Brokeback Mountain Forum @ ennisjack.com
The Movie & Story => News Coverage, Reviews & Awards => Topic started by: Jennis on Aug 03, 2006, 12:18 AM
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Revolution studios
By Cole Haddon
08/02/2006
*Excerts*
If you asked a mother in Jonesboro, Arkansas, if film has the power to save the world, she’d probably tell you it was doing more to damage future generations than to benefit them. All those guns, romanticized portrayals of crack and gangbanging, and, of course, homosexuality. Has any film since My Own Private Idaho corrupted more innocent youths than Brokeback Mountain? Why, just the other day, I saw two male kindergarteners dry-humping while “camping” in their backyard — and it’s all Jake Gyllenhaal’s fault, the sonuvabitch.
“I didn’t make my film to change anybody, because I don’t believe you can change the world,” Abu-Assad says. “The world is much too big to be changed by film.” The director is more interested in exploring characters not usually found onscreen; like Devlin, he wants primarily to tell a story. “If films change anything, it changes for the worst,” he adds. “For example, after my film was made, the killing continues. It’s not stopping.”
Thomason is quick to jump in. “I think his film has changed a lot of minds,” he says in his strong Arkansas accent. “It might not have changed the world yet, but eventually it will cross that line.” “I don’t know if film can change the world, but I know many films have changed my world,” Nanji says. “Communally, I guess that changes the world because it changed how people think.”
And that’s just it. Film has the power to change how one person thinks, and, like a — God, I can’t believe I’m about to use this metaphor — pebble thrown into a pond, the ripples continue to expand. Brokeback Mountain, a film that few people thought would take off beyond its specialty market, is a wonderful example of this potential. It became a phenomenon that inspired curiosity, and then conversation, in environs that would have never imagined devout love possible in a homosexual relationship. Hell, even my bigoted mom, who used to quote Gingrich’s “Adam and Steve” comment all the time, is now advocating a person’s right to be happy with whomever they wish.
Full Article Here:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16996417&BRD=2318&PAG=461&dept_id=484045&rfi=6
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Aug. 01, 2006
Focus Features distribution head Jack Foley is equally enthusiastic about wider releases.
Last year, two Focus titles -- "The Constant Gardener" and "Pride & Prejudice" -- opened in more than 200 theaters apiece and grossed $8.7 million and $2.9 million, respectively, during their first weekends. Although "Brokeback" opened in limited release, Focus was intent on quickly mainstreaming Ang Lee's heartbreaking adaptation of E. Annie Proulx's short story in order to give the film as much exposure as possible. "Brokeback" went on to earn $83 million domestically and at its widest point played on more than 2,000 screens.
*Full Article Here*
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/film/feature_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002949730
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'Brokeback' cleared way in movies
BY GREG HERNANDEZ
Daily news - August 3, 2006
After Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as cowboy lovers in "Brokeback Mountain," there has been no shortage of gay characters on the big screen this summer.
This weekend alone, Robin Williams plays a gay man in "The Night Listener," opening wide Friday, and gay characters are front and center in the limited releases "Quinceanera" and "Shock to the System: A Donald Strachey Mystery."
In addition, the rowdy indie comedy "Another Gay Movie" begins the second weekend of its run, and the gay love story "Vacationland" opened in New York on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the indie films "Little Miss Sunshine" and "The Groomsmen" feature Steve Carell and John Leguiizamo, respectively, in major gay roles central to the plot.
"`Brokeback Mountain' broke down barriers that have existed for a long time," said actor Chad Allen, the openly gay actor who stars as a gay detective in "Shock to the System."
"There was a huge fear or belief that you couldn't tell a story with a gay hero and have it make money. A well-made movie with a good story trumps everything. It's not just a victory for gay rights; it's a victory for humanity."
"Brokeback," which received an Oscar nomination this year for Best Picture, did something no other same-sex love story had ever done before: It crossed over to the mainstream and grossed $83 million domestically. The question now is when, or if, another gay film will achieve similar commercial success.
As executive director of Outfest, one of the largest gay and lesbian film festivals in the U.S., Stephen Gutwillig has seen the fortunes of the genre ebb and flow since he began in 1999. But he sees an upswing on the horizon.
"I'm optimistic because `Brokeback Mountain" is no harder to replicate than any other great movie that Hollywood has produced," he said. "No one really knows how to do it, but they will never stop trying and will succeed every now and then. This particular film has simply broadened their definition of what a great American film can be and what a highly profitable film can be."
Where "Brokeback" aimed high artistically, the raucous "Gay Movie" aims strictly for "American Pie"-type laughs. It opened in just two theaters last Friday - one in Los Angeles and one in New York - and made $16,000 per screen.
Distributor TLA Releasing will expand "Gay Movie" to San Francisco, Philadelphia and Pasadena this weekend, then to 10 other cities on Aug. 11, with the hope that good word-of-mouth will lead to an even wider release.
Writer-director Todd Stevens, who made the movie for $500,000, is hoping for box office success but isn't counting on much crossover appeal.
"I didn't even try to cross over with this film," Stevens said. "I just went all out with the raunchiness and the gayness of it. I didn't want to hold back for the audience that I made it for."
In contrast, the gay love story "Adam & Steve," which TLA Releasing distributed earlier this summer, was not at all sexually explicit. Even the kisses between its two openly gay leading men, Craig Chester and Malcolm Gets, were rather tame compared with the "Brokeback" smooches.
"Adam & Steve," out on DVD on Tuesday, earned $320,000 during its theatrical run. The film also co-starred indie-favorite Parker Posey and former "Saturday Night Live" star Chris Kattan.
