The Guardian (UK) 2008
小克的花鞋相當可愛！！！
2009年1月31日 星期六
2009年1月26日 星期一
Plateau
plateau
Y
D
–noun
1. a land area having a relatively level surface considerably raised above adjoining land on at least one side, and often cut by deep canyons.
2. a period or state of little or no growth or decline: to reach a plateau in one's career.
3. Psychology. a period of little or no apparent progress in an individual's learning, marked by an inability to increase speed, reduce number of errors, etc., and indicated by a horizontal stretch in a learning curve or graph.
4. a flat stand, as for a centerpiece, sometimes extending the full length of a table.
–verb (used without object)
5. to reach a state or level of little or no growth or decline, esp. to stop increasing or progressing; remain at a stable level of achievement; level off: After a period of uninterrupted growth, sales began to plateau.
–verb (used with object)
6. to cause to remain at a stable level, esp. to prevent from rising or progressing: Rising inflation plateaued sales income. 
Vaughan, who drives around in a black 1963 Lincoln convertible in homage to JFK, is the prime mover of the group, the pathfinder who believes in pushing the envelope of danger and sex to arrive at a new physical, psychological and sexual plateau.
A veritable sexaholic, James keeps things going with Catherine, Helen and Gabrielle, and his new link with Vaughan leads to their having their wounds tattooed, followed by a bout of nasty sex.
pinnacle
that was the pinnacle of their [career]
meridian
the meridian [hour]
He was at the meridian of his [power] then.
apex
cusp
on the cusp of a [new] era.
ferrule
metal casting placed over the wooden tip of an umbrella
ferule
wooden ruler to punish schoolchildren, figuratively discipline
foil
Loyal troops foiled his [attempt] to overthrow the government.
The [straight] man was an able foil to the [comic].
and proved an [apt] foil for the leering one-liners of Bob "Cherchez la Femme" Hope in Paris Holiday (1957) and Call Me Bwana (1963).
corona
wide-eyed and pouty, with a great corona of frizzy [hair]
Debilitate
Lope
lope
Y
D
–verb (used without object)
1. to move or run with bounding steps, as a quadruped, or with a long, easy stride, as a person.
2. to canter leisurely with a rather long, easy stride, as a horse.
canter
馬的慢跑 (介於 gallop 與 trot 之間)
–noun
1. an easy gallop.
–verb (used with object)
3. to cause to lope, as a horse.
–noun
4. the act or the gait of loping.
5. a long, easy stride. 
The whole film, in fact, with its loping pace and plaintive score, feels like a woefully polite, not to say British, take on a foreign horror; was there really no one, from the fierce new wave of German filmmakers, prepared to dramatize the Schlink?
Or did they feel, as I did, that it was pernicious from the start—a low-grade musing on atrocity, garnished with erotic titillation? Imprisoned for life, Hanna must read to herself, but are we really supposed to be moved by the thought—or now, in Daldry’s film, by the sight—of an unrepentant Nazi parsing Chekhov?
That is not culturally nourishing; it is morally famished. There is a fine scene, near the end, when a survivor of Hanna’s crimes (the great Lena Olin) tells the middle-aged Michael (Ralph Fiennes) that "nothing came out of the camps," that they 'weren’t therapy." Quite true, so why has the film pretended otherwise?
harness
tandem
They swam [in] tandem.
Bryan [Singer] and writer Christopher [McQuarrie]—the tandem previously responsible for The Usual Suspects
hoofbeat
and there is menace in the sound of [hoof]beats but no cheer in the cry of trumpets.
trot
balk
prance
she never seems happier than when prancing [around] in her underwear and a pair of nine-inch heels.
equestrian
A middle-aged circus owner has [forsaken] his family for Anne, a proud, passionate [equestrian] performer who eventually allows herself to be seduced by a neurotic young actor. Albert takes to the [bottle] and mercilessly [taunts] Anne.
saddle
saddled [with] debts
Strut
Bovine (續：溫馴動物 狗 大集合)
bovine
Y
D
–adjective
1. of or pertaining to the subfamily Bovinae, which includes cattle, buffalo, and kudus.
2. oxlike; cowlike.
3. stolid; dull.
stolid
–adjective
not easily stirred or moved mentally; unemotional; impassive.
–noun
4. a bovine animal.
Time slouches on, and, in 1966, Michael, now a law student, sees Hanna again, this time in a courtroom, where she is being tried for her actions as an S.S. guard.
He should be shocked by this revelation, but Kross—who, I regret to say, is borderline bovine throughout—merely lowers his muzzle and pants a bit, and Daldry himself seems to miss the moment, as if he had spent too long chewing it over.
。鼠
。牛
。牛乳
Menagerie
。溫馴動物
critter
Dialect.
a domesticated animal
any creature
why? Cause he got to fussing some over a suffering critter?
