台灣切片｜想像式前衛：1960s的電影實驗

五十年前一群文藝青年，在因政治環境限制的一種「空缺」狀態下，憑藉翻譯文字想像西方藝術電影的模樣，並進行自己的電影實驗；而五十年後的現在，我們似乎也只能藉由殘存文字或多方說法，想像這些失蹤的電影。「看不見」竟成為兩個時空的共同狀態！

本單元從這樣的「雙重想像」出發，依循多方史料找尋當年微光乍現的另類電影，線索包括藝術家、《劇場》雜誌、留學的電影學生、與台灣往來之香港或西方藝文人士等等。在當時的特殊時空下，這些作品或可成為現實的某種折射，它們的重新出土與問世，則希望能與咸被認為充滿「現代／前衛／實驗」精神的1960年代文藝風潮，進行對話與補充。

順著此一脈絡，可見所謂前衛其實來自某種想像，然此想像本身或也存有前衛性的意義。這波1960s的電影實驗運動，可說是「想像式前衛」，而以策展企圖重現之，則是一種「前衛式想像」。

特別感謝：張照堂、張世倫

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【11th TIDF】台灣切片｜想像式前衛：1960s 的電影實驗預告 Imagining the Avant-garde: Film Experiments of the 1960s Trailer

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Experiment 002 (Extracted from Video Documentation of the Symposium of "Theatre Quarterly")

In 1994 HUANG Hua-cheng showed his 8mm film Experiment 002 during a seminar titled ‘Theater Quarterly and Me’ at the Chinese Taipei Film Archive. This film is a recording of the seminar, documenting how the film was played and the seminar proceedings. HUANG passed away in 1996, and his earlier films have been lost.

Plaster Gong

Theater Quarterly leaped on stage in 1965 with a literal bang by breaking a fragile plaster gong and the performance of two absurdist theatre pieces, The Prophet and Waiting for Godot. This film interviews those involved in the performance and recreates the plaster gong while weaving in archival footage.

The Prophet

Originally written by HUANG Hua-cheng, the script centres on the dialogue between a couple sitting in the audience of a play. When this piece was first shown in 1965, director Richard Yao-chi CHEN reworked it with the actors on stage. 51 years later, actors CHUANG Ling and LIU Ying-shang are invited back to the theatre to recreate the groundbreaking original.

I Didn't Dare to Tell You

A student secretly works a night job to pay off his father’s gambling debts, and as a result constantly dozes off during classes in the day. When the teacher investigates, a series of family disputes ensues. This is MOU’s first film after graduating from Taiwan Art College. When it was first shown, it drew much criticism and debate.

The End of the Track

Tong and Yong-sheng are inseparable playmates, but after Yong-sheng dies in an accident, Tong falls into a dark spiral. At the time, this film was banned due to its homosexual overtones and ideology, while some felt that certain segments drew comparison with CHEN Ying-zhen’s short story The Noodle Stall.

The Sword of the Great Silence

Two warriors prepare for a duel; they remain steadfast even as the audience roars.

(Lost Film)

A Piece of Rice Cake

This hand-drawn celluloid animation features a northern Chinese town, where a mother mouse stricken by hunger and poverty longs for a piece of rice cake on Chinese New Year’s Eve.

(Lost Film)

Hong Kong Commercial Compilation

HUANG’s collage compilation of Hong Kong commercial film reels. The programme notes at the time stated, ‘Actors: more than a dozen Shaw Brothers stars; we regret that the film cannot be shown due to copyright issues.’

(Film Lost)

Joy of Life

A slow motion film (shot at 64 fps, played at 16 fps) of actor CHUANG Ling drinking coffee and smoking.

(Lost Film)

Experiment 003

HUANG originally intended to use nine screens showing nine different films simultaneously.

(Lost Film)

Taiwan Spectrum｜Imagining the Avant-garde: Film Experiments of the 1960s

Half a century ago, restrictions resulted from the political situation left a group of art and literature-loving young Taiwanese people with no other choice but to rely on translated books to imagine what Western art films were like; moreover, they carried out their own experiments on film. Half a century later, it seems that we can only rely on the fragmented written accounts that have survived and various theories to image what these lost films looked like. Unfortunately, ‘not being able see the real thing’ becomes the common thread between now and then.

Starting from the ‘double imagination’ described above and based on historical documents from various sources, we search for the independent films made during that period. Our clues come from the artists, the Theatre Quarterly, the film students who studied abroad and those in the Hong Kong and Western literature and art worlds who were in contact with their Taiwanese counterparts. Under the unique circumstances at that time, these films might reflect the reality in some way, and we hope that the rediscovery and revival of these works would provide us with extra materials and allow us to conduct a conversation with the 1960s, a period known for its modern, avant-garde and experimental spirit.

From what is described above, one can see that the so-called ‘avant-garde’ actually comes from imagination, and imagination itself might be some sort of avant-garde. These film experiments of the 1960s could be seen as the ‘imaginary avant-garde’ and our ambition to revive them is a kind of ‘avant-garde imagination’.

Acknowledgment: CHANG Chao-tang & CHANG Shih-lun