弗兰克

天才在左疯子在右 而大多数人还是走中间道在影片开头和结尾，都有类似的场景，喊着”Be careful”骑车的少年，在自己门口擦车的中年男子，手挽手经过的老年夫妇。

Jon的家乡或是Frank的家乡，堪萨斯州，布拉夫市，他们分享了类似的童年。

Jon一直以为他不及frank是因为frank有悲惨的童年或类似的经历，其实并没有，frank生来就是不同的， he is born to be different。

才华，天赋，热情，善良他都有，他能让素不相识的陌生人通过短暂交流敞开心扉，是，他有这种力量，他也有光洁的容颜，可是他偏要带上头套。

他想让世界认可他的音乐，所以站在了Jon的身边，但是在SXSW的音乐节现场，在Jon唱起他的糖水可乐时，Frank终于还是崩溃了，蹦出一句话——“YOUR MUSIC IS SHIT.”是，Jon is Jon, Frank is Frank.他们想要角色互换，但最后失败了。

——You play C F &G？

——yeah？

——you’re in. see？

这支乐队给予Jon的任务就是这个，keyboard，可以是Don、lucus or Jon，但是主唱FRANK只有一个，he’s the core.于Jon来说，他是有功利心的，没有音乐的纯粹感和利己的坚持，他要迎合大众做流行感强的音乐，他想要融入队伍，想要在这支乐队中获得地位，他并没有get到这支看似freak的乐队的G点，他搞砸了。

而Frank，他的音乐灵感可以来自自然，来自一切，任何东西都能成歌，地毯上的线头，墙，等等，都可以，但是YouTube上的观众看他和Clara却像是怪胎，他有孩童的天真，clara能懂他，保护他，很赞的乐队呢为什么要靠点击率来证明呢，忠于自己，忠于内心。

好在影片最后，Jon把Frank带到EL madrid，带回乐队，Frank低头拘谨的打招呼，然后逐渐抬头，看着他的朋友，热泪盈眶——I love you all. The chorus. Welcome back, frank.

我们都像Jon一样有点小本事有点小梦想以为距离成功只差一个机遇而已在专业人士的身边觉得自己只要努个力就能跟他们一样面对无法企及的天才就认为只是因为没有跟对方一样的曾经但一介凡人有点小本事还有小梦想当然不会满足于just happy当他终于用自己的标准把天才毁入凡间当他终于明白有些天赋真的是天生而无需历练当他终于把张牙舞爪的Frank变成了像一直在做错事的小孩他才真正看清你从来就跟他们不一样Jon

(好吧,如果给了五分就假定为法鲨的脑残粉,那我就是怎样?你来打我啊→_→)这是以乐队为主题的电影,那首先音乐要过关,结果不仅过关还大大超乎意料之外的好!看着法鲨平时哼哼的水平没想到在frank中表现大有长进(或是平常隐藏能力?)低沉磁性的声音+神经质的肢体语言+逗逼的头套把带有实验性电子性迷幻性的乐队特点表露无遗不愧自己宣传时也桥说要跟昆导拍歌舞片(这是在走伊万的路线么...)其次电影有萌点有笑点有泪点有爆点就是没有尿点故事轻重缓急控制还算可以突发事件层出不穷的同时主线没掉也是关键得分如果说音乐+2故事+2那最后的一分就是我自己的心情原因了这部片子让我想起了00年之后有段独立电影大爆发的时期圣丹斯也是在那个时候慢慢走进大家眼帘成为了每年必须关注的电影节其中之一而就是这些独立小制作,可能也带有一些小清新小文艺色彩吧?的作品又带来了一批优秀的演员,其中不乏现在在好莱坞混迹很好的一些同学.看完这部电影之后我回到家,翻出了JUNO,THUMBSUCKER,LARS AND THE REAL GIRL,LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE,TRANSAMERICA等很多电影开始重温是的,他们都是逗逼的小人物但是他们都在做自己btw,一美那filth里还有frank节目的镜头......

