The Ultimate Brokeback Forum

Author Topic: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana  (Read 6206 times)

Offline iDropper

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Re: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana
« Reply #15 on: January 27, 2006, 06:12:08 PM »
ATTENTION LA PEOPLE!!!
Larry and Diana will be appearing after a screening at the arclight theater on MONDAY!

* Screenwriters Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry Q&A Following "Brokeback Mountain" (R) (2 hrs., 14 min.)
Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway
Director: Ang Lee
Performances for 1/30/2006
 
8:00 PM   

http://www.arclightcinemas.com/coming_soon.jsp

Offline sunspot

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Re: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana
« Reply #16 on: January 28, 2006, 05:23:25 PM »
I scored tickets for that 8:00PM showing.  Damn, it's gonna be a late night on Monday . . .
"We are all hopelessly oppressed cowards
Of some duality
And restless multiplicity"
 - Joni Mitchell, "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter"

Bobbie

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Re: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana
« Reply #17 on: January 29, 2006, 01:45:31 PM »
I scored tickets for that 8:00PM showing.  Damn, it's gonna be a late night on Monday . . .

Sunspot, please come back and let us know how it went!

Offline sunspot

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Re: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana
« Reply #18 on: January 29, 2006, 11:09:47 PM »

Sunspot, please come back and let us know how it went!


You bet!
"We are all hopelessly oppressed cowards
Of some duality
And restless multiplicity"
 - Joni Mitchell, "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter"

Offline gazelle

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Re: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana
« Reply #19 on: January 30, 2006, 12:49:37 PM »


Just found this shot of the 3 writers at the Denver INtl Film Festival last NOvember.

~gazelle
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From what I know about the way the Bible was created and how women keep getting smarter, I'll take an old wives' tale over gospel truth any day of the week.

Offline sunspot

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Re: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana
« Reply #20 on: January 31, 2006, 02:32:09 AM »
Went to the AIF screening of Brokeback Mountain in Los Angeles tonight, after which Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana spoke and answered questions.  Larry is fairly quiet, leaving Diana to do most of the talking.  It's late, so I'm only going to relate the most interesting bits I can remember:

* Took years for the film to get made.  Not unusual, in Hollywood.  They could get directors and they could get funding, but they could never get both Jack and Ennis cast at the same time.  Young actors would read the script, let them know they loved it, but then just sort of drift away.  Diana thinks their agents scared them off.  Joaquin Phoenix was attached to the project for awhile as Jack, but they couldn't cast an Ennis.
* Diana was watching Monster's Ball one night, and thought Heath would make a perfect Ennis.  She convinced Larry to watch the film (he seldom watches films anymore), he watched the movie thru Heath's last scene, then turned it off after he agreed they'd found Ennis.  Diana says it's something that goes on behind his eyes that makes him Ennis, which I agree with.
* One audience member said they couldn't see how Jack could feel loved by Ennis.  Diana said she felt the love was obvious, plain as daylight, if you know how to read a man like Ennis.  I couldn't agree more with this statement.  I've also seen people say they couldn't see the love between Ennis and Jack.  For me watching the film tonight, I could see it with every twitch of Ledger's face, every glance of his eyes.  The love, the fear, the shame . . . it's as brilliant as the 4th of July fireworks.  It amazes me there are people in this world who can't see it - it's like they're emotionally blind and don't know it.  All I could think was how awful it must be to go thru life that way!
* Another question concerned Jack's death.  Was it an accident, or was he murdered.  Diana conclusively stated that the flash we see in the film was what Ennis imagined in his head.  She'd like to believe Jack truly was killed by the exploding tire, but even she and Larry don't know for certain.  Ennis may well have been correct to suspect the worst.
* On a related note, Jack was not killed by his father in law or his wife or any other character we knew in the film.  Both Larry and Diana asserted that the father in law was dead already by the time Jack died.  Amateur Jessica Fletchers can put away their notepads.
* An older gay man in the audience asked Larry and Diana how they so perfectly understood what it could be like to grow up gay in a rural community 40 years ago, as he felt they'd documented the experience perfectly.  Larry indicated they hadn't done any research, and Diana said they'd drawn on their own rural western experience and let the characters and the story take them where they logically thought they should (which is much the same as Prolux has related in her interviews).  As the old saying goes, artists have their insights.

