Accordion

accordion



Y

D



–noun Music. 

1. Also called piano accordion. a portable wind instrument having a large bellows for forcing air through small metal reeds, a keyboard for the right hand, and buttons for sounding single bass notes or chords for the left hand.

2. a similar instrument having single-note buttons instead of a keyboard. 



–adjective 

3. having a fold or folds like the bellows of an accordion: accordion [roof]; accordion [panel].  



–verb (used without object) 

4. (of a door, roof, or other covering) to open by folding back or pressing together in the manner of an accordion: The [roof] of the car accordions to let in sunlight and fresh air. 

5. to fold, crush together, or collapse in the manner of an accordion. 



–verb (used with object) 

6. to demolish by crushing together lengthwise: The impact accordioned the car beneath the truck.  





　

Adapted from an early unproduced play by Rainier Werner Fassbinder, Francois Ozon's ''Water Drops on Burning Rocks'' never leaves the confines of a Berlin bachelor pad done up in exquisitely detailed mid-70's decor. 



After a credit sequence of generic French accordion music played over color postcards of the city, the camera settles in the empty apartment to await the entrance of Leopold (Bernard Giraudeau), the suave 50-year-old who lives there, and Franz (Malik Zidi), a 19-year-old redhead he has apparently just picked up. 





navel & umbilicus

a [navel] orange, the [umbilical] cord

when reading Deirdre's navel-gazing poetry, yet resists the [temptation] to either [demon]ize or [caricatur]ize her.

cadre

They hoped to form a [cadre] of veteran party [members].  

when a frustrated [cadre] of student environmentalists attempts to liberate... The [animals] won't budge. 



implode

and DiCaprio is just as credible when Frank comes close to striking his wife during their [horrific] fights as he is when he quietly [implodes] with his own regret.

Debilitate

Sundry & Sundries

sundry







Y

D



–adjective 

1. various or diverse: sundry persons.  



—Idiom

2. all and sundry, everybody, collectively and individually: Free samples were given to all and sundry.  





C



sundry (adj.), sundries (n.) 

 

Sundry is an adjective of somewhat pedantic or archaic flavor; it means "several, several kinds, various." The cliché all and sundry, meaning "every one or everything, the whole collection," is still in use, 



pedantic 

–adjective 

1. ostentatious in one's learning.

2. overly concerned with minute details or formalisms, esp. in teaching.





and the noun, especially in the plural, has wide use meaning 



"a hodgepodge, a miscellany, typically of small items such as might be sold in a drugstore or novelty shop," 



and in a specialized plural sense meaning those particular items themselves: Try the department where sundries are sold.





　

In act three, ex-fiancée Anna (Ludivine Sagnier) shows up at the apartment while Leopold is away. Their previous passion is quickly [rekindled], and Anna soon marvels at the sundry techniques her lover has learned since she last saw him. 





picket

Don't cross the picket [line]

to picket a [lawn] [captives]

a small group of protestors [picketed] the movie... those carrying picket [signs] decrying the movie as an attack on religious beliefs.

mete

demarcation

Unlike many child actors who’ve made the successful [transition] to grown-up roles, DiCaprio hasn’t evolved in predictable ways—there are no clear [lines] of demarcation.

aberration

aberrant 

that the Huey Longs were [a]berrations,

trajectory

While the film [follows] a tragic [trajectory], the Coens can't resist leavening it with oddball humor.



stature

the height of a human or animal body.

She was rather [small] in stature.

Thomas Jefferson was a man of [great] stature.

Film noir is rarely about heroes, but about men of small [stature], who are lured out of their timid routines by dreams of wealth or romance. Their sin is one of [hubris]: These little worms dare to dream of themselves as rich or happy. 

Nixon has his way with Frost through the first three [sessions], telling long stories, reinforcing his presidential [stature] and digressing when his [interlocutor] attempts to put him on the spot. 



quicksilver

displaying both his [quicksilver] inventiveness and [hangdog] self-deprecation. 

treacherous

He was cruel, [treacherous] and unscrupulous.

My [memory] is treacherous.

cabal

He discreetly joins up with the German Resistance - a [cabal] of high-ranking military and government [bigwigs] who meet in dark

Vicinity

Teeter (totter) (續：搖擺 蹣跚 單字大集合)

teeter



Y

D

–verb (used without object) 

1. to move unsteadily.

2. to ride a seesaw; teetertotter. 



–verb (used with object) 

3. to tip (something) up and down; move unsteadily. 



–noun 

4. a seesaw motion; wobble.

5. a seesaw; teetertotter.





　

Harrison Ford gives a strong performance as the nerve-wracked man at the end of his tether, but apart from a few pernicious Parisians, the supporting cast is missing in action. 



Polanski's eccentric eye and fastidious attention to detail heighten the surreal nature of what is happening to Ford's character. While the look and feel of the film are unparalleled in '80s suspense cinema, Polanski's wandering and incohesive story line detracts from its caliber. 



While comparisons to Hitchcock may be a bit far-flung for this film, Polanski's homage to the king of suspense is uncanny. 



The film's disoriented point of view reflects Polanski's feelings of alienation from America and Hollywood, although being out of touch with Hollywood may have also afforded this film its teetering credibility. 



Teetering on the edge of overwhelming ennui, the woman pays a man (Rocco Siffredi) to join her for a [daring], four-day exploration of sexuality in which both [reject] all convention and [smash] all boundaries while locked away from society in an isolated estate.