只想做一个安安静静的外星人韩松落看《弗兰克》，想起身边许多人。

朋友老柳，写诗、写歌、唱歌，也做陶，以前去过很多地方演出，也组过乐队，后来离开了，那支乐队现在是大神级别的乐队，但这都和他没关系了，他生活在我们这个小城市里，没想过要出去，也没想过要“做些事情”，他安安静静地住在一个很老的小区里，和女友还有一群猫生活在一起。

不甘心的是我们。

有次去他家，看到他做的陶器，件件令我震惊，我马上有了商业计划，租陶窑！

批量生产！

开班授徒！

开网店！

因为对陶艺略有了解，我甚至想到了去哪里买陶土，在哪里建陶窑，怎么宣传网店，乃至怎样包装才能减少运输过程的毁损。

回头一看，他脸涨得通红。

后来，我们曾在许多时候见过他的这种反应，在人们推他上台演出的时候，在交际场合，人们给称他是诗人和音乐家的时候，他的脸，都涨得通红。

现在我们知道了，如果真爱他，就让他安安静静地住在小院子里，和猫在一起。

如果在电影《弗兰克》里，老柳就该是那个神秘乐队的灵魂人物Frank吧，而许许多多人，都像那个偶然闯入乐队的青年Jon。

他进入这个乐队，认识了Frank、Don、Clara，他们沉迷在音乐——不对，应该是声音之中，各有怪癖，Frank永远戴着大头娃娃头套，靠吸管吸取食物，Don只和人偶做爱，Clara阴郁而神经质。

在Jon加入之后，他们决定到山林间的度假小屋里，去录制一张专辑。

事实上，录专辑不过是个由头，他们只是要远离尘嚣，在那里过一种尽可能随心所欲的生活。

而Jon，就像我们这些“正常人”一样，既被他们吸引，也试图用一套入世的生活框架去影响他们。

他在加入乐队之后，就在博客和优酷上发布乐队的信息，这些讯息让他们赢得了关注，粉丝不断增加。

走出山林，去参加音乐节，就成了顺理成章的事，这种推动力，最初来自Jon，远处粉丝的关注，让这种力量膨胀。

Frank对这种关注的态度，非常矛盾，他既希望人们了解自己的音乐——不，声音，又不适应山林之外的一切，事实上，他们到底有没有能为世俗所用的才华，其实也很可疑。

音乐节的失利，于是毫不意外，Frank出走，乐队沦落到去酒吧俱乐部去演出。

幸亏，最后的结局并不那么悲哀，他们又聚在一起了，而这一次，Frank摘下了头套。

作家宗渺渺曾经做过一系列音乐人访谈，在她不那么官方和主流的采访态度指引下，音乐人们都表现出了他们的另外一面，古怪的、随性的，宗渺渺也这样说了：“怪人都是外星人”。

至于他们是不是外星人，暂时没有足够的证据支持，但他们就是那样一些人，就像石头是石头，树木是树木，就像杜鹃有自己的生长地理，海葵有自己的颜色，番茄有自己的味道，它们之所以成为它们，不外是因为这些独属于它们的特质。

如果理解了这一点，《弗兰克》就显得不那么灰暗了，它不是怪人们的失败之歌，也没有谴责这个不肯接纳怪人们的社会，它只是用Jon的观照、入世努力，来映照出怪人们的生活，他们就和石头、树木、杜鹃、海葵一样，有自己的味道和特质，理解这种特质，不去强行纠偏（这个说法其实也不妥当，但我们的立场多半如此），就已经挺好了。

电影里没有出现过乐队的完整作品，片尾那首歌，也不能说明弗兰克到底有没有音乐天赋，其实这根本不重要，重要的是，他们活在那些声音里，生活在乐队成员的彼此接纳里，以此为寄，以此为栖。

