Hi Everyone,
I am in England and consequently not an active member, but I do like to monitor
what
you're up to (my reasons for being in the group are essentially nostalgic, I
have fond
memories of my time in that neck of the woods and I still visit, annually, and
love
cinema) I noticed that you were going to view 'Brokeback Mountain' and I
wondered if I
might share a couple of thoughts.
I have long been a fan of Proulx's fiction so I was immediately intrigued by the
possibility of this adaptation, especially since this source story is not only
short but
stylistically is Proulx at her most terse almost Hemingway in the pared prose.
While I
know that it is invidious to compare prose with film it is difficult to not
carry out some
form of relative analysis, so what I found most engaging about the film was its
sense of
place and of milieu, while the story's strong card is its articulation of
character
through a austere use of dialogue. The film begins with a frame that
distinguishes itself
by not following the golden rule, Lee offers us a landscape that privileges the
sky, the
figures are of the land but they exist in the air, framed by the blue sky, the
white
clouds they are dreamers. Incidentally despite both the dialogue and press
reviews they
are not cowboys but shepherds, I think this might be significant. The film then
relies on
the expressive use of camera, it never explains rather it presents, and this is
its
strength, the relationship between the men and their families as literally
unspoken. Their
love, longing, is felt through Lee's uncanny ability to capture time as a
structure of
desire rather than one that is measured, he does this by representing the
landscape as an
effect of the men's, often grim, gaze. The land they see is one of potential,
its
emptiness signifying this silenced love.
If you read the short story, the action is often shocking not because of what is
depicted
but rather by its unannounced (sorry can't think of another term)quality.
The film is, I want to argue, stronger in many ways than the story yet
strangely, given
how much classical cinema relies on it, character is not what drives the
narrative, rather
it is atmosphere, the subtle modulation of atmosphere.
I wished in the end that I had seen the film before I had read the story, so if
you
haven't done either yet, go to see the film first.
I trust you'll enjoy the film as much as I did.
Hope the weather is fine and you are good to each other.
peace
alan

A. Fair
IDS

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