"We had more of a mainstream approach for that film due to the talent involved," said Lewis Tice of TLA Releasing. "We opened in 11 markets out of the gate, and that gamble really paid off because the first few weeks, it did gangbusters."
Regent Releasing, which is distributing "Shocked" and will release "Poster Boy" next weekend, also has the gay comedy "The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green" still in theaters. "Unfabulous" is now in its eighth week of release and had grossed $113,153 million as of Sunday.
But many gay films have trouble being booked anywhere except at art house theaters because they lack backing such as that "Brokeback" got from Universal Pictures' specialty film division Focus Features.
"The average multiplexes at the neighborhood malls are making their decisions pretty much on supply from major studios," said Regent Releasing founder and chairman Paul Colichman, producer of "Gods and Monsters," "Tom & Viv" and other indie films. "If major studios are marketing a film with major stars, they'll probably take it. They take what is given to them, more or less. For a gay indie film theatrically, the art houses are critically important."
Maria Maggenti, whose first lesbian film, "The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love," had a successful theatrical run 10 years ago, is hoping her second big-screen directorial effort, "Puccini for Beginners," will have similar good fortune.
But she is anything but overconfident.
"I think society at large has become more accepting in a lot of ways in terms of mainstream media. But the film business, in terms of distribution outlets, has shrunk, so it's a lot harder," she said.
Still, Colichman said any kind of buzz from a theatrical run or film festival can set a movie up well for ancillary markets as DVD and video on demand.
Regent Releasing will debut "Shocked" simultaneously on its Here! pay television channel and in its limited theatrical run.
"As long as people are seeing the product, it doesn't make a difference if they are seeing it on their computer, cell phone or cable or satellite feed for TV," Colichman said.
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Thanks Jennis and frances. I should have made it a point to create the news coverage thread for August...
I have made this into a "sticky" topic, as it should be.
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Thanks for the articles!
I saw this on a blog and just couldn't believe it. See for yourself.
http://www.thestranger.com/blog/2006/08/just_when_you_though.php
Just When You Thought the Brokeback Mountain Jokes Were Over…
Posted by HANNAH LEVIN at 11:55 AM
(https://ennisjack.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thestranger.com%2Fblog%2Ffiles%2F2006%2F08%2Fbigbengrabapie.jpg&hash=5c1af932a57296d929fd0150948969c96f4d7ebb)
(https://ennisjack.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thestranger.com%2Fblog%2Ffiles%2F2006%2F08%2FBig%252520Ben%252520Posters2_72.jpg&hash=be7daf863502da7e2c0c6a3bcadc2a536b2ed3dd)
More info from this blog http://www.thestranger.com/blog/2006/08/just_when_you_though.php
One of New Zealand’s oldest food-on-the-run brands, Big Ben Pies, has jumped on the Brokeback , er, chuckwagon, with a campaign reasserting their masculinity.
The campaign, spotted on the NZ advertising community’s Creative Circle blog, includes the above poster as well as slogans like “I reckon a cowboy’s wife should be a woman” and “I ride with a partner, not on him.”
Best comment on their blog? “I’d rather be seen stuffing a cowboy in my mouth than one of those maggot filled sh*t sacks.”
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I like that comment. Thank you, ennisandjack . :)
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Thanks sweetie,
I haven't been on the blog but the comment you put here just about sums it up.Thanks for sharing.
They are idiots aren't they ::)
Jennis.x
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Not sure if this is exactly on topic but....
Today's "Guardain" reports that since civil partnerships were made legal in the UK last November, more than 6000 have taken place. Some same-sex couples are resisiting because they say they want to remain different and not look as though they're trying to emulate straight marriages, but it looks as if a good many disagree and are enjoying their new-found freedom.
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LOGO has released The 50 Greatest LGBT Films as voted by the Logo audience.
Guess where BBM came on that list . . .
http://www.logoonline.com/shows/events/50_greatest_films/winners.jhtml
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LOGO has released The 50 Greatest LGBT Films as voted by the Logo audience.
Guess where BBM came on that list . . .
http://www.logoonline.com/shows/events/50_greatest_films/winners.jhtml
This is actually in the awards thread back in April.You actually posted there in reply.lol.
Hugs
Jennis.x
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Thursday, August 10, 2006
Homosexuality not ‘a horrendous breech of nature or cause for fear’
By Kiley Rosnes
Sexuality tends to be a dirty word, a taboo only the filthy-minded touch. Tack on a prefix such as homo, bi, or trans, and it becomes either a horrendous breech of nature or a cause for fear.
It isn’t natural to be anything but straight, or so I’ve heard. No one is born gay, some say. So, simply put, that means someone who is homosexual is forced into a lifestyle violently frowned upon by so many? Correct me if I’m wrong, but somehow that doesn’t make much sense.
If no one is born gay, is anyone born straight? It seems to me that a social vacuum wouldn’t produce ideas about the proper place for romantically inclined feelings. I’m almost tempted to use the phrase peer pressure. If peer pressure weren’t present, would the infamous closet case have to pretend they weren’t attracted to the same sex?
Not everyone is meant for the alternative sexuality lifestyle, of course. My only point is, if, for a single generation, no one was told what was the “natural” way to feel passion, what would the results be? I think we’d see less of a rift between the sides of the argument.
The media would like to tell us that we’re already at the ideal place with homo-hetero relations. May I bring to mind the film “Brokeback Mountain”? The thing to remedy generations of fear and hate, apparently, is a cowboy love story. The kicker is…the love is between the cowboys. The plot was, unfortunately, fodder for many tasteless jokes.