It's spiders too, and critters that eat your liver. Even leprosy.
llama
and there are moments that almost seem like some sort of parody of art filmmaking, particularly a bit where a young woman reading Balzac stands next to a gas pump with a llama looking over her shoulder as a woman [shrieks] at her in German.
。羊
scapegoat
It's not me every time! I'm sick of being a scapegoat!
Claus is a scapegoat. Someone has to suffer for the sin that we all wanna commit.
doe
Watch it. This is doe skin, remenber? 雌鹿、兔、羚羊
a [doe]-eyed seven-year-old endures belt-[buckle] discipline and rape by surrogate dads to become a pre[pub]escent street preacher in God's country.
Two decades into her film career, and two years shy of 40, Ryder has [developed] from a [doe]-eyed ingénue into a full-grown, albeit delicate, woman.
Micah, whose jeans neither hug his nuts nor sag off his ass, is a doe-[eyed], seemingly laid-back San Francisco native who installs aquariums for a living.
kudu
bovine, of or pertaining to the subfamily Bovinae, which includes cattle, buffalo, and kudus. 有斑紋的大羚羊 (南非產)
mutton
We had roast mutton for [dinner].
This fellow is [mutton] dressed as Ram, and he knows it, and, if he earns the [caress] of our pity, that is precisely because he never [stoops] to beg for it.
Tonight, they stole mutton, stole water. Someone saw, swear it's him. I can't bear someone steal our things, Never!
ewe
Ewe bloats harshly after lamb. 母羊
。兔
hare
Do you think the hare is really gonna lose any more races to turtles? 野兔
warren
This place is a rabbit warren. Do you know, there's 400 miles of track down here? Plus loads more that ain't in use. 養兔場
。鹿
fawn
He fawns [on] anyone in an influential position. (未滿一歲的) 幼鹿
a fawn is a very young deer.
when he asks Justin to walk in an imaginary forest and [conjure] his "power animal," the best Justin can come up with is a fawn.
satyr
faun
a faun is a figure in Roman myth, half man, half goat, something like a satyr.
elk
You mean the world is predatory. When a mountain [lion] kills an [elk], it's the elk's time to go. 駝鹿
reindeer
More plot: "[Santa's] reindeer [fall] ill, forcing him to consider canceling Christmas. Meanwhile, his dog gathers other [canines] in the North to help save the day." 馴鹿
venison
You ever eat any alligator? It's good. Makes you strong. They been around 200 million years. What about venison? Buffalo? They're all good for you. We'll have all that. Your grandmother can cook so good... makes your tongue turn around and slap your brains. 鹿肉
antler
I can only get funds by crawling to Parliament or plotting against them. And I don't want to lock antlers with them head on in the way my father did. 鹿角,多叉鹿角,茸角
。狗
kennel
Where is she? Damn me if I won't unkennel her now! 狗舍,養狗場
Where's ivan? Um... The kennel. Oh, why? You know he hates it there. Yeah, I know, but he bit me.
cf. spiel
spaniel
The spaniel gnawed happily [on] a bone. 一種毛美而耳朵長的狗
rabies
rabid
a rabid baseball [fan]
many of them old-school army officers whose conservative notions are closer to those of the Kaiser of their youth than to the [rabid] ideology of Hitler and the SS.
like "Reservoir [Dogs]," it sounds like a [rabid], crank-it-up rock album that decided to become a movie at the last moment.
"Moon" was never going to light [up] the box office either, yet it already has a [rabid] fanbase.
tyke
over the objections of his mother, Terry takes the [tyke] fishing and shares old family secrets. 雜種狗
mongrel
We have a mongrelin the experimental wing here who can't tie his own shoelaces.
A haven for the mongrel scum of the Earth, an engorged parasite on the underbelly of the West.【貶】混血兒
beagle
It's a mix of beagle and Retriver.
hound
It takes no stretch of the imagination to hear the [hounds] of "night and fog" or see the coldly psychopathic Génessier as a Nazi scientist.
terrier
It was a wirehaired terrier.
poodle
I became sort of a [mascot], like a [pink] poodle. 獅子狗,捲毛狗
You drew poodles in the margins. I know it's supposed to be anonymous and everything...
Who could love a man who makes you jump through burning hoops like a trained poodle?
rottweiler
Rottweilers hired for the film attacked their trainers. A hotel at which director Richard Donner was staying got bombed by the IRA; he was also struck by a car. After Peck canceled another flight, to Israel, the plane he would have chartered crashed... killing all on board. 洛威拿犬
mutt
I hate mutts! Who asked you? Listen, doc, no one asked your opinion. 雜種狗
collie
I saw a little border collie padding off down there towards the fire. 柯利牧羊犬 (原產蘇格蘭)
Bovine
Brunt
brunt
Y
D
–noun
the main force or impact, as of an attack or blow: His arm took the brunt of the blow.
