Posts
Une et Indivisible
2 hours ago
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
That Was It !
A few days ago I dared my friend Greg, who writes a cinema column on a Belgian website to do a critique of Michael Jackson’s This is it?
He answered me that I was a highly deranged person for daring him to do such things.
And as I’m afraid he won’t write it, instead I’ll do it myself right here and now.
Because, yes, I must admit, I went to see “This is it!”
Why is that?
Here is why (yes, I feel the need to justify myself):
-That may come as a shock to you, but I actually liked Michael Jackson as a singer. Well, mostly the Off the Wall, Thriller, Bad period (and even Bad, I’m not sure I’d like it that much if I discovered it today). I also like a bunch of what the Jackson 5 did. Then, in the 90’s Michael Jackson slowly and sadly started to lose his edge, but there are still a few good songs in Dangerous and HIStory, not so much in his last album (which I listened only once, that tells us a lot).
-I had heard good reviews about the film, as a documentary, regardless of Michael Jackson’s death.
-I’m married to a Japanese woman.
So what did I think?
Well, I actually liked it.
I liked the fact we could see Michael Jackson sing one last time (a thing I hadn’t seen since forever ago), I liked the fact that the songs, while editing from several takes sometimes, were shown in their entirety and not bits and pieces from here and there. It almost made me want to go to the concert they were rehearsing for… Oh wait, that won’t be possible. Oh well…
I also liked the fact that we could see Michael Jackson in ways we never saw him before (being all control freaking about his public image and all), including pissed. Actually, about this episode, I really don’t know how people can take him seriously when he’s obviously angry but still tries to appear composed and that he says something along the lines of “You have to understand guys, that it’s all about sharing the L-O-V-E… love…”
I guess they don’t, they just shut up and do what he says.
When they respect him though, it’s when he’s being extremely professional (which is all the time in the film). It’s interesting to see the musicians being very impressed and respectful of him because he really knows music and he really knows his songs, even the oldest ones.
It may seem an obvious thing right?
Yes, but I suspect that those musicians usually tour with the likes of Britney Spears or similar “artists”, and they must have very different experiences about the musical side of the tour.
Back to Michael Jackson, I suspect that –despite what I’m going to say later- in this film, we see more or less who the real Michael Jackson was; in all the complexity we didn’t see when he was alive. We see that –as I just said- he can be very professional and even almost authoritarian when he’s dealing with music, but we also see the “Peter Pan syndrome” like we never really saw it before: yes he was a child in an adult body. We see that in the film, how his personality is both the one of the adult, and the one of a child. And this is by the way, why I never believed he could be a pedophile. Pedophiles are adults, children can’t be that. And he was a child in more ways than he really was one. French author Yann Moix, just wrote a book about that (which I haven’t read), about the fact that because he had to be an adult most of his childhood, he became more and more of a child as he grew up, because then he finally could.
Sometimes it’s funny, like when he tries “the cherry picker” as if it was just a new toy. Sometimes, it’s almost embarrassing, like for example when he has his speech about environmentalism and people messing up the planets and all. He has the arguments and the tone of a child when he talks about that, and it’s hard not to feel sorry for him, that he cannot express that in a more literate way.
Still, watching the film made me feel somewhat uneasy at times and mostly for two main reasons:
-First, I couldn’t help thinking that I was basically watching a dead guy unconsciously setting the stage for his death while thinking his was actually setting up his big come back...
There’s this sensation of fate looming over the Staples arena during the whole movie, as if the spectator was death itself, as on one side of the camera, everyone is oblivious of what’s about to happen just a few days later (when were shot the last images exactly? Maybe the day before he died? Who know?) while on the other side, everybody knows that the main guy is dead, is almost dying (as it’s most likely the stress and exhaustion from the very rehearsal we’re watching that caused him to abuse the medicine that killed him). It almost felt that we were causing his death by watching him rehearsing so hard.
-Also, the whole film is a propaganda film. It’s as simple as that. The director is a long time friend of Michael Jackson and when it was time to edit the film, he had no other option than showing us Michael Jackson in the best possible way. After all it was a homage. After all those were the very last days on Michael Jackson, the very last images that would ever exist of him. And when I say “the best possible way” and “propaganda” don’t go imagine that the film depicts Michael Jackson as perfect. It doesn’t. But even those moments, when he loses patience, when he sounds incredibly naïve, even when he behaves a little bit like a diva (during I Want You Back when he complains about how the earphone is too loud and bothers him), even those moments are there for a reason, and that reason is to try to make him “more normal” as well as underline even more the times when he’s an amazing professional.
I’m sure there were lots of other scenes that would depict him in many other ways (good or bad) among the many hours that were filmed, but maybe they simply didn’t fit the image that the director wanted to give of Michael Jackson: the one of the hardworking child-man, the amazing artist-genius that can act as a diva too sometimes.
