'A faint sweetness like grass and with it the rushing cold of the mountain'

As is usually the case with a Brokeback post, they travel in pairs. Yesterday's talk about Diana Ossana and the script of Brokeback made me want to spend some time with the story today and it also reminded me of this - an interview with Diana and her co-screenwriter Larry McMurtry, which you can listen to here.


One of the most interesting aspects of this interview is when Diana and Larry discuss how and when they knew to leave the original story alone. The interview recalls one such moment - at the four-year reunion in those seconds when Jack and Ennis pull apart - which Annie described/painted so perfectly 'Ennis can still smell Jack, the intensely familiar odour of cigarettes, musky sweat and a faint sweetness like grass, and with it the rushing colour of the mountain.' Listening to those words, I know now I must find an audio book of Brokeback. Hearing the words of Annie Proulx, for me, is even better than imagining them said. [Edited to add: I've been reminded that, in the story, Annie says 'the rushing cold of the mountain' and not colour, as the interviewer here says.]


While you're about it, and if you're in a Brokeback mood, there are more audio interviews here. One, with Gustavo Santoalalla, reveals that the music preceded the filming and that it influenced direction and acting. In another, Ang Lee recalls Michelle Williams' instructions to Heath and to Jake to kiss harder and also admits to painting that Wyoming sky a slightly bluer blue, to match, perhaps, the Wyoming sky blue of Jack Twist's eyes.


These interviews were conducted in the run-up to the Oscars, which, of course, did not end as they should. However, not wanting to dwell on that tonight, I thought instead that I would take a look at one of the most appealing sights of the 2006 Academy Awards - Jake Gyllenhaal on the red carpet.


In the first of these two videos, at least one of the red carpet commentators is dangerously distracted and loses all train of thought - and who can blame her? - when Jake comes into view. She is to be admired - when Jake comes into my line of sight on a red carpet I tend to hurl myself into a parallel universe. I also like the lady's disbelief when her colleague blurts out that he hadn't noticed Jake. As if!



In the second video, there is a chance to focus on what is without doubt one of the most important elements of any red carpet, anywhere, anytime - how good Jake Gyllenhaal looks on it.



So a mix of emotions this evening and all because of the sparse and stunning words of Annie Proulx, the vision of Ang Lee, the bravery and commitment of the actors, the sound and colour of the mountain, and the beauty of Jake Gyllenhaal. An intoxicating mix.




Includes pictures from IHJ.

Brokeback's perfect screenplay - 'It says what it needs to say and then it shuts up'

On 4 August, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences showed Brokeback Mountain as part of its Great to be Nominated series. One of Brokeback's Oscar winners was there - Diana Ossana - who, with Larry McMurtry, achieved the incredible and turned a short story of few but perfectly-chosen words into a screenplay that delivered mountain air and human love and loss into the theatres.


Fellow Brokies and friends were in the auditorium and from them we learn that Diana could not watch the screening herself - she has not seen the film since Heath died. But in her Q&A after the viewing, Diana recalled that on set Heath was a joker when out of character but could immediately snap back into his Ennis suit - Heath also brought his own understanding of Ennis into the film's scenes, knowing perhaps better than anyone how Ennis would protect himself. Jake, meanwhile, was an entertainer, regaling cast and crew with renditions of showtunes. Oh for some more behind the scenes footage!


James Schamus and Ang Lee were among those who sent messages - Ang's said: 'This is a film that was blessed even as we were making it. It was filled with so much love, compassion, and a benevolent spirit. I’m very happy that it is being shown again in the Goldwyn Theater as one to be remembered in the Oscar “pack”. It was great to be nominated. By the way, does “Great to be Nominated” really mean “Should have Won?”' James said: 'Thank you for coming to see Brokeback on the big screen. It's an honor to share it with you again, and I'd like to take this opportunity simply to remember Heath Ledger and acknowledge his tremendous contribution to the film.'


