Extra 3388 – Military Might at 70

Macau Daily Times | Edition 3388 | 04 Oct 2019 MILITARY MIGHT AT 70 SHOW-OFFChina marked its National Day with a massive parade through the center of Beijing showing-off its military might to the world and Hong Kong Movies: Pain and Glory Books: The Liar by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen Music: Up and Rolling by North Mississippi Allstars world: Argentina Holocaust museum gets Nazi artifacts space: Virgin Galactic says it will fly Italian researchers X2 PÁTIO DA ILUSÃO illusion NEWS OF THE WORLD MDT/AP China marks National Day with military might hina marked its National Day with a massive parade through the center of Beijing featu- ring missiles, tanks and thousands of mar- Cching troops, along with tributes to the country’s Communist Party leaders and the striking economic and social developments achieved since the People’s Republic was founded 70 years ago. Leading the festivities was party leader and Presi- dent Xi Jinping, who reviewed the troops both from through a standing position in his limousine and the viewing platform above iconic Tiananmen Gate. Following the show of military might, the parade continued with floats representing the vast nation’s far-flung regions and key events such as the opening of the economy in the 1980s, the return of Hong Kong and Macau to China in the late 1990s and the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Bands played and choirs sang, while dancers waved colorful fans and bouquets. Military aircraft flew overhead, leaving colorful contrails in their wake, while balloons were released in a final flourish. The event was engineered to direct credit for Chi- na’s achievements on the ruling party, which has built the country into the world’s second-largest economy and an increasingly assertive world power, while crushing all political opposition and strictly limiting civil liberties. In his address, Xi, dressed in a traditional gray Mao suit, said, “No force can shake the status of our great motherland, and no force can stop the progress of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation.” Leaders past and present watched the proceedings from atop the gate that lies at the northern end of sprawling Tiananmen Square. While the China’s communist party and state was celebrating its might, an 18-old student was shot in the chest with live ammunition by anti-riot police. (see p8-9) DRIVE IN Jocelyn Noveck, AP Banderas and Almodovar went ANDERAS AS through their own period of es- B AP PHOTO trangement.) But Alberto’s re-emergence will ALMODOVAR IS A TRIUMPH lead to an even more important reunion for Mallo, with a longti- OF SUBTLETY WIT me lover (an excellent Leonardo , Sparaglia), now living on another continent. It’s too complicated to on’t get that storyteller is not an exercise in mimicry; it’s explain how the two find each look,” film director Salvador an exquisitely lived-in perfor- other, but this beautifully layered DMallo’s elderly mother admo- mance by an actor who so grasps scene _ happy, melancholy, wis- nishes him at one point in “Pain the essence of the man he’s por- tful _ is one of Banderas’ most and Glory.” It’s hard not to chu- traying that he can be as subtle as effective. ckle, because the character is a he wants, like the quietest notes Then there’s a “reunion” with thinly veiled stand-in for Pedro on a finely tuned instrument. Mallo’s beloved late mother, Almodovar himself _ the film’s The film is basically a dialogue perfectly embodied in old age by director, of course, but also one between Mallo’s present and his 86-year-old Spanish star Julieta of the great storytellers in cinema past, at a difficult crossroads. He’s Serrano, in which the two come today. achieved fame and wealth but no to terms with some sobering tru- Mallo’s mother is telling her son longer fits the provocateur label ths. that she doesn’t want to be fodder he once had. He lives alone (in an Some may find the film too loo- for his films. But as Almodóvar’s eye-popping, art-filled apartment sely plotted, a series of vignettes many fans well know, that’s im- modeled on Almodovar’s own). Antonio Banderas (left, as Mallo) and Julieta Serrano (as Mallo’s mother) in a scene from “Pain and Glory” more than a single, tight narrati- possible; the Spanish legend has He suffers from tinnitus, migrai- ve. But they only need to sit back, used his late mother, his chil- nes, back pain from a recent ope- listen to the beautiful score by Al- dhood, his craft, his sexuality and ration, and a disturbing choking The flashbacks take us to an impo- We also see, later in the film, the reunions. The most momentous berto Iglesias, and let Almodovar almost everything else about his reflex when eating. And he suffers verished village in Valencia where stirrings of the young boy’s first of these is with a drug-addicted weave it all together _ from the