Curtain Call Addiction

Even if there are characters I cannot read, if I point Google Lens at them, the meaning, pronunciation, and example sentences appear immediately. I have become able to rely on my smartphone for everything. What should I do about that feeling of walking through a jungle unarmed, sitting in the darkness of a movie theater without any prior knowledge? An actor I recognize appears. I should know them, but their name won't come to me. If I were in my own room, I could pause and search for it. You know, that person, that one. As if to deal a finishing blow to my depleted concentration, a song begins. This song! It's that one, that one. By the time I finish watching and come out, I am covered in wounds from the stress, and I no longer have the memory or the energy to even move my fingers.

I declared that autumn is for movies and tried going to the theater. I didn't have a specific goal, but I watched "Fanfare" on a whim. As soon as it started, I was struck by a seizure. Smartphone withdrawal symptoms. To touch upon the content and offer my own interpretation, the piece the protagonist was conducting was Beethoven's "Egmont." It is the overture to a play by Goethe about a real-life hero, a figure similar to Sogoro Sakura of Germany who was sentenced to death for resisting tyranny. And then, the seaside scene. The older brother confesses a fact he had kept silent about until then to his younger brother and hums a phrase. It is a song very familiar to French people. Conversely, it is something only those who know it will understand. The sorrowful melody is Charles Aznavour's "La Bohème." It is said to be the song that was played at his state funeral in 2018. The song selection gradually converges toward a certain conclusion, and while many similar works tend to lean toward heartwarming or positive directions, this one successfully misleads the audience to a landing point that could be mistaken for a happy ending.
"Don't give me flowers. This isn't a funeral." Everyone came. Even if the final destination is Rome, I'm glad we met along the way.

France is the city of art. You can fulfill dreams that you could never have realized in the land where you were born and raised. Famous songs that have left their mark on history originated in France. If you search for them, the composers and singers used are foreigners or immigrants. Starting with the German Beethoven, Aznavour was of Turkish descent, Dalida was Egyptian, and even though Ravel was French, Boléro was originally a Spanish dance. Immigrants are amazing. And so is France, for attracting them and allowing their talents to blossom.

Tears overflowed from the flow of the curtain call. Smartphone! Smartphone!

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I went over the limit.Just as I started writing a movie review, a perfect prompt came along,

and I am participating here.