BBM General Discussion 2

[lovelyamazing]

Good for you, Maya.

Good for us Sara!!!!

[janjo]

Sayrem described the feelings he had, (we all had), so well. Well done Maya.

[lovelyamazing]

John found him Jess 
He has a beautiful blog.

[Rosewood]

On the subject of Momtgomery Clift, we watched "Red River" last week, and thought his performance in it was one of the few from a young actor in many, many years that came anywhere near the level achieved by Heath Ledger as Ennis del Mar in Brokeback Mountain.
Perhaps there is only one every 50 or 60 years! 

RED RIVER is one of my all time favorite films, Jess.
Monty Clift looks so beautiful.
I also love the cinematography and art direction.
Love Clift's perfornamce as well as John Wayne's.
Also love John Ireland (I think this is the film in which he met Joanne Dru, who plays the object of Clift's affections, and later married her.)
There's a funny scene in which Ireland caresses his gun which is a trifle odd.
Love the scene near the begiinning as the cowboys shout to start the cattle moving and the music swells in the background.
Cowboy bliss for a little girl growing up on the lower east side of NYC. 

[garyd]

RED RIVER is one of my all time favorite films, Jess.

There's a funny scene in which Ireland caresses his gun which is a trifle odd.

Actually it has be argued that there is quite a bit of homoerotic subtext in several of the scenes in "Red River".
The scene you mention also includes that rather bizarre "I'll show you my gun if you'll show me yours" (paraphrase) dialogue.
In addition there is all that cigarette rolling and saliva swapping.
Clifts' "eating a blade of grass" scene.
And then there is Dru's big third act "see everyone knows you love one another" line.
And finally, the "brand" is of a "D" and an "M".  The D representing Wayne's character's last name and the "M'
representing Clifts' character's first name. (Matt)
None of it adds up to much as far as I am concerned but many would disagree.

Of course, homoerotic subtext in several of Howard Hawks' films has been
discussed for years, I guess.
Everything from "Bringing Up Baby" in which Cary Grant inexplicably exclaims he is "gay",
(Legend has it this is an ad-lib on the part of Grant),
to Jane Russell's rendition of "Ain't There Anyone Here for Love" which she sings
to a chorus of rather odd "bodybuilders".  This scene is SO totally homoerotic blatant  that
for years it was cut from television broadcasts of the film.
Hawks did not "direct" any of the musical/dance segments of "Gentleman Prefer Blondes" however.
Jack Cole did and he and Gwen Verdon did the choreography.

[Disisme]

how did you come across my blog in the first place john

New review from a bloger in Kolkata


Brokeback Mountain


Somehow, I had missed Brokeback Mountain when the world seemed to be enraptured by it, and so after a conversation with a friend I finally sat down to it.

After the first watch, all that remained of the movie was a collection of images and a realization that never before had I been so utterly moved by a love story, for that is what it is, titles of a gay cowboy movie be damned. It is the story of a shared love, love that is not once called love through a lifetime, because it yet does not know its own name and also perhaps because it is denied by its own preperator.

The second watch still left me dazed , the sheer power of Lee's imagery is incalculable. Jack and Ennis barely speak, their dialogues, especially Ennis' are at a bare minimum and yet they wash you totally with a deep, gnawing, longing.

After the third watch to-night, I think I can finally begin to understand the different layers on which this movie is fleshed out.

What is truly heartbreaking is Ennis' tragedy of not knowing himself, He is as stoic as the mountains among which he had come to love, and in his confusion he has learnt to lock himself within his eyes that do not once overflow. He is unconnected and out of sync with the world, and in his happiness with Jack we discover his vast pain. It's not easy being different, and Ennis' difference nearly bleeds him out. 'Its a film about hearts - broken or otherwise. It's pure romance.'

There is something forlorn and broken about Ennis even as we see him in the opening scene, and he walks with a head bent forward, weight on his sturdy shoulders, all his worldly possessions in a brown paper bag. The brown paper bag would re-surface at the end, when again, he carries all that he has in this world in a brown paper bag- Two shirts, remnant of the only love he had ever experienced .

more......

http://sayrem.blogspot.com/2009/07/somehow-i-had-missed-brokeback-mountain.html

[lovelyamazing]

Hello Disisme and Welcome aboard.
I was going to ask John the same question

[Sara B]

A big welcome from me, Disisyou .  Look forward to your posts.