。馬術

。 腳步 

Strut



。搖擺蹣跚 

carouse

carousel 

teeter

teetertotter

although being out of touch with Hollywood may have also afforded this film its [teetering] credibility.

and the [entire] community teeters on the brink of a British-Indian war.  

swagger

stagger

walk, move, or stand unsteadily

falter or begin to give way, as in an argument or fight

Physically [imposing] at 57, with a face that [bespeaks] untold battering and alteration, Rourke is simply [staggering] as Ram.

Alexandre talks about Sartre [staggering] out after his long intellectual chats in the cafe, and [speculates] that the great man's philosophy may be alcoholic [musings].

The pedestrian staggers [away] after the accident, and the next morning, Bibiane remembers what happened and is frightened at the [prospect] that she may have killed someone.

limp

hobble

walk lamely, limp 

proceed irregularly and haltingly

His verses hobble with their [faulty] meters.  

whether he's hobbling [along] as an adolescent [septuagenarian] early on

Hobbled by no such [handicaps] is his cousin Fred,

Why does he spend his time [boozing], [hobbling] around his bedroom on a crutch and [reviling] his wife, who quite obviously has the [proclivities] of that cat on the roof?

When the hobbl[ed] Helena tries to leave, he makes her his prisoner, eventually removing her arms to prevent her escape.

Don't worry. They didn't kill them. That would be like junking a Mercedes just because it had a broken spring. No, they had to make sure they could go on working, but they also had to make sure they could never run away. The operation was called "hobbling".

wobble

show unsteadiness, quaver, vacillate

The [table] wobbled on its uneven legs.

His [voice] wobbled.

the time travelers—or their doubles?—suffer bleeding ears and [wobbly] handwriting,

The reason for this is that McGann had only just passed his driving test when the film was made, and so was a bit [wobbly] on the motorway. 

You better sit down, you look a bit wobbly.

And this is all without mentioning the [pall] cast over the decade by cinema's most legendary names, their form veering from wobbly (Allen, Cronenberg, Scorsese) to inexcusable (Francis Ford Coppola put out both Bram Stoker's Dracula and Jack).

I doubt it. He seemed like one of those steady all-day drinkers always with a load on, but neverwobbly.


waggle

wobble or shake, esp. while in motion

He remebers the first one and would make those awful faces. I'm sure this one will be fine. The first one didn't waggle so.

groggy 

staggering, as from exhaustion or blows

dazed and weakened, as from lack of sleep

He wakes up [groggy] in a [sterile] room shared with timid Kenny, a 12-year-old molestee/molester.

You'll have to excuse me. I took a couple of sleeping pills, and I guess I'm still kind of groggy. I haven't been able to sleep much lately, Dix... worrying about you and everything.

I called from the airport but your line was busy. Groggy, but I'm okay.



lurch

an act or instance of swaying abruptly

(of a ship) to roll or pitch suddenly

The truck lurched [sideways]

Dressed in tinfoil and [lurching] like Frankenstein's monster

But it [lurches] all over the map, encompassing dialogue both inspired and juvenile-tasteless.

Julian Sands -- the poor man's Jeremy Irons -- stammers and lurches his way though scene after scene of borderline S & M self-[a]basement.

Mr. Mapother, familiar from "In the Bedroom," among other films, and Ms. Marling, a relative newcomer, make an appropriately awkward fit at first. Accustomed [to] living inside their heads instead of with other people, their characters are initially physically awkward around each other. They’re given to abrupt, hesitant gestures and lurching [movement]s, as if they had forgotten how to [take up] space with other human beings. Talking is even harder.

Of course. Only I don't understand why you are covering up for the gang who left you in the lurch. Funny friends!

swerve

turn aside abruptly in movement or direction, deviate suddenly from the straight or direct course

If you swerve, you might cross over into the next lane, and have a real accident.



tumble

fall helplessly down, end over end, as by losing one's footing, support, or equilibrium

stumble

strike the foot against something, as in walking or running, so as to stagger or fall, trip

In the end, it is Taylor who stumbles on the truth about the Planet of the Apes: "Damn you! Damn you! Goddamn you all to hell!"





。漫步在雲端

Shamble(s)

walk or go awkwardly, shuffle

















Teeter

Tweed

tweed



Y

(粗) 花呢



D



–noun 

1. a coarse wool cloth in a variety of weaves and colors, either hand-spun and handwoven in Scotland or reproduced, often by machine, elsewhere.

2. tweeds, garments made of this cloth.

3. a paper having a rough surface, used esp. for certain photographic prints.





　

The voice of the man in the tweed jacket who interrogates Michelle in her apartment is dubbed by Roman Polanski.





sideburns

coiffed

For her part, as [coiffed] here, Hall looks quite like Carly Simon.

perm

Aronofsky dotes on the details of the Ram's routine (securing meds, getting a [perm], visiting the tanning [parlor]), 

shaggy

this is really a shaggy [devil] story



vestibule

foyer

But arguably the film’s best scene is between Harvey and Dan in an otherwise empty [foyer]

berm

they "hydrate" and then stand in a row, on a [berm], pissing,



mortar

plaster

and there is a Wall of Shame [plastered] with the photos of the girls back home who have dumped them.  

gelatinous

The leaves are covered with gelatinous [ooze]. Whatever the trouble is, it's everywhere.

gluttony

glutinous 

viscous

that viscous [stew] of naïveté, insecure leader-lust, psychotic self-righteousness, and [medieval] imbecility?



stodgy

a stodgy Victorian [novel]

a stodgy business [suit]

Depp's leisurely quest leads through a [posh], [stodgy] landscape of libraries, lecture halls, and back-alley biblio [troves] atingle [with] hissed warnings

Smock

Billy Bob had a boner.

