Homily & Homiletic

homily







Y

D



–noun

1. a sermon, usually on a Biblical topic and usually of a nondoctrinal nature.

2. an admonitory or moralizing discourse.

3. an inspirational saying or cliché. 





　

 With a sun-spotted approach evoking equal parts Dogme 95 and Go Ask Alice, first-time director Jordan Melamed's languish[ing] 2001 Sundance-screened debut dutifully updates the plotless life-in-institution film to account for recent developments in rap-metal. 



Manic's milieu is a lockdown, pill-policed juvie detention center housing a supervised and therapized jumble of violent and sexual offenders, traumatized abusees, and recent-onset schizophrenics. At times, especially when soft talk/big stick counselor Don Cheadle is pressed into [preacher] mode, the mood gets Sipowicz-style homiletic. 



But often the script (co-written by Michael Bacall, who plays sardonic bipolar rich kid Chad) rings clear with mouths-of-babes declamations that all pained kids spew before down[ing] adulthood's suck-it-up Kool-Aid.





remonstrate

expostulate

where they expostulate their [views] on life and reflect on the state of their relationships with one another

exhort 

admonish & encourage!!!

exponent

a person or thing that expounds

an exponent of modern [theory] in the arts.  

[Lincoln] is an exponent of American democracy.  

As a strict [exponent] of unpleasure, however, Haneke will permit none of the narrative thrills the Coens provide in their funny games.

Flabbergast

Duress

duress







Y

D



–noun

1. compulsion by threat or force; coercion; constraint.

2. Law. such constraint or coercion as will render void a contract or other legal act entered or performed under its influence.

3. forcible restraint, esp. imprisonment.



—Synonyms 

1. intimidation, pressure, bullying, browbeating.





　

That circumstance forces Jim -- under paternal duress -- to fill in for Tim as an elementary school girls' basketball team coach, and to work at the dreaded ladder factory owned by mom and dad. The factory also employs black-sheep relation Uncle Stacy (Mark Boone Jr.), who prefers to be called Evil, and deals drugs out of the oblivious parents' business.





sweatbox

as it [tumbles] and [swirls] in the direction of a [gadgeted] sweatbox in which the hero's mental reflexes are relentlessly conditioned under stress.

penitentiary

slammer

landing her in the [slammer] and Ed at the mercy of [blowhard] big-city lawyer Freddy Riedenschneider. 

carcinogen

cf. incineration

incarceration

their [in]quisition, and eventually their [in]carceration by the other side 

which helps formerly [homeless] or [incarcerated] people learn [vocational] skills and become active members of their communities.

coop

Based on the true story of the Wineville Chicken [Coop] Murders, also known as the Wineville Chicken Murders.

snare

to snare her [into] going. 

even blow Spider-Man's [webbing] away from Scarlotti preventing him from being [ensnared].

that one impulsive action can set in motion a web of fate that ultimately [ensnares] the hero,



alchemy 

bullion

ingot

and key plan of a heist for landing a haul of $4 million in gold [ingots] from a security van in Turin, Italy.

drachma

peseta

Watch. I am taking 5,000 peseta note. You're my witness. 

wad

Irina always has a sizable [wad] of [cash] in her pocket 

a wad of [paper] [tobacco]

He wadded [up] his cap and [stuck] it into his pocket. 

They [rammed] and [wadded] the [shot] into their muskets.

quid

Fourteen thousand quid we offered.

sterling

The [sterling] equivalent is #5.50. 

a sterling [teapot] 

This factor is best actualized by the film's sterling [cast]

allowing the sterling [cast] of actors to play out a complex range of feelings.

trove

[treasure]-trove

After stumbling upon a [hidden] trove of diaries

and back-alley biblio [troves] atingle [with] hissed warnings

Ensconce

Cauterize & Cautery (續：焚化爐 單字大集合)

cauterize



Y

D

–verb (used with object)

to burn with a hot iron, electric current, fire, or a caustic, esp. for curative purposes; treat with a cautery.



Also, especially British, cauterise.





　

"Lonesome Jim," written by James C. Strouse, is the third feature film directed by Mr. Buscemi, whose 1996 movie, "Trees Lounge," depicted a similar state of ennui gripping a town in suburban Long Island. 



Mr. Buscemi also wrote and starred in that small [gem] of a movie, which [had] more psychological nuance than this emotionally cauterized slice of minimalist malaise. 





。乾濕度

Desiccate



conflagration 

a destructive fire, usually an extensive one

A conflagration destroyed [Chicago].

Bean has built a [bonfire] of contradictions and the ensuing [conflagration] illuminates a bit of the world. 

Starring Ralph Meeker as the brutal Hammer, Kiss Me Deadly is shot [through] with Aldrich's [anarchic] sensibility, from Cloris Leachman's desperate opening run along a pitch-black road to the final apocalyptic conflagration.

crematorium

which seems like an invitation for a sackrace to the [nearest] crematorium.