Diana once wrote a letter about 'our little film' to The Advocate, and in it she said: 'I, for one, never doubted the power of Annie Proulx’s story or our screenplay. That is why we optioned the short story with our own money and why Larry and I have been relentless in getting it up on-screen. That is why I am a producer on the film, and that is why we have insisted upon getting it made in an honest and truthful manner.' We really do owe quite an incredible debt to Diana and Larry for driving forward a project that moved them to words. Larry has said: 'We felt that we had a very, very rare opportunity. You just don't get material like that in a normal life as a screenwriter, just once in your lifetime, maybe' - definitely maybe.


Back at the end of 2005, Larry and Diana were joined at a Q&A in Denver by Annie Proulx herself, and Larry described her original story as 'A genius-level story... We used every single line and sentence and stuck to Annie's language like a tick.' Despite Annie's fears about how the landscape of Wyoming - a character in itself - would translate into a screenplay, she found the whole process of turning her story into a film was a 'seamless' journey. Brokeback Mountain itself was there in all its power and emotion: 'This is one of the most powerful landscapes on earth and everybody who roams it knows it. There's a visceral, unexplainable, indecipherable force that binds people to this place... It's got balls.'


Obviously there would have been no Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar without Annie Proulx, but it is also just as certain that neither Ang Lee nor Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger would have been drawn to Brokeback Mountain if it had not been for the dedication, sheer will and genius of Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. Larry: 'It says what it needs to say and then it shuts up.'



Thanks very much to the Brokies who have been recalling their 4 August experience on the DC Forum. Includes pictures from IHJ and the Academy.

Remembering Heath Ledger - 'he was so physical and beautiful and strong and masculine'

Today, 4 April 2008, if all had been right with the world, should have been Heath Ledger's 29th birthday. But, because things are broken in a way that is impossible to fathom, Heath isn't here. Speaking as someone who was not fortunate enough to have met Heath in person, but as just a movie-lover, changed forever by Heath's embodiment of Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain, today's words for Heath are better coming from someone who was lucky enough to have had that privilege. This is what Brokeback screenwriter Diana Ossana said about Heath in the March 11 issue of Advocate:



'Heath was an old soul in a young man's frame, extremely masculine, extremely competent in all things, and yet sensitive beyond belief. In person Heath was animated and kinetic and full of life, far different from the character he portrayed in Brokeback Mountain. He was always disheveled, unconcerned with his appearance, because - like my writing partner, Larry McMurty - Heath lived in his head. Heath was a pure actor, much like Larry is a pure writer, and I was moved by the similarities between these two seemingly very different men.'



'One of my most endearing memories of working with Heath on set was the day we filmed the final scene in Brokeback. Before the first take, Heath walked over to me, a big smile on his face, and said, "I think you're going to like what I've done with this scene." Then he headed inside that bleak little trailer house, and the cameras rolled. I watched the monitor as Ennis opened his tiny closet door and revealed the two shirts he had found hidden inside Jack's childhood bedroom, like skins, one inside the other... and realized that Heath, as Ennis, had chosen to reverse the order of those shirts, with his on the outside, embracing Jack's. Such was Heath's commitment to the truth of our story and to the rawness and depth of his portrayal. Afterward our grizzled and thoroughly macho first assistant director marched over to me, bent down, and whispered in my ear, "Diana, I've worked in this business 50 years. This is the first time an actor's brought a tear to my eye."'


'Heath was generous and dear, painfully shy and gifted, and I will miss him for the rest of my days.'


Michelle Williams was quoted in the April issue of Interview: 'I think that the interesting thing about Heath, which maybe people have only really fully discovered in his death, is how vulnerable he was. You can pick up on it in his performances, but it's easy to overlook because he was so physical and beautiful and strong and masculine. But there was always that underlying sensitivity. That's who he was.'



To mark Heath's birthday, and a TV showing of Brokeback Mountain, a New Zealand site today listed 'Ten things you didn't know about Brokeback'. One of them was new to me: 'After completion of the movie, Brokeback writer Annie Proulx sent both lead actors an original, autographed copy of her story. When she signed Jake's copy she wrote "To Jake...", but when she signed the copy for Heath, she accidentally wrote "To Ennis…" After continuing her personal message, she realized her mistake - but decided to leave it there. In a private screening later in Hollywood, she reflected that she left his signed copy that way because she felt Heath Ledger had embodied Ennis in every way she had wrote him.'


Includes pictures from The Advocate and IHJ.