William Eggleston 與《饑渴誘罪》(Thirst)

《饑渴誘罪》(Thirst) directed by Park Chan-wook


“The Red ceiling”(1973) by William Eggleston

不知是我M到還是忘了吃太太口服液，總覺得電影《饑渴誘罪》(Thirst) 這個短短兩秒的鏡頭太像William Eggleston的攝影作品“The Red ceiling”(1973)。第一次在戲院看的時候，瞬間的影象讓我疑惑了好一陣子，是一個無心插柳的巧合嗎？還是導演朴贊郁特意要追隨William Eggleston的步伐，向這位攝影大師「致敬」？

翻查資料，暫未發現提及過朴贊郁和William Eggleston有關的文章；不過，如果要像八卦周刊般把各種蛛絲馬跡拼湊起來，再加上傳媒最喜歡的陰謀論和嘩眾取寵，確實能找到一點有趣的「巧合」：

1.從圖象上看，無可置疑，兩者實有七成相似，皆以紅色的天花板、電燈泡和三條白色電線作招徠。不同之處，除了是元素的位置和構圖外，主要有兩點：(一）“The Red ceiling”明顯較光；(二）“The Red ceiling”照片的牆上掛著幾幅像造愛姿勢的畫。剛巧，《饑渴誘罪》在這個鏡頭之前，正是男女主角造愛的過程。是無聊的巧合嗎？

2.“The Red ceiling”是William Eggleston嘗試dye-transfers放相技術的首幾張攝影作品，他如此形容這張照片 (Introduction to Ancient and Modern by Mark Holborn)：

“When you look at the dye it is like red blood that's wet on the wall. The photograph was like a Bach exercise for me because I knew that red was the most difficult color to work with.”

這裡，雖然他只是運用譬喻來形容這張照片和製作難度，但他的譬喻卻偏偏提到血，和音樂家巴哈。巧合又來了！朴贊郁這齣《饑渴誘罪》，不正是談吸血鬼的嗎？而更有趣的是，導演正是用了巴哈的清唱劇Bach’s Cantata BWV 82a作為電影的結尾！

在一次訪問中(Groucho Reviews)，朴贊郁這樣談巴哈和自己的信仰：

“But I’m speaking in more broad terms, in that Bach’s music was inspired by Christianity, ideas of Christianity. So the fact that I’m moved by his music—I can only explain that I have respect for his music and I am moved by his music, which in turn was probably inspired by my faith.”

3.其實，早已不只是一位導演，曾聲稱受William Eggleston的影響，並在電影中向他致敬，包括David Lynch，Gus Van Sant和Sofia Coppola。英國《觀察家報》 (Observer) 藝評人Sean O’Hagan在一篇與William Eggleston的訪談裡這樣寫道：

“Both the opening of Lynch's Blue Velvet and Van Sant's Elephant are homages to Eggleston, the first in its use of saturated colour to highlight the surrealism of small-town America, the second a shot of a blue sky straight out of Eggleston's Wedgwood Blue series, where he pointed the camera directly up at the wispy clouds.
'It was the beauty of banal details that was inspirational,' Coppola said of Eggleston's influence on her debut feature, The Virgin Suicides, in 1999, and it is this ability to record, and illuminate, the mundane that is his stock in trade.”

如果現在再多一個朴贊郁，又有何奇哉？

好了，八卦完畢。

安慰的是，在世界的另一角落，也有人跟我一樣八卦：http://soundsimages.blogspot.com/2009/12/affinity.html

結論：追隨前人的足跡，以自己的作品向前人致敬，古已有之，並無不妥。但一味只顧follow，缺乏了自己的思考和創意，只能換來四個字：嗚呼哀哉。