Hsiao-kang, a gay salesman of crematorium [niches] who wanders the city on his scooter,

slag

You slag, 15 minutes. 爐渣,熔渣,礦渣,火山渣

pyrethum

Personally, I prefer a pyrethrum job to a fluoride. With the pyrethrum, you kill the roaches right there in front of God and the client. whereas this starch and fluoride, leave it around, the roaches eat it, come back a few days later, they're running around fat as hogs. 除蟲菊,除蟲菊粉

pyre

You know , if we were living in India... you could have burned your fiance on a pyre in the village square for even hinting at what she did to you, to this day. 火葬用的柴堆

Knowing Lancelot and his family will try to stop the execution, Arthur sends many of his knights to defend the [pyre], though Gawain refuses to participate.

Me, I'm still a little bit depressed about, you know, the giant, smoldering funeral pyre in the middle of town.

Try now, we can only lose

And our love becomes a funeral pyre

Come on baby, light my fire

Try to set the night on fire

pyromaniac

Oliver attempts to [woo] his classmate, Jordana, a self-professed pyromaniac who supervises his journal writing – especially the bits about her.

stoke

poke, stir up, and feed (a fire).

Plus, I’m really proud of this film and am so [stoked] to be in it. 

Indeed, if anything, he is more so—more stoked [up] with anger and defiance at the reasonable efforts of the reformers to get him to be good and conform.

The opening sequence is by turns manipulative- [stoking] our indignation at the policemen’s casually insensitive and implicitly racist handling of the confrontation between Jean and Amadou- and naturalistic, artfully [thwarting] our desire to reach easy judgement. 

brazier

a metal receptacle for holding live coals or other fuel, as for heating a room

Careful with that brazier.



immolate

sacrifice 

kill as a sacrificial victim, as by fire, offer in sacrifice 

destroy by fire

Does it take much gas to immolate yourself?

immolation

sees herself licking the blood off Christ's (Grandier's) hands, exorcism by [enema], tortures, vomiting, and the final immolation.

cauterize

burn with a hot iron, electric current, fire, or a caustic, esp. for curative purposes

And I'm looking at him and ask what's going on, because he has totally cauterized eyebrows.

The final scenes of martial law and [social] cauterization provide a convincing climax that recalls Night of the Living Dead, but too much of what goes before seems [rote] and [predictable].

cautery

for curative purposes 烙(術), 燒灼劑

which [had] more psychological [nuance] than this emotionally [cauterized] slice of minimalist malaise. 



bask

lie in or be exposed to a pleasant warmth

His earlier celebrity as the director of the original Frankenstein movie and its sequel, The Bride of Frankenstein, results in his being visited occasionally by [disagreeable] young men who have come to bask in the [reminiscences] of this creator of two "camp" classics. 

nippy

chilly or cold

sharp or biting, tangy

Yeah, sure. Come in. It's a little nippy out there.

















Cautery

Rancor ***

rancor







Y

D



–noun

bitter, rankling resentment or ill will; hatred; malice.



Also, especially British, rancour.



—Related forms

rancored; especially British, rancoured, adjective 



—Synonyms 

bitterness, spite, venom, animosity. See malevolence. 



Malevolence, malignity, rancor suggest the wishing of harm to others. 



Malevolence is a smoldering ill will: a vindictive malevolence in her expression. 



Malignity is a deep-seated and virulent disposition to injure; it is more dangerous than malevolence, because it is not only more completely concealed but it often instigates harmful acts: The malignity of his nature was shocking. 



Rancor is a lasting, corrosive, and implacable hatred and resentment.



—Antonyms 

benevolence





　

Whatever the fate of Neil LaBute's Yank remake of The Wicker Man—which Warner Bros. is releasing this Friday (without advance press screenings) —it's unlikely to generate the enduring passion and rancor inspired by the 1973 occult classic. 



Other British films, such as Peeping Tom, The Devils, Straw Dogs, and A Clockwork Orange, steeped in violence and sexual sadism, have been more controversial; Get Carter, [lionized] by the '90s lad fad, has similarly gained in retrospective glory. 



But The Wicker Man's genre-bending, thematic daring, and tortuous history have made it the U.K.'s definitive cult movie. Equally admired by witchcraft geeks and cineastes, though critically neglected, it has spawned two books, three documentaries, websites, and fan conventions.





detest

vehement, besides a sense of disdain

To detes[t a] combination of ignorance and arrogance.

abhor

a deep-rooted horror or sense of repugnance

Nature abhors [a] vacuum.

abominate

express repulsion toward something thought of as unworthy, unlucky

To abominate [treachery].

grudge

to [hold] a grudge against a former opponent. 

after he and Gillespie come to a [grudging] understanding of one another

El Mariachi is a [reminder] of the cinema's simpler pleasures, where bad guys carry guns and [grudges],

feud

blood feud

The two [tribes] feuded with each other for generations.

as do others involving a [sisterly] feud between Sylvia and Coco.

This is a reference to Eazy-E, Ice Cube's former N.W.A. band mate, with whom he was [feuding] at the time of the movie.

Detest

Stupor

stupor







Y

D



–noun

1. suspension or great diminution of sensibility, as in disease or as caused by narcotics, intoxicants, etc.: He lay there in a drunken stupor.

2. mental torpor; apathy; stupefaction.



—Related forms

stuporous, adjective 



—Synonyms 

2. inertia, lethargy, daze.