Later, when the relationship grows contentious and Hanna vanishes without a trace, Michael moves on to study law, eventually attending a class field trip to a German court where a group of female former concentration camp guards are being tried for war crimes. The defendant bearing most of the brunt in the trial is Hanna.
rebuff
bluff
buff
buffet
a blow, as with the hand or fist.
or brilliantly designed capitals of industry in which little people are manipulated and [buffeted] about by the string pullers.
brash
He's hyper-reactive, flickering between [brash], [bashful], playful, and awkward
bash
strike with a crushing or smashing blow
Even Durst’s critically [bashed] follow-up, the 2008 sports film The Longshots was released last Summer.
That boot-camp sequence feels like a reduced version of the head-[bashing] training episode in Kubrick’s "Full Metal Jacket.
rash
her fussing, her weeping, her [rashes] on hands and head.
Strut
Plank
plank
Y
D
–noun
1. a long, flat piece of timber, thicker than a board.
2. lumber in such pieces; planking.
3. something to stand on or to cling to for support.
4. any one of the stated principles or objectives comprising the political platform of a party campaigning for election: They fought for a plank supporting a nuclear freeze.
–verb (used with object)
5. to lay, cover, or furnish with planks.
6. to bake or broil and serve (steak, fish, chicken, etc.) on a wooden board.
7. plunk (def. 2).
broil
–verb (used with object)
1. to cook by direct heat, as on a gridiron over the heat or in an oven under the heat; grill: to broil a steak.
2. to scorch; make very hot.
—Idiom
8. walk the plank,
a. to be forced, as by pirates, to walk to one's death by stepping off a plank extending from the ship's side over the water.
b. to relinquish something, as a position, office, etc., under compulsion: We suspect that the new vice-president walked the plank because of a personality clash. 
Sean Penn himself fiercely idealistic, uncompromising, a little less angry now, must have read the book and reflected that there, but for the grace of God, went he.
The movie is so good partly because it means so much, I think, to its writer-director. It is a testament like the words that Christopher carved into planks in the wilderness.
plonk
variant of plunk
To strum or pluck (a stringed instrument).
the [stasis] of the visuals means it plays like a piece of legit [plonked] in the middle of the movie.
plunked the [money] down on the counter.
plunked onto the [couch] with a sigh of relief.
Convulsion
Maven
maven
Y
D
–noun
an expert or connoisseur.
Also, mavin.
Origin:
1960–65; < Yiddish < Heb: connoisseur
Sure to elicit the most notice is a scene between Mafioso Chris Walken and Dennis Hopper as Clarence's ex-cop dad. It is a testament to the two actors that their work transcends racist dialogue and in-your-face brutality.
Movie mavens have a veritable [field] to plow in the Quentin Tarantino screenplay.
Cinematic references are rife, but the story's downfall can be credited in part to the writer's wholehearted embrace of both the best and worst of the noir canon. Pic also suffers because its reality base is other films, with only glancing reference to the outside world.
virtuoso
cognoscente
dilettante
connoisseur
Jonathan Pryce and, in her last role, the late Alexis Smith pop up throughout reps a connoi[sseur's] delight.
Threnody
Conflagration ***
conflagration
Y
D
–noun
a destructive fire, usually an extensive one.
Related forms:
conflagrative, adjective
Synonyms:
See flame.
Flame, blaze, conflagration refer to the light and heat given off by combustion.
Flame is the common word, referring to a combustion of any size: the light of a match flame.
Blaze usually denotes a quick, hot, bright, and comparatively large flame: The fire burst into a blaze.
Conflagration refers to destructive flames which spread over a considerable area: A conflagration destroyed Chicago. 
Nevertheless, Fuller would surely have called this gutsy and at times exhilarating movie a great yarn. Like his best movies, it's also a statement. Bean has built a [bonfire] of contradictions and the ensuing conflagration illuminates a bit of the world.
scorch
superficial or slight burning
change of color or injury to the texture
to scorch a [dress] while [ironing]
singe
superficial or slight burning
that takes off ends or projections
to singe [hair]
singe the [pinfeathers] from a [chicken]
Isaach De Bankolé in the lead are [hot] enough to singe so many art school pencil ’staches.
charcoal
char
The fire charred the [paper].
