蔷薇的葬礼

A masterpiece. Among all Japanese films that I have watched, ATG films always deeply intrigue me. Mastumoto certainly attempts to create a conflict between two poles, such as the avant-garde and the documentary as the reading suggests. Before entering the discussion of his combination of different genres (or even beyond the traditional-defined film medium itself), I want to briefly discuss this dichotomy embedded in this film. The film starts with a poem claiming one person as both wound and knife, both victim and executer. This dichotomy is settled at the very beginning of the film. Later around 4:22, Gonda and Eddie are placed on two opposing side of the screen, showing this dichotomy again. This also indicates the paternity conflict. The imagery of rose is also two-sides. On one side, it is extremely attractive and beautiful. On the other hand, it hurts people who hold it. This reminds me the Marxism theory of synthesis. The conflict between thesis and anti-thesis will create a new synthesis which is higher than the original thesis-antithesis level. This motivates the social progress. The new synthesis will become the new thesis, seeking a conflict with its anti-thesis. As Matsumoto is very aware of the past major film theories, (I really love the quote from Mekas) it is also possible that he learned the writings from Sergei Eisenstein or Dziga Vertov, who highly borrows from Marxism. Therefore, the concept of surrealism and seeking higher truth may also be connected to the concept of “eye” attributed to camera. Vertov’s work “Man with a Movie Camera” definitely demonstrates this idea. Therefore, the foundation of the documentary-side in “Funeral Parade of Roses” may originate from it. However, as the prompt suggests, this film also aggregate so many other genres or even elements beyond cinema to construct a deeper truth. From my perspective, this practice may compensate the innate disadvantage in documentary genre itself.

It is easy to firstly identify the documentary-side elements in this film. This film uses a lot of non-professional actors and actresses, mitigating the illusion of real from the sense of acting. The audiences will be more persuaded by its narration. Also, when the assistant yells out “Cuts,” audiences are aware of the fakeness of this narration, cancelling the illusion as well. The following interviews on either the cast or some random passers-by are also elements of documentaries. They are revealing their personal feelings of the plots, their identities, their dreams and their living conditions. These are not mingled with the narration part (or melodrama part, which will be discussed below) because such information is given purely orally by these people. There are no direct reproductions through images. Furthermore, the response or adaptation from the current events, such as the students’ riots, the wars and even the film posts on display, actively enhance the sense of the newsreels, which could be considered as the early form of the documentary.

However, a significant problem in the documentary-end is the unreachable truthfulness. The editing and the montage inevitably create new meanings instead of faithfully demonstrating the happenings that “once have been there.” Many documentaries, even in early periods, are proved to contain false information or overabundance of propagandistic messages. Robert Flaherty's “Nanook of the North” exaggerates the wilderness of the residences and invents many scenes. The camera perspectives and montages from Leni Riefenstahl’s “Triumph of the Will” certainly glorifies the image of Hitler. Therefore, it is impossible to achieve this superficial level of truthfulness because of the innate cinematic languages. Then, Mastumoto attempts to achieve a deeper sense of truthfulness in the unconscious level. Memories, or sense of memories, may facilitate this practice. The pieced images could become analogies for audiences to recall or recollect, from their daily viewing of different films or even other medias. There are two threads of this adding-up: referring to previous dominating genres that people are familiar with, then exploring the future possibilities of the cinema itself through style of “avant-garde” (manipulating time and borrowing from installation art and television).