Billy Bob Thornton purposely made it look like Ed Crane had an erection in one of the scenes where he's watching Scarlett Johansson's character playing the piano. Only one of the prop guys noticed during production.





















不在場的男人 The Man Who Wasn't There

116 min. 2001 



Billy Bob Thornton ...  Ed Crane

Frances McDormand ...  Doris Crane

James Gandolfini ...  Big Dave Brewster

Scarlett Johansson ...  Birdy Abundas

Richard Jenkins ...  Walter Abundas

Tony Shalhoub ...  Freddy Riedenschneider 



  

[外電] The Life Obsessive With Wes Anderson 4. 韋思安德森評柯恩兄弟

3. 韋思安德森感覺很受傷









It turned out to be the beginning of a European adventure that, somewhere along the way, ended up producing The Darjeeling Limited. The movie features Schwartzman, Wilson, and Adrien Brody as three estranged brothers who travel through India by train in order to find themselves and bond with each other and "say yes to everything," as Wilson’s character puts it. This "spiritual journey" is played for laughs, though like all of Anderson’s work, the comedy is born out of sadness—a fractured family attempting to repair itself. (See David Edelstein’s review here.)



結果兩人展開一場歐洲探險，沿路上大吉嶺有限公司於焉誕生。電影由感情疏離三兄弟薛茲曼、威爾森、安德林布洛迪主演，搭乘火車長征印度是為了找尋自我，結合彼此，以及「對每件事說好」威爾森角色的台詞。這趟「心靈旅程」有歡笑，就像所有安德森電影，乃悲傷延伸之喜劇—一個破碎家庭試著彌補本身。









Anderson first got the itch to shoot in India after Martin Scorsese—an avowed fan who in Esquire once anointed Anderson "the next Scorsese"—introduced him to The River, a lush and evocative 1951 film made by Jean Renoir. The idea for the brothers traveling came from Husbands, a 1970 John Cassavetes movie about three suburban husbands escaping to London. "But my main idea was not the train, not India, not the brothers," says Anderson. "My main idea was, I want to write with Roman and Jason." One night when Anderson was holed up in Schwartzman’s Paris apartment, he read a few pages of his notebook to Schwartzman—a scene that ended up being the film’s opening. It wasn’t long before Schwartzman and Coppola had signed on, and the three of them set aside a month to travel through India by train. It was there that most of the script was written.



安德森手癢於印度拍電影，在馬丁史柯西斯—曾在君子雜誌 欽點 安德森為下一個史柯西斯的死忠影迷—介紹他看大河，飽滿誘人的一九五一年尚雷諾電影。兄弟旅行主意來自丈夫們，一九七零年約翰卡薩維提電影，關於三位近郊大丈夫逃往倫敦的故事。「但我的重點不是火車，不是印度，不是三兄弟。」安德森說。「我的重點是，我想和羅曼與傑森創作。」某夜安德森躲藏薛茲曼巴黎公寓，他向薛茲曼讀了幾頁安德森筆記本—該場景成為電影片頭。薛茲曼和柯波拉隨即簽約，三人排出一個月搭乘火車長征印度，劇本幾乎在那完成。









"I guess we went to India as research," says Anderson, "but the more precise-slash-romanticized description would be that we were trying to do the movie, trying to act it out. We were trying to be the movie before it existed."



「我猜我們以做功課心態前進印度，」安德森說，「但更精確／浪漫的說法，是我們試著做這電影，試著演出來。我們希望我們就是這電影，在這電影存在以前。」









On the trip to Rome, Anderson and company move about the train as if it belongs to them. They abandon the suitcase full of Bill Murray’s money and head to the dining car for pasta, prosciutto and melon, and numerous half-bottles of wine. After lunch they sneak into a business-class cabin (from which, later, they will be ejected when an Italian politician arrives with armed guards). Coppola and Furches decide to kill some time by completing the Times crossword puzzle; they are soon stumped, and turn to Anderson, an amateur crossword junkie, for assistance. "Mind if I hold the paper?" Anderson asks, setting the crossword in his lap, pulling an erasable pen from his pocket, and casually taking control of the situation. He gives the sense that everyone is participating, working together, and yet—as he fills in one answer after another—it becomes clear that the end result would be the same if Anderson were sitting there alone. 



往羅馬途中，安德森偕友人穿梭車廂，彷彿火車是他們的。他們拋下裝滿比爾莫瑞鈔票的手提箱，直奔用餐車廂，享用義大利麵，煙燻五香火腿，甜瓜，以及多瓶美酒。午餐後他們潛入商務車廂 (不久因一名義大利政客武裝駕到而被驅逐)。柯波拉和費區斯決定完成時代雜誌填字遊戲打發時間；他們馬上陷入困境，便找安德森，業餘填字遊戲成癮者，幫忙。「介意我拿著報紙嗎？」安德森問到，把報紙在膝蓋上整頓好，從口袋拿出一隻可擦拭筆，從容地掌控大局。他讓大家都有參與感，同心協力，然後—當他征服一格又一格—很明顯結果就和他獨自完成一樣。









"I think we’re just being entertained," jokes Coppola.



「我們只有被娛樂的份。」科波拉開玩笑。









"Oh, no—I couldn’t do this without you guys," says Anderson, a statement that comes across as both true and false.