而这，就已足够。

这是一个互相伤害的故事，而他们的痛苦其实早已注定。

弗兰克的父母与约翰第一次见面的时候，弗兰克的父亲说他的第一个头套是我给他做的。

他说他要参加一个化装舞会，但我知道根本就没有什么化妆舞会。

但不能戳破这个谎言，否则他就会崩溃。

他的父亲觉得这样是在保护他，但实则弗兰克的崩溃，恰恰来源于他父亲的不肯戳破。

这么说可能会比较难以理解，但实际上这种崩溃的来源，正是他父母的一种虚伪，以及整个看似和谐美满的家庭，却各自相敬如宾的那种伪善。

约翰在听完以后默默的说我的家庭也是这样的。

证明约翰明白弗兰克的痛苦。

但实际上约翰不明白的是，他在与弗兰克相处过程中，又成为了这种伪善家庭的受害者。

弗兰克将他的这种痛苦内化，变成了一种自我保护，戴上头罩对外的防护。

但在他们去参加音乐节的时候，以及在排练时，弗兰克从来不会说约翰的编曲非常差，也不会说他写的词特别烂，只有摔倒后无意识的说出了那句垃圾。

这何尝不是另一种不忍戳破谎言的伪善呢。

弗兰克在无意识里重复了父亲的行为，而约翰在弗兰克的身边，仿佛也回到了他的原生家庭。

他开始想证明自己，将情绪外化，用这种行为来反抗。

约翰最开始想加入他们，是因为弗兰克的才华。

他知道弗兰克的歌更好，但在这之后他开始想要改变。

这种想法的改变，是因为约翰的反抗心理，反抗跟弗兰克虚伪的和谐。

实际上弗兰克心中对约翰作品的看法，和克莱尔他们是一样的。

他认为约翰的歌是垃圾，只不过他用他熟悉的方法，为约翰构造了一个巧妙的和谐。

而这正是他们两个人最讨厌的一种方式。

所以说，既不是约翰害了弗兰克，也不是弗兰克害了约翰，是他们两个人互相伤害。

这种伤害在一开始就已经注定了。

说弗兰克之前，先要说梵高。

梵高是个天才，或者说，梵高最终被炒作成了天才。

但是，大部分艺术史学者都会告诉你，梵高的心理疾病阻碍了他的艺术创作。

换句话说，梵高的绘画能力和他的心理问题没有因果关系。

不是说，因为梵高得了焦躁抑郁症（或者癫痫，或者美尼尔。。。

看你相信哪种理论），才成就了他的绘画天赋。

恰恰相反，梵高本来就对色彩表现很有灵感，心理疾病让他无法专注创作，甚至英年早逝（自杀）。

弗兰克跟梵高的处境差不多，唯一不同的是，我并不认为他是一个梵高级别的天才（如果梵高真的是天才的话。。。

这一点上我有所保留）。

说实话，电影也根本没有把他当成一个天才来表现。

电影里有些人物把他当成天才，但是他本身到底是不是天才，其实电影本身并没有定论。

但是很多人在看完弗兰克之后，理所应当的就把这个电影理解成“不被世俗理解充满童真的天才，改变自我去迎合世俗，最终返璞归真”的文青故事。

而在我看来，这其实是一个“本来有希望成为天才的人如何被心理疾病毁掉音乐前途，最终只能自得其乐，但其实也不错”的故事。

我没看之前也一直以为这是一个“不被世俗理解的天才”的故事，一个神经质，不愿意长大的彼得潘，不愿意承担责任，却以一种童真吸引周围失去童真的人，在他身上获得一种满足感。

电影前半段也的确是这样一个故事，一群不用工作，神奇的有吃有穿，整天被一些形而上的“first world problem”折磨的hipster 的故事。

但是电影后半段慢慢开始把这个只存在于乐队视角中的独立王国跟现实世界结合在一起。

我想大部分人会同情特立独行的弗兰克和他同伴，也有人会对乔恩心怀怨念。

但是乔恩又有何过错？

弗兰克的伙伴们以不知所以然的弗兰克为中心搭建了一个虚构世界，而外来的乔恩不过是捅破了这层含情脉脉的窗户纸而已。

于是摘掉头套的弗兰克只能投奔父母，失去弗兰克的乐团只能在空无一人的酒吧演唱，乔恩则面对真正的弗兰克，一个家庭幸福的精神病人，一个本来很有前途但是却被精神病拖累的伪天才。

大家都从乔恩的镜子里看到了真正的自己：没有才华，毛病大把，根本没有独立生存能力，对自己的价值存在不切实际幻想的几个音乐票友。

最终，弗兰克和伙伴们又回到了自己建造的空中楼阁。

但是，如果不考虑生计问题（电影人物大多不会考虑这些），只要自己过得开心又有什么不好呢？

===我忍不住要冒天下之大不讳说一句：这个电影的音乐真的是非常难听。

不好意思，说我是俗人也好，不懂独立音乐的精神也好，我当真是无法欣赏这种连调子都没有的音乐，配乐也各种吱哇乱叫。。。

拜托，并不是说把风马牛不相及的音效混在一起就叫天才的好吗。

Frank观影结束关于这部电影对我的冲击，我看完后这两个小时，在淮海路嘈杂的街道上徘徊了两个小时才理清了思绪，现在一一道来:1.首先，这并不是一部像《寻找小糖人》或者《醉乡民谣》一样纯粹关于音乐的电影，里面虽然讲的是乐队的故事，但甚至没有一首“像样”的曲子，更多是不知所云的胡闹。

