科特·柯本：烦恼的蒙太奇

（芷宁写于2015年7月6日）
    “这是最好的一天，因为再也没有明天”（语自科特·柯本）。
    自1994年4月5日，涅槃乐队主唱科特·柯本选择以决绝的方式离开人世后，关于他的纪录片就隔三差五地不断冒出，而很多柯本纪录片的创作者们都会经由自己的理解、构想与加工，以看似摸到柯本精神世界的脉门、貌似贴近真相的方式将他们心目中的柯本呈现出来，事实上，任何关于逝者的纪录片，都是创作者们的主观意图，或许有可能接近事件真相，但都不可能作为逝者最适宜的表达或解读。
    可以看出2015年上映的这部讲述柯本短暂人生的纪录片《科特柯本烦恼的蒙太奇（Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck）》的企图心也不可小视，它试图将柯本短短27个春秋的人生，做个“最权威”、“最全面”的诠释，看罢成片却难免想到，如果柯本本人看到这部纪录片，或许会丢下一句：我不在那儿。
    很多乐迷选择看这部纪录片，大概也是因为其“有理有据”地表示：这部纪录片获得了包括柯本女儿和遗孀在内的充分授权，搜集了大量柯本的日记、素描、家庭录像和未发表录音，并以此来显示有充分的素材来精心阐述一个最真实的柯本。从一些资深乐迷观后的反应来看，似乎并不买账，以相对客观的角度来评价这部纪录片，也会感到有偏颇之嫌，那些藉由柯本的日记、文字的片段、情绪的偶发而臆想出来的动画画面，虽然丰富了该片的影像，延展了艺术表现力，但就某种意义而言，反而降低了一部纪录片的真实性和可信度，总令人有主创替柯本臆想出一切的感觉，似乎考虑到了这一点，本片被聪明地命名为“烦恼的蒙太奇”。
    当然，逝者已无法替自己诉说，通常生者对死者的“访问”，都必然地或多或少地带有主观因素，这本无可厚非，只是在该纪录片中，在取材方面似乎出现了部分一边倒的现象，比如，缺乏它所挞伐的彼时媒体或媒体人在当下的发声，这便令这部纪录片失去了另一种立场、态度和声音，从而有显得论据缺失且不够均衡，故而令其充满野心的立意无法达成。
    对于部分只看脸的年轻一代而言，萌神般的小柯本，美少年般的正太柯本以及颓废美神般的成年柯本，也够快进看几分钟的，如果他们当中有人想借此片来深入了解因为年代缘故而无法接触的昔日摇滚偶像及其作品，显然可能只得到残破的解读。那些看上去丰富炫目的影像却有着相对空洞的内核，让人不得不感到遗憾，片中曾展示的柯本的日记里有这样一句话：“我用别人零星散碎的个性来拼凑我自己的个性。”事实上，柯本本人充满了个性，倒是这部纪录片自身却呈现出个性拼凑、气质散乱的特点来，以散落的文字、臆想的动画、涅槃乐队的部分音乐、片面的采访拼凑出来的纪录片，也不太可能达到真正的观众想要的效果。
    柯本曾说：“我只想过简单的生活，我本该如此，我应当如此。”然而曲折伤感的成长经历、敏感纤细的神经、喷薄而出的才华、疾病缠身的身体，让他注定过不了简单的生活，而他似乎也不具备过那种生活所必须的心理基础和家庭状况。“我不在乎，自己是否独自枯萎，我不在乎，自己是否能思考。”或许柯本可以不在乎是否独自枯萎，但他可能会在乎能否思考，或许正因为思考太多反而将生路遮蔽了。
    维克多·雨果说过：“人的心只容得下一定程度的绝望，海绵已经吸够了水，即使大海从它上面流过，也不能再给它增添一滴水了。”人们无法准确地判断究竟什么才是压垮柯本的最后一根稻草，但可以揣测的是，当时的他已经不堪负荷了。
    “这是最好的一天，因为再也没有明天。”
（杂志约稿）