「喔，別這麼說—沒有大家我是無法大功告成的。」安德森說，一個正確也是錯誤的聲明。









It is perhaps not unlike his collaborative process. His friends seem to act as conductors for his imagination: triggering it, encouraging it, very rarely questioning it. There were times on the set of Darjeeling, for instance, when Anderson would doubt his instincts: "Okay, am I doing too much of a 'thing I do' here?" he would ask the crew. Coppola was quick to quell the director’s insecurities. "Roman would always express his appreciation for being inventive and making what we thought was a strong choice." As Coppola puts it, "When you do something that really is your instinct to do, then what more can you ask of yourself?"



那可能不太像他的合作經歷。他的朋友似乎是他想像力的指揮：觸發它，鼓勵它，甚少質疑它。大吉嶺拍攝期間，例如當安德森對自己的直覺沒信心：「好的，我是不是在這裡做太多『我做的事』了？」他會這樣問劇組。柯波拉迅速地平息導演的不安全感。「羅曼總是表達他對創意以及我們所選擇的賞識。」科波拉表示。「當你順從你的直覺，還有什麼好懷疑的？」









Still, Anderson was tense at the premiere in Venice. It is the same at all premieres—Anderson worrying about how his movies, crafted in something of a parallel universe, will play in the world at large. "Mostly it’s just a process of steeling oneself for what’s going to happen. I’m sitting there thinking, Is the movie gonna be received with a lull of silence? Or with a boo?" says Anderson. "That’s a common thing in Europe, you know? They boo here." 



安德森對威尼斯影展首映還是感到緊張。每次首映都一樣—安德森擔心他的電影，製作於某平行宇宙，會在這世界怎樣被上演。「主要就是將自己轉到接下來將發生什麼的過程。我坐在那裡心想，這電影會被沉默之打呼接收，還是被噓？」安德森說。「那是在歐洲很常有的事，你知道嗎？他們噓人。」









For the record, they did not boo. The early reviews were mainly positive, much more so than with Aquatic, though there was the requisite grumbling that the movie was "good but more of the same," as Anderson puts it, shaking his head, after reading what Variety had to say. But the director does not seem particularly hurt or defensive this time around. "It’s probably not a good idea to put too much of your self-esteem on something like this, because, really, you can make a bad movie and it can be well received, and you can make a good movie and it can be badly received," he says. “I think people who’ve done it a lot have learned, like the Coen brothers, for instance. My impression of them is that they really aren’t that vulnerable to what comes back at them. And they could get anything from any of their movies. Like The Big Lebowski, the first time I saw it I thought it didn’t quite work, but the second time I saw it I thought, Oh, I didn’t get it. I just didn’t understand it. And I really loved it then." He adds, "You know, everyone’s limited. You can only do so much. I think in the end all I can do is say, Let me live the moment. I can still do what I want to do. I’m lucky enough to be able to do these movies so far."



這次，他們沒有飽以噓聲。早先影評大多呈現正面，比海海人生好上許多，即使還是有不可避免的牢騷，關於電影「很棒但了無新意」安德森說，看過綜藝評論後搖搖頭。但導演這次似乎沒有特別受傷或防備。「把過多自尊放在這種事上大概不是個好點子，你可以拍個壞電影但受好評，或拍個好電影但受壞評。」他說。「我認為經驗豐富的人學到很多，利如科恩兄弟。我對他們的印象就是他們對於負面意見從不在意。而且他們可以從他們的電影得到任何東西。比方說謀殺綠腳趾，我第一次看覺得不是很順暢，但第二次看，喔，我看不懂。我就是無法理解。然後我就愛上那電影了。」他補充。「你知道的，每個人都有限制。你就只能做這麼多。我猜到最後只能說，讓我活在當下。我還是可以做自己想做。目前為止我很幸運有辦法一直拍電影。」









Two weeks later, over the phone from his Paris apartment, Anderson briefs me about how he fared during the rest of his travels. After we parted ways in Rome, he tells me, he delivered the money to Luigi, clearing Bill Murray’s outstanding debt. For the next few days he dined at his favorite restaurants until he decided it was time to head back to Paris. A sleeper train was momentarily considered for the journey, until a better idea struck. "We ended up slowly wandering our way back to France in a Roman taxi," Anderson says, as if nothing could have made more perfect sense. 



兩週過後，他的巴黎公寓來電， 安德森向我簡短報告他之後旅行情況。羅馬分別後，他告訴我，他把錢運送給路奇先生，償還比爾莫瑞的巨額負債。剩下幾天他在他最喜歡的餐廳吃飯，直到決定是時候回巴黎。睡眠車廂暫時是好主意，直到有更好點子湧現。「結果我們搭乘計程車從羅馬漫遊回巴黎。」安德森說，好像沒有更完美的選項了。









The Life Obsessive With Wes Anderson



1. 韋思安德森的海海人生

2. 韋思安德森幽閉恐懼症

3. 韋思安德森感覺很受傷

















 

Stodgy

stodgy







Y

D



–adjective. 

1. heavy, dull, or uninteresting; tediously commonplace; boring: a stodgy Victorian novel. 

2. of a thick, semisolid consistency; heavy, as food.

3. stocky; thick-set.

4. old-fashioned; unduly formal and traditional: a stodgy old gentleman. 

5. dull; graceless; inelegant: a stodgy business suit.  



Synonyms:

1. tiresome, stuffy, prosaic.





 　

Depp's leisurely quest leads through a posh, stodgy landscape of libraries, lecture halls, and back-alley biblio troves atingle [with] hissed warnings: "Some books are dangerous!" The path is strewn with red herrings and dead bodies; 



eventually, Depp realizes that he's picked up witchy Emmanuelle Seigner as his guardian angel. 