life to make his brilliantly eclectic mentally, too, from anxiety and Mallo, as a young boy (a beau- sexual desire; these unexplained actor, Alberto (an arresting, wil- first meditative shot of Banderas films over the decades. depression, not to mention grief tifully expressive Asier Flores), feelings, provoked by a handso- d-eyed Asier Etxeandia) with to the satisfying surprise of the And here, he’s doing it more than over the recent death of his mo- emigrates with his parents, forced me young laborer that the boy is whom he’s been bitterly estran- ending shot _ as only Almodovar ever. Though significant parts are ther. to make do in a cave dwelling. His teaching to read and write, are so ged since Alberto starred in one can. fictionalized, “Pain and Glory” is Worst of all, Mallo is prevented mother, played by Almodovar’s overpowering that they cause litt- of Mallo’s films decades earlier. a deeply personal quasi-autobio- by his physical and mental ail- luminous longtime muse Penelo- le Salvito to faint. (The brief en- The reunion _ necessitated by a “Pain and Glory,” a Sony Pic- graphy starring, happily for us, ments from continuing to make pe Cruz, is desperate to send her counter will resonate beautifully _ joint invitation to appear at a re- tures Classics release, has been Antonio Banderas, Almodovar’s movies, the only pursuit that gives clever son to school, and arranges and heartbreakingly _ later in the trospective _ somehow leads to rated R by the Motion Picture longtime collaborator. Though him meaning. In a fog of pain me- for a scholarship to a religious movie.) Mallo’s trying heroin for the first Association of America “for Banderas apparently wears some dication and regret, he looks back seminary. “I don’t want to be a In the present, we watch Mallo time, sending him further into a drug use, some graphic nudity of the director’s real clothing, this at his life. priest!” the boy cries. engage in a series of meaningful deep mental fog. (Interestingly, and language.” 04.10.2019 fri China marks National Day with military might BOOK IT tTUNES ‘THE LIAR’ MAKES A GOOD NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS’ CASE FOR TELLING THE TRUTH LATEST IS FUN FOR ALL s expected in a novel TV singing contest and is a he blues is alive and ki- titled “The Liar,” lies well-known reality star, also cking, and rock ain’t A AP PHOTO T abound in this engaging story has been having a bad day, AP PHOTO dead either. Thank the North that is part mystery and part having just found out that his Mississippi Allstars for that coming-of-age tale. Actually, career may be over. Fearful of reminder. it is just one liar and one lie this man’s vile insults, Nofar Luther and Cody Dickinson’s but that one falsehood grows runs into alley but Avishai latest album is a communal and multiplies and takes on follows and grabs her. No- jam band amalgam that em- a life of its own as it evolves far’s screams bring a crowd, braces a couple of creaky into chaos, as author Ayelet including the police who ask old musical genres and still Gundar-Goshen so persuasi- if she has been sexually as- sounds like 2019 because vely shows. saulted and, almost without everyone involved seems to Israeli teenager Nofar Shalev thinking, Nofar says yes. be having so much fun, and has spent her young life like A washed-up celebrity atta- there’s no expiration date on she “lived in the world as if cking a slightly built teena- that. she were an uninvited guest ger is too salacious a story to “Up and Rolling” ranges from at a party.” Always in the sha- be buried, and it steamrolls roadhouse blues (“Out on dow of her younger, prettier through the media, social me- the Road”) and festival rock sister, Maya, ignored by her dia and just plain gossip. This (“Lonesome In My Home”) parents and pretty much invi- “The Liar,” Little Brown and Co., by momentum pulls in Nofar’s to disco funk (“Bump That Ayelet Gundar-Goshen sible to her classmates, even family and people claiming to North Mississippi Allstars, “Up and Rolling” (New West) Mother”) and a socially cons- those who have sat next to be friends. cious fist pumper (“Living her for years, Nofar feels she Gundar-Goshen effectively Free”). The band connects Muddy Waters with Prince on the salacious grinder “Peaches,” has little future beyond being delves into Nofar’s ascent in where a stepladder never sounded so sexy, and seeks forgiveness with a gospel swing on “a drab ice-cream server.” Her main goal is that her popularity while showing her guilt about lying and “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” More heavenly yet is the Mavis Staples-led tent revival high school crush will come into the ice cream shop her fears that she will hated and joked about if she stomper “What You Gonna Do?” where she works, notice her and become her devoted tells the truth.

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