科特柯本是谁？下载电影的时候，我真心不知道，冲着豆瓣8.5的评分下的纪录片。当打开电影，看到“涅槃”之后，我知道了。科特柯本，肯定就是那个自杀的人。小时候，当所有人都在听港台流行曲的时候，我听的，是重金属、死亡金属，有Marilyn Manson，有枪炮玫瑰，有史密斯飞船，有X-JAPAN，当然，也有涅槃。小时候，哥哥（其实是我堂哥）当时是大学生，暑寒假或者星期六日，我都喜欢和他腻在一起，打游戏，看球赛或者，听这些我听不懂音乐。年纪还小的我，坐在大的低音音箱旁边，音箱线连着小小的CDplayer，播出来的，都是疯狂的东西。疯狂，但深深地影响了我，大概所以我现在才会时不时疯狂吧...如今哥哥已经是个文雅的医生了，当年他视如珍宝的CD在他家早已找不到踪迹了。科特柯本那天自杀了，他成为了不愿成为的偶像，卷入了不愿卷入的漩涡，世人皆醉我独醒，你们的崇拜，却是我最讨厌的枷锁...

媒体稿，原载于Flux Magazine

http://www.fluxmagazine.com/montage-of-heck-film/

Despite it having been 21 years since his death, the topic of Nirvana’s front man Kurt Cobain has never lost its appeal.When talking about 1990s popular culture, he can’t be ignored and, even now, people are reminded of him whenever an artist dies young.

Last year, one of this generation’s most influential singers, Lana Del Rey, cited Kurt Cobain as her hero, and, in relation to this, stated “I wish I was dead already”. Although Cobain never lacked media attention, both before and after his death, many questions about his life remain unanswered.

Brett Morgen endeavours to answer some of the most intriguing of these questions in his new film Cobain: Montage of Heck. This is the first biopic of Cobain’s life made with full permission from the Cobain family. Morgen has access to never-seen-before home movies, behind the scenes footage of Nirvana’s performances and Cobain’s personal archive of art and tape recordings. He gives us Cobain in unprecedented detail: growing up from an angelic and sensitive little boy to a rebellious teenager, and then a world-famous rock star, heroin addict, loving father and suicidally depressed patient. However, instead of presenting a more human Kurt Cobain, Morgen’s materials accentuate the image we already have.

Part of Morgen’s difficulty lies in Cobain himself. Any biopic of a man who died at 27 will struggle to find evidence of depth and maturity; to add to this, even in his adult years, Cobain did not approach life in a grown-up way. Throughout, it is clear Cobain desperately needed love and attention. But his stepmother’s stories of his adolescence, including mentions of sibling bullying show how he acted in ways that made it hard for his family to accept him. In the latter half of the film, he is shown as a loving father but he is immature and struggles to look after his daughter while battling his heroine addiction. The film is problematic in that it presents Cobain’s inability to fulfill his adult responsibilities as part of his charm, rather than a personal failure, that he is a victim of his celebrity status, and any responsibility – including to care for his daughter – not his own.

Compared to a traditional documentary, Cobain: Montage of Heck is technically innovative. Animation is used to demonstrate the important moments of Cobain’s life: his unsuccessful first effort to have sex, his failed first suicide attempt as a teenager, the time he hid in his rented apartment, writing the music that later came to define the band. The best use of animation is when his doodles and hand-written notes are brought to life. Although all of Nirvana’s hits are played in the film, and footage of live performances are combined flawlessly with animations produced from his notebooks, Cobain’s music is unfortunately not explored further. Perhaps the biggest unanswered question–the source of his unusual musical talent–is barely mentioned, and the inspirations of his most successful songs are not discussed.

The interviews in Cobain: Montage of Heck are revealing in one sense and not revealing in another. Cobain’s mother Wendy O’Connor and his wife Courtney Love talk at length about his childhood and relationships. However, their accounts feel somehow like performances, and lack credibility, not telling us everything of their relationship with Cobain. However, there are some interviewees who do give more, but in their silences. For example, during his interview, Cobain’s father Donald Cobain looks sad and repressed. Sitting on the sofa, he sinks into near total silence and tries to hold back his tears. It is the most touching moment in the film and a pattern that holds in general: the women in Cobain’s life are prominent but exhibitionist, the men either missing or closed and silent. Cobain himself struggles to voice his emotions; he alone finds his voice in music.

If you are intrigued by Cobain as a spokesman of youth, a fighter against the boredom of reality and a musical genius longing to be understood, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck provides everything you might want, from his birth certificate to his first footprint. This documentary doesn’t complicate our image of Cobain; it simply emphasises it, giving us little further detail into his mind and life than what’s on the surface. People expecting to get a better understanding of this everlastingly popular icon might be left unsatisfied.