Uninspired yet incongruously jaunty, The Ninth Gate never quite becomes unwatchable. Indeed, one could take perverse pleasure in a contemporary exercise in supernaturalism whose most impressive special effect is the satanic tattoo on Lena Olin's backside. 



atingle

–adjective 

tingling; stimulated.





If Mission to Mars manages an astonishing 30 minutes, The Ninth Gate barely provides 30 seconds. 



For confessional pathos, it's a toss-up [between] the scene in which an elderly French baroness in a motorized wheelchair brandishes her stump and tells Depp that her "orgy days are over" 



and the desultory black [mass] (seemingly in Swedish) that Langella disrupts with heartfelt cries of "mumbo-jumbo."





vestibule

foyer

But arguably the film’s best scene is between Harvey and Dan in an otherwise empty [foyer]

berm

they "hydrate" and then stand in a row, on a [berm], pissing,



mortar

plaster

and there is a Wall of Shame [plastered] with the photos of the girls back home who have dumped them.  

gelatinous

The leaves are covered with gelatinous [ooze]. Whatever the trouble is, it's everywhere.

gluttony

glutinous

viscous

that viscous [stew] of naïveté, insecure leader-lust, psychotic self-righteousness, and [medieval] imbecility?

Smock

Hokum & Bunkum

hokum







Y

D



–noun 

1. out-and-out nonsense; bunkum.

2. elements of low comedy introduced into a play, novel, etc., for the laughs they may bring.

3. sentimental matter of an elementary or stereotyped kind introduced into a play or the like.

4. false or irrelevant material introduced into a speech, essay, etc., in order to arouse interest, excitement, or amusement. 





 　

Barely releasable hokum, stuffed with [cheesy] blah-blah, Roman Polanski's tongue-in-cheek occult thriller The Ninth Gate stars a [solemn] and dapper Johnny Depp as a rare-book hustler hired to track down a 17th-century satanic tome for billionaire collector Frank Langella.



tongue-in-cheek

–adjective 

Meant or expressed ironically or facetiously.



dapper 

–adjective 

1. neat; trim; smart: He looked very dapper in his new suit.  

2. lively and brisk: to walk with a dapper step. 

3. small and active. 





pantomime 

mime

antics

buffoon & charlatan

stooge



witticism

conundrum 

tantrum 

Fray 



pun

The title 10 Things I Hate About You just begs for groan-[inducing] [puns] about its film's quality.

Crypto

Burnoose

burnoose



Y

(阿拉伯人和摩爾人穿的) 連帽斗篷



D



–noun 

1. a hooded mantle or cloak, as that worn by Arabs. 



2. a similar garment worn by women at various periods in Europe and the United States. 



Also, burnous.





 　

moviegoers might wonder, "What is it with elder statesmen of cinema sending handsome young men on creepy, addictive quests that lead to wealthy and powerful people with a more than passing interest in black masses and orgies?" 



In addition to convincingly re-creating New York City in European studios, both films are based on foreign lit, beautifully made and ultimately rather silly -- there must have been a shortage of burnooses in Europe while both pics were in production.





haberdashery

sartorial 

Argyle

cassock

He is a broad-shouldered man with a gentle voice, a well-fitting [cassock] and a hatred so fierce that it is not destroyed until his body is turned into a blazing pillar of fire. 

chasuble

In the scenes in church when Fr. Flynn is wearing green [vestments], he wears the [stole] over his [chasuble]. 

smock

Ed Crane is a man so [nondescript] that neighbors are always forgetting his name and no one seems to recognize him when he's not wearing his [barber's] smock.

negligee

their Adam's apples [bobbing] up and down in excitement as they shoot Page in a black [negligee] in a suburban living room.



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

The mantle of [darkness] obscured the view. 

and the "popular kids" have Oscars on their [mantles]

Smock

Snide (續：反美德 單字大集合)

snide



Y

D

–adjective 

derogatory in a nasty, insinuating manner: snide remarks about his boss.  





　

Roman Polanski's "The Ninth Gate" is a sardonic detective thriller [peppered] with carefully crafted pleasures, not the least of which is a snide approach to wealthy people with a [decadent] streak. 



Whether general audiences will find the story sufficiently suspenseful to turn out in large numbers is up for grabs, for although the pieces fit nicely, this is really a shaggy devil story whose giddy, ironic tone may throw viewers expecting a scary movie.



shaggy 

–adjective. 

1. covered with or having long, rough hair.

2. untidy; unkempt: a shaggy person.  





 。討厭憎恨

Detest



。反美德

affront a. n.

insult, offend deliberately

I couldn’t forgive his [affront] to [of] his mother.

a sneak thief [ransacking] his own broken home for self-serving material—and some critics at the Toronto film festival this year took Margot as a [scathing] matricidal affront.

effrontery 

shameless or impudent boldness, barefaced audacity

She then had the effrontery to ask a [favor]. 

Given the nature of the Inquisition, it seems unlikely such [effrontery] would have brought with [it] no consequences for Tomas and his retinue, as it does in the pic.

I'm at a loss to explain the blizzard of negative advance buzz fired at him for the [effrontery] of playing a half-blind, one-armed Nazi hero. 



jobbery

conduct of public or official business for the sake of improper private gain

A job is worth nothing these days of jobbery in high places.

venal

willing to sell one's influence, especially in return for a bribe, open to bribery, mercenary

Is it [idealistic] to want a whole island to yourself,

and [venal] to believe that other people might enjoy having homes there? 

even those of Faye Dunaway's ambitious programmer, lending a disturbingly matter-of-fact tone to the corporation's most venal and [de]humanizing [machinations].

schmear

spread, smear

Schmear it on the [bread]. 

