好的剧组剧照也可以成为一个纪录片导演。此片就是一部关于赫索拍摄《陆上行舟》的剧照片。问题不在这里,问题是1980年,为什么一个欧洲人要跑到热带雨林,用电影和印第安人来完成一个有关西西弗斯的隐喻。
纳粹德国为德国,乃至整个欧洲和人类开出的精神危机药方及其实践失败后,和平本身并不能缓解欧洲精神危机,作为人的精神焦虑仍在继续。土著,雨林,非洲和伊斯兰国家,他们在欧洲人的焦虑中被观看。与其说他们被“政治正确”地对待,就像赫索在影片中呈现的那样为他们争得土地所有权,谴责木材,石油开采对环境的破坏,对西方文明对他们的影响等,不如说他们向这些无辜的居民投射出病态的同情。喜爱他们贴近自然的生活,嫉妒他们平静和有神的世界,而又厌恶他们的无知。但同时赫索又祈求他们,希望在这片未开化的土地上,找到能够缓释欧洲精神危机的药方。不知是谁更需要救助,像是一位癌症患者在与他眼中的一位慢性心血管疾病患者互诉衷肠,又好像美男子在顾影自怜。
与其说赫索和他的行为艺术,乃至电影是伟大的,不如说欧洲人在骨子里还是有很强的图腾崇拜的倾向——一种将某种精神状态具象化的尝试。当赫索在蛮荒之地树立起他的图腾,并且在陡坡上缓慢移动,尝试医治处于精神危机中的欧洲时,该纪录片却没有把当地土著,那些印第安人的祭祀与文化信仰放置在其中加以对比——比赫索的《陆上行舟》更加原始和自发的图腾。纪录片只是少量展示了他们脸上的图案,弓箭和独木舟,最终又说当地土著尝试献祭这重达300吨的船于河神——一种与赫索所做相类似的行为对赫索图腾的解构。然而纪录片却没有表现。
当赫索得知将船拉上40度倾角的陡坡,死伤是大概率事件时,他没有停止。他认为这是人的宿命,这是任何宗教仪式的必然,这血是必然要留在这个土地上的。他当然不希望他的印第安朋友会出事,如果有一个人必须要牺牲,那他将愿意自己是第一个。他希望是一个白人,一个勇敢的白人的血,换得土著们得安全。然而这又与希特勒的种族主义有多大差别呢?自我与超我在赫索那里始终是无法调和的矛盾。流血,死亡,受难在欧洲精神危机彻底解除之前仍然是这位德国导演必须背负的荆棘。艺术,电影,或许能够缓释部分痛苦,但也注定要以流血的方式,对此,拍摄过程中的种种挫折和失败也以不算什么。
“Of course we are challenging nature itself and it hits back. It just hits back that’s all. And that’s grandiose about it and we have to accept that it is much stronger than we are. Kiniski always says it’s full of erotic elements I don’t see so much erotic I see it more full of obscenity it’s just...natural here is veil and base.
I wouldn’t see anything erotical here I would see fornication and asphyxiation and choking and fighting for survival and growing and just rotting away. Of course there’s a lot of misery but it is the same misery that is all around us the trees are in misery and the birds are in misery I don’t think they...they singing they just screench in pain.
It’s an unfinished country it’s still prehistorical. the only thing that’s lacking is the dinosaurs here. it’s like a curse weighing on an entire landscape and whoever goes to deep into this has his share of that curse. so we are cursed with what we are doing here. it’s a land that God, If he exists, has created in anger. it’s the only land where creation is unfinished yet. Taking a close look at what’s around us. there is some sort of a harmony it is the harmony of overwhelming and collective murder. and weight in comparison to the articulate vileness and baseness and obscenity of all this jungle. we in comparison to that enormous articulation we only sound and look like badly pronounced and half finished sentence out of a stupid suburban novel. a cheap novel. and we have to become humble in front of this overwhelming misery and overwhelming fornication overwhelming growth and overwhelming lack of order.
Even the star up here i. the sky looks like a mess. there is no harmony in the universe we have to get acquainted to this idea that there is no real harmony as we have convinced it. but when I say this. I say this all full of admiration of the jungle. it’s not that I hate it. I love it. I love it very much but I love it against my better judgment.”