Pride and Prejudice: a masterpiece

  Inspired by the famous novel of 1813, the movie “pride and prejudice” is a soft moment of aesthetics, poetry and loving passion, drawn in the historical context of pre-victorian period. If it is largely based on a love story between two characters from different social belonging, it’s also a painting about women condition and obligations in the 19th century.

  The director, Joe Wright, offers a spectator a beautiful work with some scenes particularly aesthetics, in the famous landscapes of old England. The Romanticism of the movie appears in the speeches and the staging as well as the places and the quality of the filming.

  If some observers will only see in this movie another love story for little romantic and naive girls, other spectators will appreciate the complexity of the two characters’ feelings and personality, the reflexion about prejudices, the description of women condition in this century, and the painting of a desperate and touching family, torn between the willing of seeing its daughters happy and the obligation of finding wealthy husbands to keep their house.

  The actors enable the movie to obtain a deeper dimension, and perfectly express the feelings of their characters. In the role of Elizabeth Bennet, the rebel, open-minded, curious, and free daughter, Keira Knightley shows again her talent for playing. Delicate but stubborn, sensitive but strong, she perfectly manages to show the complexity of her character, her despair about her mother pressure on her daughters to marry a wealthy man, and her disappointment and doubts about Darcy.

  The couple Keira Knightley/Matthew MacFadyen is a pleasant mix of misunderstandings and attraction.

The character of Darcy is a discreet and taciturn man, who will reveal to be faithful, sensitive and lovely. M.Macfayden did a beautiful work of acting, his personality and his character’s one mix perfectly to make the movie more realistic.

Incognito, Bees+things+flowers

  Since its beginning, the English jazz band Incognito offers to its public some sensual, nostalgic, soft or entertaining songs. If their style is quite diversified, the quality of the singers and the musicians, their long experience of stage and music, their will to share good vibes with their audience, make the band let an unforgettable print on the “acid-jazz” stage.

  Some songs are slow but intense, some rhythms soft but impressive. The lyrics let the listener dream and succumb to the temptation of nostalgia and melancholy. But far away from being sad, the album alternates soft moments and genius samples of energy and voltage!

  The interpreters perfectly mix the two styles with mischief and complicity. This mix and the quality of the majority of the songs make of this album one of the band’s most achieved ones.

Midterm elections in USA:democrats see red

  Tuesday 2nd November, like every two years t this period, American citizens could vote for the new politicians who would represent them in the two parts of the Congress: The Senate and the Representative chamber. The Democratic Party remained upset by an unexpected result.

  A real red wave (the CNN even called it the “republican landslide”!) marked the loss of the total control of the congress for Democrats last Tuesday. The Grand Old Party won 240 seats in the Representative Chamber (60 more than the last election) against 185 for the democrat party. Republicans are the new majority in the Chamber, led by Boenher who becomes the new speaker after Nancy Pelosi. This result can be considered as the biggest shift in the house for any party since 1948.

  The situation is a little bit different for the Senate, which saw Republican winning 6 seats but remaining a minority with only 46 seats against 51 for the Democrats. With this new set-up, it will be difficult for Barack Obama to obtain the 2/3 approbation votes he needs to launch his new reforms.

  The 6 states which enabled republicans to win new seats were North Dakota, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Indiana and the most important, Illinois. The most important not because of its size, its votes or its strategical position, but because of the symbolic defeat it represents for Barack Obama and his party. The republican Mark Kirk won the seat Obama vacated for the white house. Democrats had lost only one senate race in the state in four decades.

  For Obama, the compromise seems to become an emergency, and the cohabitation a necessity. “Some elections night are more fun than others [...], some are exhilarating, some are humbling” he said in the press conference that followed the election night, arguing that this defeat prompted “questioning on my part”. Persuaded that his policies were right but “had been explained badly”, the American president looked quite lost and disappointed after this exhausting night.

  Another big change can be pointed out: The tea party enters the Congress with two members, Rand Paul (Kentucky) and Marco Rubio (Florida). What means this little but effective victory? At least in the states where they were elected, it can be the result of a desire to give a more important space for so-called ultra conservative ideas.

  What are the responsibilities of Obama in this defeat? It’s the question a lot of observers try to answer to. Firstly, the global crisis which stroke developed countries didn’t help him at all. Even it’s clear that he cannot be considered as responsible for it, his decisions to end up the crises prompted a lot of criticizes.

  The unprecedented unemployment rate (that reached 10% this year) has been the most important one since the 30’s crises. His 787-milliard reflationary measures could have appeared as an efficient decision, creating and saving 3 million jobs but some Americans think that it was not enough and that Obama didn’t dare to impose more important measures.

  Several Americans also criticize the health reform which aims to permit to 32 millions Americans who didn’t have any insurance to obtain one, judged as inefficient in the short term, and too intrusive in Americans’ private life. Some citizens even think that the health law has been too much treated, overshadowing the real emergency subject: the reflation. With a 13 billion deficit, the economic situation in USA remains worrying for a lot of its inhabitants.

  Eventually, the actual president has to collaborate with the Republican Party, encouraged by an impressive victory. We will see in the future months how it works.

unprecedented military co-operation between France and Britain

  Unprecedented treaties between France and Great Britain enable the both countries to share their military expertise, means and costs.

  On Tuesday the second of November 2010, a summit in Lancaster House in London, saw the meeting of French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain Prime Minister David Cameron, about two military co-operation treaties.

  The two former “hereditary enemies of the continent” (according to David Cameron) made the twelve year old project a reality. Indeed the idea of this co-operation had been launched at the summit of Saint-Malo in 1998, and seemed have been forgotten since.

  But in this period of cuts and economic austerity, it probably appeared to the leaders that sharing their military means would be the best way to remain great military powers, saving money in the same way. As a consequence, this co-operation can be considered more as a pragmatic choice than a real will of rapprochement, all the more so as the decision is criticized in the both countries.

  These two treaties comprise some decisive decisions such as the simulation in 2014 of the co-operating functioning of their nuclear arsenal in an area near to Dijon, in France, and in the Atomic weapon research in Aldermaston, in England.

  Actually, the jointing nuclear research is one of the most important and surprising point of the treaties, but the creation in 2011 of an expeditionary force, composed by around five thousands soldiers, land, marine and air equipments from the both countries, is to impress some observers. This force is no permanent, but will act on precise events, ruled by international organisations such as UE, OTAN, or ONU.