　

Throughout the film, Keitel is almost constantly sniffing, smoking or injecting drugs he's stolen from police busts, plus some alcohol on the side and time-outs for sex. The cumulative effect is a far stronger anti-drug message than any lecture on screen could be. 



In his stupor, Keitel is investigating random murders, but his mind is on baseball playoffs.





dormant

suggest the quiescence, sleep but may be roused to action

a dormant [volcano]

inert

dead matter, with no inherent power, unable, heavy or hard to move

an inert [mass], inert from [hunger]

sluggish 

slowness, doesn not move readily or vigorously

a sluggish [stream] [brain] 

schlep 

with Dante schlepping [to] work at the Quick Stop in New Freakin' Jersey.

torpid

suspended physical powers, hibernate

[Snakes] are torpid in cold weather. 

But too often, the movie [sinks] into an [a]morphous state of emotional [torpor] 

Before long, pic falls into an ill-formed midsection marked by muddled action, abrupt transitions and a [lulling] [torpor].

Languid

Vagaries & Crotchet

vagaries







Y

[vuh-gair-ee, vey-guh-ree] 



D



–noun

1. an unpredictable or erratic action, occurrence, course, or instance: the vagaries of [weather]; the vagaries of the [economic] scene.

2. a whimsical, wild, or unusual idea, desire, or action.



—Synonyms 

2. caprice, whim, quirk, crotchet.





　

Certainly ''Bad Timing,'' which opens the ''British Film Now'' series (it will be shown at the Paramount Theater at 5 and 8 P.M. today, and will open at the Sutton tomorrow), has a great deal in common with Mr. Roeg's other films. Once again, he teams a fragilelooking man with a woman of exceptional abandon. 



Art Garfunkel and Theresa Russell, echoing Mr. Roeg's casting of David Bowie with Candy Clark, Mick Jagger with Anita Pallenberg, and Donald Sutherland with Julie Christie, play Americans who meet in Vienna and become involved in a sexually [explicit], but not particularly torrid affair. 



Though the title refers to the vagaries of their [relationship], it could just as easily denote the pattern of the story's exposition. Scrambled flashbacks help complicate this tale, which begins as a tepid romance and ends with a tepid crime. 





capricious 

unpredictable, arising from sudden whim

a capricious [administration] constantly and [in]explicably changing its signals; 

a capricious and astounding reversal of [position]. 

fickle

underlying perversity as a cause

once [lionized], now [rejected] by a fickle public.

inconstant

innate disposition to change

an inconstant [lover], flitting from affair to affair.

vacillating

lack of resolution of firmness

an [indecisive], vacillating [leader], apparently incapable of a sustained course of action.

erratic

She is a very erratic [tennis] player.

Our rowboat's [course] was erratic after we lost the [oars].

He's too [erratic] a writer and 

too [flaccid] a director 

to balance the [smirky]-dirty humor with the [schmaltzy] sensitive shit. 

whimsical 

whimsy 

pixilated

He blows up [cropped] arms, legs and [genitals] so that they’re heavily [pixilated] and almost look like Grand Master paintings.

Hypochondria

Immolate

immolate



Y

D



–verb (used with object)

1. to sacrifice.

2. to kill as a sacrificial victim, as by fire; offer in sacrifice.

3. to destroy by fire.





 　

A movie that opens with Louis XIII dressed as Botticelli's Venus, emerging from a half shell in a court tableau (to throw Tiny Tim kisses to his audience), is obviously a movie less interested in coherent thought than in spectacle. 



This includes crucifixion fantasies, in which Sister Jeanne of the Angels, Grandier's chief accuser, sees herself licking the blood off Christ's (Grandier's) hands, exorcism by enema, tortures, vomiting, and the final immolation.



enema

【醫】灌腸,灌腸劑 (器)





conflagration 

a destructive fire, usually an extensive one

A conflagration destroyed [Chicago].

Bean has built a [bonfire] of contradictions and the ensuing [conflagration] illuminates a bit of the world. 

crematorium

which seems like an invitation for a sackrace to the [nearest] crematorium.

pyre

You know , if we were living in India... you could have burned your fiance on a pyre in the village square for even hinting at what she did to you, to this day.

stoke

poke, stir up, and feed (a fire).

Plus, I’m really proud of this film and am so [stoked] to be in it. 



drizzle

Toward the end, Miss Lebrun has one long [drizzling] aria of remorse—about the futility of sex without love. 

sleet

flurry

a light, brief shower of snow or gust of wind, fluster

Dominating the screen in a [flurry] of aggressive method acting, Gallo makes no attempt to make his hateful loser of a protagonist the least bit sympathetic

avalanche

We received an avalanche of [inquiries]

She was avalanched with [invitations]

blizzard

There was a blizzard of [emails] going back and forth. 

slush

[romantic] slush

In the [snow] and [slush] of New Jersey

thaw

TJ set the trailer on fire. He didn't mean to, but the pipes froze, so he took out that damn torch, which I told him not to touch when I wasn't there, and he thawed them out. 

Desiccate

Salacious

salacious







Y

D



–adjective

1. lustful or lecherous.

2. (of writings, pictures, etc.) obscene; grossly indecent.



—Synonyms 

1. lewd, wanton, lascivious, libidinous. 2. pornographic.

—Antonyms 

1. modest.





