那時候的墨工和我似乎都是不喜熱鬧的人,揀一本書,泡一壺茶,一言不發坐上半天。去得久了,進門不過點一個頭,笑一下,不會去主動找老闆搭訕。夏天的柳橙冰茶,冬天的柳橙紅茶,現在想起,舌尖依然酸酸甜甜的。音樂大多是爵士一類,似有若無,正是咖啡館的氣氛,不惹人注目。有一天,老闆的太太起身去換了一張碟。第一支曲子播完,我聼得忘記手裏的書,忙討得唱片封套來看,那是第一次看到 Ainda 這個名字,Madredeus。再去,常常忍不住要央店裏的小妹再放這張來聼,但又常常被自己的羞赧怯住了。
a quiet storm…
gossamer vocals imbue the poetic lyrics with the melancholy nostalgia…
出第一張 Os Dias da Madredeus 的時候她十八嵗,聲音還有點單純。不知道是不是在教堂裏錄製的緣故,整張碟聼起來有些嗡嗡的。後面的 Existir,O Espirito da Paz,Ainda,O Paraiso,好似一個故事的四段,之間有千絲萬縷的聯係一般,節奏和旋律,總讓人走著走著忘記停下來似的。之後的 Movimento,沒有風琴,色彩不免單薄。Electronico 向電子方向的嘗試,在我看來是場敗筆。並非不喜歡電聲的緣故,實在是此非彼所長。Euforia 那張變成古典樂的也並不好,出於同樣的原因。本來是清淡舒緩的音樂,被大樂隊一烘托,好像古琴簫管被推上大舞台,很難堪。
What happens in the shadow, in the grey regions, also interest us - all that is elusive and fugative, all that can be said in those beautiful halftones, or in whisper, in deep shade.
At the end of the film Dong-Ho and Song-Hwa went separate ways, without ever mentioning the fact that they had found each other. It is as if telling, that there are certain things need not be said and should not be said, even though carrying these unspoken words could be a great burden.
Mia Don’t you hate that? Vincent What? Mia Uncomfortable silences. Why do we feel it’s necessary to yak about bullshit in order to be comfortable? Vincent I don’t know. That’s a good question. Mia That’s when you know you’ve found somebody special. When you can just shut the fuck up for a minute and comfortably enjoy the silence.
S.R. One of the many things that a reader can unexpectedly learn from your work is to appreciate silence. You write about the freedom it makes possible, its multiple causes and meanings. For instance, you say in your last book that there is not one but many silences. Would it be correct to infer that there is a strongly autobiographical element in this?
FOUCAULT I think that any child who has been educated in a Catholic milieu just before or during the Second World War had the experience that there were many different ways of speaking as well as many forms of silence. There were some kinds of silence which implied very sharp hostility and others which meant deep friendship, emotional admiration, even love. I remember very well that when I met the filmmaker Daniel Schmidt who visited me, I don’t know for what purposes, we discovered after a few minutes that we really had nothing to say to each other. So we stayed together from about three o’clock in the afternoon to midnight. We drank, we smoked hash, we had dinner. And I don’t think we spoke more than twenty minutes during those ten hours. From that moment a rather long friendship started. It was for me the first time that a friendship originated in strictly silent behavior.
Maybe another feature of this appreciation of silence is related to the obligation of speaking. I lived as a child in a petit bourgeois, provincial milieu in France and the obligation of speaking, of making conversations with visitors, was for me something both very strange and very boring. I often wondered why people had to speak. Silence may be a much more interesting way of having a relationship with people.
S.R. There is in North-American Indian culture a much greater appreciation of silence than in English-speaking societies and I suppose in French-speaking societies as well.
FOUCAULT Yes, you see, I think silence is one of those things that has unfortunately been dropped from our culture. We don’t have a culture of silence; we don’t have a culture of suicide either. The Japanese do, I think. Young Romans or young Greeks were taught to keep silent in very different ways according to the people with whom they were interacting. Silence was then a specific form of experiencing a relationship with others. This is something that I believe is really worthwhile cultivating. I’m in favor of developing silence as a culture ethos.
- Michel Foucault, An interview by Stephan Riggins, Ethos, 1983
I have never been one of those who cares about happiness. Happiness is a strange notion. I am just not made for it. It has never been a goal of mine; I do not think in those terms. It seems to be a goal in life for many people, but I have no goals in life. I suspect I am after something else.
…
To give my existence some sort of a meaning. It is a very simplified answer, I know, but whether I am happy or not does not count that much. I have always enjoyed my work. Maybe enjoying is not the right word: I have always loved it. It means a lot to me that I have the privilege of working in this profession, even though I have struggled to make my films the way I really wanted to, and get them as close to the vission I have been seeking…