So, yes, it is propaganda. Yes, the man that is being shown there is not the whole man, just a fragment of him.
But we still accept it. We accept it, because there’s no other way to depict him right now. I’m sure that in the coming years, we’ll have tons of revelations about him, good and bad, true and false. But right now, it’s the only possible film about him.
We accept it and we like it.
And in the end, all that’s left are the hypnotizing images and the great songs of a concert that will never be, by a man that never left anybody indifferent.
In the end we have a documentary that may be one of the best musical documentary I’ve seen, and I warmly advise to go see it while there’s still time (unless you’re totally unable to deal with Michael Jackson’s music, in this case, maybe you shouldn’t go or else it’ll be a painful experience)
He answered me that I was a highly deranged person for daring him to do such things.
And as I’m afraid he won’t write it, instead I’ll do it myself right here and now.
Because, yes, I must admit, I went to see “This is it!”
Why is that?
Here is why (yes, I feel the need to justify myself):
-That may come as a shock to you, but I actually liked Michael Jackson as a singer. Well, mostly the Off the Wall, Thriller, Bad period (and even Bad, I’m not sure I’d like it that much if I discovered it today). I also like a bunch of what the Jackson 5 did. Then, in the 90’s Michael Jackson slowly and sadly started to lose his edge, but there are still a few good songs in Dangerous and HIStory, not so much in his last album (which I listened only once, that tells us a lot).
-I had heard good reviews about the film, as a documentary, regardless of Michael Jackson’s death.
-I’m married to a Japanese woman.
So what did I think?
Well, I actually liked it.
I liked the fact we could see Michael Jackson sing one last time (a thing I hadn’t seen since forever ago), I liked the fact that the songs, while editing from several takes sometimes, were shown in their entirety and not bits and pieces from here and there. It almost made me want to go to the concert they were rehearsing for… Oh wait, that won’t be possible. Oh well…
I also liked the fact that we could see Michael Jackson in ways we never saw him before (being all control freaking about his public image and all), including pissed. Actually, about this episode, I really don’t know how people can take him seriously when he’s obviously angry but still tries to appear composed and that he says something along the lines of “You have to understand guys, that it’s all about sharing the L-O-V-E… love…”
I guess they don’t, they just shut up and do what he says.
When they respect him though, it’s when he’s being extremely professional (which is all the time in the film). It’s interesting to see the musicians being very impressed and respectful of him because he really knows music and he really knows his songs, even the oldest ones.
It may seem an obvious thing right?
Yes, but I suspect that those musicians usually tour with the likes of Britney Spears or similar “artists”, and they must have very different experiences about the musical side of the tour.
Back to Michael Jackson, I suspect that –despite what I’m going to say later- in this film, we see more or less who the real Michael Jackson was; in all the complexity we didn’t see when he was alive. We see that –as I just said- he can be very professional and even almost authoritarian when he’s dealing with music, but we also see the “Peter Pan syndrome” like we never really saw it before: yes he was a child in an adult body. We see that in the film, how his personality is both the one of the adult, and the one of a child. And this is by the way, why I never believed he could be a pedophile. Pedophiles are adults, children can’t be that. And he was a child in more ways than he really was one. French author Yann Moix, just wrote a book about that (which I haven’t read), about the fact that because he had to be an adult most of his childhood, he became more and more of a child as he grew up, because then he finally could.
Sometimes it’s funny, like when he tries “the cherry picker” as if it was just a new toy. Sometimes, it’s almost embarrassing, like for example when he has his speech about environmentalism and people messing up the planets and all. He has the arguments and the tone of a child when he talks about that, and it’s hard not to feel sorry for him, that he cannot express that in a more literate way.
Still, watching the film made me feel somewhat uneasy at times and mostly for two main reasons:
-First, I couldn’t help thinking that I was basically watching a dead guy unconsciously setting the stage for his death while thinking his was actually setting up his big come back...
There’s this sensation of fate looming over the Staples arena during the whole movie, as if the spectator was death itself, as on one side of the camera, everyone is oblivious of what’s about to happen just a few days later (when were shot the last images exactly? Maybe the day before he died? Who know?) while on the other side, everybody knows that the main guy is dead, is almost dying (as it’s most likely the stress and exhaustion from the very rehearsal we’re watching that caused him to abuse the medicine that killed him). It almost felt that we were causing his death by watching him rehearsing so hard.
-Also, the whole film is a propaganda film. It’s as simple as that. The director is a long time friend of Michael Jackson and when it was time to edit the film, he had no other option than showing us Michael Jackson in the best possible way. After all it was a homage. After all those were the very last days on Michael Jackson, the very last images that would ever exist of him. And when I say “the best possible way” and “propaganda” don’t go imagine that the film depicts Michael Jackson as perfect. It doesn’t. But even those moments, when he loses patience, when he sounds incredibly naïve, even when he behaves a little bit like a diva (during I Want You Back when he complains about how the earphone is too loud and bothers him), even those moments are there for a reason, and that reason is to try to make him “more normal” as well as underline even more the times when he’s an amazing professional.
