Bauble

bauble







Y

D



–noun 

1. a showy, usually cheap, ornament; trinket (廉價首飾); gewgaw. (華而不實的東西)



2. a jester's (弄臣) scepter. (權杖)



lollapalooza

colossal 

mogul magnate czar tycoon



prexy curator



regent

despot vassal enclave posse

villein

a serf in [feudalism]

Deluge 





　

The new Paul Verhoeven film, Black Book, is set almost entirely in Holland during the later stages of the Second World War. It [charts] the efforts of a young Jewish woman named Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten) to [survive] and [prosper]. She hides out with a farmer’s family, then teams up with her own relatives and tries to flee the country on a barge. They are betrayed and slaughtered; Rachel alone escapes, and joins the Dutch Resistance. Here she is allotte[d t]he task of seducing Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch), the courteous, stamp-collecting head of the local Gestapo. How, one might ask, did he rise to his present position? Did he torture his suspects with a pair of philatelist’s tweezers?



From here, the film is entwined in double crosses, strokes of luck, and panicky exchanges of gunfire. Somebody within the Resistance is in league with the Germans; for more than two hours, Verhoeven keeps us on what he believes to be tenterhooks before revealing the villain. By this stage, the war is over, with Allied troops being fêted in the streets and the unfortunate Rachel accused of collaboration. Her fate should hang in the [balance], but, since the opening scene of the film shows her teaching in a kibbutz in 1956, the scales are decisively [tipped].



be on tenterhooks

(紡) 拉幅鉤

提心吊膽,焦慮不安



According to rumor, Black Book marks a purified moment in the career of Paul Verhoeven. It is the first film that he has made in his native Holland in more than twenty years; it is also said to prove that he has put away childish things—RoboCop, Basic Instinct, Showgirls, and the other baubles of his Hollywood years. 





Many viewers who felt let down by The Dreamers' treatment of the events of '68 may feel [vindicated] by this work. 

to vindicate someone's [honor]

forensic

vindicate exonerate



felony felon 

venue affidavit cf. davit

injunction

alimony & [p]alimony 



loitering 

larceny kleptomania purloin filch (small value) 

mayhem sabotage



filch

huckster monger hock



fib 

minor falsehood

"I told a fib about my [age]," Little Tom said.

falsehood

a statement distorts or suppresses the truth, in order to deceive

to tell a falsehood about one's ancestry in order to [gain] acceptance. 

Sham