The flame charred the [steak].
char[s], a char[woman]
with a slow zoom into the fresh-[charred] heart of a greasy, [gristle]-flecked beef [patty].
stumbling through a landscape of [incinerated] jeeps, charred [corpses], and oil wells blazing in the beyond-Coppola apocalyptic night.
to haunting shots of the men examining the charred [remains] of Iraqi soldiers and burning oil wells lighting up the night sky that prompt Swoff to observe that "the Earth is bleeding,
sodden
My shirt was sodden with [sweat].
soggy
Polanski's insistence on filming in [rugged] Northumberland and [soggy] Wales.
Lye
Cranium
cranium
Y
D
–noun, plural -ni⋅ums, -nia
1. the skull of a vertebrate.
2. the part of the skull that encloses the brain.
Also called braincase.
Danny imagines his reinvention complete. "Do I look Jewish to you?!!" he explodes when interviewed by the tweedy New York Times reporter (well played by A.D. Miles) who has gleaned his story.
(Actually, with his long cranium and death's-head 'do, Danny could double for Timothy McVeigh.)
As Bean audaciously insists on Danny as a Jewish type—the tormented apikoris—the movie's more astute characters don't need the Times to give them the [scoop].
As Carla observes, only a Jew would be so obsessed with Jewishness. This cultural narcissism hardly makes anti-Semitism any less real—although the film does run the risk of suggesting that Jews are to blame for anti-Semitism, a formulation Bean attributes to Lina Moebius.
Even before anyone suspects Danny might be Jewish, the fascists recognize him as an intellectual. (Why waste time with street brawls when he could be fundraising?)
What they don't understand is that, closet Nietzschean that he is, Danny is casting himself as another Samson.
Samson
(聖經) 參孫(舊約士師記13-16)
大力士
scalp
husk
shuck
but a hustler who trades on his [boyish] grin and aw-shucks way of asking if anybody feels like a game.
flay
but flay the [skin] from a hidden world.
sole
Lucia walks barefoot over broken glass, lacerating the soles of her [feet]
excoriate
denounce or berate severely, flay verbally
Her [palms] were excoriated by the hard labor of shoveling.
Relax, If we don't, we'll be [excoriated]
scalp
pate
with his [bald] pate, [cataracts], deficient hearing
physiognomy
no glance of a bright, vivid [physiognomy], no open country, no fresh air, no blue hills, no bonny beck
the physiognomy of a [nation].
Areola
Shawl
shawl
Y
D
–noun
a square, triangular, or oblong piece of wool or other material worn, esp. by women, about the shoulders, or the head and shoulders, in place of a coat or hat outdoors, and indoors as protection against chill or dampness.
Heady stuff, but the movie merely toys with questions of identity and identification with the oppressor, substituting startling imagery for psychological analysis and character revelation.
It's arresting and horrifying to watch Mr. Gosling's Danny put on a prayer shawl and chant sections from a religious service as he [gives] a Nazi salute, combining two rituals into one.
But its meaning, apart from choreography, is unclear, if it exists at all.
babushka
wimple
[Nuns] march past in step, their wimples [bobbing] up and down in unison.
their Adam’s apples [bobbing] up and down in excitement
cloak
but the material remains [cloaked] by the very propriety, stiff manners and emotional [starchiness] the picture delineates in such copious detail.
mantle
[earth's] mantle
The mantle of [darkness] obscured the view.
and the "popular kids" have Oscars on their [mantles]
burnoose
there must have been a shortage of [burnooses] in Europe while both pics were in production
Smock
Fulminate, Fulminic & Detonate
fulminate
Y
D
–verb (used without object)
1. to explode with a loud noise; detonate.
2. to issue denunciations or the like (usually fol. by against): The minister fulminated [against] legalized vice.
–verb (used with object)
3. to cause to explode.
4. to issue or pronounce with vehement denunciation, condemnation, or the like.
–noun
5. one of a group of unstable, explosive compounds derived from fulminic acid, esp. the mercury salt of fulminic acid, which is a powerful detonating agent.
fulminic
–adjective
1. highly explosive; unstable.
2. of or derived from fulminic acid.
Like Danny, the movie fulminates with inchoate thoughts and proceeds with more energy than coherence.
Danny hates Judaism; he's protective [of] it. He identifies with Hitler in part because the Nazis recognized the importance of the Jews.
He's frustrated because the fascists he's befriended aren't that interested in persecuting Jews. ''Forget the Jewish stuff,'' one of the leaders tells him. ''It doesn't play anymore.''
napalm
The label of one, Napalm Girl, features a [silhouette] of the famous Vietnam-era photo of the girl running naked from her [napalmed] village.
Watching the spectacular Wagnerian helicopter [napalm] scene from Apocalypse Now,
strafe
that they're strafed by U.S. [bombers] only adds to the solipsism.
maroon
pyrotechnic
director Paul Thomas Anderson and his crew tested the pyrotechnical [effects] of the oil [derrick] fire
Pyrotechnic
Lather
lather
Y
D
–noun
1. foam or froth made by a detergent, esp. soap, when stirred or rubbed in water, as by a brush used in shaving or by hands in washing.
