| le style VIRE-VOLTANT the erratic/mercurial style
Explanation:
Rather than "eclectic" I get the impression that by vire-voltant they mean a style that is changeable, erratic and all over the place.
Jean Cocteau himself seems to attract epithets such as mercurial, volatile and erratic, and I have a feeling you could use any of these to describe a style he might embody.
Article: Jean Cocteau.(Paris)(restrospective at Centre Georges Pompidou)
"Though often dismissed as an erratic flibbertigibbet, Jean Cocteau was one of the twentieth century's great agents provocateurs..."
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-108691774.html
"Les Enfants Terribles brought two very different film-makers together for the first time - the mercurial, multi-talented Jean Cocteau and the single-minded, self-sufficient Jean-Pierre Melville."
http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_113.html
| Evans (X)
Local time: 17:52
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 48
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6 mins confidence:   peer agreement (net): +1 | style virevoltant heady eclecticism
Explanation:
or perhaps "exuberant"?
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Note added at 17 mins (2011-02-14 17:41:14 GMT)
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This is from a passage about the architect Piranesi, but the parallels with Cocteau seem strong: http://is.gd/UITzQj
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Note added at 21 mins (2011-02-14 17:44:59 GMT)
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Carol, I'm just running on from the figurative meaning -- a style that twists and turns restlessly. Quite like "mercurial" too: comes at the same thing from a different angle.
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Note added at 24 mins (2011-02-14 17:47:26 GMT)
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... though perhaps "mercurial", etc. would be harder to apply to the style of a whole period, as in your source sentence?
| Martin Cassell
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:52
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 10
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| | Notes to answerer
Asker: thanks Martin! I like it and it works beautifully, but is this just a wild guess, like mine? Ie, do you think is this actually the meaning?
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3 hrs confidence: revolutionary style
Explanation:
It sounds like this phrase is trying to say that this poet/metteur en scene turned the style of his era around as many great artists, writers etc are sometimes described as doing.
The dictionary website AudioEnglish.net describes "revolutionary" as:
"markedly new or introducing radical change"
http://www.audioenglish.net/dictionary/revolutionary.htm
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Note added at 3 hrs (2011-02-14 21:19:41 GMT)
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Revolution also described as:
"Revolution
-noun
...
4. a procedure or course, as if in a circuit, back to a starting point.
5. a single turn of this kind.
6. Mechanics .
a. a turning round or rotating, as on an axis.
b.a moving in a circular or curving course, as about a central point.
c. a single cycle in such a course..."
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/revolution
Example sentence(s):- "Cubism was a truly revolutionary style of modern art developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braques."
Reference: http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/cu...
| Lara Barnett
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:52
Works in field
Native speaker of:  English
PRO pts in category: 4
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| | Grading comment | Thanks Lara, and everybody else! All of these suggestions are convincing in their own way, but the client went for "progressive style", and this comes the closest. I think perhaps "avant garde" would have worked as well, but didn't offer that! |
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1 hr confidence: peer agreement (net): +1 twists and turns of style (of those years)
Explanation:
I think this works.
'Ah the twists and turns of style, when seeing a man in riding boots and a flared duster leaves you thinking "why's he dressed like a girl?"'
twitter.com/blokemenswear/status/10440062544
"By now, I'm quite used to being pleasantly surprised by the twists and turns of style that Turner often makes, and Revox is thankfully no exception: this ..."
www.documentaryevidence.co.uk/simonfisherturner6.htm -
"Nothing in fashion remains constant because of the fact that it is simply an on-going journey through twists and turns of style, driven by ..."
ezinearticles.com/?Coping-With-Fashion-Evolution&id...
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Note added at 4 hrs (2011-02-14 21:37:04 GMT)
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Twists I added, turns I didn't:
"virevolte [viʀvɔlt] n. f.
ÉTYM. 1549; altér., d'après volte, de virevoust, altér. de vire vou(s)te (de virer, et vouter « tourner », lat. pop. *volvitare), sous l'infl. de l'ital. giravolta « tour en rond ».
v
1 Vx. (Manège). Demi-tour rapide, en décrivant un cercle, que fait le cheval (on dit plutôt demi-volte).
2 Cour. Mouvement de ce qui fait un demi-tour. | Les virevoltes d'une danseuse. | Virevoltes de lanières (d'un fouet). → Bête, cit. 12.
1 Il les interrompt, de temps en temps, nous faisant face par une virevolte du tabouret du piano (…)
Ed. et J. de Goncourt, Journal, 4 févr. 1894, t. IX, p. 146.
3 (xxe). Fig. Changement complet. è Volte-face. | Caprices (cit. 14) et virevoltes de la mode. — Changement d'avis, d'opinion. è Revirement.
2 Ma virevolte fut subite; certainement il y entrait du dépit; mais le dépit fut de courte durée (…)
Gide, Si le grain ne meurt, I, ix."
Le Grand Robert
| B D Finch
France
Local time: 18:52
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 43
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| | Notes to answerer
Asker: thanks Barbara! I see where you're coming from!
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