Word: malraux
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...From the start, Education Minister André Boulloche, a convinced laïque, has been at odds with Premier Debré. Boulloche insisted that his ministry have almost complete control over any school that accepted state aid, refused even to tolerate crucifixes and robes. Enraged, Culture Minister André Malraux turned on Boulloche, snapped: "Neutralization in teaching does not exist." At one point, De Gaulle firmly reminded his quarreling ministers, "We are no longer under the Fourth Republic," warned them that an impasse in the Cabinet could sweep it out of office. To Boulloche he said, "I understand your conscience...
...that it is, the Fifth Republic of France has its commanding star, but it also has a supporting cast around Charles de Gaulle that is determined to maintain the mystical sense of grandeur. "We will try to accomplish the dream of France," declared Novelist Andre (Man's Fate) Malraux, after taking over as Minister of State in Charge of Cultural Affairs, "to give back life to its past genius, to give life to its present genius, and to welcome the genius of the world." Last week as Malraux rose to explain his unprecedented cultural budget to the National Assembly...
There had been times when Culture-master Malraux came dangerously close to satire in describing the accomplishments of France-"the most powerful lighthouse in the world, the largest hangar for airplanes, the most modern goods station, the highest road over a dam . . ." And sometimes it was hard to talk about grandeur in the most skeptical and free-thinking nation in the world. The moment he became official, Malraux lost some caste among all those passionate or cynical Left Bank defenders of the right-and the duty-of Art to be anti-official...
...Battler v. the Kid. Having no power outside the authority to allot certain star subsidies, Malraux set out to rehabilitate the French theater. At the Comédie Française, he complained, standards had fallen so low that there were only six performances of Racine to 113 of a couple of frothy farces by a 19th century playwright, Eugene Labiche. "Let us have Labiche," said Malraux tolerantly, "but not at the expense of Racine." From then on, as Paris-Presse put it, the lines were drawn between " 'Kid' Labiche v. 'Battling' Racine." Malraux snatched...
...Malraux also decreed: let there be circuses-and staged the most dazzling Bastille Day celebration France had ever seen. In fact, never since Napoleon had government and culture so complemented each other. When Giraudoux's Electre opened, Paris critics were officially reminded that a French head of state has the privilege of seeing all new performances first; so, in "deference to General de Gaulle," the critics should hold up their first-night reviews until he could get to the theater on the second night. The grand opening of the opera fortnight ago, where Maria Callas had once complained...