Beam me up, Scotty!

Four paragraphs on THE ROAD, by Cormac McCarthy

The book clearly puts the film, which I have already seen first, into perspective. Neither of them is a work of art likely to provide timeless insight into the human condition. However, the story holds well. The novel is short and to the point most of the time. The narrative weaves its way through maybe a hundred short paragraphs, which succeed at getting across the notion that life is no longer held together by the solid assumptions, not to mention actual physical reliances, of the old world.

The harsh new circumstances have conspired to pare down the characters of the man and the boy down to the barest urges, but to no avail: as the boy puts it, they are the ones carrying the fire, there are certain red lines they would rather die than cross.

The conversation between father and son is spare, wise, almost, dare I say it, zen-like. The author can be forgiven (and I use the term for rhetorical purposes only) for the odd philosophizing, which at any rate is kept to a minimum.

The film adds little to the story, but I don’t think it’s unnecessary. For one thing, it helped me picture the bleak reality of the world the book describes. And Vigo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee’s performances are quite decent, as far as I could see from under so many layers of hair and rags.

Loving Talibans

El Acorazado Potemkin (Serguei Eisenstein, 1925)

Sobre la genialidad de la película, véase la wikipedia, que explica cómo lo técnico y lo patético (sentido etimológico) se combinan para que la narrativa logre lo que se propone: implicar emocionalmente al espectador –en este caso, hacerle compartir la ira contra el régimen zarista, o sea, insuflar “fervor revolucionario”.

Se parte también de un maniqueísmo previamente compartido con el espectador, que hace que se dé por descontado la crueldad irracional de los oficiales del barco. Lo cual a su vez desencadena la de la clase de tropa que, básicamente, los caza como a conejos y los tira por la borda. El único muerto que importa tanto al director como a la audiencia es el caudillo de la revuelta, que pasa a ser tratado, necesariamente habría que añadir, como mártir. A continuación la orgía de muerte de la famosa “escena de la escalinata”, con su pervertida reinterpretación de “las mujeres y los niños primero”, viene a culminar este panfleto propagandístico de lujo.

Sobre su excelencia técnica, su vanguardismo, su genialidad, etc, han corrido ríos de tinta y bytes. Yo sólo diré, quizás frívolamente, que algunas de las escenas magistrales se basan en recortes muy conseguidos de sombras contra fondos: un recurso que debe mucho al troglodita anónimo que empezó a gesticular habilidosamente para los niños del clan en la penumbra de su cueva.

Lo que más me ha emocionado son los primeros planos. La masa, parece que pretendía el director, también son personas individuales, y cada una de esas caras cuenta en unos segundos una historia entera. También la tensión dramática, por supuesto, que cumple su función de "tener a uno en vilo" en los momentos cruciales.

Históricamente, esta rebelión forma parte de las revueltas de 1905, esencialmente pro-democráticas, si bien el film se creó para instrumentalizar la historia a favor del totalitarismo posterior. Por estos años, de hecho, habían sido ya otros marineros, los de la guarnición de Kronstadt en este caso, que se oponian a la escalada dictatorial del nuevo régimen, los que en 1921 fueron masacrados por los comunistas en el poder.

The Man who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)

The film is claimed to be an allegory of the building of a political system. Namely, that adventure and arbitrariness have at some point to give way to the rule of law if a community is to thrive. Thriving means that the cattle is peacefully fattened in fenced off properties and the cereal is safely stored in the barn. Then you can settle down and have children, who you may in due course send to school to, ideally, learn to improve their lot.

The point of the story here is that, in a disorganized territory where only the rule of gun was acknowledged, it had to be violence fighting violence that was eventually able to impose the rule of law.

It is also our story. If we can now exercise our freedom in ways unimagined elsewhere, it is because, when our forefathers were writing the charter of rights, there was always a Tom Doniphon close by.

La Cinta Blanca (Das Weiße Band - Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte, Michael Haneke 2009)

Una aldea alemana inmediatamente antes del estallido de la Gran Guerra. Los habitantes se dividen de acuerdo con estos criterios: Por riqueza: Ricos / Pobres. Por sexo: Hombres / Mujeres. Por edad: Adultos / Niños.

La relación que destaca por encima de todas en la película es de sometimiento: sobre los pobres, sobre las mujeres y sobre los niños. El director (Michael Haneke) se cuida de que la autoría de los crímenes que empiezan a sacudir la esclerótica existencia de la comunidad permanezca dudosa. Parece interesado más en su tesis, a saber: la cultura de autoritarismo es el germen del nazismo.

