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）

导演真的很聪明，用蒙太奇这个词躲避问题。因为整个片子没有观点也没有看法，只是（筛选过的）信息的堆砌而已，从头看到尾，我只记住了Cobain美丽的脸和日记里歪扭扭的字。
不诚恳的观众看完之后可以顺势感动一番，感动于这个帅哥经历的悲惨，然后对他的死亡视而不见。最后，骂一骂他老婆，这次感动就告一段落，洗漱睡觉。
可是我很疑惑啊。关于他的作品，他的生活，他的爱情，他的责任，和他为什么一枪崩开自己的脑袋。录像里的他好像很快乐啊，那他在痛苦什么？他在躲避什么？他在害怕什么？他在愤怒什么？他的死是为了什么？
他眼里的世界，毫无疑问和别人是不同的。理解他是那么难，但是这不影响一群人，比如我，像中毒一样想去理解他。所以我们听他的作品，看他的照片，打听他的小道消息，同别人谈论他，找他的日记，下载他的纪录片。
我愿意看到别人用不同方式去理解他，但不是这一种方式。多么美丽的脸，多么经典和俗套的故事，一切的戏剧性都在这里，一个拥有美貌、才华和痛苦的人一夜成名，爱上一个不该爱的人，好像还戴了绿帽子，然后咻咻咻，死掉了，留给世人永远的叹息。
片子就这样侮辱了一个死去的、不能为自己辩解的人，其实他活着的时候就没法为自己辩解。导演就像拍金庸的于正，用自己能理解的方式去诠释自己不能理解的东西，有一定受众。区别是于正有很多人骂。
对于Courtney到底有没有出轨，最后都没有一个解释。这个时候适时出现的Where Did You Sleep Last Night把我恶心到了顶点：这一刻Cobain的同情，他的善良，他的痛苦，他的迷茫，他的愤怒，统统被无视，只剩下一个关于放荡老婆和绿帽男的八卦。

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.