 　

Given Russell's frantic pacing, performances tend to get lost amid the savagery. Reed carries the film with an admirably restrained portrayal of the doomed priest. Redgrave, on screen only sporadically, is stunning as the salacious sister.





fornication

The Jew says all he wants is to be left alone to study his Torah, do a little business, fornicate with his oversexed wife, but it's not true.

Shut up, you fornicator. 

cuckold

the husband of an unfaithful wife

The most striking male performance comes from Eckhart, who gained considerable weight and [de]glamorized his look to play the [cuckolded] hubby.

Then there's Gina Gershon who struggles in the role of the dutiful, supportive girlfriend who's [being] cuckolded,

adulterate

to adulterate [food]

just the [pure], [un]adulterated expression of an American artist's highly original personality.

philanderer

lothario

a man who obsessively seduces and deceives women

and, of all people, the ageless, orange-hued [lothario] George Hamilton.

mash

Tim encourages Francis to pursue Margie, at one point even sending her a [mash] note and signing his friend's name.

grope

leer

a lascivious or sly look.

I can't concentrate with you leering [at] me.

"strong, heavy ass that looked perfect in blue jeans" comes off a bit [leering],

ogle 

Uncle George got a black eye for [ogling] a lady in the pub.

Henrik, Egerman's son by a previous marriage, is studying theology, but he is constantly being [ogled] by Petra, the maid. 

This round and[ voluptuous] little French miss is put on spectacular display and is rather brazenly [ogled] from every allowable point of view.

squint

to look with the eyes partly closed.

to look or glance obliquely or sidewise; look askance.

He squinted through the [tele]scope.

The baby squinted its eyes at the bright [lights] 

Ellen Kuras' DV lensing is often momentarily blinded by [glare], as if [squinting] along with protags not at all sure where they stand.

peek 

glance quickly or furtively, 

esp. through a small opening or from a concealed location

[Close] your eyes. Don't peek. I've got a surprise for you.

Harron's biopic opens with a [peek] at the innocent raunch of mid-'50s Times Square. 

Debauchery

Perambulate & Traverse

perambulate







Y

D



–verb (used with object)

1. to walk through, 

about, 

or over; travel through; traverse.

2. to traverse in order to examine or inspect.



–verb (used without object)

3. to walk or travel about; stroll.





　

Sticking strictly to [elemental], M. Vadim, and Levy tell of a young lady in a town on the Riviera who is a perambulating peril to all males. She tempts them with her unrestrained gyrations. She joys in having them chase after her. Coincidentally, she finds it hard to resist them. "It's like an illness," she says.





loitering 

gallivant v.

Well he'd like us to think that he's writing a novel, but we all know he just goes out and gallivants with freshmen [women] trying to relive Jane.

trapes

traipes

As if we weren't concerned enough after her disturbing debut as Jenny in Kids; traipsing [across] town

stroll

Hurt, playing a cocky but lazy lawyer named Ned Racine, is strolling on a pier where an exhausted band is [listlessly] playing.

After dinner, they stroll [into] the drawing room, where we glimpse a woman's purse, filled with chicken feathers and rooster claws.

Languid

Fecund (續：樹木 蕨類 食用 園藝 單字大集合)

fecund



Y

D

–adjective

1. producing or capable of producing offspring, fruit, vegetation, etc., in abundance; prolific; fruitful: fecund parents; fecund farmland.

2. very productive or creative intellectually: the fecund years of the Italian Renaissance. 





　

At least as far as the movies go, the fecund late '60s are a gift that keeps on giving. As allusive as its title, Jean-Pierre Melville's all but unknown Army of Shadows, a French resistance saga made—and tepidly received—in 1969, emerges from the mists of time in a new 35mm restoration as a career-[capping] epic tragedy.





。桂冠詩人

。花朵

。葉綠素

Hemlock



。樹木

snag

Edward Norton in the role(s) of identical twins, had [hit] a buzz or release snag. 斷枝,剪枝

bough

The blossom came but the fruit withered and died on the bough. 大樹枝

acorn

It was no more than a piece of youthful bravado, but it was one of those acorns from which great oaks are destined to grow. Even then I went so far as to examine the family treem and prune it tojust the living members. 橡子,橡實

hemlock 

cedar

ficus

Is that my ficus? 熱帶榕屬植物

spruce

You are looking spruce. 雲杉

White fir, Douglas fir, silver tip spruce.

sequoias

I bet you told her all your trees wewe sequoias. (產於美國加州的) 紅杉

mahogany

It wasn't the biggest yacht in the world, but it had a fireplace in the library, and the bar was panelled in bleached mahogany. 桃花心木,紅木

coniferous 

turpentine

Go and buy me a turpentine.

sapling 

"Your saplings are taller than me"

burgeon

Let the Right One In follows the [burgeoning] relationship between Oskar,

poon

I mean, who here doesn’t want the heir apparent to Leonardo DiCaprio and, subsequently, and additionally, DiCaprio’s [poon] tractor beam, to succeed in this business?  (印度產) 胡桐樹

You set things up so you can play a little golf, you get a little poon, you smoke some good grass... and that's what life's about.