The maid schmeared him on both comas. Look at this. It says here...

bribe



malady

[social] maladies

a malady of the [spirit]  

as a long-term philosophy major and bartender who’s remained on campus for ten years—in some ways a more advanced case of the [malady] affecting the four leads but in other ways more grounded and focused,

iniquity

gross injustice or wickedness

doomily recounting the descent into [iniquity]

The [iniquity] of the transaction aroused general indignation.

The girl grows gradually aware of the [social] iniquities about her, but only in retrospect does she fully realize just how cruel and wrong-headed the entire colonial system had been.

effete

lacking in wholesome vigor, degenerate, decadent 

an effete, overrefined [society] 

exhausted of vigor or energy, worn out

an effete political [force]

and the [effete] genius Adrian, aka Ozymandias,

unable to produce, sterile 



miasma

The film's form and purpose now [emerge] from the [miasma] of the original cut

inimical

Her opinions are inimical [to] our proposal. 

that the Amazon was truly inimical [to] humankind. 

animus

strong dislike or enmity, hostile attitude, animosity

animosity

and the animosity [Americans] had for the country of [Iran]. 

but their long-simmering [animosity] makes it hard for them to deal with the realities of Lenny's condition.

Some of you who watch might roll your eyes when Luke and Avery's (Bradley Cooper) short animosity gets passed on through their respective sons Jason and AJ (Emory Cohen).

anomaly

I removed some surgical tape from her lips and examined inside of her mouth. I gave the tape to a detective. The man over there. And I look at the anomaly very quickly.

anomy

anomie

a breakdown or absence of social norms and values

Despite this obsession with [urban] anomie

Affleck and Corrigan, sharing a [sloe]-eyed, slack-jawed [anomie], make for convincing siblings,

This sets the stage for a tale of uneasy love and [spiritual] anomie in sterile precincts of middle America. 

It's a testament to Tsai's ability to represent disconnectedness that it's not until well into the picture that we realize the three are a family, sharing the same [dilapidated] apartment in Taipei. 

The [elliptical] narrative focuses on the [ailing] Xiao-Kang and his quest for relief, but it's clear that his illness is a [stand-in] for a host of problems: family dysfunction, sexual confusion, [urban] anomie, and spiritual ache.

Starring Yang Kuei-Mei and Tsai regular Lee Kang Sheng as [zombified] neighbors, the movie imagines a [dreary] world where [urban] anomie and existential loneliness have seemingly ground life to a halt. 

Barely acknowledging the other's existence, the two drift purpose[less]ly through their [bleak] landscape, taking in [apathetic stride] their apocalyptic [limbo]. The only [respite] comes in the form of song.

Almost laughable in its [straight]-faced, [anti]septically designed seriousness, the talented music video director Mark Romanek's big-screen debut aspires to be a [suburban]-anomie retelling of a classic voyeur thriller like Peeping Tom, Psycho, or Taxi Driver.



reprobate n. v. adj.

a depraved, unprincipled, or wicked person

a person rejected by god and beyond hope of salvation

depraved

referring to character

and takes a brave leap of faith into the depraved real world. Aren't we lucky.

"blind people in this film are portrayed as incompetent, filthy, vicious, and [depraved]." 

turpitude

"turpitude"

vile, shameful, or base character, depravity

But I think you're saying these won't play any part in your deliberations? None whatsoever. So what are they? Moral turpitude, you could say.

snide

derogatory in a nasty, insinuating manner

not the least of which is a [snide] approach to wealthy people with a [decadent] streak. 

Imagine how snide anc vicious he could get, and still tell nothing but the truth.

abject

abject [poverty]

an abject [coward]



fulsome

offensive to good taste, esp. as being excessive

Then fulsome music [swells], and the underlying tragedy of human existence is evoked,

Well, well, well. There's a fulsome greeting. There's a hallelujah chorus.

egregious

extraordinary in some bad way, glaring, flagrant

an egregious [mistake] [liar]  

a notably ephemeral work by Michel Gondry, whose flights of fancy can't overcome the egregious [illogic] of the premise. 

Such sentimentality might sound egregiously [Spielbergistic], but Gondry strikes another chord.

Beckinsale's Annie is the most difficult in this last sense. She's supposed to [occupy] the righteous [position] of being harassed by her estranged husband (an agonized Sam Rockwell), but she treats people so poorly (most egregiously her young daughter) that she doesn't deserve an ounce of compassion.

Elf has the feel of a film that has been test-marketed to every conceivable [demographic], which it undoubtedly was, considering the egregious product placements on display throughout.

I'm not a hired gun. I gotta feel a moral or constitutional issue is at stake. But I'm absolutely innocent. And my civil liberties have been egregiously violated.

helluva

hell of a

Oh, it's you, Ichikawa-san. I figured you'd kicked the bucket. That's a helluva welcome.

ornery

Dialect. ugly and unpleasant in disposition or temper

You ornery critter!

blatant

brazenly obvious, flagrant

offensively noisy or loud

There's a character in this one that I based on you. I mean, I named him Ashby, but it's so blatantly you.

Ángela, the nurturing, devoted wife and mother, defies convention by welcoming Ángel's blatantly focused attention towards her and encouraging his company by inviting him to dinner and entertaining his telephone calls.

but this is a [blatant] lie: during his incarceration, he learns that the family has gone broke, his wife committed suicide and his children have been sent to an orphanage.


















Snide

Gnostic

gnostic







Y

諾斯替教徒



D



–adjective Also, gnostical. 

1. pertaining to knowledge.