但是只有在他们制造着只有他们自己听得懂的诡异声响时，一切都是快乐的，在他们的“音乐”中，我们感受到的是自由奔放的灵魂和生命的跃动。

但是当最后他们不得不迎合观众的品味而唱起所谓正常的歌的时候，我们感受到的却只是压抑和痛苦。

当然，这部电影也有好的音乐，在影片结束的时候，摘下头套的Frank唱出了对伙伴们最后的感激和爱，他眼中的无助和悲伤、脸上流下的泪水、几乎带着哭腔的动人歌声，响彻了观众的心。

然后字幕出现的时候，又是两首动听而伤感的歌，银幕上零落着解体了的Frank头套，告诉我们这是他最后的哀歌。

2.这并不是一部轻松愉快的喜剧，不可否认，它前半段的幽默、无厘头，让在场的人笑得前仰后合，即使在看似严肃悲伤的时刻，也能突然转为笑料。

或者说在前半段里，在森林中“隐居”的主角们还有能力驾驭自己的生活，有勇气去嘲讽生活的无常。

到当这群怪胎突然闯入了“尘世”，面对世人好奇、嘲弄的注视，这群“精神病院的逃犯”终于不得不回忆起自己的“不正常”，曾经拥有“天马行空的才华”的音乐家，变成了”马戏团里的畸形人”，一个用于满足公众猎奇心理的展览品。

在整个世界的嘲笑之下，这群“喜剧演员”变为了真正的悲剧，再也无法保持超然和幽默，满脸都是惶恐。

因为世界想看的，不是带着头套的音乐天才，而是头套之下逃避现实的可悲笑柄。

3.这是一部充满了爱的电影，在前半部中，他们为了录制新专辑而在森林中过了一年多与世隔绝的生活。

到观众渐渐意识到，所谓的新专辑只是一个借口，这群不能被社会容纳的怪胎只是为了生活在一个可以尽情嬉戏胡闹、不被任何人指摘和评判的理想乡，出专辑、成名、赚钱，对他们来说都是浮云。

他们用自己独特的方式赞赏彼此，相互依偎，保护着他们各种执着的怪癖，这种关系非常温暖。

甚至为了保护Frank脆弱的内心，他们甚至因为主角擅自将他们的故事发到社交网站、引起了人们的注意而恼羞成怒，拒绝“出世”。

4.这部电影里隐藏着对经典电影的各种致敬。

我水平有限，只说说片中直接点名提到的两部。

一部是大卫•林奇的《象人》，讲的是一个善良的医生出于人道主义的目的想要解救马戏团里畸形人“象人”，让他重新融入社会，却弄巧成拙，将“象人”引向了悲剧的命运。

Frank中的主角也想要帮助Frank回归社会，但是却揭开了他心中最隐匿的伤痛，从而失去了他作为音乐奇才Frank的身份，不得不直面惨淡的人生和自己的不正常，从伊甸坠落到了残酷的人间。

另一部是维姆•文德斯的《德州•巴黎》，讲述了一个少年跟随父亲去寻找从未谋面的母亲，结果发现母亲已沦为娼妓，对母亲的美好幻想瞬间幻灭。

Frank中的主角自己认定完成Frank古怪的行事风格和杰出的音乐灵感的必然是他灰暗悲惨的童年经历和曾进过精神病院的黑历史，整天想方设法要揭穿他头套下的真面目，到等他以撕裂了Frank的梦境为代价获取真相，却发现Frank的出身和外表都极其普通，失望与后悔排山倒海而来，但失去的innocence（天真/无知）已经再也无法挽回了。

就如柏拉图所说:人类一旦走出洞穴，见到了光明（被启蒙），就再也无法回到黑暗的洞穴（混沌/无知）中去了。

随手搜的，先摘过来，有空翻一下。

以下节选自Frank: The True Story that Inspired the Movie该书，书的作者Jon Ronson是剧本的Co-writer，也即电影中Jon的原型。