2. foam or froth formed in profuse sweating, as on a horse.
3. Informal. a state of excitement, agitation, nervous tension, or the like: He was in a lather over my delay.
–verb (used without object)
4. to form a lather: a [soap] that lathers well.
5. to become covered with lather, as a horse.
–verb (used with object)
6. to apply lather to; cover with lather: He lathered his face before shaving.
7. Informal. to beat or whip. 
The program takes an overnight break, so that viewers can be [whipped] into a lather and Jamal can be beaten into an admission that he cheated.
The only way to prove his innocence is to go through each question and explain to the police precisely how he came to know the answer. And thus the film is set for a series of flashbacks, each serving up a chunk of Indian life.
For instance, how does Jamal know the name of a certain movie star? Because, as a kid—smeared head to foot in excrement, having fallen into a [public] latrine—he fought to get the guy’s autograph.
latrine
–noun
a toilet or something used as a toilet, as a trench in the earth in a camp, or bivouac (露營) area.
thermometer
litmus
alkaline
lye
and the [lye] or [bleach] is always to the left of whatever sink Trevor uses.
scorch
superficial or slight burning
change of color or injury to the texture
to scorch a [dress] while [ironing]
singe
superficial or slight burning
that takes off ends or projections
to singe [hair]
singe the [pinfeathers] from a [chicken]
Isaach De Bankolé in the lead are [hot] enough to singe so many art school pencil ’staches.
dank
damp often chilly
a dank [cellar]
The dankest [dungeon] would be warmed in the sunshine of Bettie's smile or [crumble] under the force of her wink.
damper
His [glum] mood put a [damper] on their party.
Mol comes dazzlingly alive in color in a way she doesn't in B&W, which increasingly [puts] a mild damper on the predominantly shades-of-gray picture.
dapper
He looked very dapper in his new [suit].
to [walk] with a dapper step
The Ninth Gate stars a [solemn] and [dapper] Johnny Depp as a rare-book hustler
sodden
My shirt was sodden with [sweat].
soggy
Polanski's insistence on filming in [rugged] Northumberland and [soggy] Wales.
Lye
Restive
restive
Y
[res-tiv]
D
–adjective
1. impatient of control, restraint, or delay, as persons; restless; uneasy.
2. refractory; stubborn.
3. refusing to go forward; balky: a restive horse.
Synonyms:
1. nervous, unquiet.
2. recalcitrant, disobedient, obstinate.
Antonyms:
1. patient, quiet. 2. obedient, tractable.
C
restive, restless (adjs.)
Restive has more than one meaning: "stubborn or balky," "restless or fidgety," and "impatient."
Restless of course is synonymous with the "fidgety" sense and also overlaps somewhat with the 'impatient" sense.
Perhaps because of this, there has been a good deal of argument over whether restive should be limited to use in the "balky, stubborn" sense, but all the evidence suggests that all three meaning clusters for restive are Standard.
The setting is Mumbai. Boyle has always been a restive director, starting in Scotland with "Shallow Grave" and "Trainspotting," before diverting to such noted hot spots as Thailand ("The Beach") and outer space ("Sunshine").
His style is at once distinctive and impersonal; I like the way his characters lunge at experience, although the films themselves hardly dare to ask how much, or how little, that experience has been worth.
lunge
–noun
1. a sudden forward thrust, as with a sword or knife; stab.
2. any sudden forward movement; plunge.
–verb (used without object)
3. to make a lunge or thrust; move with a lunge.
–verb (used with object)
4. to thrust (something) forward; cause to move with a lunge: lunging his [finger] accusingly.
refractory
a refractory [child].
bigotry
which has an endless bigotry-friendly pocket book to give to [Proposition 8] in California.
every white character in the film is a one-dimensional [bigot],
recalcitrant
Even in this perversely [recalcitrant] world, the Coens find their puppets an endless source of amusement.
flinty
flint, esp. in hardness. a flinty [heart].
granite
with granite-[hard] bullet play.
He was a despot with a [heart] of granite.
adamant
It's at that level that Polanski is at his most [adamant]
pertinacious
importunate
importunate [demands] from the children for attention.
and as he thereafter gravely turns aside the [importunities] of his mistress, a [drab] teacher
Nubile
roil
to render (water, wine, etc.) turbid
by stirring up sediment.
that Mr. Montand communicates in the [roil] of indecision in this old fellow as to whether he should
swivel
He swiveled his [chair] around.
he loosens up his neck and shoulders and swivels his [head]
rotary
[shag] carpets, oversize books bound in white leather, a fat rotary-[dial] telephone.
rattle
David O. Russell was rattling the [cage] right from the start.