That, however, goes to show you how mature and open the public is. A love story automatically becomes a gargantuan event when the protagonists both have male genitalia. Some people may be shell-shocked by the idea of affection between a same-sex couple. Their god and holiness tells them it’s wrong and impossible. And yet again, they react in fear and rage.
Yet the cinematic approach to this raging topic isn’t the only method in use. Entertainment in all areas is getting a taste of the rainbow. The gay-themed programming on LOGO covers all regions of the entertainment industry: music, movies, even a dating show or two.
Pop culture has taken a turn to the vibrantly flamboyant side. Musicians of the same sex frequently snog, while shows like “Project Runway” and “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” have become maddeningly popular. This would all seem to be proof that people are accepting of everyone. If that were so, places like Halstead Street in Chicago and events like the Gay Games would no longer be necessary, because the need to separate the sexuality from the person would be gone.
And while it all seems fine and coexistent — in some media portrayals, at least — I am unconvinced. My reasoning for this is that many people will be aghast to see the large print at the top of this article announcing that homophobia is stupid. I took the time to write an article I knew was controversial, and when my column appalls most of those reading it, we’ll know why.
Sexuality is only a word; I fail to see how it defines a person’s character. When the flaming (or not flaming, in some people’s case), has subsided, is the individual any different from who they were never perceived to be? When the focus was on their personal attraction instead of their character, how could we see what lay beneath the surface?
Think what you like, but if everyone were to close their eyes to what happens between consenting parties behind closed doors, there would be a different number of homophobia hate crimes — perhaps a lack of them.
http://www.newstrib.com/display.asp?Article=7BC91D91952341BF95174CF02366871B4DF9D7A04467C962
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Thanks Jennis. The last 2 paragraphs can be tricky, but I do think I see what he means, and agree for the most part.
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I read on another forum that Brokeback will premiere on HBO this October :)
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I read on another forum that Brokeback will premiere on HBO this October :)
ennisandjack,
What is HBO?Is that a tv channel?Is it free or pay-per-view?That's great BTW!!!
Jennis.x
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Yes, its a cable channel in the US. We don't have it here in Canada but I think you pay extra to subscribe to it but its not pay per view. It reaches a lot of viewers so this will be great for BBM!
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Yes, its a cable channel in the US. We don't have it here in Canada but I think you pay extra to subscribe to it but its not pay per view. It reaches a lot of viewers so this will be great for BBM!
Aww,that's excellent.Thanks for the info ^f^
Jennis.x
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Same-sex marriage:Even the courts are struggling to explain why not
Recent legal rationales given for maintaining the opposite-sex matrimonial tradition are convoluted -- and discriminatory
Sunday, August 13, 2006
MARY PITMAN KITCH
"You know I ain't queer." -- Ennis Del Mar "Me neither." -- Jack Twist "Brokeback Mountain" movie cowboys after falling in love
It's a sad summer for the nation's estimated 600,000 gay and lesbian couples. Half of their neighbors, a majority of their elected representatives and now the highest courts in New York and Washington state have found a way to rationalize excluding them from marriage.
Yet even prisoners can marry. Last year, 78 Oregon inmates exercised that right, sealing their weddings with a brief hug and kiss before returning to their cells. But last month, New York's highest court ruled 4-2 and Washington's ruled 5-4 that gays and lesbians can't select a spouse.
They can marry people they don't love, as the cowboy lovers did in the movie "Brokeback Mountain," to hide their sexual orientation. The New York and Washington courts held that states can reserve marriage for opposite-sex couples, primarily to boost the well-being of children.
But how does preventing same-sex couples from marriage help kids? It's all a bit fuzzy and mysterious; neither court could adequately explain it. As the Washington court put it somewhat apologetically, legislators were "entitled to believe" excluding gays protects families.
It's not as though marriage licenses are a scarce commodity, though. The 3,000 gay couples who married in Oregon two years ago did not deprive any other Oregonians of their ability to marry. Nor would allowing same-sex couples to marry diminish the supply of supposedly ideal Mom-and-Dad homes available to kids.
Still, is a state entitled to safeguard its opposite-sex marriage tradition, just because it is a tradition? In the mid-1990s, the chance that Hawaii would legalize same-sex marriage ignited a chain-reaction of defense of marriage acts all over the country, defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
In 1996 Congress approved a federal Defense of Marriage Act, too, which gave states permission to shun same-sex marriages performed across state lines. To an anthropologist, these DOMA laws made perfect sense. Our legislators, the equivalent of tribal elders, were drawing magical circles around our communities, and ultimately our states, deciding who belongs -- and who doesn't.
The idea of same-sex marriage struck most people as strange and scary, so these laws (and the constitutional amendments that followed) looked like attempts to ward off a perceived threat. Yet they also discriminated against a minority.
It's one thing for a tribal elder to utter mumbo-jumbo and exclude a minority. It's another for a court to uphold the legality of such discrimination. Courts must find that the discriminatory law has some basis in reason and isn't motivated by prejudice. Neither the Washington nor New York court succeeded in showing that.
"The legislative history of the (DOMA) law reveals that it stems, in substantial part, from thinly-veiled animosity against a minority group," Washington Justice Bobbe J. Bridge wrote in her unsparing dissent.
"Its very title asserts as much -- 'defense' of marriage. Defense from what? Against whom?"
Everyone else allowed
Still, some fear recognizing same-sex marriage would confer an official stamp of approval on homosexuality. Oh, wait. Courts have held that tax cheats, deadbeat parents and even murderers on Death Row have the right to marry. Their fellow citizens are not obliged to approve of any of them.