更新，大概是不会翻译了，其实单词很简单很好理解，而且和电影里的对话非常像呢，可见改编之忠实。

In 1987 I was 20 and the student union entertainments officer for the Polytechnic of Central London. One day I was sitting in the office when the telephone rang. I picked it up."So Frank's playing tonight and our keyboard player can't make it and so we're going to have to cancel unless you know any keyboard players," said a frantic voice.I cleared my throat. "I play keyboards," I said."Well you're in!" the man shouted."But I don't know any of your songs," I said."Wait a minute," the man said.I heard muffled voices. He came back to the phone. "Can you play C, F and G?" he said.The man on the phone said I should meet them at the soundcheck at 5pm. He added that his name was Mike, and Frank Sidebottom's real name was Chris. Then he hung up.When I got to the bar it was empty except for a few men fiddling with equipment."Hello?" I called.The men turned. I scrutinised their faces. In the three hours since the phone call I'd learned a little about Frank Sidebottom – how he wore a big, fake head and there was much speculation about his real identity. Some thought he might be the alter ego of a celebrity, possibly Midge Ure, the lead singer of Ultravox, who was known to be a big Frank Sidebottom fan. Which of these men might be Frank? If I looked closely would there be some kind of facial clue?Then I became aware of another figure kneeling in the shadows, his back to me. He began to turn. I let out a gasp. Two huge eyes were staring at me, painted onto a great, imposing fake head, lips slightly parted as if mildly surprised. Why was he wearing the head when there was nobody there to see it except for his own band? Did he never take it off?"Hello, Chris," I said. "I'm Jon."Silence."Hello ... Chris?"Nothing."Hello ... Frank?" I tried."HELLO!" he yelled.Another of the men came bounding over to me. "You're Jon," he said. "I'm Mike Doherty. Thank you for standing in at such short notice.""So," I said. "Maybe we could run through the songs? Or ... ?"Frank's face stared at me."Frank?" Mike said."OH YES?""Can you teach Jon the songs?"At this Frank raised his hands to his head and began to prise it off, turning slightly away, like he was shyly undressing. I thought I saw a flash of something under there, some contraption attached to his face."Hello, Jon," said the man underneath. He had a nice, ordinary face. He gave me a sheepish smile, as if to say he was sorry that I had to endure all the weirdness of the past few minutes but it was out of his hands.Before I knew it we were onstage. As we played I watched it all – the band assiduously emulating the tinny pre-programmed sounds of a cheap, children's keyboard, the enraptured audience, and Frank, the eerie cartoon-character frontman, his facial expression immobile, his singing voice a high-pitched nasal twang.After that night – the greatest of my life – a year passed. Life went back to normal. Then Mike phoned and asked if I wanted to be in Frank's band full time. So I quit college and moved to Manchester.And there I was, in the passenger seat of a Transit van flying down the M6 in the middle of the night, squeezed between the door and Frank Sidebottom. Those were my happiest times – when Chris would mysteriously decide to just carry on being Frank. Nothing makes a young man feel more alive and on an adventure than speeding down a motorway at 2am next to a man wearing a big fake head. I'd watch him furtively as the lights made his cartoon face glow yellow and then black and then yellow again.I am writing this 26 years later. The music journalist Mick Middles recently sent me his not-yet-published biography Frank Sidebottom: Out of His Head. His book captures perfectly that "rarest of journeys" when an onlooker got to see the man born Chris Sievey turn into Frank. "The moment the head is placed the change occurs. Not merely a change in attitude or outlook but a journey from one person to the other. I completely believe that Chris was born as two people." Middles likens Chris to transgender people, trapped in the wrong body.I never understood why Chris sometimes kept Frank's head on for hours, even when it was only us in the van. Under the head Chris would wear a swimmer's nose clip. Chris would be Frank for such long periods the clip had deformed him slightly, flattened his nose out of shape. When he'd remove the peg after a long stint I'd see him wince in pain.Frank's character was of a child in a northern town remaining assiduously immature in the face of adulthood. He was a paean to ordinariness. But Chris wasn't ordinary. He was chaotic. Sometimes, on the way back from some gig, I'd become aware that we were taking a detour to some house somewhere with some women we somehow met along the way. There would be partying while I sat outside on the sofa.In the van I'd listen to Chris's stories, trying to understand him. He reminded me of George Bernard Shaw's unreasonable