Meanwhile, Ray [rattles] around the house, resentful at losing his internship.
enjoying the window-[rattling] thunderstorms that he uses to indicate spiritual crisis,
waft
The gentle [breeze] wafted the sound of music to our ears.
The actress wafted [kisses] to her admirers in the audience.
most readily [calls] to mind Polanski in his "The Tenant" mode, with [echoes] of Hitchcock, Lynch, Kafka and Dostoyevsky wafting [through] as well
jejune
a jejune [novel] [diet]
there is something [jejune], even [juvenile], about the snarl and arrogance of its conceit
Raucous
Boggle
boggle
Y
D
–verb (used with object)
1. to overwhelm or bewilder, as with the magnitude, complexity, or abnormality of: The speed of light boggles the mind.
2. to bungle; botch.
–verb (used without object)
3. to hesitate or waver because of scruples, fear, etc.
4. to start or jump with fear, alarm, or surprise; shrink; shy.
5. to bungle awkwardly.
6. to be overwhelmed or bewildered.
–noun
7. an act of shying or taking alarm.
8. a scruple; demur; hesitation.
9. bungle; botch.
C
boggle (v.), mind-boggling (adj.)
Boggle is Standard as both a transitive verb with a direct object, as in What she heard simply boggled her mind, or an intransitive verb, as in Having heard the news, I have to admit that my mind boggles.
The intransitive verb also combines regularly with at (I boggle [at] the thought of paying so much).
The adjective mind-boggling (The new numbers were mind-boggling) is also Standard.
The tough look at poverty and crime at all levels of society shoves the occasional coincidences and questionable plot developments firmly to the side, and the rush Boyle manifestly got from shooting such an intense story on these locations is fully felt in the film.
The logistic considerations alone must have been [mind]-boggling, as a majority of scenes include what seem like hundreds of bystanders.
Lenser Anthony Dod Mantle’s camera is often on the [prowl] or the run, and it sometimes dashes through jammed streets and shantytown alleys at the speed of the sprinting kids themselves. Images are stunning sans arty posturing, and Chris Dickens’ editing is breathless without being exhausting.
opacity
the quality of being [opaque]
As with Basquiat, there's a certain dreamy [opacity] [to] Before Night Falls.
obfuscate
to obfuscate a problem with [ex]traneous information.
hermetic
alchemy
occult
of or pertaining to magic, astrology or any system supernatural
They have special knowledge, [occult] beliefs, revolutionary health practices.
Boris Balkan, a millionaire New Yorker with a vast collection of [occult] literature.
unintelligible
Penn goes for larger-than-life, wrapping his pinched [frown] around an [un]intelligible Louisiana [drawl] and swinging his arms like an autistic evangelist.
enigma
sphinx
flummox
Flummoxed by [feminine] conspiracies they're always the last to know about
With Cesar Romero chewing scenery as gangster Duke Santos and Akim Tamiroff having fun as easily [flummoxed] criminal Spyros Acebos,
Crypto
Blotto
blotto
Y
D
–adjective Slang.
very drunk; so drunk as to be unconscious or not know what one is doing.
This lifeless triangle is the first misstep in a film that tries to be too many things at once - funny but not campy, sad and scary, a horror story and a human tragedy - but that has to make these people real if their later trauma is going to upset us at all.
The screenwriters, Charles Edward Pogue and Mr. Cronenberg, do give Brundle some poignant motivation for the weird experiment that blends his genes with that of a fly. Jealous of Ronnie's old boyfriend,
Brundle gets [drunk] and steps into the transponder, too passionate for [caution], too blotto to [notice] the fly that has buzzed into the cell along with him.
inebriate
and asks her irascibly [inebriated] uncle to translate.
teetotal
Mol's fetchingly [bewigged] Bettie is a simple country girl—God-fearing and [teetotaling].
carouse
carousal n.
John and his buddy Tom run with a rough group of men who like to [drink] and [carouse]
cf.
carousel
a merry-go-round in an amusement park
a baggage carousel at an [airport]
Detest
Obstetrician & Obstetrics
obstetrician
Y
D
–noun
a physician who specializes in obstetrics. Abbreviation: OB, ob
obstetrics
–noun (used with a singular verb)
the branch of medical science concerned with childbirth and caring for and treating women in or in connection with childbirth. Abbreviation: OB, ob
Director Cameo: [David Cronenberg] obstetrician who delivers the maggot baby.
gynecologist
gravid
travail
the [pangs] of [childbirth]
Charting the [romantic] travails of its four characters, Water Drops on Burning Rocks portrays a world where relationships,
convulsion
writhe
throe(s)
the [pangs] of [childbirth], [paroxysm]
the throes of [battle]
She's reliving the throes of adolescent-style [awkwardness]. [Between] bouts,
This is the second time Kate Winslet has been in a movie where she makes love in a vintage car and someone's hand hits the window and slides down it in the [throes] of passion,
Jeremy Davies, so memorable as the cowardly soldier in Saving Private Ryan, makes a richly textured starring debut, expertly charting the death [throes] of the character's optimism.