"When civil law already permits the delinquent, the divorced, the imprisoned, the sterile and the insane to marry," gay commentator Andrew Sullivan wrote tartly several years ago, "it seems -- how should I put this? -- revealing that it draws the line at homosexuals." Sadly, such line-drawing is nothing new.
Courts once rationalized legislative taboos on other mixtures believed to contaminate society, like the marriage of blacks and whites. Nearly 40 years ago, the Supreme Court finally struck down these racist state laws.
State courts justified bans on interracial marriage by saying they treated blacks and whites equally: Neither color could marry someone of the other color. The Washington court echoed this crude rationale, saying the ban on same-sex marriage treats men and women equally. Neither can pick a person of the same sex -- the person they want to marry.
Neither can pick a spouse the way every other American picks one, on the basis of a mysterious gut certainty combining sexual passion, whimsy, devotion and crazy love.
Did Ennis Del Mar in "Brokeback Mountain" pick the exuberant Jack Twist because of his goofy grin or his tuneless harmonica? Did Jack pick the taciturn Ennis because it was fun to make him laugh? Like every other couple, they don't know.
They just know they have lucked into the best thing in life -- a blazing and requited love. If only they could have sealed it by marrying each other, instead of smothering it in passionless marriages for 20 years.
Forget parental argument
And remember those tired rationales about protecting children that the New York and Washington courts relied on? News flash. Earlier this summer the American Academy of Pediatrics took the opposite stand. "More than 25 years of research have documented that there is no relationship between parents' sexual orientation and any measure of a child's emotional, psychosocial and behavioral adjustment," the pediatricians said.
". . . Conscientious and nurturing adults, whether they are men or women, heterosexual or homosexual, can be excellent parents. The rights, benefits and protections of civil marriage can further strengthen these families."
In 2004, Oregon voters enacted a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. So the best hope now to protect gay and lesbian families is to create Vermont-style civil unions. In 2007, that's what the Oregon Legislature should do. And the Washington court even pointed in this direction, admitting the hardship that its state's ban causes for gay and lesbian couples. Even though the court deferred to the wisdom of legislators, it also suggested these tribal elders might want to take another look.
All around us, the factual, logical and legal rationales for banning same-sex marriage are crumbling. Yet the primitive power of these state bans remains. For the moment, they are still performing their crude function of encircling our tribe and reminding us who we are -- and aren't.
For now, citizens in Oregon and Washington are still eyeing each other across state lines, and repeating, like the sad lovers in "Brokeback Mountain," what amounts to an incantation: "I ain't queer."
"Me neither."
http://www.oregonlive.com/commentary/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1155331503265300.xml&coll=7&thispage=2
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Thank you for sharing that with us Jennis ^f^
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http://www.men.style.com/news/style/081406
Same Sex Sells
"Marc Jacobs's shockingly unshocking new ads
August 14, 2006—Homoerotic imagery is nothing new in advertising. Witness the Marlboro Man or, more recently, all those shots of half-naked yet oddly overdressed guys who apparently like to congregate in steam rooms and dungeons. That's why we found Marc Jacobs's new campaign, which includes an unabashedly straightforward image of two fully clothed men kissing, so refreshing. Shot as always by Juergen Teller, the ads do away with innuendo and instead depict makeup artist Dick Page and his husband James Gibbs in a series of intimate moments in their Manhattan apartment and outside their Long Island house. "You always see something more sexual and aggressive, a stereotype of gayness," Teller says. "For me, this ad is about two human beings loving each other." Robert Duffy, president of Marc Jacobs, concurs. "We try to make a lot of things we say and do positive statements," he says. "They are a normal family, what I consider normal." No argument there—especially compared to the he-bots in the steam room.
To see the series in its entirety, check out the Paris magazine Purple this fall, which will feature a portfolio of the photographs, www.purple.fr. (http://www.purple.fr.)
— Ariana Speyer"
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'Scary Movie 4'
By Norman Wilner, Special to Zap2it.com
August 14 2006
"Scary Movie 4" opens with back-to-back satires of the "Saw" films and "Brokeback Mountain," and while you have to admire the producers' industry at getting that material in so quickly, you also have to wonder if maybe we needed a little more time for "Brokeback Mountain" jokes to be funny again. Because, you know, they're so five minutes ago.
A lot of "Scary Movie 4" feels like that. Like its immediate predecessor, "Scary Movie 3," it was directed by "Airplane!" veteran David Zucker and features Leslie Nielsen in a supporting role as the doofus President of the United States, who this time gets to parody George W. Bush's response to 9/11 and walk around naked at the United Nations. Neither is pretty.
"Scary Movie 4" finds Anna Faris' eager idiot Cindy Campbell returning to share screen time with Craig Bierko as Tom Ryan, a parody of Tom Cruise in Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds." Aliens attack, which gives Tom plenty to do, while Cindy finds herself grappling with the creepy Japanese curse from "The Grudge" in the haunted house next door.
The stage is set for funny, but there's no satirical spin; as was the case with "Scary Movie 2," large chunks of "Scary Movie 4" are devoted to slavish re-creations of costumes and sets rather than actual parody. Spielberg's rampaging tripods are perfectly replicated, and Bierko does a great imitation of that creepy determined thing Cruise does in all of his movies, but Zucker never finds a way to play them off one another. He's only interested in mugging and pratfalls, and it's pretty disappointing to see such game comic actors as Faris, Regina Hall, Charlie Sheen and Chris Elliott used solely as throw pillows. And all the best jokes were in the trailer.