woodbine

All I had was a packet of woodbines. (開淡黃色花的) 一種忍冬屬植物,五葉地錦

deciduous

Name me three deciduous trees indigenous to the Northwest. 脫落性的,落葉性的

waddle

I will arise and go now, and tgo to Innisfree. A small cabin build there, of [clay] and [wattles] made. 枝條,籬笆條

poplar

I don't think we're supposed to get within, what, 10 feet... Property line's the poplar. 楊屬樹木,白楊

ebony

shillalah

When one went to school, the first thing one heard were the days of your glory, Truscott. Oh, dear, one day, apparently, you [debagged] the [chaplain], and hit the local [constable] over the head with an ebony shillelagh. 黑檀,烏木／(愛爾蘭) 橡樹棍





。蕨類

fern 

I found a piece of osmunda in Colbert's car. On the brake pedal. Osmunda. A fern root. 蕨類植物、羊齒植物

Beckett, what is that? That's a fern. That's right, this is a fern. What's that? That's a cactus. That's a cactus, that's right. And what is the plural of cactus, huh? Cacti.

Earth between my toes and a flower in my hair, that's what I was wearing when we lay among the ferns.

bracken

I thought I heard something, like someone running through the bracken. Another poaching ruffian! Come on!【植】歐洲蕨,蕨叢

spore

At the beginning of the film, as the alien [spores] rain down on earth, you see them presumably landing on the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco,

[Spores] rain forth, unseen, from outer space,

epiphyte  

Well, I'm partial to any of the epiphytics. 附生植物

tendril

even though special effects involving the pods and their [hairy] tendrils are brilliantly unsettling, 卷鬚、蔓

Neglected in poverty, they survive, black and white [entwined], in tough tendrils of friendship — which are tested when one of their group dies in a [roughhousing] accident.

moss

I spent a year with those moos.

fuchsia

Suddenly the lights are stripped of their garish [fuchsia] and purple gels, leaving the [scruffy] set, with its [mural] of the Titanic going under, washed in white light. 倒掛金鐘屬植物

catkin

Now, sometimes catkins are called lamb's tails. Don't you think they look rather like them? So lovely and tiny. 葇荑花序

bacillus

Dr. Noah's bacillus? Now, Jimmy, even you wouldn't release [germ] warfare.【微】芽孢桿菌

lemur

Bill, I can smell him on you. Benway marks out all those whom he has met like a lemur, pissing on a liana vine to mark his territory. You're a marked man, Bill. 藤本植物

brier

They were nearly home when a Maxim gun opened fire. Barnet's body landed on this wire that was as thick as briers. 野薔薇,荊棘,歐石南

bramble

Oh, please help. I'm stuck in the brambles! Tuck! 懸鉤子屬植物,有刺灌木,刺藤

creeper

Given a choice between the lives of his companions and the lives of Earth's last surviving firs and pines, oaks and elms, and creepers and cantaloupes, he decides for the growing things. 匍匐植物





。食用

。園藝 

Artichoke 

















Fecund

Picaroon, Brigand & Corsair

picaroon



Y

D



–noun

1. a rogue, vagabond, thief, or brigand.

2. a pirate or corsair.



–verb (used without object)

3. to act or operate as a pirate or brigand.



Also, pickaroon. 





　

The good, fourth century mysoginist, just one of the dozens of saints, rascals, nuns, picaroons, inquisitors, heretics, bishops, whores and humble people who are either represented or evoked in Luis Buñuel's marvelous new film, "The Milky Way," clearly had an ambivalent attitude [towards] women. 



Because of Buñuel's similar preoccupation with things he professes to abhor, the fine, irascible Spanish film director ("Thank God I'm an atheist!") has often been suspected of ambivalent attitudes towards the Roman Catholicism he has renounced and the God he has denied.





heist 

rifle 

pillage 

caper

buccaneer

Sham

Laity

laity







Y

[ley-i-tee]



D



–noun

1. the body of religious worshipers, as distinguished from the clergy.

2. the people outside of a particular profession, as distinguished from those belonging to it: the medical ignorance of the laity.





　

Mr. Bunuel caricatures St. Simon Stylites, who stood on a pillar in a Biblical desert in penance and worship. His Mexican-made film, beautifully photographed in stark black-and-white by Gilbert Figueroa, follows the satiric, surrealistic style that is the expatriate Spaniard's hallmark.



Circuitous and sharply abrupt in execution, the short subject jibes at the temptations thrust at his somewhat naive hero by both the [religious] and the [laity], and by Satan in the guise of a voluptuous Silvia Pinal. 



Miss Pinal and Claudio Brook, who looks like a black-bearded Charlton Heston-like Moses as St. Simon, play their roles broadly.



jibe

–verb (used without object)

1. to utter mocking or scoffing words; jeer.



Also, gibe, gybe, jib, jibb.





pontificate

papacy

papal

of or pertaining to the pope 

several parchment [documents], a few parades, a little papal [diplomacy]

oratorio

musical composition based upon a religious theme, without action, costume, or scenery

evensong

placebo

"placebo"

vesper

of or pertaining to evening

vesper [bell]

Finally there is his anguish as he dutifully rises to conduct vesper [services] in an empty church.

curfew

You're gonna get us busted for curfew.

