'Heath was the captain of the ship' - Brokeback's Brokies (oh, and Nailed's on strike again...)

It's a special day for me today, for the first time in two and a half years I will see Brokeback Mountain on the big screen and for the first time ever I will see it in the company of people who love it as I do and have been changed by it as I have. One of the most extraordinary pieces of the Brokeback Mountain experience is how this film affects its audience.


Ang Lee said that he had no idea when he edited the film together that it would have such a pull on the emotions of viewers: 'All the time I was directing it and editing it I never thought people would react with so much emotion. I never thought people would cry. I always hoped it would move people, but I never dreamed it would move them to tears.' But when Ang travelled back to Calgary to watch the film with the people who had made it, he saw this firsthand and also realised, as we all do now, of the emotional investment so many people (including himself) have in Brokeback Mountain - as a film, as a short story and as a love story. And this is true whether you are a member of the audience, part of the crew, the actors and their families and friends, or if you're the director. Or a critic.


Jake Gyllenhaal commented that Ang had been surprised by the reaction of critics and journalists as Brokeback Mountain did the rounds of the film festivals: 'Ang said people don’t really come up and ask him questions. They tell him how they’re feeling. So as we were talking to journalists, even the critics, we all felt like it was a different feeling than usual, and it was like they were an audience for the first time.'


When the film showed in Venice, Jake described turning round to see Maggie's reaction: ' all I could see in her [face were two swollen eyes. She'd been crying that hard... When the lights came up after the screening in Venice, you could sense just how deeply the film had affected people... The same was true at the screening at the Toronto Film Festival.'


Author Annie Proulx wasn't quite certain what to expect from the film either. She told Advocate: 'It was really quite a shock because I had nothing to do with the film. So for 18 months I had no idea what was happening, I had no idea if it was going to be good or frightful or scary, if it was going to be terribly lost or sentimentalized or what. When I saw it in September, I was astonished. The thing that happened while I was writing the story eight years ago is that from thinking so much about the characters and putting so much time into them, they became embedded in my consciousness. They became as real to me as real, walk-around, breathe-oxygen people. It took a long time to get these characters out of my head so I could get on with work. Then when I saw the film, they came rushing back. It was extraordinary – just wham – they were with me again.'


And Annie said of Jake and Heath's performances: 'I thought they were magnificent, both of them. Jake Gyllenhaal's Jack Twist...wasn't the Jack Twist that I had in mind when I wrote this story. The Jack that I saw was jumpier, homely. But Gyllenhaal's sensitivity and subtleness in this role is just huge. The scenes he's in have a kind of quicksilver feel to them. Heath Ledger is just almost really beyond description as far as I'm concerned. He got inside the story more deeply than I did. All that thinking about the character of Ennis that was so hard for me to get, Ledger just was there. He did indeed move inside the skin of the character, not just in the shirt but inside the person. It was remarkable.'


Although referring to another film, Jarhead, Sam Mendes' words here about Jake, told to W Magazine back in January 2005, could also be applied to Jake as Jack: 'Jake is like one of those Japanese fighting fish that can constantly change their appearance. When they're threatened they go bright orange, and when they're safe again they're next to invisible. So many things flicker across Jake's face, and the camera catches them all.'


Michelle Williams said that when she saw Jack and Ennis on the screen: 'Honest to God I did not see the two boys I know. I did not see Jake and I did not see Heath when I saw that movie. And I know both of them well - one of them better than the other. [laugh] I did not see them anywhere on that screen.' Of the atmosphere on set, Michelle said: 'It was a loving set. Heath was the captain of the ship and he’s a soft-spoken loving guy and that’s what he emanated and what everybody else followed suit.'


No great surprise - Nailed shuts down for a fourth time

These days, this story hardly merits surprise or a headline, but on Friday the plug was pulled yet again on Nailed - the fourth time. The crew are still not being paid. I like to think that this film can survive its production company - Capitol Films - but one wonders if Capitol Films can survive Nailed.


Pictures from IHJ.