Genius Products is releasing two cuts of "Scary Movie 4," in three different DVD editions: The theatrical release arrives in a full-frame disc, while the expanded, unrated version is available in both full-frame and enhanced widescreen.
Zucker's clearly the star of the DVD package; not only does he contribute an audio commentary with producer Robert K. Weiss and co-writer Craig Mazin, and reprise the same function over 15 deleted scenes, but he's the subject of two production featurettes -- one about his pratfalls-and-pop-culture directorial approach, the other about his distinctive laugh.
The disc also includes the obligatory blooper reel, along with a five-minute assembly of outtakes from the documentary interviews and two featurettes focusing on Zucker's random assemblage of guest stars from the hip-hop world.
STUDIO: Genius Products, Inc.
RELEASE DATE: August 15, 2006
RATING: PG-13/unrated
TIME: 81 minutes (PG-13)/89 minutes (unrated)
DVD EXTRAS: French audio dub; English and Spanish subtitles; audio commentary; deleted scenes; production featurettes; gag reel.
INTERNET SITE:www.scarymovie.com
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Thanks greenfrog and Jennis.
Jennis, I know a lot of people get tired of all this, but I do think this is a sure sign that BBM is now enshrined in popular and cinematic culture.
greenfrog, quite interesting. :)
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Thanks greenfrog and Jennis.
Jennis, I know a lot of people get tired of all this, but I do think this is a sure sign that BBM is now enshrined in popular and cinematic culture.
greenfrog, quite interesting. :)
Yes,Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery.
Jennis.x
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Thanks Jennis :^^)
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Finding Brokeback
News Flash ...
We have learned that the tenant who rents the Alma & Ennis Laundry Apartment is moving out 31 August. If you will be in Ft. Macleod between now and then and would like to see the inside of the apartment, call Betty for an appointment during reasonable hours at 403-892-2473 (cell).
If she is unavailable, she will return your call collect. Expect to pay a fee (negotiable).
Also ...
Rob Freeman, owner of the Brokeback Truck, is discussing with the owner of the Laundry Apartment and the owner of the Twist Ranch the possibility of converting these properties into Bed & Breakfast establishments. While there is no guarantee that this will happen, if you would be interested in booking accommodations at either of these properties, please email Rob at Rob@FindingBrokeback.com, and ask to be placed on his "first come, first served waiting list."
1
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Finding Brokeback
News Flash ...
We have learned that the tenant who rents the Alma & Ennis Laundry Apartment is moving out 31 August. If you will be in Ft. Macleod between now and then and would like to see the inside of the apartment, call Betty for an appointment during reasonable hours at 403-892-2473 (cell).
If she is unavailable, she will return your call collect. Expect to pay a fee (negotiable).
Also ...
Rob Freeman, owner of the Brokeback Truck, is discussing with the owner of the Laundry Apartment and the owner of the Twist Ranch the possibility of converting these properties into Bed & Breakfast establishments. While there is no guarantee that this will happen, if you would be interested in booking accommodations at either of these properties, please email Rob at Rob@FindingBrokeback.com, and ask to be placed on his "first come, first served waiting list."
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Thank you hpv. If I had just the time, I would like to take a short trip on the Jack Twist truck and see the laundrymat apartment. Sigh. Will these optuions still be available when I get more vacation time next year? :)
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Also ...
Rob Freeman, owner of the Brokeback Truck, is discussing with the owner of the Laundry Apartment and the owner of the Twist Ranch the possibility of converting these properties into Bed & Breakfast establishments. While there is no guarantee that this will happen, if you would be interested in booking accommodations at either of these properties, please email Rob at Rob@FindingBrokeback.com, and ask to be placed on his "first come, first served waiting list."
WOW!!!
If i ever got the chance to go,i would love to stay at the Twist Farmhouse.Be sad,but i would do it.
Thankyou hpv for the info ^f^
Jennis.x
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Behind the stars
No simple formula for four-star choices
By DUANE DUDEK
ddudek@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Aug. 17, 2006
Four stars and seven years ago, the documentary "American Movie" and the David Lynch film "The Straight Story" were the best films reviewed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Both were the only films of 1999 to receive what few others had before or have since - the four-star seal of approval.
Star Struck
Movie critic Duane Dudek explains his four-star rating.
Faint praise, to be sure, since the Michelin Guide it's not. Which begs the question: well then, what is it?
At its best, a review is a subjective amalgam of opinion, description and analysis, while at its worst . . . well, don't ask.
I've been doing this for 25 years, give or take. The first time I gave a film four stars is buried deep inside the institutional memory of the merged newspapers, trying to get a word in edgewise between the musings of Al Thien and advice from Ione Quinby Griggs.
It is much easier to recall the last time I gave a film four stars, since it happened last month. On July 14, I raved about the documentary "The Heart of the Game." The film, about the struggles and triumphs of a girls basketball team in Seattle over a seven-year period, is the only four-star review of 2006 to date.
Perhaps it is telling that five of the 25 four-star films in the accompanying list are documentaries. Documentaries are increasingly popular and broadly accessible. While often no less manipulative than narrative features, they are the content-driven alternative of choice for many. And the ones I've given four stars to tell compelling and universal stories.
It is harder to generalize about the other films on the list. There are foreign films, independent films, Hollywood films, and one Oscar-winning best picture. I don't deny using the four-star tool to draw attention to films audiences might otherwise overlook. But ultimately, any film that gets four stars deserves them.
There are no hard-and-fast rules, but there are guidelines. An explanation that runs on the movie page each week notes that four stars means "excellent," three stars is "good," two stars is "fair" and one star is "poor." This formula allows a galaxy of supplementary half-stars to be applied to films that are not as good or bad as that baseline.