I want a curfew. I want to be grounded for sleeping with a 35-year-old schizophrenic. I want rules and boundaries, because what I've learned is that, without them, all life is, is a series of surprises.

Hierophant

Devolve (續：往來 單字大集合)

devolve



Y

D

–verb (used with object)

1. to transfer or delegate (a duty, responsibility, etc.) to or upon another; pass on.

2. Obsolete. to cause to roll downward.



–verb (used without object)

3. to be transferred or passed on from one to another: The responsibility devolved [on] me.

4. Archaic. to roll or flow downward.





　

Which brings me back to the notion of Boll making a movie that isn’t trash. Because Stoic looks trashy as hell, if only in a more 'artistic' fashion than his game movies. The story follows three prisoners who played poker, with the loser being forced to eat his own vomit in a sort of hazing ritual that devolves [into] rape and murder/suicide. Supposedly the origin is in a true story which, you know, makes it all more legit.





。引發

。外交

Gratuitous



。往來

vicarious

I love living in vicariously [through] the pain and suffering of others.

His vicarious path to God, real or imagined, leads to an obsession with Eliza's success and he begins teaching her secrets of the Kabbalah.

devolve

transfer or delegate (a duty, responsibility) to or upon another, pass on

The responsibility devolved [on] me. 

in a sort of hazing ritual that devolves [into] rape and murder/suicide.

and darkly hilarious as they devolve [into] animalistic barbarism.

And unlike most teen actors who [devolve] into twisted shells of their former selves, the [bookish] star has gracefully matured, despite a journey neither straight nor narrow. 

The party gradually devolves [into] a farcical mess, culminating in a fire that burns down an old man's house. 



indemnification

restitution

The bank officers absolved him from having to make further [restitution].

rebate

Rebate offer subject to change.

He rebated [five] dollars to me.

The manufacturer is rebating this air [conditioner].  

gratuity 

a gift for service, a tip

honorarium

a payment in recognition of acts or professional services for which custom or propriety forbids a price to be set

Gov. Dalton, this is Jared Svenning, the gentleman to whom you are presenting the honorarium.

ingratiate

gratuitous

without charge or reason

It was a gratuitous [insult], quite undeserved.

Yes, it is explicit, and no, it is [not] gratuitous. 

Graphic but never [gratuitous] in its violence, "Eastern Promises" opens on a rainy December eve with

The director's refusal to become sexually [gratuitous] or [explicit] is exactly the point,

Lady Macbeth's gratuitously [nude] sleepwalking aside, 

and other devices lend each sequence an unpredictable vitality that never seems [gratuitous] or showy.

but Melamed and Hay made an [un]fortunate decision to use the hand-held style that specializes in [gratuitous] camera movement, just to remind us it's all happening right now. 

Cross-cutting between the Jackal's preparations and Inspector Lebel's efforts to find the [phantom] killer before the crime occurs, Day of the Jackal gains power by focusing on the two opposite jobs at hand rather than [indulging] in either psychology or gratuitous violence.



remunerate

reimburse

requite

1. make [repayment] or [return] for. 

2. make [retaliation], avenge  

That sibling break is exacer[b]ated by Accio's [un]requited [lust] for one of Manrico's disposable [girlfriends]. 

retaliate

to return like for like, esp. evil for evil

a prolonged [retaliatory] assault in which Maya transforms her pain into sadistic pleasure and sinks to Jared's level. 

This last point is illustrated in Maya’s [retaliation] against Jared.

In retaliation, Alva marries Hazel's [loutish] lover J.J..

In retaliation, the Shanghaiese mob arranges for the third son to be imprisoned on [trumped] up charges of collaboration with the Japanese.



retribution 

without personal motives

a [just] retribution for [wickedness]. 

When the deed is done, Von Sydow, a deeply religious man, begins to question the [efficacy] of a [God] that would allow his daughter's death, then permit so bloody a [retribution].

His motives never explained, Hsiao-Kang ultimately [visits] retribution on one of the thieves, [engineering] a comeuppance that is at once satisfying and [poignant]. The movie [bears] all the hallmarks of a Tsai movie: [dilapidated] interiors, a minimum of dialogue, and the symbolic [omni]presence of water. Perhaps more [maudlin] and less [rigorous] than Tsai's other movies, Rebels of the Neon God nonetheless [offers] a compelling introduction to his distinctive world view. 

While wandering around with his rag-tag band of mates, one boy gets [in]advertently killed. Fearing [parental] retribution, the gang hides the body.

reprisal

retaliation in warfare on enemy for its unlawful actions

to make a raid in reprisal for one by the [enemy].

vengeance

wrathful, vindictive revenge

[implacable] vengeance. 



amenable

an amenable [servant] 

He is eventempered and amenable [to] correction.

she is as [sculpted] as an idol, and every bit as amenable [to] worship.

accost

confront boldly

approach, especially with a greeting, question, or remark

(of prostitutes, procurers, etc.) to solicit for sexual purposes.

Glad to meet you. I'm sorry to accost you like this, but your receptionist wasn't too helpful.

You picked a dangerous mall to host a game show in. I hear the Easter Bunny was accosted this morning.

