It is a passage as sweetly sad as a Chopin nocturne, and as delicately expressed.

It was his first confidence-a sweetly sad one-for he was a reticent man concerning those things that were nearest his heart and consequently the most sacred to him.

American commercial cinema is happy to crack dirty jokes and sing maudlin hymns to matrimony, but "Shopgirl," which is both funny and sweetly sad, aims for something other than salaciousness or sentimentality.

A last thread of song floated down to him, sweetly sad, diminishing to nothing.

They are very beautiful, sweetly sad and nostalgic and, in the end, deeply consoling.

Their sweetly sad lament seemed to capture the mood of the season.

Moving with a sweetly sad dignity, Betsy Fisher draped herself with what seemed an inexhaustible supply of ties in "Dad's Ties," a tribute to Ms. Blossom's father.

Mr. Cantor also contributed a musical solo, Paula Kimper's "Three Waltzes à la Chopin," sweetly sad miniatures very much in Chopin's style.

They seek to demonstrate that their art involves more than the antics of gently comic and sweetly sad clowns in white-face makeup.