For the first thread, Matsumoto clearly refers to melodrama, slapsticks, and some aspects of Jidai-Geki through many devices. The core of the plots still shows the sense of melodrama, even its editing skills are avant-garde. The essence of the scripts for the narrative part demonstrates a clear pattern of Eddie’s whole life, while the audiences need to paste all the parts scattered around together. Several photographs show him as a baby. After his father left, his personalities start to change. He uses make-up. When he uses lipstick, his mother beats him. He witnessed his mother meeting another man. He kills both of them. He then works in a bar, causing a typical triangle between him and Gonda and Leda. Finally, all three are dead. This kind of love affairs and struggle is typical for most melodramas, only the characters are more complicated than the normal examples. This familiar structure from a familiar genre will mitigate the sense of pioneer which may frighten the audiences, making this film more acceptable. The abundance of sex depictions also reminds the audiences the pink films as well, which becomes a powerful advertising device to appeal to the audiences, enlarging the span of its potential targeted viewers. The camera shows all different angles of the naked bodies, with many close-ups. This may clearly recall the pornographical aspects of the pink films. In addition, the reference to slapsticks also create this sense of amusement and entertainment, relaxing the audiences from the more serious and uncanny avant-garde parts of the film. In many fighting scenes, Mastumoto accelerates these shots and uses very simple and delighting background music with quick tempos. This quickly connects to the Hollywood slapsticks such as Keaton’s or Chaplin’s work. This play of time is harmonious with the more avant-garde style of manipulating time. However, it is more familiar to the audiences, replacing this work together to the stream of all the past masterpieces. In one shot, Eddie and Guevara lean on the walls that is full of Pasolini’s film “Edipo re”. They both have the theme of killing fathers. This is also a device of linking this film to previous works in more clearly genres. Finally, from 37:49, the background music for the quarrel between Gonda and Leda are traditional Japanese theatrical music. In this scene, Gonda is dominating the fighting against Leda and kicking him, showing the sense of male chauvinism. Utilizing the traditional instruments for the music here links to the genre of Jidai-geki, which are mostly adaptations from histories or traditional theatres. This genre here seems to ironically criticize the traditional Japanese patricentric culture.

Furthermore, this film also has lots of avant-garde elements. Among those numerous examples, two significant parts are the manipulation of time and the mediums beyond-cinema. Isami’s response has already clearly analyses the relationship between this film and Godard’s jump cuts. Therefore, I will not repeat this argument. There are many repetitively used shots placed in different places of the film. Sometimes they seem to show a continuity in narration, while some of them appear as the hallucinations or dream of Eddie. His memories and dreams contribute this manipulation of time. There are also many moments that the audiences could feel the sense of omens from the objects. After the scene showing dead Leda, there are two dolls on the ground. One of the dolls has a needle pinned on the neck. Another doll’s two eyes are both pinned by the needles. At the end of film, the deaths of Eddie and Gonda clearly revive this pattern. Gonda kills himself by cutting his neck, and Eddie tears his two eyes. This seems to be a De Ja Vu. This manipulation of time is significant for the seek of the deeper truth. One specific aspect of dream is that people do not know the beginning and the ending. The jumps cuts and repetition clearly imitate the similar sense of dreams and deeper memories. Therefore, the memories of Eddie are scattered around the film and freely connected. Finally, as the Mekas’s saying that “all definitions of cinema have been erased, all doors are open now,” this film also aggregates many other art forms. The scenes in the galleries showing the paintings of masks are linked to the gallery-environment. The scene depicting seven naked males’ backs with one rose thrusted in one’s butt clearly creates the sense of action arts or happenings, which is a widely used art form during this period in response to the wars and nuclear horrors, such as Yoko Ono’s “Grapefruit” and “Cut-pieces.” The reference to this new wave of art reforms could intensify this film’s connection with its contemporary political issues. Finally, television dominates many scenes in the film as well. The Eddie’s group gathers around to watch the television. The news of detecting drugs is also delivered through the form of television program. Therefore, this film seems to break the boundaries of instantaneity of cinema, which the audiences merely stay in theatre with darkness for two hours. The television, a familiar medium that represent the audiences’ daily routines, seems to arouse more perpetuating senses for the audiences. This generalization also represent the accumulation of the audiences’ or the characters’ unconsciousness or memories, because people will receive the news and understand the worlds through watching cinemas.

实验电影以思想出格、形式先锋著称。有些创作者走向影像装置/实验艺术，而非电影。上世纪六七十年代，日本实验电影刚刚兴起，这股力量和新浪潮一代汇合，诞生了一批杰出的创作者。寺山修司是其一，常被提及。具有学者范，现在较少被提及的松本俊夫，也是当时最有名的实验电影人之一。

寺山修司把自己的人生当成实验艺术来度过，坊间流传着众多关于他的传奇故事。他是诗人，是剧作家，是电影导演，也是话剧导演，艺术闯进他生活的每个角落。相比之下，松本俊夫作为实验影像艺术家，个人生活没有太多传奇可以点缀，供世人膜拜。最值得拿来当叛逆行为教材的，不过是大学瞒着家人弃医从艺。