Sin embargo, el detalle de que no se aclare quién cometió los crímenes se sitúa quizá en la línea que postula el libro Hitler’s Willing Executioners, del historiador Daniel Goldhagen: la responsabilidad por el Holocausto sería así ampliamente compartida por la sociedad alemana a todos los niveles.

La película es larga (144 mins.). Técnicamente, no tengo los conocimientos ni el interés para analizarla desde ese punto de vista. Humildemente, apuntaré a que me recuerda, por la luz, por su realismo nórdico y a veces descarnado, a Bergman (pero tampoco he visto tanto del sueco). Visualmente, no se la ve especialmente rompedora, creo. La música es la que proporcionan los propios personajes, en un par de ocasiones, creo, y sólo en una de ellas cumple su supuesto objetivo de aliviar la angustia.

Los personajes, en general, están tristes. Su capacidad para la interrelación se ve seriamente mermada por la obligación de ajustarse a una serie de parámetros de índole jerárquica y por el temor a transgredirlos. Entre los capaces de distanciarse lo suficiente para percibir este contexto social emponzoñado, voy a mencionar, en primer lugar, a la baronesa. Es curioso que el detonante de su intento de liberación tenga lugar, cómo no, en Italia. Es ya un lugar común que sean los países mediterráneos los contrapuntos habituales para el victorianismo anglosajón o el calvinismo germánico, no hay más que leer a E. M. Forster.

El médico tiene el atractivo de ser, quizás junto con la comadrona, el que parece haber alcanzado el mayor grado de auto consciencia sobre sí y sobre los que le rodean. Sin embargo, su lado oscuro es poderoso y amenaza con devorarle. La comadrona tiene el coraje suficiente para plantarle cara… o no.

La esperanza está representada no por los más listos, sino por los que son capaces de demostrar lo que parece ser un sólido sentido común: el maestro y su novia. Por supuesto, el desarrollo de dicha esperanza no podía hacerse de otro modo que fuera de esa comunidad.

Y así termina la película: la tesis expuesta y, en cuanto a los misterios y a los ¿qué pasaría con?, se deja al espectador la tarea de su elucidación.

Anti-Americanism

Anti-Americanism

In these days of war and general turmoil in the Middle East (when has this region ever known anything much different?) it is easy for attitudes to radicalise and cast governments and peoples in the same light. This is but one more instance of our basic tendency to oversimplify facts, which blurs rather than clarifies the picture.

I am not saying (or rather I am) that all the flag-burning mobs in Third World countries are deluded and should know better than demonize a whole country for the mistakes of its rulers. But they are, more often than not, bound to be manipulated by those exploiting their despair for their own ends –unscrupulous leaders in search of a scapegoat.

There exists, however, this armchair Anti-Americanism that some in the Left like to cultivate as an integral part of their ideological build-up. It arises not from despair but from… what? I refuse to accept that their rejection of all things Yankee (a much favoured term among them) is based on objective fact. On the contrary, I believe that this view has rather more to do with nostalgia-ridden rites, which they need to perform as a tribute to some glorified militancy of their youth.

The US belongs with Europe in what we call the West. Our political and social institutions are based on shared common values. It is true that the US rulers need to tackle, as ever, issues like imperial power, isolationism and intervention. But I think the succesive European governments (from the French with their detached friendship to the British with their so-called special relationship) have been wise to deal with the Americans never as anything but loyal allies. Because the fact remains that, above all else, we are on the same side.

Jugensünde

Es gibt jetzt in Deutschland eine Debatte darüber, wie manche Prominenten (heutzutage vielen von denen tot), sind in Mitgliedskarten der Nazi Partei erschienen. Angeblich haben sie, als sie nur 16 oder 17 Jahre alt waren, Aufnahmeanträge ausgefüllt und, in viellen Fälle, auch unterschrieben.
Die Sache ist ein heiss umstrittenes Problem geworden, besonders seit Günter Grass seine jugendliche Angehörigkeit zur Waffen SS gestanden hatte.

