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On China and other niceties
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Cinema

The civilizing influence of Léi dí gā gā

By China, Cinema

I’ve just seen Bradley Cooper’s take on A Star is Born. I loved it. Poor old Cooper: not only is he improbably handsome, he’s got a great voice, and of course he’s a silver screen natural. Somebody ought to put him out of his misery… And what can I say about Lady Gaga? Well, obviously she’s got a great voice, and while no conventional beauty, her role makes her irresistible. One could think of worse things than hanging out with her for a while. 

Here’s an unlikely connection: Lady Gaga  (雷迪嘎嘎Léi dí gā gā in Chinese) and John Locke. The 17th century English philosopher famously argued that we come into the world a blank slate.  I’d say we start out as donkeys, and that over time, education hopefully weans out our more ass-like qualities, exercising a civilizing influence on us. In other words, we know so little for so long that it’s a wonder so many of us have the arrogance to venture an opinion. 

Anyway, back to Lady Gaga, who I first came across in China. At the height of her fame, back in 2010, I’d never heard of her, until one day, in some God-forsaken town in Ningxia province, where I was spending yet another summer trying to learn Chinese, I bought a few Chinese-language movies and noticed an attractive looking CD, shown above. I asked to listen to it and immediately liked it. On my return to Madrid, I told my former wife that I had discovered a great singer by the name of Lady Gaga. You can imagine her response!!!    

There’s a Chinese proverb,  活到老学到老 huó dào lǎo, xué dào lǎo, which means something like: [If one] lives to an old age, [one will continue to] learn until old age. In the meantime, let’s welcome President 习近平 Xí Jìnpíng to Spain this week and listen to A Star is Born’s hit song Shallow, which pretty much sums up the depth of our understanding!

 

 

The Artist

By Cinema

The French movie that conquered the world’s heart.

 

Today, October 12, marks the premiere in France of The Artist.

Looking through my diaries, I came across an entry I made on January 26, 2012 and that I leave here as a small, humble homage to the film:

Yesterday I went to see The Artist, silent, black and white and a wonderful description of the fall of a man unable to adapt to changing times; in his case, the arrival of the talkies, and who is saved in extremis by something that surely he, along with many others, least expected at that moment in his life: a ray of love.

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