2. possessing knowledge, esp. esoteric knowledge of spiritual matters.

3. (initial capital letter) pertaining to or characteristic of the Gnostics.

–noun 

4. (initial capital letter) a member of any of certain sects among the early Christians who claimed to have superior knowledge of spiritual matters, and explained the world as created by powers or agencies arising as emanations from the Godhead.





 　

Chateau Puivert (the Ninth Gate) is called The Devil's Tower. It was used by the Cathars to defend themselves during the Albigensian crusades in the 13th century. The Cathars were gnostic Christians but Pope Innocent III considered them to be devil worshippers.



Albigensian

清潔教教徒的



Albigenses

–plural 

noun members of a Catharistic sect in the south of France that arose in the 11th century and was exterminated in the 13th century by a crusade (Albigensian Crusade) and the Inquisition. 





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],

discursive

agnostic

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

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]

Umlaut

Eclecticism & Eclectic

eclecticism



Y



n. (名詞 noun)



          1.    折衷派;折衷說



D



1. the use or advocacy of an eclectic method.  



2. a tendency in architecture and the decorative arts to mix various historical styles with modern elements with the aim of combining the virtues of many styles or increasing allusive content.





eclectic



D



–adjective 

1. selecting or choosing from various sources. 



2. made up of what is selected from different sources.

3. not following any one system, as of philosophy, medicine, etc., but selecting and using what are considered the best elements of all systems. 



4. noting or pertaining to works of architecture, decoration, landscaping, etc., produced by a certain person or during a certain period, that derive from a wide range of historic styles, the style in each instance often being chosen for its fancied appropriateness to local tradition, local geography, the purpose to be served, or the cultural background of the client. 



–noun 

5. Also, eclecticist. a person who follows an eclectic method, as in philosophy or architecture. 





 　

With each album he released, Prince has shown remarkable stylistic growth and musical diversity, constantly experimenting with different sounds, textures, and genres. 



Occasionally, his music can be maddeningly inconsistent because of this eclecticism, but his experiments frequently succeed; no other contemporary artist can blend so many diverse styles into a cohesive whole.





 　

Actor Johnny Depp convincingly portrays a greedy rare-book dealer and the director ably captures the film's eclectic European [settings]



however, The Ninth Gate fails to deliver much in the way of genuine chills, relying instead on atmosphere and implied violence to convey the sense of menace that his script doesn't deliver.





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],

discursive

agnostic

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



megillah  

Just give me the facts, not a [whole] megillah.  

which serve to remind us how typically commercial the [whole] megillah is. 

rubric

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

interpolation

Act Three, Scene Five of "Macbeth" is an interpolation, an [addition] to the Shakespeare play from another script.

putative

As vivid and suspenseful as Roman Polanski has made this claustrophobic tale of a torture victim turning the tables on her [putative] tormentor

Umlaut

Grubby

grubby



Y

D



–adjective

1. dirty; slovenly: children with grubby faces and sad eyes. 

2. infested 

with 

or affected by grubs or larvae. 



grub

–verb (used without object) 

10. to dig; search 

by 

or as if by digging: We grubbed through piles of old junk to [find] the deed. 



3. contemptible: grubby political tricks.  



Synonyms:

1. grimy, unkempt, messy, filthy, bedraggled.





　

Cameos from pool champ Willie Mosconi and boxer Jake LaMotta add to the atmosphere of Harry Horner's grubby production design and Eugen Schüfftan's camerawork.





raunchy slob unkempt

randy

and Randal (Jeff Anderson), that [spiky], even less evolved specimen of dedicated...uh, [randiness]

bandy

from one to another, back and forth

to bandy [blows] [words]

disheveled

But the [souffle] never [rises], for reasons that begin with the fact that the [disheveled] Jerry seems like a certifiable lunatic in immediate need of extended treatment.



bristle brittle

ruffle

rumple 

irregular, uneven, jagged.

Jerry's assistant Watson (rumple-faced Irv Gooch)

corrugate

corrugated [cardboard]

The picture is unthinkable [without] her presence—swaying between the [jubilant] and the [fretful], all wide [eyes] and corrugated [brow]. 

furrow

In spring, [farmers] are busy furrowing the fields.

His [brow] furrowed.



frazzle

but by her extravagant turn as a [frazzled] performance artist

floating notions about loneliness and urban beauty, frazzled [adults] and buffeted [kids]. 

Meanwhile, [frazzled] shoe salesman Richard is splitting with his wife 

frizzle

no accent, frizzed [hair] or darkened complexion, and no attempt to consciously rein in emotion.

fizzle

That the climax [fizzles] must be laid on doorstep of Halsted Welles, who adapts Elmore Leonard's story quite well until that point.

Debauchery

Brethren (pl.)

brethren







Y

D



–plural noun 

1. fellow members.

2. Archaic. brothers. 

Synonyms:

1, 2. See brother. 



Brothers, brethren are plurals of brother. 



Brothers are kinsmen, sons of the same parents: My mother lives with my brothers. 



Brethren, now archaic in the foregoing sense, is used of male members of a congregation or of a fraternal organization: The brethren will meet at the [church]. 





C

 

brethren, brothers (nn.) 

   

Brethren is a relic, a variant plural of the noun brother, brothers being regularly formed. 



It is used mainly in religious and fraternal societies or in jocular contexts imitative of Oratorical or Formal religious use. 



Brothers is the plural for general use. 



relic

–noun 

1. a surviving memorial of something past.





　

Except, of course, for Dr. Manhattan. He's the only hero with actual superhero-type powers, but in a Catch-22 that illustrates the story's overall thesis, wielding nonhuman [abilities] means becoming nonhuman -- and therefore lacking a hero's necessary sense of protectiveness over his brethren. 



