身體電影：蔡明亮電影中的身體影像

Abstract

本文主要以「電影影像」作為立足點，不只討論身體，更重視電影框架下的身體影像，以期重新檢視蔡明亮的電影。第一部分重申電影影像「在與不在」的特點，如同鬼魅般的存在與外在世界有著雙重的關係。蔡明亮電影中的身體影像如同極簡主義作品屏除多餘附加意義，讓身體不被角色或情節矇蔽，讓日常身體的慾望、習慣與活動形成一種身體景觀(cinematic spectacle)。這種日常身體景觀能與觀眾對自身身體的經驗連結，並且提醒觀眾身體的存在。第二部分以「特寫」理論檢視蔡明亮電影中的身體影像，以巴拉茲(Bela Balázs)對「臉部特寫」的定義並非空間而是情感向度為起點，將靜默痛苦的身體當成「臉部表情特寫」，提出蔡明亮電影裡身體影像中的靜默以及疲憊姿態其實是簡化直接的意義表達，以期望觀者以凝視特寫般的專注來檢視這些身體。如張小虹所說，將情感「表」在「面」上，將不可見翻轉為可見。因此，「身體特寫」不只是一個靜止的影像，而是有內在的情感漫溢在影像上，而蔡明亮電影中的靜默以及疲憊才能存有莫名的強度。身體的姿態與細節流露出一種生活狀態，而這狀態就是蔡明亮電影的故事情節。身體姿態即是電影景觀。第三部分將以早期「歌舞雜耍表演」美學(vaudeville aesthetic)來檢視蔡明亮歌舞片段中的身體影像。在這歌舞片段中，身體影像作為主要觀視愉悅來源。但蔡明亮的歌舞片段如同單一個體嵌入電影敘述裡，截然不同的觀影經驗將觀眾拉回一個有距離的位置。並且，歌舞片段中誇張的服裝與佈景實為蔡明亮蓄意與傳統歌舞片作區隔，嘲弄嚴肅性與一般社會價值觀。因此，蔡明亮的歌舞片段帶有坎普(camp)的顛覆性。

My thesis studies the cinematic body in Tsai Ming-Liang’s films. Tsai marks a significant turn in Taiwan cinema history, shifting from historical nostalgia to self-reflection. Criticisms of Tsai’s films often emphasize their symbolic meanings or the social references to the urban Taipei. Tsai’s concerns, however, are not only for the human body as a suffering receptacle in the modern world, but also the peculiarity of the film medium. In light of this, the “cinematic” body, instead of the body image, repositions the relation of the film medium and the spectators, where the suffering receptacle refers also to the corporeal spectators. My thesis attempts to establish Tsai’s cinematic body as a spectacle of corporeality. Firstly, applying minimalist aesthetics, Tsai effaces redundant indicative references from the cinematic body so to accentuate the presence of the body itself and constitutes an exhibition of the bodily habits, gestures, and actions. The exhibition of the biological needs contains a collectivity that communicates with the spectators’ everyday experience. The spectacle of corporeality, therefore, forces the spectators to stare as if confronting a close-up. This close-up is not, according to Bela Balázs, estimated by spatial distance but by emotional intensity that expels excessive performance and requires obvious nuances. Tsai’s films, from this perspective, tell an alternative story through the silent and everyday body. And Tsai’s musical numbers are usually ignored for its disruptive function in the narrative. Instead, they can be seen as a return back to “vaudeville aesthetic” in Henry Jenkins’ phrase. Vaudeville aesthetic carries the features of the explosive visual pleasure and fragmented narrative structure. Through vaudeville aesthetic, Tsai frustrates the musical convention of naturalization that mixes the imagery and the real. The characteristic of failed seriousness in Tsai’s musical numbers also holds camp sensibility that situates the spectators in a distanced position from the musical spectacle.