if it's smart, it's pretentious

When you're sick for one week you have the time to watch a film which lasts two hours and thirty minutes. This film is entitled Illusions perdues. It was recommended to my classmates a week ago by our economics teacher, to understand how journalist's profession was born. So that's what I'm going to talk about today.

Illusions Perdues was released in 2021 and it's based on Balzac's famous book. Lucien de Rubempré, the main character, he has a love of writing and is very talented poet of 19th century. Lucien is unknown at present but his ambitions are great and he dreams of living from his passion. But Lucien's dreams will soon be put aside to face the hard world of the press.

Lucien de Rubempré is an orphan. He lives in Angoulême, his hometown, and works in the family printing company. This young provincial goes to Paris to become a writer with the help of the Marquise Louise de Bargeton, a noblewoman with whom he has a secret love affair. Lucien discovers the richness of the capital: the plays, the women, the Opera, the social evenings. Lucien is looking for a publisher for his poems but the publishing world is not interested in poetry because it does not pay.

He will then turn to journalism where his talent for writing will make him noticed by the general public. Lucien is forced to put aside his dream of poetry to write reviews of plays or book releases. Lucien then discovers the cruelty of the world of journalism which has no mercy for authors, actors. The only rule is to have a maximum of readers of the newspaper and for that, to write articles which will make speak. You don't need to have read a book to review it, you have to be mean:

"If the writing is classical, it is academic.
If the book is funny, it's shallow.
If it's smart, it's pretentious. »

In the end, Lucien is forced to put aside his ethical values and his poetic vision of life to satisfy a superficial aristocracy filled with pretences.

The profession of journalism has evolved a lot today and fortunately so. Our professor, having been a journalist himself, insisted on the notion of truth, which is very important today to be a credible journalist. It is no longer a question of amusing the readers with unfounded criticisms but of informing them with the most objectivity possible. The character of Balzac could have become a very good poet if he had not let himself be carried away by his thirst for fame and money. A vice still very present in our current society and in the world of the press. Today, the quest for objectivity is still fragile because behind large press groups is a man who has the power to broadcast whatever he wants. 

Le 02/10/2022

(2173 signes sans espaces)