By the time the film reaches its highest-of-the-high-stakes climax, Dr. Manhattan has become so removed from the most fundamental experiences of carbon-based life -- let alone humanity -- that he no longer feels the pull to fight for its survival.





chum

But the action stems from the arrival of his [chum], Warren, who comes bearing $15,000 he has stolen from his self-made father

crony

I think he may be one of [us]," Harvey winks to one of his cronies.

Johnny Ross, who is scheduled to testify against his Mob [cronies] before a Senate subcommittee in San Francisco.



throng

presses together or forward, with common aim

and everyone throngs in the street to watch, [perched] on stoops like kids in an Andy Hardy picture. 

a throng of [memories].  

He thronged the picture [with] stars.

swarm   

contemptuous

A swarm of [dirty] children played in the street.

rabble

The [nobility] held the rabble in complete contempt. 

It was a bully pulpit from which to challenge rabble [rousers] like the gay-hating Anita Bryant.

ragtag

Milk rouses a [ragtag] army of street boys and Harvard graduates.

Deluge 

Singe ***

singe







Y

D



–verb (used with object) 

1. to burn superficially or slightly; scorch.

2. to burn the ends, 

projections, 

nap, or the like, of (hair, cloth, etc.). 



3. to subject (the carcass of an animal or bird) to flame in order to remove hair, bristles, feathers, etc.

–noun 

4. a superficial burn.

5. the act of singeing. 



Synonyms:

1. char. See burn 1 . 



Burn, scorch, sear, singe refer to the effect of fire or heat. 



To burn is to consume, wholly or in part, by contact with fire or excessive heat: to burn leaves. 



Scorch implies superficial or slight burning, resulting in a change of color or in injury to the texture because of shriveling or curling: to scorch a dress while [ironing]. 



Sear refers esp. to the drying or hardening caused by heat: to sear a roast of meat. 



Singe applies esp. to a superficial burning that takes off ends or projections: to singe [hair]; singe the [pinfeathers] from a chicken.





　

While the plot is agreebly locked in storage, the crisp visuals and a cast that includes JJ-fave Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, John Hurt, Gael Garcia Bernal and Isaach De Bankolé in the lead (the French icecream man in Ghost Dog) are [hot] enough to singe so many art school pencil ’staches. 



Jarmusch is a big fan of Lee Marvin, and I get a Point Blank vibe from the film’s logline (below) and the trailer’s upscale attire-meets-gritty minimalistic criminalism.



The Limits of Control is the story of a mysterious loner (Isaach De Bankolé), a stranger, whose activities remain meticulously outside the law. He is in the process of completing a job, yet he trusts no one, and his [objectives] are not initially divulged.





cf. decimate

desiccate

What [rescues] his best films [from] desiccation is the playfulness behind the theorizing 

parch

Walking in the [sun] parched his throat.

A staple of the Indian diet was parched [corn]. 

The obsessive central love story here is [repressed] on all levels, which serves to [parch] the film more than [intensify] it. 

torrid

subject to parching or burning heat

the torrid sands of the [Sahara]. 

whose persistent pursuit of sultry Kathleen Turner pays off in the way of a torrid [affair]

Harron is able to wisely draw a contrast between Bettie's [torrid] pre-modeling victimization and the easy-as-baby-food photo shoot experiences.

torrent

pulling kidneys amid torrent[s] of [blood]



scorch

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,

Inflict

Sterling (silver)

sterling







Y

D



–adjective 

1. of, pertaining to, 

or 

noting British money: The sterling equivalent is #5.50.  



2. (of silver) having the standard fineness of 0.925.

3. made of silver of this fineness: a sterling teapot. 

4. thoroughly excellent: a man of sterling worth. 

–noun 

5. British currency.

6. the standard of fineness for gold and silver coin in the United Kingdom, 0.91666 for gold and 0.500 for silver.

7. Also called sterling silver. silver having a fineness of 0.925, now used esp. in the manufacture of table utensils (器皿), jewelry, etc.

8. manufactured articles of sterling silver.

9. sterling flatware. (刀,叉,匙,碟,盤等物) 



Synonyms:

4. noble, honorable, worthy, first-rate.





　

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



including Hilary Swank in a mesmerizing, dexterous performance as Brandon; Chloe Sevigny, heartbreaking and faultless as Brandon's love interest; 



and Peter Sarsgaard, hypnotically and believably menacing as one of Brandon's eventual assailants. 



In a robust Best Actress victory, lead actress Swank managed to beat perennial favorite Annette Bening to the Oscar podium in 1999, proving that being a relatively new talent to motion pictures was by no means a deterrent to the recognition of her significant achievement.



podium

–noun

1. a small platform for the conductor of an orchestra, for a public speaker, etc. 





bauble 

and the other [baubles] of his Hollywood years.

schlock

shoddy 

Or is the acting merely earnest salesmanship of [shoddy] merchandise? 

Jenkins, who last year [mastered] the "living out my own private hell with dignity" [niche] in The Visitor and Step Brothers, will play Lotterman, the supervisor of the [shoddy] and troubled newspaper that employs Depp.

filch

of small value

to filch [ashtrays] from fancy restaurants. 

and he was looking for a new cow, to filch from the [psychobabble] in ''Someone Like You''

deluge

delude

In the novel’s close notice Frank is a deluded, dissipated [bore] who imagines himself

mocked the witches' prophecies which [deluded] poor Macbeth and set things right for the final curtain. 

Sham