It was an interesting evening.  My third viewing of the film was bittersweet – I'm touched by different scenes now than I was on my prior two viewings.  Teared up quite a bit for example during the scene where Jack and Ennis first talk on the mountain and Jack imitates a rodeo cowboy.  I guess it comes from knowing how their life and light and liveliness is slowly, bitterly snuffed out over the course of the next 20 years by the fear and shame Ennis lets choke his heart and Jack's.  I'm bringing less and less external baggage to the film now as well, instead just letting it tell its own story on its own terms.  Surprisingly, the film seems to pass by faster with each viewing – the opposite of what one might expect. 
"We are all hopelessly oppressed cowards
Of some duality
And restless multiplicity"
 - Joni Mitchell, "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter"

Bobbie

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Re: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana
« Reply #21 on: January 31, 2006, 07:59:55 AM »
Sunspot,

Thank you so much for posting this.  It sounds like a very interesting evening.  I'm gonna cross reference it from the main discussion. 

Bobbie

dkellergrl2001

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Re: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana
« Reply #22 on: January 31, 2006, 09:34:38 AM »
Thank you, Sunspot for your recap.

Offline rickpouch

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Re: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana
« Reply #23 on: January 31, 2006, 10:13:56 AM »
Thanks, Sunspot for the information.
When you're more rested, let us know more.

Thanks again.

Rick (Chicago)

Offline Lance

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Re: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana
« Reply #24 on: January 31, 2006, 03:02:25 PM »
adding my thanks to you, Sunspot.
faster each time? yow! i've only seen it once, and it seemed  to fly by, even though i had already read the story twice, and read the forums here about every last detail, which helped me get more out of the movie the first time than i would have otherwise. i felt that there was still so much more in every scene that i wanted to notice and savour.
May the bridges I burn light the way forward.

Offline mary

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Re: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana
« Reply #25 on: January 31, 2006, 10:53:55 PM »
Thanks so much sunspot - Interesting to hear from Dianna - She is one of my hero's in this film
I agree - I've been saying that the film flies as I see it again and again.  It never seemed long but now it seems positively short. 
As much as I like Joaquin Phoenix, I'm not sure I would have like him with Heath.  I'm thinking that folks who've talked about divine intervention (or equivalent) in the casting may be on to something.
never enough time, never enough....

Some fictional characters are less fictional than others

Offline Carissa

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Re: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana
« Reply #26 on: February 01, 2006, 10:17:56 PM »
As much as I like Joaquin Phoenix, I'm not sure I would have like him with Heath.  I'm thinking that folks who've talked about divine intervention (or equivalent) in the casting may be on to something.
Same here.  IMO, the type of actor Joaquin is, I could see him doing better with Ennis' role than Jack. 
Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
- Romeo and Juliet (Juliet at III, ii)

sherryfair

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Re: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana
« Reply #27 on: February 04, 2006, 09:59:02 PM »
Diana & Larry won the WGA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay

'Crash' and 'Brokeback Mountain' win WGA awardsAssociated Press

LOS ANGELES - The writers of "Brokeback Mountain," the sweeping tale about the longtime forbidden romance between rugged ranch hands, won best adapted screenplay Saturday night at the 58th annual Writers Guild Awards.
The screenplay was written by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana and based on a short story by Annie Proulx. The film stars actors Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal and received a leading eight Oscar nominations.
The writers of the ensemble drama "Crash," which follows the lives of a cast of characters over a chaotic 36-hour period in Los Angeles, won for best original screenplay. The screenplay was written by Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco based on a Haggis story.
In other awards, the ABC television show "Grey's Anatomy" won the writing award for a new series.
Larry David, the writer and star of the HBO comedy "Curb Your Enthusiasm," won for best writing in a comedy series.
The crew of writers for the hit ABC show "Lost" were honored in the dramatic series category.
In the television animation category, Michael Price won for "Mommie Beerest" an episode on the long-running Fox show "The Simpsons."
Winners were announced in ceremonies held in Los Angeles and New York.
Other WGA winners announced Saturday:
TELEVISION:
Episodic Drama: "Autopsy" ("House"), Lawrence Kaplow, Fox.
Episodic Comedy: "You Can't Miss the Bear" ("Weeds"), Jenji Kohan, Showtime.
Long Form-Original: "Warm Springs," Margaret Nagle, HBO.
Long-Form Adapted: "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers," Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, based on the book by Roger Lewis, HBO.
Comedy/Variety Series: "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," Mike Sweeney, Chris

Offline bbbmedia

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Re: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana
« Reply #28 on: February 11, 2006, 08:08:39 PM »
I see Larry & Diana have been moved to Arts & Entertainment

Well, Adorable Doe Eyed Jake and Grim Tight Lipped Heath will just have to get along without them in the fanzine section



What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had come up behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying some shared and sexless hunger.

Offline bbbmedia

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Re: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana
« Reply #29 on: February 13, 2006, 02:51:52 PM »
The people on this Forum have gone out of their minds.

Sending postcards of thanks to Heath & Jake, but NOT to Annie Proulx, Larry McMurtry, and Diana Ossana.

Since when has the piano composed the concerto?

What a world! What a world!!
What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had come up behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying some shared and sexless hunger.