Behest ***

behest







Y

D



–noun 

1. a command 

or 

directive. 



2. an earnest or strongly worded request. 

—Synonyms

1. order, bidding, decree (法令,教令,天意), dictate, mandate.

C



behest, request (nn.) 

 

A behest is a command, an urging, or a very strong request: [At] the [president’s] behest, we made an appointment with the foreign minister. 



A request is anything asked for, petitioned for. 



Behest is a more formal and old-fashioned, but it is still in regular use.





  　

Bergman's comic masterpiece opens [with] middle-aged lawyer Frederik Egerman (Gunnar Bjornstrand) again failing to consummate his [marriage] with the much younger Anne (Ulla Jacobsson). While visiting a former lover, actress Desiree Armfeldt (Eva Dahlbeck), he crosses swords with her [current] lover, Count Malcolm (Jarl Kulle), after both men learn that Frederik is the father of her illegitimate child. 



[At] Desiree's behest, her mother invites Egerman, the Count, and their wives along with Egerman's grown son, Henrik (Björn Bjelvenstam) to her manor house for the weekend. Before their departure, divinity student Henrik wards off the eager advances of the housemaid by reading from the Bible aloud, but it seems clear that he and Anne are quite taken with one another. 

After arriving at the Ryarp estate the guests are served a dinner spiked [with] a love potion which provokes swift reactions. The bewildered Frederik becomes aware of the increasingly intense bond between Henrik and Anne, and the Countess (Margit Carlquist) makes a public bet with her husband that she can seduce Frederik. 



Shocked by the dinner-table conversation, the strait-laced Henrik retires to his room to commit suicide. In the course of his bumbling attempt, he has the good fortune to learn why so many prefer sex to death.



manor

(英國封建時代的) 領地,莊園

potion

一服,一劑





paragon

Bullock, however, is not a paragon [compared] to Buttermaker

redoubtable

lovingly captured in the [redoubtable] Ellen Kuras's agile, sun-[burnished] cinematography



probity

mistakes [self-righteousness] for [probity]. 

behoove

to be necessary or proper for, be incumbent on, as for moral or ethical considerations

It behooves the court to weigh evidence [im]partially.  

It would behoove [you] to be nicer to those who could help you. 

W. feels like a rough draft of a film it might behoove [him] to remake in 10 or 15 years.

Detest