Inflict
Patina
patina
Y
D
–noun
1. a film or incrustation, usually green, produced by oxidation on the surface of old bronze and often esteemed as being of ornamental value.
2. a similar film or coloring appearing gradually on some other substance.
3. a surface calcification of implements, usu. indicating great age.
Also, patine
calcification
石灰化
Whenever the night drags, the hero simply stops time and wanders the aisles stripping the freeze-framed female customers (as pneumatic a bunch as those Michael Bay cherry-picked to decorate Transformers) and using them as models for his sketch portfolio.
Ellis works hard to gloss up this sicko conceit, applying a patina of winsome quirkiness as liberally as Mop 'n' Glo: The movie is too cute by half, made close to unbearable whenever Ben's narration [spews] glib pseudo-profundities about memory and temporal stillness.
But the flaky humor of wage slaves serial-killing time is good, rude fun; the trompe l'oeil camera trickery creates a woozy sleepwalking effect;
and Ellis (a fashion photographer who's collaborated with David Lynch) and cinematographer Angus Hudson shoot the immaculate rows of paper towels and canned veggies with an Andreas Gursky–like eye for symmetrical splendor.
It's all so lovely, you'll want to go out at 3 a.m. to buy Cool Whip.
flaky
–adjective
3. Slang. eccentric; wacky; dizzy: a flaky math professor.
pigment
sepia
secretion of various cuttlefish
with whom the Spirit shares a troubled, sepia-[toned] history
dun
The dun-[shaded] chromatic scheme seems part of the general [haplessness] 討債者
beige
but it seems like a [beige] raincoat in comparison to
tawny
At 33, he has a tawny, domineering [fiancée]
Mel Coplin finds himself the brother of tawny [blond] volleyball-playing twins.
drab
ocher
the ochre beauty of [Barcelona] 【礦】赭石,赭土
ruddle
What Rourke offers us, in short, is not just a comeback performance but something much rarer: a rounded, [raddled] portrait of a good man.【礦】紅土,代赭石
tangerine
celadon
livid
swarthy
alabaster
a perfect alabaster [form], still taking blows from the sculptor's [chisel].
gilt
Everything is [gilt] or [silver], crystal or velvet or ivory.
Meager
Curmudgeon, Cantankerous & Grouch
curmudgeon
Y
D
–noun
a bad-tempered, difficult, cantankerous (愛唱反調的) person.
—Synonyms
grouch (好抱怨的人),
crank (古怪而暴躁的人), bear, sourpuss,
crosspatch. (脾氣壞,愛抱怨之人)
grouch
–verb (used without object)
1. to be sulky or morose; show discontent; complain, esp. in an irritable way.
–noun
2. a sulky, complaining, or morose person.
3. a sulky, irritable, or morose mood.
Synonyms:
2. grumbler, spoilsport, crab, killjoy.
Indeed, Water Drops never leaves Leopold's apartment—it jumps ahead six months from the first scene to the spectacle of Leopold and Franz's domestic life.
Franz [grooms] himself in preparation for Leopold's return from the business world, scurrying to greet him in cutely suspendered short-shorts.
But Leopold, an insurance salesman, is an insufferable grouch and petty tyrant. He browbeats the seemingly compliant Franz (who then exacts revenge by blasting the stereo).
This crabby non-idyll is further complicated when their respective former girlfriends arrive. Taking a leaf from Leopold, who's away on business, Franz orders around his lovelorn Anna (Ludivine Sagnier) while posing questions like "What is happiness?"
groom
–verb (used with object)
5. to tend carefully as to person and dress; make neat or tidy.
6. to clean, brush, and otherwise tend (a horse, dog, etc.).
7. to prepare for a position, election, etc.: The mayor is being groomed for the presidency.
8. (of an animal) to tend (itself or another) by removing dirt, parasites, or specks of other matter from the fur, skin, feathers, etc.: often performed as a social act.
brogue
rogue
schmuck
skunk
rascal
Latter's characterization, restrained and chilling at first, unfortunately becomes too broad, almost that of a jolly [rascal], effect being to flaw the dramatic impact at times.
grumpy
curmudgeon
cantankerous
grouch
But Leopold, an insurance salesman, is an insufferable [grouch] and petty tyrant.
bumpkin
rustic
yokel
boor
They snickered and whispered and made [boors] of themselves.
churl
He was a churl in his [affections].
isn't it [churlish] to ask why they didn't take less time to do what everyone can do?
obtuse
crass
the crass methods of [political] hucksters.
