better with each passing day

[Paul Frank]

There's a popular Latin American saying about Carlos Gardel, who died
in 1935: "Cada dia canta mejor." It means, as this
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129783483> NPR
piece reminds us, that Gardel sings better with each passing day, that
his music ages like a fine wine. As a native speaker of Spanish, I can
only agree.

I saw Casablanca the other day, for the first time in years. And I was
blown away, again, and for the umpteenth time. Every line gets better
every time I hear it. Even the lines that aren't in the movie, like
"play it again, Sam." Has any movie shaped the language more than
Casablanca? When was the last time that a classic movie, the locus
classicus of dozens of phrases and idioms, was made? Is it because
movies have been superseded by TV series in the American cultural
repertoire , as A.O. Scott suggested in the Times the other day:

<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/movies/12scott.html?pagewanted=1&ref=arts&src=me>

Or because adult movies (no, not that kind) are a thing of the past
(or almost), as Matt Zoller Zeits argues in Salon,

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/film_salon/2010/09/07/the_romantics_the_american_grownup_movies/index.html

Ducking,
off-topically,

Paul

Paul Frank
Translator
German, French, Italian > English
paulfrank at post.harvard.edu
paul.frank at bfs.admin.ch

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