[janjo]

And me. We have only had LovelyAmazing, (and she is), in Kolkata before, and I know she will appreciate another member from her home city.

[BayCityJohn]

how did you come across my blog in the first place john

Welcome to the forum.

I found your blog by doing a Google search of "Brokeback Mountain" and sorting the results by date.

[BayCityJohn]

I found this from a blogger in the Philippines today

Nino Manaog
Bikolandia, Filipinas



The beauty of the unexpressed
 

To most people, nothing seems more beautiful than the drama of the repressed, the beauty of the unexpressed.

WITH “BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN,” film director Ang Lee presents himself as a symbolist, a minimalist, and a lot more.

Based on Annie Proulx’s Pulitzer-winning novel, “Brokeback Mountain” is an apt label for Lee’s masterpiece on how the lives of two cowboys—the tightlipped Ennis del Mar and the rodeo-loving Jack Twist—are made meaningful and even tragic by their summer experience in the wild. In Brokeback Mountain, the two cowboys have their own Walden experience, or epiphanies—something that they will hold on to for the rest of their lives—but that later turns out to be against social conventions, a dilemma to resolve that it makes tragic heroes out of them.

AS A SYMBOLIST, Ang Lee shows so much by concealing many things. Ennis del Mar’s restrained affectation for his friend Jack Twist with whom he shares a steamy summer in 1963 predominantly figures in the end as tragedy.

A plethora of symbols prevails in the masterpiece. First, the sheep being tended by the two cowboys are the juxtaposition for Ennis del Mar, one whose restraint and silence seems the most deafening to all the other characters. The meekness of the sheep being tended by the two main characters delineates Ennis’ inability to articulate his own preference, living in an otherwise homophobic society. Like the sheep feasted on by the obscure [the unseen social ridicule] wolves, Ennis del Mar confines himself to avoid the stigma from his outward relationship with another man.



more..........

http://ninomanaog.blogspot.com/2009/07/beauty-of-unexpressed.html

[Rosewood]

'The beauty of the unexpressed.'
Perfectly expressed.
Sometimes it takes a newcomer to the field to coin an absolutely gorgeous phrase.

[janjo]

Actually it has be argued that there is quite a bit of homoerotic subtext in several of the scenes in "Red River".
The scene you mention also includes that rather bizarre "I'll show you my gun if you'll show me yours" (paraphrase) dialogue.
In addition there is all that cigarette rolling and saliva swapping.
Clifts' "eating a blade of grass" scene.
And then there is Dru's big third act "see everyone knows you love one another" line.
And finally, the "brand" is of a "D" and an "M".  The D representing Wayne's character's last name and the "M'
representing Clifts' character's first name. (Matt)
None of it adds up to much as far as I am concerned but many would disagree.

Of course, homoerotic subtext in several of Howard Hawks' films has been
discussed for years, I guess.
Everything from "Bringing Up Baby" in which Cary Grant inexplicably exclaims he is "gay",
(Legend has it this is an ad-lib on the part of Grant),
to Jane Russell's rendition of "Ain't There Anyone Here for Love" which she sings
to a chorus of rather odd "bodybuilders".  This scene is SO totally homoerotic blatant  that
for years it was cut from television broadcasts of the film.
Hawks did not "direct" any of the musical/dance segments of "Gentleman Prefer Blondes" however.
Jack Cole did and he and Gwen Verdon did the choreography.

I thought there was quite a lot of homoerotic subtext to "Red River" too. I will watch it again when I can and try a little further analysis in view of your thoughts on the matter.

[chapeaugris]

Has Topic of the Week been discontinued?

[Nax]

No, Topic of the week will continue, it's just that due to a lot of people being on holiday (including Chuck and myself) we thought we could let it slide for a week.  Normal service will continue when the rabble get back to their respective cubicles