Reviewing the bravest of the brave

Babe, the Brave Pig is a 1995 children’s film with equal doses of comedy and drama. The film is set in Australia, at the same time, directed by Chris Noonan and based on the novel Babe, the Gallant Pig by Dick King-Smith. The main characters are real animals and computer-animated puppetry, who adopt human roles in a fenced society. The events take place on a farm, where our hero gives us a lesson of humanity (?) and strength, breaking the unfair rules of the establishment; it is clearly reminiscent of Animal Farm by George Orwell.

This fairy tale begins when Babe is separated from his mother and is bought by a farmer, who will be as bold as him, deciding to participate in a sheep-herding contest with a sheep-pig. As the plot evolves, we realize that Babe is looking for his place on the farm and inspired by Ferdinand (a duck who usurps the rooster’s role to save his life) and his adoptive mother (a sheepdog), he rebels from this barnyard society, where everyone has their role to play, being useful and not only the Christmas dinner. What is striking about this film are the staggering special effects, which make us believe that the animals are speaking and thinking like a C1 student, coupled with its magnificent soundtrack, which intensifies Babe’s highs and lows. On the other hand, although the simplicity of the script hides a powerful message, the ending is totally predictable and the humans’ performances are appallingly overacted. Actually, I would say that the acting has been done as in a pantomime to make people laugh.

To sum up, “Bravebabe” is an inspirational film, which I would thoroughly recommend to you. It is well worth seeing, but forgetting your prejudices of adulthood and becoming the child you were once upon a time. If nothing else, you will be happy when you see the grand conclusion and realize that you have to follow your dreams, even persevering with the difficulties that you have to face in achieving them.

 

 

 

Parlez-vous français?

Regardez le ciel. Demandez-vous : le mouton oui ou non at-il mangé la fleur? Et vous verrez comme tout change… Et aucune grande personne ne comprendra jamais que ça a tellement d’importance !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsenElX8KaE

Artistic expressions?

These words remind me of many conversations with an art critic, who tried to explain to me the difference between an artist and a craftsman, without any success, when I was working as a printer (every week I had to print some catalogues and reproduce the work exactly like the paintings, above all the colour, for exhibitions in galleries). Frequently, his assessment didn’t coincide with mine and when he reached an orgasm with works so abstract that my limited mind couldn’t understand, I tried to imagine how many limited people would be involved during the opening ceremony, such as politicians or businessmen, who probably were the only ones that would understand the meaning of art: $

Nevertheless, on the subject of films, my capacity to feel emotions is a little broader and if I had to choose one film to give the label of ART, without any doubt, it would be: The bicycle thief by Vittorio De Sica, which in comparison to Hollywood with its power and glamour, the latter is only entertainment.

 

 

 

Even so, after having seen the film again (on this occasion in Italian), having been looking for data and reading a compendium of articles about this masterpiece, I’ve decided to do my review for another understated film. In fact, it competed for the best film among my most intimate circle of friends, with an overrated war blockbuster called Braveheart, during the year they were launched. The chosen work is a thought-provoking family film named by us “Bravebabe”.  

¡Endeluego vaya saltabalates illo!

 

Look at where you are!

When I was faced with a mock exam to practice my speaking, the topic that I had to talk about was SPACE MISSIONS. – What do I know about space missions? Anyway, after my absolutely ridiculous performance, I decided to look for some information as regards to this deadly dull subject. Everything was extremely boring or overcomplicated, however, while I was surfing the internet, I found this impressive and overwhelming video, which showed me what we are exactly. But, carry on with our normal lives.

 

Yeah, you made me feel shiny and new like a virgin touched...

A deep sleep

Most of us have, at some point in our lives, experienced the joys of travel and on some occasions something deeper. Connected with that profundity, I’d like to mention that nowadays there are many people who go on SPIRITUAL JOURNEYS, probably looking for the “Nirvana”, the meaning of life or simply to understand themselves. Some examples of this are the pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela or to Mecca. For this reason, I’ll try to tell you one of my journeys to my grandparents’ village, where I discovered new exciting places and interesting people. Certainly, too often, it seems we glamorise places that are far away and unknown, and step around those that are to hand and superficially familiar:

 It was a wet morning of February or March, in the first years of the 80s, when I decided to leave the charming whitewashed house of my grandparents, where my family had slaughtered (chopped up the body of) a pig, without any compassion; unbelievably, their love for imitating the Texas Chainsaw Massacre with animals, was compatible with their love for pets. With the smell of boiled onions (used to make black pudding) still in my nose, I was wandering around the village, where, although I would have been only seven or eight years old, I knew my way around like in my own neighborhood. Anyway, I went up the main street until I arrived at where the council was building a viewpoint and when I got to the highest place in the village, I found a vacant looking man, who would have been in his early thirties, sitting quietly and doing something suspicious.