松本俊夫出生于1932年，青少年时期正值日本战败后的经济萧条期。他顺从父母之意，就读医学专业，但并未成为救死扶伤的医生，而是当了前卫的实验影像艺术家。1950年代，日本实验艺术尚未成形，对进口电影管制比较严格，因此松本俊夫是在研读艺术史的过程中，接触到欧洲早期超现实主义和先锋电影的资料，成为他之后投身实验影像艺术的契机。

五十年代初，日本经济恢复，民主运动进入高峰，学生频繁走上街头抗议。五十年代末，针对即将修改的日美安保条约，日本各阶层发起了20多次全国性的抗议活动，包括大学生、知识分子、艺术家，都积极参与到反对日美安保条约的运动中。松本俊夫和大岛渚在此时创作了与其相关的作品。

大岛渚执导的[日本的夜与雾]上映于1960年，针对日美安保条约的抗议还未完全平息，不过败局已定。片中，曾经参与运动的学生在婚礼上展开辩论，争论行动失败的原因，质问正义的理想是否已被抛弃。

松本俊夫从五十年代中期开始自己的实验影像艺术生涯,同时也拍摄纪录片。1959年，他创作了纪录与实验影像混合的短片《安保条约》，作为对时事的回应。虽然和新浪潮导演走的很近，还和大岛渚、佐藤忠男等人创立了《电影批评》杂志，但他很晚才拍摄处女作，即1969年推出的[蔷薇的葬礼]。这也是他创作的四部长片中，最受推崇的一部。

作为纪录片导演，松本俊夫不是单纯的纪录时事，而是以纪录片为素材，进行二次“解读”，即用实验影像的方法赋予纪录片新的意义，或是对其进行阐释。这种方法也被他用在了[蔷薇的葬礼]中，除了加入街头抗议的纪录镜头，还拍摄了素人演员的自白，阐述他们对角色的理解。

阿伦·雷乃的 [格尔尼卡](1950)影响了松本俊夫的创作观。这部短片以毕加索的名画《格尔尼卡》为素材，通过“拆解”细节，“纪录”被德国法西斯轰炸后的小镇格尔尼卡地狱般的景象。松本俊夫把这种创作手法用到了自己的纪录片、实验影像和电影中。[安保条约]是对新闻素材的二次处理，将观众带入思辨的立场，而非被动接受新闻。

有些中文评论文章提到松本俊夫时，称其为日本电影新浪潮的鼻祖或旗手，甚至有人把他1969年才完成的[蔷薇的葬礼]夸为日本新浪潮的开端，前者只能说是夸大其词，后者根本就是罔顾事实。日本新浪潮起于19 60年，松竹电影公司的大岛渚、吉田喜重、筱田正浩在这年推出处女作或第二部电影，媒体以法国电影圈刚刚兴起的"新浪潮"形容他们，由此掀开日本新浪潮的序幕。

松本俊夫此时既专心于实验短片的创作，也发表电影评论，同时还为大岛渚的[饲育 ]做了编剧工作，改编自大江健三郎的小说。他和大岛渚、寺山修司等人关系很好，创作上互相帮助，例如松本俊夫的实验短片 [母亲 ]，采用了寺山修司的诗歌作为旁白。他们对日本政治、反叛文化、前卫艺术有着共同的兴趣。ATG(日本艺术影院协会)在东京新宿的驻地，是他们在1960年代的活动中心。

在 ATG的资助下，松本俊夫执导了处女作[蔷薇的葬礼]，除了加入其一贯使用的纪录片手法，还大量采用了法国新浪潮惯用的跳切，更加肆无忌惮地破坏影像的叙事功能，突出视觉幻象的心理冲击。这部电影堪称东方文化下，对《奥狄浦斯王》最经典的改编，弑父娶母的古代悲剧，变成现代的弑母和同父亲乱伦的悲剧。

夏尔·波德莱尔写的诗句“我是伤口，又是刀锋”，是[蔷薇的葬礼]的引子，出现在片头字幕中。松本俊夫的一些创作，正是揭开伤口和刀锋并存的现实。