man: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." Chris was the unreasonable man, except the world never did adapt to him and he never made any progress. Like when Frank was asked to support the boy band Bros at Wembley. There were 50,000 people in the crowd. This was a huge stage for Frank – his biggest ever, by about 49,500 people. It was his chance to break through to the mainstream. But instead he chose to perform a series of terrible Bros cover versions for five minutes and was bottled off. The show's promoter, Harvey Goldsmith, was glaring at him from the wings. Frank sauntered over to him and said, "I'm thinking of putting on a gig at the Timperley Labour Club. Do you have any tips?"We crisscrossed Leeds and Bury and Sheffield and Liverpool playing the same venues over and over again. Time passed and the audiences grew to 750 and sometimes even 1,000. It was consequently baffling for me to become aware of a growing sense of discontent in the van. Chris had been asking friends to perform cameos between the songs on his records. In this spirit he had asked his brother-in-law's friend Caroline Aherne to voice the part of Frank's neighbour, Mrs Merton. Afterwards, Caroline decided to keep Mrs Merton going. She somehow got her own TV show, The Mrs Merton Show. She won a Bafta. Her followup series, The Royle Family, won about seven. The Royle Family Christmas specials attracted audiences of 12 million. And meanwhile we were crisscrossing Manchester and Bury and Leeds and Sheffield and Liverpool in our Transit van.The band's guitarist Patrick Gallagher told Middles: "It wasn't Caroline's fault. Chris was totally out of control. Whereas, say, Caroline Aherne had a single vision and could just pursue that, Chris might have a fantastic idea, and then, just as the point where it might actually get somewhere, he would spin off onto something completely different. That's OK for a while but it tended to piss people off because they never knew where they stood."Suddenly everyone around us was becoming famous. My next-door neighbour Mani had a band. They became The Stone Roses. Our driver, Chris Evans, left us to try and make it in radio. By 2000 he was earning £35m in a year, making him Britain's highest-paid entertainer.There is always a moment failure begins. A single decision that starts everything lumbering down the wrong path, speeding up, careering wildly, before lurching to a terrible stop in a place where nobody is interested in hearing your songs any more.With Frank I can pinpoint that moment exactly."Chris wants to have a rehearsal," Mike told me one day."Why would Chris want to rehearse?" I said."To take things up a level," Mike said.Chris's house was in a normal, nice, modern cul-de-sac. His children were playing outside. His wife, Paula, answered the door and told me to go to the spare bedroom. I walked up, passing the bathroom and glanced in. Staring back at me from the sink was Frank's head."In here, Jon," I heard Chris shout.I opened the bedroom door. And stopped. A man was standing there, maroon shirt tucked smartly into neat black jeans. As I walked in he started playing a tight soul-funk riff with seeming nonchalance, but I understood it to be an act of aggression."Who ... are you?" I said."I'm Richard," he said. "From the Desert Wolves."I'd like to say that during the years since Richard the bass player took an instant dislike to me – a dislike that only intensified during the months that followed before the band imploded, and climaxed in him yelling that he'd like to break my "keyboard-playing fingers" – he went on to have a disappointing life. But he didn't. He became one of the world's most successful tour managers, looking after Woody Allen and the Spice Girls. He currently manages the Pixies.Richard was not the only proper musician Chris brought in. A skilful guitarist and a saxophone player turned up in the spare bedroom too. We began to sound like an excellent 1980s wedding band.Chris told me to book us the biggest tour we'd ever undertaken. He choreographed it so I would begin the show. I'd walk on stage, alone, into a spotlight, and play a powerful C with my left forefinger. The synth brass tone – the most stirring of all the Casio tones.We hired a people-carrier instead of a Transit van and set off to our first venue. The mood was pumped. The old band members had a certain avant-garde loucheness. But this new band: I felt like I was in a college sports team. We soundchecked. The place was packed. And then I walked out into the spotlight. And in the space of that first song – our classic Born in Timperley (to the tune of Springsteen's Born in the USA) – the audience veered from fevered anticipation into hoping we were playing a weird joke on them into realising with regret that we were not. The NME savaged us. By the end of the tour we were playing to almost-empty houses.Chris returned to Manchester to a court summons. He owed £30,000 in back taxes. On the day of his court