Wie solche nebensächliche Details so viele Achtung bekommen haben, ist mir rätselhaft, wenn nicht ausgesprochen lächerlich. Was treibt Leute dazu, die anderen so oberflächlich zu beurteilen? Wollen sie dann nur aus Spass grundlos beleiden? Menschen tun das immer, das weisse ich, doch würde man vielleicht mehr Analyse-Fähigkeit in diesen Kreise der Akademiker erwarten.

Transformers

The other day I saw Transformers. Apart from proving yet again that the special effects technology is getting better by the minute, there was something about the film that struck me as odd. It was unusually choral for a film of this genre, although I am no expert. Could it be Spielberg's hand? Whatever the case may be, I found it intriguing that so many characters had so much to say and do in such an action-packed film of robots crushing each other into metal pulp.

Somehow, among all the noise and fury, everybody manages to do their bit towards saving the world, from the nerdy male lead to the all-American soldier to the black fat-assed slightly queer computer hack. Females also join forces to play clearly leading roles which smack in no way of the traditional subordinate niche where they used to be confined.

It's a kids' film and I am nearly 40, so, predictably, even though I like to think of myself as a sci-fi fan, the film started to grow old on me after the first 60 minutes or so. Maybe that's why I used my viewing time to analyse it like that. ANYWAY, still undeterred, I am now looking forward to Fantastic Four.

My top 10 TV shows

I have just put up my top 10 favourite tv shows of all time (scroll down). I may change my mind about some of them, but right now I feel grateful for all the good times, sense of language and, yes, insight, which they have given me. I suppose it all depends on what your approach is.
To me, viewing these is, as Sinatra would put it, a many-splendored thing. One single episode can offer several readings: you can focus on what they say, how they say it, body language, let alone different cultural assumptions and expectations. I think one of these days I'll expand on this.

historymakers

I have just read an article in The New Yorker about Ronald Reagan's diaries. It quotes Tolstoy as saying in his War and Peace: "It is only unself-conscious activity that bears fruit, and the man who plays a part in a historical drama never understands its true significance".
I am still blinded by the truth of it, so I cannot continue writing.

O the flying fish.
The seagull darts.
Waves of the boundless ocean.

MOLITVA

Marija Serifovic’s song takes off slowly, but with a hint at greater things to come. Almost whisperingly at first, accompanied by unobtrussive piano and string, she assuredly moves on to build up a hymn-like crescendo, her voice becoming increasingly authoritative, urging the music on, as it were, until it reaches an initial culmination towards the first minute. Once on this summit, the music seems to linger somewhat, making ripples in a pool of flute and Celtic melancholy, as if winking at the Irish winners of the early 90’s.

Her powerful voice rises yet again, steady on her upwards trail. In seconds, Marija is soaring, alone and proud. Soon, but keeping a respectful distance as part of her retinue, wave after wave of sound booming, more voices join Marija’s in her unstoppable flight.

The climax takes no prisoners. Royally wrapped in a sea of music, Marija becomes inexorable. In the end, however, she graciously pretends to round it all off as humbly as it started. She is fooling no-one, and she knows it. Euroglory is within her grasp. The shy Balkan girl steps off the stage a Queen of Europe.

San Carlos Borromeo

There is a little church in Entrevias whose people are doing a great job with those less fortunate. Their ways are too outlandish for the official church to stomach. So they want to close it down and replace it with their more conventional manner of charity. Although I do not consider myself a Christian, I have decided to insert these Christian freaks' banner here to show my support. For more information, click here

Today we welcome Romania into the European Union. But Romanians have been coming to Spain for some time now. This BBC piece (forwarded to me by a German friend!) illustrates how we are becoming more like one another in the process.

If you won the lottery ...

Am I wrong in thinking that we were not extremely lucky today? What would you have done if you had won the lottery? Any original ideas? If you ask me, I think I might have booked a first-class flight to New York -and there I would have done some serious shopping (well, it would have been books mainly). Some people might ask why all the trouble when you've got Amazon, and they'd be right. Oh, well. Anyway, what about you?

Christmas recipes

Dear students, click here for yummy ideas for the School's Great Christmas Cooking Competition. If my opinion counts, puddings are especially welcome. Write back if you know more recipes!

A pan, a comb, perhaps a cat.
This is apparently what Tom Cruise promised to give Katie Holmes at their wedding. What kind of things would you promise to give at your wedding?Give reasons!

Year 2 Students
You can listen to recordings covering all sorts of topics on ESL Podcasts. Here you can listen to very slow American English plus a mini-lesson afterwards. Very useful.