Post by klep on Mar 18, 2019 7:07:02 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 3/18/19: Funeral Parade of Roses
TRANS WOMEN WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
We often talk about movies being unclassifiable, or otherwise resistant to clear genre labels, but even among that class there aren't many movies that challenge cinematic norms as Funeral Parade of Roses. (Most movies don't break in the middle of the film for an interview with their main actress, who casually gives away the ending of the movie while talking about her approach to her performance.) Yet what's most striking about the film is, for all of its experimental flourishes, avant-garde detours, tonal shifts, and vacillation between fictional film/documentary* and carefree experimentation/serious tragedy is that it maintains a cohesive identity.
That identity is defined by a sense of earnest exploration, the most obvious being its willingness to test the boundaries of what film can do. Elliptical, nonlinear storytelling dominates the film, and director Toshio Matsumoto often uses camera and editing tricks to execute offbeat gags. One of the funniest is a sequence where the protagonist, Eddie, has a fight with the Madame of the club where she works, which plays out accompanied by a series of cartoon word balloons. One of the most provocative belongs to what looks like sex scene where Edie brings home a man, and the repeated use of close ups not only eventually reveal that she is performing for the man, seated across the room in a chair, but transitions us out of the movie for a moment to watch the crew filming the performance, followed by a brief interview. This experimentation goes even further when we see Eddie hanging around with and observing Artists around Tokyo.
Another aspect of that exploration is the film's use of documentary to explore the real life analogues to the character of Eddie. We get a wide cross-section of these queer sex workers, and possibly the smartest aspect of this device is that it dispels the idea that Eddie is representative of the whole group. Even without having many other significant "geiboi" characters in the film, we understand that it's part of a larger queer space in 1960s Japan. Furthermore, in positioning the subculture against performance artists, protests, and the film's own experimentations, it becomes clear that the queerness on display is itself a significant political act, if for no other reason than they refuse to be ignored.
In this way the film also undercuts the conservative values of the Oedipus myth it is adapting. Rather than a morality tale about the danger of hubris, the tragedy is random chance. More than that, the film robs this kind of myth of its power as parable, following up the tragic, gory finale not only by having Eddie wander out into a crowd made up of players and extras who have appeared throughout the film, but through a smash cut to a clean-cut presenter type who casually laments the tragic ending, but invites the audience back for something better next time. (Strange as this may sound, it reminds me of the ending of The Muppet Movie, with its existentialist rejection of destiny)
Some Possible Discussion Questions:
- How does your gender and/or sexuality affect the way you viewed this movie?
- To our trans/non-binary readers: do you have any specific feelings about this movie and its approach to gender non-conformity?
- How do you think the film handles art, and especially conceptual art? Do the pieces/concepts seem realistic?
- What did you think about the film's approach to sex work?
- Did you know the "roses" of the title, in the original Japanese, is wordplay based on the similarity to the word "pansies"? How do you feel about that?
- What's your favorite stylistic flourish in the film?
*French New Wave filmmaker Jacques Rivette famously observed that every movie is a documentary of its own making, and in no other film I can think of is that idea quite so literal.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 3/25: Strange Days
FEMALE DIRECTORS WEEK!
Our month on women in film comes to a close next week with a look at what can happen when a woman steps behind the camera. Join us on Monday for a discussion of Kathryn Bigelow's sci-fi conspiracy thriller Strange Days. Strange Days unfortunately does not appear to be available for streaming.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 3/19: Total Recall
Next week the podcast starts a pairing on sci-fi films featuring protagonists with jumbled or confused memories, with Total Recall and Captain Marvel. Join us Wednesday for a discussion of the older film, available for rent on Amazon Video, where it is free for Prime members.
TRANS WOMEN WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
We often talk about movies being unclassifiable, or otherwise resistant to clear genre labels, but even among that class there aren't many movies that challenge cinematic norms as Funeral Parade of Roses. (Most movies don't break in the middle of the film for an interview with their main actress, who casually gives away the ending of the movie while talking about her approach to her performance.) Yet what's most striking about the film is, for all of its experimental flourishes, avant-garde detours, tonal shifts, and vacillation between fictional film/documentary* and carefree experimentation/serious tragedy is that it maintains a cohesive identity.
That identity is defined by a sense of earnest exploration, the most obvious being its willingness to test the boundaries of what film can do. Elliptical, nonlinear storytelling dominates the film, and director Toshio Matsumoto often uses camera and editing tricks to execute offbeat gags. One of the funniest is a sequence where the protagonist, Eddie, has a fight with the Madame of the club where she works, which plays out accompanied by a series of cartoon word balloons. One of the most provocative belongs to what looks like sex scene where Edie brings home a man, and the repeated use of close ups not only eventually reveal that she is performing for the man, seated across the room in a chair, but transitions us out of the movie for a moment to watch the crew filming the performance, followed by a brief interview. This experimentation goes even further when we see Eddie hanging around with and observing Artists around Tokyo.
Another aspect of that exploration is the film's use of documentary to explore the real life analogues to the character of Eddie. We get a wide cross-section of these queer sex workers, and possibly the smartest aspect of this device is that it dispels the idea that Eddie is representative of the whole group. Even without having many other significant "geiboi" characters in the film, we understand that it's part of a larger queer space in 1960s Japan. Furthermore, in positioning the subculture against performance artists, protests, and the film's own experimentations, it becomes clear that the queerness on display is itself a significant political act, if for no other reason than they refuse to be ignored.
In this way the film also undercuts the conservative values of the Oedipus myth it is adapting. Rather than a morality tale about the danger of hubris, the tragedy is random chance. More than that, the film robs this kind of myth of its power as parable, following up the tragic, gory finale not only by having Eddie wander out into a crowd made up of players and extras who have appeared throughout the film, but through a smash cut to a clean-cut presenter type who casually laments the tragic ending, but invites the audience back for something better next time. (Strange as this may sound, it reminds me of the ending of The Muppet Movie, with its existentialist rejection of destiny)
Some Possible Discussion Questions:
- How does your gender and/or sexuality affect the way you viewed this movie?
- To our trans/non-binary readers: do you have any specific feelings about this movie and its approach to gender non-conformity?
- How do you think the film handles art, and especially conceptual art? Do the pieces/concepts seem realistic?
- What did you think about the film's approach to sex work?
- Did you know the "roses" of the title, in the original Japanese, is wordplay based on the similarity to the word "pansies"? How do you feel about that?
- What's your favorite stylistic flourish in the film?
*French New Wave filmmaker Jacques Rivette famously observed that every movie is a documentary of its own making, and in no other film I can think of is that idea quite so literal.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 3/25: Strange Days
FEMALE DIRECTORS WEEK!
Our month on women in film comes to a close next week with a look at what can happen when a woman steps behind the camera. Join us on Monday for a discussion of Kathryn Bigelow's sci-fi conspiracy thriller Strange Days. Strange Days unfortunately does not appear to be available for streaming.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 3/19: Total Recall
Next week the podcast starts a pairing on sci-fi films featuring protagonists with jumbled or confused memories, with Total Recall and Captain Marvel. Join us Wednesday for a discussion of the older film, available for rent on Amazon Video, where it is free for Prime members.