I’m sure there were lots of other scenes that would depict him in many other ways (good or bad) among the many hours that were filmed, but maybe they simply didn’t fit the image that the director wanted to give of Michael Jackson: the one of the hardworking child-man, the amazing artist-genius that can act as a diva too sometimes.
So, yes, it is propaganda. Yes, the man that is being shown there is not the whole man, just a fragment of him.
But we still accept it. We accept it, because there’s no other way to depict him right now. I’m sure that in the coming years, we’ll have tons of revelations about him, good and bad, true and false. But right now, it’s the only possible film about him.
We accept it and we like it.
And in the end, all that’s left are the hypnotizing images and the great songs of a concert that will never be, by a man that never left anybody indifferent.
In the end we have a documentary that may be one of the best musical documentary I’ve seen, and I warmly advise to go see it while there’s still time (unless you’re totally unable to deal with Michael Jackson’s music, in this case, maybe you shouldn’t go or else it’ll be a painful experience)
Monday, November 2, 2009
Zombie Invasion in Paris
Who has just said a couple of days that Halloween has been dying out in France?
Oh wait, that was me...
Apparently, it's not dead yet... Or maybe it was, and not it's quite... undead...
Friday, October 30, 2009
Oh my God! They're opening a McDonald's in the Louvre...
I've had a few people asking me about that lately and apparently it's being talked about more and more in the English-speaking media.
So let me set the record straight.
No McDonald's restaurant will open inside the museum.
But if you've been to the Louvre, you know that besides the Louvre, underground, there's the "Carrousel du Louvre" a multi-purpose space, which includes a shopping mall.
A shopping mall full of chain stores like any other shopping mall in the world (Virgin Megastore, Apple Store opening very soon too, and a few other chains that are more or less unknown out of France; Nature & Découvertes anyone?).
And just like any other shopping mall, it has a food court. Until recently, this food court had the particularity that all the "restaurants" in it were not chains, but different restaurants serving food supposedly from many different countries. The quality was not great (still a mall food court, not real restaurants), they were quite expensive, but they were not chains.
But a few months ago, they started remodelling the food court, and it's reopening these days, and this is where the McDonald's restaurant.
So, yeah, there will be a new McDonald's restaurant in a food court, in a shopping mall...
Big deal...
On the other hand, why is it that nobody seems to be bothered by the fact that there has been a Starbucks in the museum (not where the art is, but still in the museum) for a while now?
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Il y a des Francophones par ici???
Because if you speak French (well, at least read it), I must tell you the newest antics of Le Comte and Bond (whom you most likely don't know) in the form of a new blogzine.
It's called Surge, it's a blogzine and ittalks about stuff .
I invite you warmly to take a look at it (and to subscribe to the RSS Feed, as it's a bit empty right now, but that won't last)...
Check it out:
Check it out:
Friday, October 23, 2009
No More Internet!!!
What if the Internet disappeared today? What would happen?
Here is the answer!
My personal favorites:
Here is the answer!
My personal favorites:
I especially like the next one for obvious reasons (maybe because it's the most realistic and meaningful?):
This next one is priceless:
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Today...
with some of my students...
It lits depending on what's going on in the main room newt door.
voting time?
this bronze represents the events of June 17, 1789 and weighs more than 3 tons
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
Epic Fail (or not?)
Last night, coming back from work I was bothered by something... This type of nagging afterthought that you just can't pinpoint but that won't go away...
It had been there for a few days, and it was much stronger last night.
When this kind of things happens to me it can only mean one thing: there's something happening at this date and I'm forgetting it...
Spot on!
October 15th was the date the Pixies would play in Paris and I had forgotten.
I still could have rushed to the Zénith, buy a ticket somewhere (hopefully it was not sold out, I'm not rich enough to buy from a scalper).
But I didn't. I guess I'm getting old.
I started rationalizing the thing with some "I already saw them in Tampa in 2004" and others "they're old now, they'll suck."
Doesn't sound convincing? You're right.
And this morning while reading one of the blogs I regularly read, the author talked about the concert and how it was awesome and how they played all of Doolittle (in my top 5 best albums of all times)...
Epic Fail...
But then I realized that they're playing again tonight!!!
It's not sold out, but it costs €44 (ouch, why did I buy way too many DVDs yesterday exactly???)
Will I go?
Why am I typing this right now instead of rushing to the nearest Fnac to buy a ticket?
I guess I'm getting old...
Monday, October 12, 2009
Quiz
Is that a crocodile or an alligator?
(Floridians are not allowed to play) ;-)
(Floridians are not allowed to play) ;-)
And this?
Just kidding for that one.
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