appearance the judge told him it was a very serious matter and had he considered a payment plan?"Would a pound a week suffice, m'lud?" he asked."No it would not!" the judge shouted.Chris never actually said to me: "You're fired." But I began to notice in the listings magazines that he was doing solo shows – just him and a keyboard. They were in the same venues we used to play, then in smaller venues, and then eventually there were no shows at all.I moved back to London.Ten years later I was in the park with my son when the phone rang."HELLO!" said Frank Sidebottom."It's been so long. How are you?" I said."Oh I'm very well actually, Mr Ronson," Frank said."Frank," I said. "Will you put Chris on?"Chris filled me in on the past 10 years. Now divorced from Paula, he was an animator on the children's claymation series Pingu. He loved the work but missed Frank and wanted to bring him back from retirement. He was wondering if I'd write something about my time in the band to help him with the comeback. My story was published in the Guardian. My friend, the screenwriter Peter Straughan, asked me if I thought the story could be adapted into a film.Not long after that, Frank was playing at a pub near my flat. I found Chris in a dressing room at the back, Frank's head in a bin bag at his feet."How did you lose so much weight?" I asked."I don't know," he said, looking pleased."Well, whatever you're doing," I said, "you look great."We walked across Kentish Town Road so Chris could buy some cigarettes. He'd already given us his approval on the film and I told him the latest news. FilmFour wanted to fund its development. But – and Chris and I shuffled awkwardly around the question – what would the film actually be about? Specifically, Chris wondered, would Chris be in it? Chris had always said we could do what we wanted with the story. But he was worried that however the film might depict Chris, any reality would surely damage Frank.I had similar concerns. Chris portrayed himself as untroubled. While a total dearth of anxiety was a fantastically enviable character trait in real life, how could we write a film about a man who just didn't care when everything went wrong and in fact found disaster funny? And if Chris was secretly more obsessive about Frank than he let on, how would he feel if the film reflected that? But there was a solution. What if we fictionalised the whole thing? It could be a fable instead of a biopic – a tribute to people like Frank who were just too fantastically strange to make it in the mainstream.I set off for America to research other great musicians who'd ended up on the margins – Daniel Johnston, Captain Beefheart, the Shaggs. A week after I returned, I saw Frank Sidebottom's name trending on Twitter. I clicked on the link and it said "Frank Sidebottom dead". I wondered why Chris had decided to kill off Frank. So I clicked another link:Stars lead tributes as Frank Sidebottom comic dies at 54Chris Sievey, famous as his alter ego Frank Sidebottom, was found collapsed at his home in Hale early yesterday. It is understood that his girlfriend called an ambulance and he was taken to Wythenshawe Hospital, where his death was confirmed.Manchester Evening News, 22 June 2010 When I'd told Chris at our last meeting how thin he looked – he didn't know it then, but it had been throat cancer.Frank Sidebottom comic faces pauper's funeralThe comic genius behind Mancunian legend Frank Sidebottom is facing a pauper's funeral after dying virtually penniless. Chris Sievey had no assets and little money in the bank, his family have revealed.Manchester Evening News, 23 June 2010A pauper's funeral? What did that involve? A journey back in time 200 years? I sent out a tweet. Within an hour 554 people had donated £6,950.03. By the end of the day it was 1,632 donors raising a total of £21,631.55. The donations never stopped. We had to stop them.A Timperley village councillor, Neil Taylor, started his own fund-raising campaign for a memorial statue – Frank cast in bronze. He sent me photographs of its journey from the foundry in the Czech Republic to its final resting place outside Johnson's the dry cleaners in Timperley. In the photographs, Frank looked like he'd been kidnapped but was fine with it.And now our Frank film – directed by Lenny Abrahamson and starring Michael Fassbender, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Domhnall Gleeson, is going to be premiered at the Sundance film festival. As I prepare to go to it, I remember something Chris once said to me. It was late one night, and we were in the van, reminiscing about a show we'd played a few weeks earlier at JB's nightclub in Dudley. It was very poorly attended. There can't have been more than 15 people in the audience. One of them produced a ball, the audience split into teams and, ignoring us, played a game. In the van, Chris smiled wistfully."That Dudley gig," he said."Ah ha?" I said."Best show we ever played," he said.