As I mentioned in a blog item earlier this summer, when my former newspaper the Milwaukee Sentinel started a four-star rating system, I dismissed the idea - hey, no one said there would be math! - as a marketing gimmick. To me a review is the argument made in the body of the text. While the star rating seems to be the first thing people talk about, it's the last thing I think about.
If I give the animated film "Cars" and the global-warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" three stars each, are they equally good? Am I comparing them to each other? Or am I comparing them to other animated and documentary films?
And the only answer is this: I am comparing each to itself within a context of fluctuating variables, including the state of the genre, the state of the artist and the state of the world. Films are a reflection of a culture's collective consciousness and a microcosm of the discussions, arguments and confrontations that take place locally and even globally on a daily basis. And ultimately a review is part of that conversation.
I went back as far as 1994 to collect 25 reviews for a total of 100 stars. I was surprised at how rarely I awarded four stars. It doesn't cost me a thing, but I dole them out like Scrooge, perhaps because in the back of my mind the standard they must meet - "Citizen Kane, "The Godfather" films or "Gone With the Wind" - is almost impossibly high. It's safe to say that none of the films on this list is of that caliber. But each is the end result of the above calculations and a worthy addition to anyone's Netflix queue.
Dudek's four-star movies
"BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN"
What: Two modern cowboys find each other and wrestle with the aftershocks of their romance.
When: Dec. 28, 2005
Why: Ang Lee's film "reproduces the strangled interior geography" of author Annie Proulx's "language and intentions, in the way the achingly palpable longing of the characters is swallowed whole by the terraced big skies and endlessly empty great outdoors." The film "hits hard, runs deep and leaves a powerful impression."
Afterthought: I still find "Brokeback" cinematically and creatively superior to "Crash," which won the Oscar for best picture. Perhaps "Brokeback" appealed to the heart and "Crash" appealed to the head. And in a year where serious films ruled the nominations, the more serious film won.
Full List Here:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=484942
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Behind the stars
No simple formula for four-star choices
By DUANE DUDEK
ddudek@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Aug. 17, 2006
Four stars and seven years ago, the documentary "American Movie" and the David Lynch film "The Straight Story" were the best films reviewed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Both were the only films of 1999 to receive what few others had before or have since - the four-star seal of approval.
Star Struck
Movie critic Duane Dudek explains his four-star rating.
Faint praise, to be sure, since the Michelin Guide it's not. Which begs the question: well then, what is it?
At its best, a review is a subjective amalgam of opinion, description and analysis, while at its worst . . . well, don't ask.
I've been doing this for 25 years, give or take. The first time I gave a film four stars is buried deep inside the institutional memory of the merged newspapers, trying to get a word in edgewise between the musings of Al Thien and advice from Ione Quinby Griggs.
It is much easier to recall the last time I gave a film four stars, since it happened last month. On July 14, I raved about the documentary "The Heart of the Game." The film, about the struggles and triumphs of a girls basketball team in Seattle over a seven-year period, is the only four-star review of 2006 to date.
Perhaps it is telling that five of the 25 four-star films in the accompanying list are documentaries. Documentaries are increasingly popular and broadly accessible. While often no less manipulative than narrative features, they are the content-driven alternative of choice for many. And the ones I've given four stars to tell compelling and universal stories.
It is harder to generalize about the other films on the list. There are foreign films, independent films, Hollywood films, and one Oscar-winning best picture. I don't deny using the four-star tool to draw attention to films audiences might otherwise overlook. But ultimately, any film that gets four stars deserves them.
There are no hard-and-fast rules, but there are guidelines. An explanation that runs on the movie page each week notes that four stars means "excellent," three stars is "good," two stars is "fair" and one star is "poor." This formula allows a galaxy of supplementary half-stars to be applied to films that are not as good or bad as that baseline.
As I mentioned in a blog item earlier this summer, when my former newspaper the Milwaukee Sentinel started a four-star rating system, I dismissed the idea - hey, no one said there would be math! - as a marketing gimmick. To me a review is the argument made in the body of the text. While the star rating seems to be the first thing people talk about, it's the last thing I think about.
If I give the animated film "Cars" and the global-warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" three stars each, are they equally good? Am I comparing them to each other? Or am I comparing them to other animated and documentary films?
And the only answer is this: I am comparing each to itself within a context of fluctuating variables, including the state of the genre, the state of the artist and the state of the world. Films are a reflection of a culture's collective consciousness and a microcosm of the discussions, arguments and confrontations that take place locally and even globally on a daily basis. And ultimately a review is part of that conversation.
I went back as far as 1994 to collect 25 reviews for a total of 100 stars. I was surprised at how rarely I awarded four stars. It doesn't cost me a thing, but I dole them out like Scrooge, perhaps because in the back of my mind the standard they must meet - "Citizen Kane, "The Godfather" films or "Gone With the Wind" - is almost impossibly high. It's safe to say that none of the films on this list is of that caliber. But each is the end result of the above calculations and a worthy addition to anyone's Netflix queue.
Dudek's four-star movies
"BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN"
What: Two modern cowboys find each other and wrestle with the aftershocks of their romance.
When: Dec. 28, 2005
Why: Ang Lee's film "reproduces the strangled interior geography" of author Annie Proulx's "language and intentions, in the way the achingly palpable longing of the characters is swallowed whole by the terraced big skies and endlessly empty great outdoors." The film "hits hard, runs deep and leaves a powerful impression."
Afterthought: I still find "Brokeback" cinematically and creatively superior to "Crash," which won the Oscar for best picture. Perhaps "Brokeback" appealed to the heart and "Crash" appealed to the head. And in a year where serious films ruled the nominations, the more serious film won.