Wake me... with a kiss. Are you accosting me?

warpath

path or course taken by American Indians on a warlike expedition

It isn't long before Regina and her pals are on the warpath, and Cady must face a level of vengeful behavior for which years in the jungle never prepared her.



symbiotic

Biology. living together of two dissimilar organisms, as in mutualism, commensalism, amensalism, or parasitism

Teresa Wright plays Charlie, a small-town high-schooler who enjoys a symbiotic relationship with her favorite uncle, also named Charlie. 

chute

Government's going to have a hard time trying to inspect 'em. Those big horns'll never go through a chute. 瀉槽,導槽,滑運道



siphon

Mary, get that siphon bottle there! Quickly! The soda? Yes! Hurry! Hurry! 虹吸管


















Devolve

Zinger

zinger







D



n. (名詞 noun)【俚】



          1.    有力的反駁 (或警句等)

          2.    精神抖擻的人

          3.    不尋常的事物



Y



–noun Informal.

1. a quick, witty, or pointed 

remark 

or retort: During the debate she made a couple of zingers that deflated the opposition. 



2. a surprise, shock, or piece of electrifying news: The President's resignation was a real zinger.

3. a person or thing that has vitality or animation or produces startling results.





　

It treats the characters like cute little performing seals--who always deliver their "retarded" dialogue with perfect timing and an edge of irony and drama. 



Their zingers slide out with the precision of sitcom punch lines.









　

An unnamed man and woman in their late 30s meet at the New York hotel ballroom wedding of the man's sister. As she (Bonham Carter) chain-smokes and he (Eckhart) chain-drinks, innuendos and witticisms [roll] out of their mouths, and they circle one another like cats; 



they both appear pretty good at their games -- she at simultaneously warding off and attracting male attention with British-accented zingers, he at coming at a woman from so many different angles that his relentlessness is finally irresistible.





flabbergast

Miranda, flabbergast[ed], denies any knowledge of such events,

aghast

They [stood] aghast at the sight of the plane crashing.  

rudder

shudder

does anyone remember when Brolin was still cavorting [around] in films like Hollow Man? I do *shudder*

Haneke seemed to suggest that recent cinema has cheapened such [slaking] of emotion into a near-pornographic fake: we are crazed and cheered by [shuddering] events that have no authentic claim upon our feelings. 

lurid 

The details of that tragedy are too [lurid] to mention

grisly

And usually the laughs are [grisly]; we [wince] at the same time.

that he causes a [grisly] limb-severing accident.

he later lands jobs as a police photographer—his crime-scene snaps a [grisly] parody of his youthful [shutterbug] enthusiasms—and as a suspect-stomping cop.

stupendous

a stupendous [mass] of information.

Terrence Malick aims for a kind of psychological realism through poetics in this [stupendous] reexamination of the Pocahontas myth. 

Flabbergast

Gingerly

gingerly



Y

D



–adverb

1. with great care or caution; warily.



–adjective

2. cautious, careful, or wary.



—Synonyms 

1. cautiously, carefully, prudently.





　

The story of a brainy family's coming apart lacks a crucial emotional component in "Bee Season." This intelligent, precision-tooled adaptation of Myla Goldberg's 2000 bestseller centered [on] an 11-year-old spelling whiz delves gingerly [into] mystical territory in [charting] the separate paths explored by the [quartet] of characters. 



But the film is ice cold, never finding a way to invite the viewer into the story, and Richard Gere doesn't convince as a Jewish biblical scholar. Upscale, literary-oriented types will be lured, but fans of the docu "Spellbound" expecting similar pleasures, along with general auds, will find the Fox Searchlight offering far [too] highfalutin for words.



highfalutin

【美】【口】誇張的





voracious

veracious

Impugn means to "challenge the truth or integrity of something," "to attack its [veracity]",

probity

integrity and uprightness; honesty. 

mistakes [self-righteousness] for [probity]. 

rectitude

We are saved, from time to time, not so much by the [rectitude] of the Charles Lanes as by the [dogged] curiosity of the Adam Penenbergs. 



remonstrate

expostulate

where they expostulate their [views] on life and reflect on the state of their relationships with one another

exhort 

admonish & encourage!!!

exponent

an exponent of modern [theory] in the arts.  

[Lincoln] is an exponent of American democracy.  

As a strict [exponent] of unpleasure, however, Haneke will permit none of the narrative thrills the Coens provide in their funny games.



apposite

The combination of [stilted] speeches and deft behavioral acting sometimes seems peculiar, but it is also peculiarly [apposite]. 

felicity

felicitous

felicity of [expression]

the meetings are [felicitous] and the tears very easy to understand. 

While the tale of first contact between Englishmen and the "naturals," as the Brits felicitously [refer] to the Native Americans,

opportune

pat

a pat solution [to] a problem.  

Unlike Steven Spielberg's jocular Catch Me If You Can, Shattered Glass doesn't offer a pat [explanation] for its anti-hero's pathological lying. 

excessively glib, unconvincingly facile

His answers were [too] pat to suit the examining board. 

Likewise, some dialogue is a [little] pat.

dossier

documents on the same subject, esp. a complete file containing detailed information

You'll take responsibility for the dossier.

Flabbergast

Casuistry

casuistry



Y

D



–noun 

1. specious, deceptive, or oversubtle reasoning, esp. in questions of morality; fallacious or dishonest application of general principles; sophistry.

