks allow Dupieux to poke fun at the perceived excesses of cancel culture while also implying that he doesn't mean it. When Florence complains to the others that she's "never seen anything so tiresome in her entire life," she might as well be Seydoux, breaking character to echo the audience's frustration at the film's dogged commitment to repetition. Exactly where Dupieux stands in the film's vortex of self-referentiality is worth at least a moment's thought. The revelation of the romcom's writer-director is by far the cleverest joke here.

If Cannes is meant to be a showcase for big, ambitious cinema, the real opening feature was Gance's epic, which has—for American audiences, anyway—remained maddeningly difficult to come by, certainly for a film with such a high reputation. (One of my great regrets as a moviegoer is not traveling to the Bay Area to see it with a full orchestra in 2012 .) Part of the trouble, as the restoration's opening scrawl indicates, is that " Napoleon " existed in multiple cuts—and multiple negatives—right from the start; the text cites the existence of more than 20 versions over the years. This restoration from the Cinematheque Française has been talked about for what feels like forever. (I have a press release from nine years ago announcing it for 2017.) As such, it feels like a small miracle that the film was finally unveiled today—Clarisse Gance, the director's daughter, was said to be in the theater—even if we didn't get the famed triptych finale, which is in part two.

"Napoléon vu par Abel Gance," as it's known in French—and this is definitely a film in which the director's vision earns its mention in the title—is a monument to Gance's completist instincts. Part one begins with Napoleon at age 11, testing his nascent military genius with snowballs in Brienne. It ends with his first major military triumph during the siege of Toulon, after an attack in the pouring rain makes for some of the muddiest fighting this side of Orson Welles's " Chimes at Midnight ." Near the end of the skirmish, a mini-triptych—a three-part split screen—teases the multi-projector finale of part two.

In between, Gance gives the sense that no detail he could uncover was unworthy of filming. Title cards cards labeled "Hist." testify to the supposed authenticity of his historical sourcing. An "author's note" asserts the accuracy of the Corsican locations used for filming. "Napoleon" is first and foremost a triumph of showmanship—of rapid-fire montage, of horseback P.O.V. shots—and any moment that privileges light, shadow, waves, or weather is riveting. 

Gance's vaunted use of superimpositions is at its loveliest in Corsica. Napoleon's solo journey about a boat with a tricolor sail is crosscut with the reign of terror. (Robespierre's earlier entrance in sunglasses got the screening's biggest laugh.) And in the restoration's scoring, the singing of the "Marseillaise"—"the anthem that will replace the sounds of cannons," Napoleon predicts—is accompanied by a tenor, then by a full chorus.

That is how you open a French film festival.

Ben Kenigsberg

Ben Kenigsberg is a frequent contributor to  The New York Times . He edited the film section of  Time Out Chicago  from 2011 to 2013 and served as a staff critic for the magazine beginning in 2006. 

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Google Hints At Improving Site Rankings In Next Update

Google aims to better reward high-quality content sites in the next core update.

• Google is evaluating how to better reward high-quality content sites in the next core update.
• Demonstrating a genuine commitment to helpful, high-quality content is the best strategy for improving search rankings.
• Recovery from core update impacts may take significant time/work, assuming sites make aligned improvements.

Google’s John Mueller says the Search team is “explicitly evaluating” how to reward sites that produce helpful, high-quality content when the next core update rolls out.

The comments came in response to a discussion on X about the impact of March’s core update and September’s helpful content update.

In a series of tweets, Mueller acknowledged the concerns, stating :

“I imagine for most sites strongly affected, the effects will be site-wide for the time being, and it will take until the next update to see similar strong effects (assuming the new state of the site is significantly better than before).”

“I can’t make any promises, but the team working on this is explicitly evaluating how sites can / will improve in Search for the next update. It would be great to show more users the content that folks have worked hard on, and where sites have taken helpfulness to heart.”

What Does This Mean For SEO Professionals & Site Owners?

Mueller’s comments confirm Google is aware of critiques about the March core update and is refining its ability to identify high-quality sites and reward them appropriately in the next core update.

For websites, clearly demonstrating an authentic commitment to producing helpful and high-quality content remains the best strategy for improving search performance under Google’s evolving systems.

The Aftermath Of Google’s Core Updates

Google’s algorithm updates, including the September “Helpful Content Update” and the March 2024 update, have far-reaching impacts on rankings across industries.

While some sites experienced surges in traffic, others faced substantial declines, with some reporting visibility losses of up to 90%.

As website owners implement changes to align with Google’s guidelines, many question whether their efforts will be rewarded.

There’s genuine concern about the potential for long-term or permanent demotions for affected sites.

Recovery Pathway Outlined, But Challenges Remain

In a previous statement , Mueller acknowledged the complexity of the recovery process, stating that:

“some things take much longer to be reassessed (sometimes months, at the moment), and some bigger effects require another update cycle.”

Mueller clarified that not all changes would require a new update cycle but cautioned that “stronger effects will require another update.”

While affirming that permanent changes are “not very useful in a dynamic world,” Mueller adds that “recovery” implies a return to previous levels, which may be unrealistic given evolving user expectations.

“It’s never ‘just-as-before’,” Mueller stated .

Improved Rankings On The Horizon?

Despite the challenges, Mueller has offered glimmers of hope for impacted sites, stating :

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He says the process may require “deep analysis to understand how to make a website relevant in a modern world, and significant work to implement those changes — assuming that it’s something that aligns with what the website even wants.”

Looking Ahead

Google’s search team is actively working on improving site rankings and addressing concerns with the next core update.

However, recovery requires patience, thorough analysis, and persistent effort.

The best way to spend your time until the next update is to remain consistent and produce the most exceptional content in your niche.

How long does it generally take for a website to recover from the impact of a core update?

Recovery timelines can vary and depend on the extent and type of updates made to align with Google’s guidelines.

Google’s John Mueller noted that some changes might be reassessed quickly, while more substantial effects could take months and require additional update cycles.

Google acknowledges the complexity of the recovery process, indicating that significant improvements aligned with Google’s quality signals might be necessary for a more pronounced recovery.

What impact did the March and September updates have on websites, and what steps should site owners take?

The March and September updates had widespread effects on website rankings, with some sites experiencing traffic surges while others faced up to 90% visibility losses.

Publishing genuinely useful, high-quality content is key for website owners who want to bounce back from a ranking drop or maintain strong rankings. Stick to Google’s recommendations and adapt as they keep updating their systems.

To minimize future disruptions from algorithm changes, it’s a good idea to review your whole site thoroughly and build a content plan centered on what your users want and need.

Is it possible for sites affected by core updates to regain their previous ranking positions?

Sites can recover from the impact of core updates, but it requires significant effort and time.

Mueller suggested that recovery might happen over multiple update cycles and involves a deep analysis to align the site with current user expectations and modern search criteria.

While a return to previous levels isn’t guaranteed, sites can improve and grow by continually enhancing the quality and relevance of their content.

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Matt G. Southern, Senior News Writer, has been with Search Engine Journal since 2013. With a bachelor’s degree in communications, ...

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