Today, I still remember his deep black eyes and his shoulder-length hair. He was very handsome: with a Roman nose, thin lips and tanned complexion; although, it could have been coated in dirt. He looked like a Christ of Easter: not very tall, but with an athletic body. His rough hands and his miserable face were covered with bruises.

At that time, I didn’t have any embarrassment, therefore, I asked him about what he was doing there. At first, his reaction was to hide away from me in the building works and I was sufficiently foolish to follow him to discover his small secret.

“It’s a puppy,” he said.

His quiet and trembling voice, with an accent so familiar to me, was sufficient to show the magnetism of this taciturn, naïve and truly emotional man. From that moment, we didn’t say anything. I was miles away, stroking the little dog and smiling at nothing.

Some years after, I discovered he was an eccentric man, who garrulous people said was mad and thus, made fun of him. However, I admired him (but, in silence) and respected him for having resisted the village idiots and facing the hurt of a brainless mob.

http://www.ted.com/talks/clint_smith_the_danger_of_silence

Y quedan, allá lejos, por las altas eras, unos agudos gritos, velados finamente, entrecortados, jadeantes, aburridos:

- ¡El lo… co! ¡El lo… co!

                                                                                          Platero y yo by Juan Ramón Jiménez

Travelling, travelling

It is generally recognized that travel broadens the mind. However, I have a perception that every year millions of people travel to other places for vacations, spending billions of euros, looking for a kind of entertainment to fill the gap in their ordinary lives and incidentally justify their vanity.
 

As for the ambiguity between TRAVELLERS OR TOURISTS, being honest, I couldn’t find any difference nowadays. To my way of thinking, all of them are people who appreciate the journeys like an experience that meets their expectations. Some of them look for monuments and museums, others geographical features and traditions or all at the same time. Therefore, in the 21^st century, with excellent communications and globalization, the romantic image of a traveller associated with an explorer is ridiculous; most of them are people who try to get away from it all (work, studies or homework). For this reason, if we want to define this activity with the negative connotation of a tourist or the positive view of a traveller, I agree with some of our classmates that it is simply an exercise of semantics.

The Mountains of the Moon

With these words, I’ll try to provide answers to questions that we've been asked to write about this film, which I’ve seen for the umpteenth time:
 

My friend Sir Richard Burton is an adventurer, who is obsessed by the need to understand and take part in the costumes and languages of the world, viewing his TRAVELS as purely knowledge-based; probably for this reason, he feels a strong affinity towards the slave medicine man. He adapts and mixes with the natives and enjoys it immensely in every place, representing a human explorer and free of moral pretensions. However, Burton’s character doesn’t contrast well with Victorian society, as he has no respect for authority or religion and isn’t conventional in any way. His outspoken opinions and writing about sex or his view of the world offends Victorian morality.
On the other hand, our unfortunate Speke is the traditional English gentleman of the Victorian Era and who wants to be famous or is persuaded to be famous at any cost – Lowry, Lowry!

In the beginning, both are fellow explorers, but with many differences in personalities. However, as time passes, their feelings become more compassionate and more caring about each other; although the disagreement causes their ultimate separation. Burton feels betrayed by Speke and his attitude of passivity is probably his way of dealing with Speke’s new fame and apparent devaluation of their friendship.

Certainly, Speke was proved to be correct, but at that time he doesn’t have concrete evidence and Burton feels strongly that he needs more proof, before he can say one way or another. In fact, in Livingstone he finds an ally, who is of the same opinion.

There is a scene in the film that struck me in particular, when a sculptor interrupts Burton and his wife, while they are packing (Isabel is an intelligent woman, who admired him before she married) and asks Burton if he can help him to mould Speke’s face, where we can see the love with which he caresses the sculpture and the certainty that Burton knew his friend better than anyone else in the world.

To conclude, Burton shows in his final speech that for him discovering new or important features are not the only objectives for him, people are equally as important, their cultures, rituals, celebrations and languages. Needless to say, we should aspire to do the same in today’s world.

My outlook for this year

LEISURE TIME, FREE TIME AND HOBBIES are activities that I won’t have time to enjoy during this course, especially being in Emilio’s class "again". In fact, I can’t imagine my spare time without the Language School; I think that I really enjoy learning with a degree of masochism. Joking aside, I love learning English. It is for this reason that I try to read and listen to everything in this beloved and hateful language and because I would like to be completely fluent: speaking from the soul, from my heart, without fear of making any grammatical mistakes or mispronunciations.
¡Qué graciocillo! (lol).