We may grasp that series of earthquakes have cut us off from yesterday, some fragments of the past reappear in many of us in this season. Before Christmas, I often go to listen The Messiah of Handel in the crypt of Saint Joseph’s Oratory. Outside, the evening cold and the scarcity of shuttles to go up or down from the summit did not prevent the concert from rolling to sold-out crowds. Especially in this presumed non-pandemic year as viruses navigate between the shoals. The public is there, in ecstasy during Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zioncarried by theHallelujah, in unison with the choirs, soloists and musicians of the Orchester Classique de Montréal. By the way, the booklet Messiah, nourished by biblical extracts, sometimes resonates with our contemporary torments. ” For behold, darkness shall cover the earth “, intones the baritone Philip Addis. And this song about the darkness that covers the world before opening its eyes seems to evoke planetary drifts. While culminating on a note of hope.
For many viewers, musical fervor has little to do with religious belief. At the entrance, a facetious priest remarked: “The tube of soap is more popular than the font! » The need to vibrate together around an 18th century oratorioe timeless century must warm chilled hearts. But these traditions are wavering. Art and beauty become endangered species, like animals and plants, like the French. To enter into resistance is to maintain links with the past when everything invites you to throw it away. An approach that also sings.
2022: dirty vintage for the memory. While the whole cultural edifice seems threatened (even an art as young as cinema), we hope that family outings during the Holidays will also favor the big screen. Because this one loses feathers, as much as the opera, the music of yesteryear, the theater, the dance or the reading of a really good book, under the triumph of the platforms at the hearth.
People want to relax. Normal. It’s bad everywhere. Let’s assume he’ll rush on Avatar. The way of the water by James Cameron. For its spectacular images, its technological prowess and its beautiful 3D effects, however evacuated in the third part, when the combat scenes occupy all the space. His disheveled scenario and his good feelings will appease the spirits without stimulating them. But even Avatar, with an astronomical budget, will find it difficult to bail out at the counters these days. Cameron has at least made the bet to release it on a gigantic surface. So, let’s wish this blockbuster success in order to help theaters stand up. Arthouse cinema, even American, no longer attracts many people. And the unsubsidized Hollywood studios could soon — real loss! — sacrifice intimate films. A period of too rapid intensive change brings many perils.
Faced with the debates that ignited 2022, we see that everything is linked. The fallout from the pandemic aroused increased reluctance among showgoers. Culture woke, yet harnessed to many just causes, sent museum masterpieces to the shade. She also pushed to modify the lists of the best films of all time made by critical pools in favor of female filmmakers and minorities, without regard to the objective value of the works. White designers, long dominant, were able to offer the world pieces of king. Injustice, yes, but a historical legacy. And before sabotaging their legacy for the sake of fairness or because of the misconduct of their authors, it would be better to put these works in their context. Under the reigns of Hitler and Stalin, a whole art considered degenerate lost access to museum walls, when it was not destroyed. We quickly fall into this kind of revisionism.
A bad sign when master paintings are taken as militant targets at a time of climate demands, as has been the case in many museums in recent months. This means that, for some, art is now reduced to an instrument of pressure.
So for French in Quebec. If an education system lets young people make so many mistakes in their texts while giving them their diplomas, it is also blocking their future reading. Who will master the language well enough to learn about the riches of great French-language literature?
Troubled times, but the CRTC, who blamed the CBC for the use of the n-word on its airwaves, simply quoting the title of a book, exceeded his authority, said the Attorney General of Canada. The culture of banishment really went too far. Thus the year that is ending cries out to us to show vigilance in order to better face the one that follows.