2. the application of general ethical principles to particular cases of conscience or conduct.



specious

–adjective

1. apparently good or right though lacking real merit; superficially pleasing or plausible: specious arguments. 





　

There are many mysteries in "Bee Season," but the greatest conundrum has to be: in what parallel universe would Binoche marry Gere? Also, do we believe him as a Kabbalistic scholar? 



I was happy to salute him as a robotic fornicator in 'American Gigolo," but, given that his sole means of signalling brain activity is to go very still and shut his eyes, the world of academia may not be his patch. In the role of Saul, he becomes obsessed by his daughter’s progress from school bees through to the nationals, in Washington, 



but instead of testing her on "casuistry" and "arrhythmia," like any other pushy dad, he inducts her into the methodology of Jewish mysticism. He even lends her a copy of his Ph.D. thesis, at which point I didn’t know whether to stay with the movie or run out and call social services.



arrhythmia

【醫】心律失常,心律不整





sophism

solipsism

Gallo has limited himself to the most proudly [solipsistic] subjects.

And that anguished [solipsism] seems to be, at least in part, the movie's subject. 

"Kicking and Screaming" [strikes] a cheerfully solipsistic note. Chris Eigeman, the handsome young [curmudgeon],

This scenario's emphasis on objectification and mind control, its exaggerated horror of duplicity and role-playing, do not convincingly critique [art]-world solipsism.

eclecticism

his music can be maddeningly inconsistent because of this eclecticism

One of the most inventive and [eclectic] figures to emerge from the '90s alternative revolution

and the director ably captures the film's eclectic European [settings]

discursive

digressive

proceeding by reasoning or argument rather than intuition.

agnostic

Finch, as an intellient, attractive [agnostic], [conveys] a romantic attachment for Hepburn

At one point Felicie, an [agnostic], tells Loic about a kind of epiphany she had in the Nevers cathedral.

gnomic

gnostic

pertaining to knowledge

The Cathars were gnostic [Christians] but Pope Innocent III considered them to be devil worshippers.

As might any [flabbergasted] viewer of the documentary Spellbound, Saul gets a case of the [gnostics] as Eliza's seemingly sourceless orthographic gifts come into focus.

abiogenist

"abiogenist"

Umlaut

Legible ***

legible 







Y

D



–adjective

1. capable of being read or deciphered, esp. with ease, as writing or printing; easily readable.

2. capable of being discerned or distinguished: Anger was legible in his looks and behavior. 





C



illegible, ineligible, legible, readable, unreadable (adjs.) 

 

Legible and readable are synonyms used to say that something is physically in such condition as to permit it to be read, but legible is essentially limited to that meaning, as in The signpost was so faded as to be scarcely legible, 



whereas readable has a more general sense of accessibility, including interest and attractiveness and the idea of ease of reading, as in Her prose style was informal and very readable.



A piece of writing can be illegible if the handwriting is impossible to decipher, if the ink has faded, or the like. A piece of writing can be unreadable because of illegibility or because it is too dull, too full of hard words, too badly punctuated, or simply senseless.    



A visual or tongue-twisting metathesis could conceivably cause illegible and ineligible ("not qualified, not suitable") to be interchanged accidentally. 



Don’t let it happen. 



metathesis

【語】音位轉換





　

As Eliza makes legible the mysteries of the sefirot, her brother and mother's behavior becomes increasingly garbled. 



Stung by the fickleness of his father's own primal energies (Gere's performance strikes a perfect balance of jocular egotism and striver edginess), 



Hebrew-school ace Aaron goes impulse shopping at first a church and then, more pivotally, an ashram after a chance encounter with Hare Krishna sylph Chali (Kate Bosworth), who brightly intones, "Something's missing... from your life." 



Same goes for chronically anguished mom Miriam (Juliette Binoche), who's beset by flashbacks to her parents' death in a car accident and keeps finding herself in strangers' apartments. 



Oddly, the movie internalizes Daddy's formidable self-regard by presenting Aaron and Miriam's spiritual disarray as a mess of Saul's own making, while Aaron's absurdly petulant reaction to his pensive little sister's spelling tutorials leaves his bhakti in serious doubt.



ashram

(印度教) 聚會所

【美】嬉皮士群居之會所

bhakti

(印度教) 對神的虔信





acrostic L.O.V.E.

anagram

as the elderly Buñuel did in “That Obscure Object of Desire,” into shameless, surreal anagram[s] of [wit] and [lust].



calligraphic

given cotyledon, calligraphic plant life [sprouts] from her flowered blouse.

cuneiform 

hieroglyphic 

They all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world. The real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by as set of arbitrary signs.

its hieroglyphics are [vividly] rendered, but Bee Season never manages to spell them out.

rune

runic

of the ancient Scandinavian

Just as The Deep Endnearly drowned in its liquid symbolism, Bee Season indulges many a [runic] omen—the [portentous] credit sequence tracks a massive letter A dangling from a helicopter,



gazette

Spare me your dissembling and relinquish the forbidden gazette.

rubric

Seven of these have appeared under the magazine’s [rubric] "Shouts and Murmurs,"

Chiaroscuro