Full List Here:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=484942
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"Crash" appealed to the head ...LOL
J.x
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"Crash" appealed to the head ...LOL
That is funny ;D
Ang Lee's film "reproduces the strangled interior geography" of author Annie Proulx's "language and intentions, in the way the achingly palpable longing of the characters is swallowed whole by the terraced big skies and endlessly empty great outdoors." The film "hits hard, runs deep and leaves a powerful impression."
This was beautifully said. Thanks for posting it Jennis ^f^
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"Crash" appealed to the head ...LOL
J.x
A head with the brain scooped out.
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"Crash" appealed to the head ...LOL
J.x
A head with the brain scooped out.
LOL... :8...x
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"Crash" appealed to the head ...LOL
J.x
A head with the brain scooped out.
:8 ;D :8 ;D :8 ;D
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(Previously posted in CELLULOID)
NEWS
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Source: www.worldsoundtrackawards.com
17/08/2006
(https://ennisjack.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.worldsoundtrackawards.com%2Fnews%2Fnews_48.jpg&hash=bdda7174f07335e7826d5c5257a23698569ff11b)
AND THE NOMINEES FOR THE WORLD SOUNDTRACK AWARDS ARE...
The World Soundtrack Academy releases the list of nominees for the three principal categories in the World Soundtrack Awards, the most pre-eminent international prizes for the recognition of film music: Soundtrack Composer of the Year, Best Original Soundtrack of the Year - Orchestral and Best Original Song Written Directly for a Film. The names of the winners will be announced in Ghent on Saturday, October 14.
Every year in Ghent, the World Soundtrack Awards (WSA) are presented by the World Soundtrack Academy. The Academy, which was founded in 2001 by the Flanders International Film Festival - Ghent and a number of film music composers, now encompasses over 250 leading composers. The stated goal of the Academy is to promote music in film, and it is achieving this with ever greater success, as can be seen by the growing (international) interest and recognition being given to film music.
The three principal categories are Soundtrack Composer of the Year, Best Original Soundtrack of the Year - Orchestral and Best Original Song Written Directly for a Film. In addition to this, at a later time, the Academy Board will also select the Discovery of the Year 2006. In addition to the Awards presented by the Academy, the public around the world can vote at http://www.worldsoundtrackawards.be/awards.cgi for their choice of the best soundtrack for 2006.
The nominees for the category Soundtrack Composer of the Year are:
~ Danny Elfman – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
~ Alberto Iglesias – The Constant Gardener
~ Dario Marianelli – Pride & Prejudice
~ James Newton Howard – King Kong
~ John Powell – Ice Age: The Meltdown
The candidates for the category Best Original Soundtrack of the Year are:
~ Brokeback Mountain - Gustavo Santaolalla
~ King Kong - James Newton Howard
~ Munich - John Williams
~ Pride & Prejudice - Dario Marianelli
~ The Constant Gardener - Alberto Iglesias
And the nominees for Best Original Song Written for Film:
~ “A Love That Will Never Grow Old” (Brokeback Mountain) - music by Gustavo Santaolalla - lyrics by Bernie Taupin - performed by Emmylou Harris
~ “Can’t Take It In” (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) - music by Harry Gregson-Williams & Imogen Heap - lyrics by Imogen Heap - performed by Imogen Heap
~ “Magic Works” (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) - music and lyrics by Jarvis Cocker - performed by Jarvis Cocker, Jonny Greenwood, Philip Selway, Steve Mackey, Steve Claydon and Jason Buckle – string arrangement by Patrick Doyle
~ “Mdlwembe” (Tsotsi) - music by Kabelo 'Kaybee' Ikaneng - lyrics by Zola - performed by Zola
~ “Our Town” (Cars) - music and lyrics by Randy Newman - performed by James Taylor
The sixth edition of the World Soundtrack Awards, which will be held on October 14, 2006, is once again promising to be the pre-eminent event for film music lovers. The international elite of film music composers will be in Ghent that evening to attend the presentation of the World Soundtrack Awards and the concert thereafter. Among other works, the music of Michael Giacchino, Peer Raben, John Powell and Piet Goddaer will be the main features of the evening.
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Thanks malawix. The more awards, the better. :)
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that's great news malawix! thanks for sharing!
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Bit more about the Scary Movie 4, BBM parody.
By Simon Mounsey
Aug 28 2006 12:00PM
A ghetto parody of Brokeback Mountain, a father relentlessly beating the heck out of his daughter and a reenactment of Tom Cruise's mind boggling appearance on Oprah. What do all of these have in common? They're some of many missed and downright unfunny jokes in Scary Movie 4, the latest version of the horror spoof series.
Much like the other three films, the latest version starts with an opening sequence aimed at getting the audience's laughing from the starting line, this time with the likes of Shaq and Dr. Phil trapped in a sequence reminiscent of Saw - both of them trying to outwit the evil puppet who is trying to kill them viciously. To add humor or at least try to, the only way for them to survive this madman is for Shaq to make some free throws.
Then, the real "story" begins as Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) moves into a house to take care of a catatonic woman. When moving into the house, she eventually finds a little demonic boy who is haunting the home, and so she is on a mission, along with her pal Brenda (Regina Hall) to go to "the village" to find out who the father of this child is.
During this time, Cindy runs into the "man of her dreams" in Tom Ryan (Craig Bierko), a clueless guy who essentially plays the Tom Cruise role from War of the Worlds and so, he and his son and daughter flee to escape the tr-ipods.
