Says Grand Corps Malade (literally Great Body Sick) that his name means exactly what it seems. He says it by teleconference and even gets up and exhibits in front of the camera to record what has just been said. Is big. But what exactly do the meanings of the names mean? Borges, always he, imagined in the story ' The analytical language of John Wilkins' the possibility of a perfect language capable of defining each concept just by naming it. Each syllable would be destined for a category or subcategory within a perfectly ordered and hierarchical universe. The meaning would thus be the same thing. When in 2003, this 35-year-old FrenchmanHe made his first appearance on stage to recite-sing one of his poems-songs of 'slam' demanded a stage name. And that was how Fabien Marsaud, that is his birth name, said the most obvious: I am a great sick body. "What was going to be the nickname for one night, is already my name. And my name is what I am," he says.

Now he releases a film in Spain and has to go through the detailed and even routine account of his life and illness. To situate ourselves, we spoke to a star (in France, but a star) with seven albums released, two films released and even a Cesar (the French equivalent of Goya) to the debuting director. 'The Teachers of Sain-Dennis' is his second film co-directed as the first with Mehdi Idir. In the first, ' Patients ' (a hit in his country with almost one and a half million tickets sold), he had the most obviously melodramatic part of his life. And there you could see the story of an athlete, swimmer for more signs, that after breaking his neck in a pool and staying close to tetraplegia, he has to reinvent himself the whole life. The first thing, to recover sensitivity, mobility and then, everything else. That is, the same life. The result: a great body as perfectly alive as it is bound to be sick.

A moment from the interview with Grand Corps Malade.

"I have always written without caring much about the way, the circumstance or the meaning. The relationship that unites my poetry with my music with my cinema is always the same: the writing and the reconstruction of my own life through it. All that I do is autobiographical for the simple reason that I do not understand art in any other way, "he comments shortly after being held accountable for the origin of his inspiration and for the will to be told. 'The Professors of Saint-Denis' would be one more chapter of this same story. Again, Grand Corps Malade strives to make the name of the movie the movie itself. It is, if you will, the everlasting 'Borgian' effort to make the world and language coincide.

"They ask me about my influences or the cinema that has made me make cinema and I find it difficult to give a moderately convincing or elaborate answer. I can quote Ken Loach's cinema ; I can describe my effort to get as close as possible to reality, and I can even dwell on my quest to turn the bitterest drama into a comedy. But really, I'm counting my life, "he says. And seen the film, we believe him.

The crisis of public education means the crisis of democracy

Grand Corps Malade

Indeed, the film that in French is called with the more graphic title of 'La vie scolaire' (school life) tells the story of a teacher who one day lands at a school in a suburb of Paris. And there, basically, the story ends. What follows is not so much a narrative as the almost impressionistic capture of a mood. Everything unfolds on screen without interruption, without any limit that separates the edge of the screen from the other, from reality itself. And it is there, in the evident sensation of recognition (it does not matter whether it is Paris or Timbuktu) where each frame takes shape and becomes large. And even sick with pure vitality. Great Sick Body.

"In any case, without being political cinema, it ends up being political. Everything is political. Even my illness. French education is currently going through a great crisis and the education crisis is the same crisis of democracy. Despite the principle is that all schools receive the same, it is clear that schools in the poorest neighborhoods need more resources. True equality is not achieved by giving the same to everyone because there are some who already have more than others, "he says, and taking advantage that the same quarantine is that of France as that of Spain, he continues: "With the pandemic, suddenly, we realize how important the public is, what is important to everyone, what makes us French, Spanish or European. I'm talking about public education, but also, since we're working on it, about public health . " It is clear. Also here, the name makes it clear is a matter: public, everyone.

Grand Corps Malade says that far from his intention to become an example of anything or anyone. But you can't help but get ahead. "If I have learned anything it is that the important thing is life. I do not want to sound mystical. It is clear that before my accident, my life was going to be in a way. I had studied sports and that was what I wanted to do. When I left the pool and after three months in a coma, it was clear that there was no point in holding on to what was not going to happen. I needed a plan B and that plan came when I started doing something else. That plan B is my life, it is life ", He says. His latest album, released in 2018, is precisely titled 'Plan B'. It is clear.

By the way, do you think that after the pandemic things will change? "Despite everything I have said, despite considering myself an unrepentant optimist ... The truth is that I do not believe. I remember that after the Charlie Hebdo attacks, everyone went out into the street convinced that a new solidarity was born, which was a new beginning for France ... After three weeks everything was back to usual. I'm afraid ... ". And in the ellipsis it leaves something similar to a big and somewhat sick 'No'.

In Borges's account at the beginning, the key lay not so much in the language as in the organization of the world itself. And he brings up that rare encyclopedia that divided the animals in their own way: "(a) belonging to the Emperor, (b) embalmed, (c) trained, (d) piglets, (e) mermaids, (f) fabulous, ( g) loose dogs, (h) included in this classification, (i) waving like crazy, (j) innumerable, (k) drawn with a very fine camel hair brush, (1) etcetera, (m) that end to break the vase, (n) that from a distance look like flies ". And maybe there is the key. Despite the obviousness of the Grand Corps Malade name, it surely hides its own classification, its very personal poetry.

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