弗兰克，一个音乐怪才，洗澡，进食都不脱下头套，与同样性情乖戾的人组建乐队，远离城市和人群，在那个世界里，他们自由自在。

常规意义上的，有着音乐梦想的正常人进入他们的世界，并试图带领他们进入正常的世界，结果，失败了。

在正常的世界里，他们也曾努力融入，却依旧无法呼吸。

如此，他们退回到自己原先的地方。

有人会好奇：“他们为什么如此？

”悲惨的童年？

或是意外的打击？

答案是：什么都没发生过，他们仅仅是怪，天性如此，仅此而已。

对着这样的群体，爱护他，就是不去打扰他。

像易碎的玻璃，让它安静地待在自己的世界里，靠近它，就有摧毁它的可能。

本片是一部改編自真人真事的電影，其中保留了Frank的原本特色與部分音樂，但基本上是一個全新的故事。

我很喜歡這部片的畫面，顏色很亮很飽和，但卻又套上了淡淡的藍色，有一種很輕很淡的哀愁從畫面中一點一點的飄散出來。

首先，無論你有沒有看過這部電影，最先注意到的應該就是那怪的可以的Frank。

他總是帶著那個頭套，無論是吃飯、洗澡、睡覺都不曾拿下，令我非常好奇面具下的Frank的內心世界。

Frank為什麼總是戴著頭套？

我想有一部分的原因是，在現在的社會中，「面貌」幾乎決定了命運。

印象特別深刻的是，在一開始Jon和Don的談話。

「Jon先是表明對於Frank總是戴著頭套的行為感到怪異且無法理解。

Don則回他，你不知道他的才華，我總是希望自己是Frank。

Don又說：其實我是個有精神疾病的人。

Jon則回答：你看起來正常多了。

」在這段談話中，Jon完全不過問"音樂才能"，只是一味的從外貌去評斷別人。

如果在頭套下的Frank真的是個醜八怪，那是不是我們就會直接忽略了他的才華？

再者，若面罩下是個超級大帥哥，我們是不是同樣的只會專注在外貌而非音樂本質上呢？

戴上了頭套，人們就只能專注在音樂上了。

另外我很喜歡片中提到的一個問題：我們是否要為了迎合世界，而改變自己？

原先在小木屋裡做音樂時，Frank和團員們都是非常開心的，他們用自己的風格、方式做音樂玩音樂。

然而在收到表演邀請後，Jon為了讓樂團能被更多人接受，於是要求樂團改變原本的風格。

這樣的提議讓團員們無法接受，於是樂團分崩離析，只剩下Frank和Jon。

而直到上台表演，Jon一直被成名的慾望蒙蔽了雙眼，他選擇演奏了自己的創作-那個被Frank稱為「狗屎」的音樂。

最後演出失敗，而Jon始終無法明白自己的問題到底在哪裡。

Jon一直認為一個人的靈感、才華是來自於那個人的痛苦、悲慘回憶。

他認為一定是有那些回憶，才造就了Frank，於是他前去拜訪Frank的父母，想知道到底他們倆之間的差別到底在哪。

然而，Frank的父母肯定的說：「痛苦並不能創造音樂，音樂隨處都在。

硬要說的話，精神疾病只是拖了他的後腿。

」我想Jon大概是豁然開朗了吧？

他終於明白Frank才是那個真正擁有才華的人，自己只不過是個想透過網路世界來假裝自己是個有才華的人罷了。

最後Frank和團員們再次聚集在一起，回到了以往樂團的風格，唱起了" I love you all "這時台下雖然還是一樣沒有觀眾，但他們找回了自己、他們知道他們不會再迷失。

你呢？

你是否願意為了迎合大眾，而改變自己？

還是你曾經這麼試過，那結局又是如何呢？

我曾經試過，結局並不好。

所以我要我好好的做自己，就算和Frank一樣怪也無所謂，只要能找到我想對他們唱出" I love you all "的人就夠了。

而，我也找到了。

題外話：戴著頭套的Frank是由Michael Fassbender飾演。

你應該也很疑惑，戴著頭套到底要怎麼演戲？

那我想你可以來看看，Michael Fassbender在這裡的演技其實很不錯，從他的肢體動作、走路的姿勢及速度都體現了當下的情緒。

尤其戴著頭套還是很有吸引力，真的非常厲害！

還有Michael Fassbender的歌聲也讓我很驚訝！

尤其他在片尾唱的< I Love You All >歌聲中的感情非常飽滿、到位！