Limpid & Pellucid

limpid







Y

D



–adjective 

1. clear, transparent, or pellucid, as water, crystal, or air: We could see to the very bottom of the limpid pond. 

2. free from obscurity; lucid; clear: a limpid style; limpid prose. 

3. completely calm; without distress or worry: a limpid, emotionless existence. 





　

One of the glories of the old French cinema, Jean Vigo's 1934 L'Atalante, opens Friday, in a new 35mm print, for a week's run at Film Forum. Vigo's lone commercial movie, L'Atalante benefits from an extraordinary alchemy. 



The filmmaker, a temperamental anarchist, surrealist fellow traveler, and one-man nouvelle vague, loathed the mediocre script he'd been given—a moralizing tale in which a village girl marries a self-satisfied barge captain and is taught by him and his pompous old mate to appreciate the monotony of her new life and scorn the decadent pleasures of the shore. 



Vigo followed the original screenplay while undermining its smug implications. As filmed, the narrative dissolved into limpid anecdotes. Quasi-documentary bits of business were scattered throughout, and, thanks to the performances, the characters appear far more complicated than written, particularly the unpredictably irrational mate sensationally embodied by Michel Simon. 



Vigo's untimely death (at 29, a few days after a mutilated cut of L'Atalante completed its initial mayfly run) ensured that his particular vision would never grow old. L'Atalante is the world in springtime—a place where shimmering reflections, smoky breezes, empty streets, and a free-floating sense of erotic energy are the essence of life and of movies.





tumescent

He probably [perks] up when the TV ads warn about four-hour [tumescence].

tumid

turgid 

swollen

turgid [language]

turbid 

dark & muddy

bloat

Overeating bloated their [bellies]. 

The [carcass] started to bloat.

to [cure] (fishes) as bloaters. 

The promotion has bloated his [ego] to an alarming degree. 

bulge

(hump) a bulge in a [wall].  

(suddenly) the bulge in [profits].

Penn lets loose: his neck cords [bulge], his voice becomes [coarse],  

Bale, who dropped an alleged 63 pounds off of his pumped-up "American Psycho" [torso] to [emerge] in such a state of [rib]-bulging cadaverousness that

Debilitate