Funeral Parade of Roses / Bara no sōretsu

Toshio Matsumoto’s kaleidoscopic masterpiece is one of the most subversive and original Japanese pictures of the late 1960s. The film offers a suggestive immersion into the dazzling, yet-unseen night world of drag queen bars in Tokyo, full of alcohol, drugs, shrieking guitars and the eccentric divas’ fabulous performances. This story of a love triangle between the novice drag artist Eddie, the leading diva Leda and the owner of the Genet bar is one of the key works of the Japanese New Wave. The director combines documentary shots with his own avant-garde short films, and approaches the flow of time in an inventive way. Named by Stanley Kubrick one of his main inspirations for A Clockwork Orange, you can enjoy this film again almost fifty years after its premiere in a newly restored version.