Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea. —Henry Fielding

20 April 2020

Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)


Funeral Parade of Roses (薔薇の葬列) was bananas. It's a film within a film about a gayboy in 1960s Japan who is plotting to overthrow the madam who runs the club where she works and sleeping with the man who owns it. The film is spliced with short interviews with real (are they?) gayboys on the streets of Tokyo and a sort of sex party with filmmakers. It's also densely referential: Jean Genet is everywhere in this movie – not just in the title – and Funeral Parade of Roses is also deeply invested in the Oedipus myth as well.

This is an amazing movie. I've been meaning to see it for years and then a friend in my unseen movie club put it on his list and our host figured out a way for us to watch it.

No comments:

Post a Comment