The sheer [crassness] of some of the scenarios --
This is one film that could [benefit], dramatically, from the gutsy decision to become [crasser] and more graphic
cad
callow Nubile
twerp
nudnik
knave
Our Lady of Humanitarian Narcissism here [endures] another dreadful fate: losing her child to a mob of [knaves]
miscreant
not the immoral miscreant and lawbreaker his detractors [color] him to be.
Schmuck
Curmudgeonly, cantankerous, cigar-chomping Hellboy is a cross between a '40s noir detective and a burning fireplace, but he's also cool enough to make "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" the hipster's hit of the summer. Yes, Catholic imagery has always [run] rampant through helmer Guillermo del Toro's movies,
including "Pan's Labyrinth," which he made in between the two "Hellboy" [entries], but he's really an evangelist of fanboy excess: Given the right push by Universal, he'll be making fantasy-horror acolytes out of the heretofore unconverted.
heretofore
–adverb
before this time; until now: [Heretofore], doctors have tried low fat diets to reduce the cholesterol in the blood.
And at first close encounter, he's an alcohol-soaked curmudgeon with a bum's wardrobe and a really bad attitude. Even those he saves wish he would go be a hero somewhere else.
Surcease
surcease
Y
D
–verb (used without object)
1. to cease from some action; desist.
2. to come to an end.
–verb (used with object)
3. Archaic. to cease from; leave off.
–noun
4. cessation; end.
C
surcease (n., v.)
The verb (meaning "to stop or delay") is usually considered archaic, but the noun (meaning "respite, end, or a stopping or relief from") occurs quite regularly in Edited English of a Formal, literary kind.
In Informal writing and at Conversational levels, it may seem affected or stiff.
By the second act, which takes place six months after the first, Franz and Leo have settled into the tedium and petty power struggles of a long-term relationship.
The apartment, which had seemed a den of erotic mystery, has become a prison of middle-class luxury. Leo's predatory charm has given way to bullying truculence and Franz's naivete has turned into ditziness.
Their sexual attraction persists, offering at once surcease from their domestic warfare and a chance to carry it out by other means.
quandary
stalemate
quagmire
slough
bog
We were bogged [down] by overwork.
Godard, it was said, had lost the light touch of his first film and gotten bogged [down] in politics.
moor
heath
molasses
morass
trying to survive but instead sinking deeper and [deeper] into the [morass] of poverty.
puddle
The [children] were puddling.
the [splash] of her shoes in a [sun]-flashing puddle
gridlock
[Traffic] has gridlocked.
impasse
This impasse leaves the gray old men of the Resistance in a [perpetual] state of ineffective [squabbling]
doldrums
a state of inactivity or stagnation, as in business or art
[August] is a time of doldrums for many enterprises.
"Kicking and Screaming" also sends Otis and Skippy through minor postgrad [doldrums].
Kimberly Peirce [paints] an unforgettable portrait of small-town [doldrums] and gender identity crisis, using the [harrowing] tale of Teena Brandon,
clog
I unclogged your drain. The water's drain is good now.
Stagnation
Snazzy
snazzy
Y
D
–adjective
extremely attractive or stylish; flashy; fancy: a snazzy dresser.
What will transpire between Leo and Franz seems self-evident before they exchange a word.
The older man, decked out in a snazzy tweed blazer and a red silk ascot, has fairly unambiguous designs on his companion, who wears a black leather jacket, tight jeans and an air of rather studied innocence.
But the art of seduction, like the related arts of dramaturgy and filmmaking, is often a matter of taking a circuitous route to a foregone conclusion.
And so Leo reminisces about a woman he once loved, Franz natters [on] about his fiancee, and the two of them play a desultory game of ludo, a board game involving dice and little toy horses.
ascot
–noun
a necktie or scarf with broad ends, tied and arranged so that the ends are laid flat, one across the other, sometimes with a pin to secure them.
dramaturgy
–noun
the craft or the techniques of dramatic composition.
-urgy
a combining form occurring in loanwords from Greek, where it meant "work" (dramaturgy): on this model, used in the formation of compound words (metallurgy).
babushka
wimple
[Nuns] march past in step, their wimples [bobbing] up and down in unison.
their Adam’s apples [bobbing] up and down in excitement
cloak
but the material remains [cloaked] by the very propriety, stiff manners and emotional [starchiness] the picture delineates in such copious detail.
mantle
[earth's] mantle
The mantle of [darkness] obscured the view.
and the "popular kids" have Oscars on their [mantles]
burnoose
there must have been a shortage of [burnooses] in Europe while both pics were in production
Smock
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