30.6.08

The 'Adult' Fairytale


One of the sets in The Anderson Project is a peep show apartment. Stick in a token, and get a private room of adult videos. Somehow we all need this kind of sensation, just as we need fairytale for adults, somwhere away from life, and into it.

If you still see adult video to be nothing by dirt and lust, it's either you haven't faced a mid-life crisis, or you are not a man. The Anderson Project protrays mainly two men, one a songwriter from Montreal to Paris, the other his commissioner—a theatre manager. They are brought together by an Anderson play, namely 'The Dryad'. The manager invited the writer to travel all the way to Paris, to adapt this story into a play for children.

The songwriter is a stranger to the city. His 16-year relationship just came to a stop. He is nervous about people's response on his work. This is enough chaos. Meanwhile, the manager is facing similar slumps. His wife goes out with his friend. He is nervous about dealing with the Danish—the ultimate financial source for his theatre. The two men serve as mirror images of one another, echoing the uncertainty and insecurity of life. As the story comes to an end, the songwriter is abandoned from the entire production. As he decides to go back to Montreal, his girlfriend announces she has got together with his friend. Sarcastically, the manager's wife at the same time ran away with the manager's best friend too.

I couldn't help relating the story with the film The Lost Translation, especially for that of the songwriter. A man out of place both physically and in life, except the songwriter doesn't meet a beautiful and sexy girl in Paris. I guess we all need to be immersed in a totally different world for new self-realization. And that is more or less analogous to being in a theatre. The closing quote was “Is life like Anderson's fairy tale, where endings are always full of sarcasm, only animals can live happily ever after?” This touches and catches everyone of us.



The show is fascinating not only by its plot. Director, Robert Lepage, is well known for his multimedia theatre elements. With Ex Machina, the visual effect this time is a stunning 3D screen—audience not only see projected images, but also digital images that merge with the shadow and even the subject of the actor, as he jumps INTO the screen or draws graffitti on it. Every scene is run on a 'one man show' mode, adding to the loneliness of each character. Every time we only hear one man's voice, or maybe some from the adult videos.

The adult videos are a refugee for lost adults. But it is also solitude and loneliess at the same time. The songwriter says, he never likes childhood, it is just a dress rehearsal of everything bad that will happen afterwards. Perhaps Anderson's stories aim to serve this function, tell us how bad the world is going to be. And when we are here at the middle of our life, we choose either to escape to the adult videos, or face it in art like The Anderson Project.

23.6.08

《深海尋人》該在太空館放映

不知道票房如何,但若照一般人的反應來說(亦不是死硬派徐克狂熱份子),沒有可能大收。我提議它可以在太空館re-run,畢竟這套電影的最大功能,莫過於教人珍惜地球資源,以及欣賞海底美景。

除了是一套保育電影,小朋友在太空館看,更能教育下一代保護地球。電影中的愛情部份,亦適合幼稚園的程度,簡直如童話故事。片末二人在水底游泳,寓意永恆美滿的愛情,我卻只看到兩條扁魷魚,恕難代入。

《深海尋人》最有創意的地方,是希望做到大家和李心潔一同走進自己的腦袋。最後才發現事實。片中最大的編幅,都是李心潔潛意識的創作,就像我們發夢一樣,往往將自己的渴望,以其他方法逞現在腦中,一方面是反映,另一方面也有治療的作用。例如發夢和暗戀的人纏綿,現實中不能成事,夢裡成就了,現實也會減免點失落。 回想李心潔的「夢境」,就是向這個治療目的出發,自己沒有出席男友的葬禮、不知道男友的死因、對男友妹妹的倚賴,都在「夢裡故事」中得到解脫。

這種易假易真的敘述法,最重要是能把潛意識創作的故事,和戲裡真實故事掛勾。編導可是完全做不到--難道提一提現實裡院長的相片,夢裡又出現向院長求助,或者現實裡李心潔用的杯子,跟夢裡鬧鬼的杯子吻合,就算一幅完整的拼圖嗎? 觀眾只會感覺被玩,你要我看一場沒有發生的畸夢,又再花一半篇幅去解釋及描述真實的情況,是什麼意思? 就像兜了一個毫無意義的圈子。

所以,到最後,要讚的只有那很美的海底世界,還要是沒有特技添加的,唔該。


(倒不如看看香港電台製作《深海歷奇》)

2.6.08

一奏傾情《Once》and for all

音樂電影一向「先聲奪人」,電影未上,原聲大碟已成行成市,加上現在youtube發達,以電影片段輯成的音樂錄像,總能讓人先睹為快。

相信《一奏傾情》也是這樣被香港人接觸,尤其當它於Sundance及奧斯卡早已光芒四射。其實,男主角Glen Hansard在此片嬴得奧斯卡最佳原創歌曲前,已成功得到女主角Marketa Irglova的芳心 (在戲裡反而失敗了,無法跟愛人走在一起),並與她推出《The Swell Season》大碟(他也沒想到歌曲會大紅,現在反被人質疑「原創」的資格)。令這套電影本身出現很多「來得太早」的錯位意味。



我們對音樂電影的劇情一向要求甚低,故事穩穩當當就是,不期待會有什麼奇情轉折。《一奏傾情》一直保持著沒驚沒喜,但總算有些小情趣。The Guy The Girl (男女主角都沒有名字)互生情愫,又各有抑壓,唯有投射到音樂上,擦出火花。電影的英文名《Once》解「曾經」,亦解「一次」,比中文譯名傳神。套到反高潮的電影結尾上,更顯其獨特的形容﹣﹣結局兩人沒有走在一起,女的依然想等待女兒的爸爸,男的也唯有啟程去找前女友。這個不平凡的結局,為預計之內的音樂電影加了不少分數。即使在音樂世界裡,愛情一向都被塑造得過份完美,這是流行音樂及電影世界裡無可避免的。《一奏傾情》安排這個反傳統的結局,立刻能引起空間聯想﹣﹣一生人一次,究竟是指那曾經相遇但一拍即合的,還是命中註定白頭到老的?女主角最後彈著男主角送的鋼琴,望向遠空,寄予那沒結果的思念,亦是令觀眾為延續這份愛念,而去買一張原聲大碟的動力。