The plot barely exists in this film. Yeah, they sort of have two plots between the two main leads, but it's not like it's vital to the film at any point, because the film at many points along the way will go into a completely different direction that has nothing to do with anything that is going on. One such example of this is the scene in the bar where Tom runs into Mahalik (Anthony Anderson) and Chingy; during this scene, there is a mockery of Brokeback Mountain completely out of nowhere.
Plot aside, the fact is that this film is just plain not funny. Fact is, in these films, plot has never been a real issue because the humor cancels it out but not in this case. To be honest, I only laughed one time while seeing this film during a scene between Tom and Mahalik, where one was trying to unlock the door when the other was trying to open it, cancelling it out and each other screaming at each other. Now, that was a hilarious scene but nothing else did I even become close to laughing.
It is quite evident to me that these Scary Movie writers really are having troubles coming up with new ideas because they pretty much miss on every single antic they try to create. The opening scene is an example of this as everyone knows Shaq can't hit free throws. This is essentially the same type of joke they do throughout the entire movie, ones the audience already knows and/or has already seen.
As far as the rest of the disc is concerned, it does have its fair share of content, from bloopers to interviews and a commentary track. These would be good features but for such a bad movie, it's really not worth your time.
If there is anything that Hollywood should learn from Scary Movie 4, it's that films of this genre need to sit on the back burner for a while. Putting these types of films out year after year is a dangerous thing because eventually, as is shown in this film, monotony was bound to happen. Do not waste a dime on this piece of garbage.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/54177/scary_movie_4_scarily_unfunny.html
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Thank you Jennis ^f^
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Mmm,if they say so.I know which one i would rather have in first place ;)
Jennis.x
31/08/2006 07:55
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY KISS 'MOST MEMORABLE'
BURT LANCASTER's embrace with DEBORAH KERR on the beach in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY has topped a poll of the most memorable screen kisses.The 1953 smooch beat out competition from TOBEY MAGUIRE and KIRSTEN DUNST's kiss in SPIDER-MAN, which was voted into second place by 3,000 movie fans surveyed by cosmetic dentists Glee in London.
The Top 5 Most Memorable Screen Kisses are: 1. BURT LANCASTER and DEBORAH KERR - FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953) 2. TOBEY MAGUIRE and KIRSTEN DUNST - SPIDER-MAN (2002) 3. GEORGE PEPPARD and AUDREY HEPBURN - BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (1961) 4. PATRICK SWAYZE and DEMI MOORE - GHOST (1990) 5. HEATH LEDGER and JAKE GYLLENHAAL - BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (2005).
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More memorable kissing stories.This is from February,but i love what he said about Jack&Ennis.
Jennis.x
Is A Kiss Just A Kiss?
By Erik Lundegaard
MSNBC contributor
Feb. 14, 2006
Name a great kissing scene in the movies.
I’ve asked that of a lot of people over the last month and while some come up with an answer, most simply furrow their brows, put their hands on their hips, look at the ceiling and say, “Isn’t that funny.” And not just the guys either.
Kissing is one of cinema’s most common actions (right up there with punching), and yet what stands out? Something from “Casablanca” surely, and “Gone with the Wind.” “Titanic”? Did Leo kiss Kate on the prow of the boat or was that just in the poster? More memorable for me are the two of them steaming up the car windows, and Leo drawing a topless Kate. It’s like what my friend Seth admitted when I asked him for kissing scenes: “I only remember the boob shots,” he said. He was only half-joking.
Here’s part of the problem with movie kisses: they rarely further plots and often end them. It’s the action we’ve been waiting for, and yet for the plot to kick in again the kissing has to stop. It’s like dance sequences in this way.
Ask for a favorite dance number, though, and you’ll get besieged. There’s an infinite variety to them — limited only by the dancers’ abilities and the choreographers’ imaginations — but Hollywood long ago perfected how a kiss should look and it’s been stuck in the rut of its perfection ever since: Woman’s arms around man’s neck, man’s arms around woman’s waist, man 4-8 inches taller than woman. It’s even called “the Hollywood kiss,” and it’s almost always the same. I once asked a friend in a rock band how they can play the same songs night after night and keep it interesting, and he responded, “We f--k up.” That’s what Hollywood needs to do with their kisses. They need to give us imperfection. They need to f--k up.
But with the help of some friends I did manage to cobble together a few memorable kisses. Here they are, just in time for Valentine’s Day, in easy-to-read categories. I apologize in advance if your favorite isn’t listed.
The desperate kiss
Two people need each other, hunger for each other, want to merge into one another. Often something is keeping them apart; often their affair is illicit. In “Casablanca,” Rick and Ilsa (Bogart and Bergman) have to worry about poor cuckolded Victor Laszlo, a great war hero, for whom they will have to give up their love. But in the meantime: Pucker up. For Sgt. Milton Warden and Karen Holmes (Lancaster and Kerr) in “From Here to Eternity,” it’s cuckolded Capt. Dana “Dynamite” Holmes (who apparently isn’t so dynamite), who is the sergeant’s superior (at least in the military). But in the meantime: Let’s roll around the beach as waves crash upon us. It’s the Hollywood kiss with the addition of “wet” and “prone.” Never underestimate the power of “wet” and “prone.”
In both of these scenes the men are pretty cool customers while the women melt, but men in the movies can get desperate as well. The best recent example is in “Brokeback Mountain,” when Jack and Ennis meet again after four years apart, and discover, during their initial hug, four years of unspent passion. Why is this kiss memorable? Because it’s unexpected, and rough, and they risk so much for it (life itself, you could say). There is anger as well as love in it. Hollywood often sweeps this untidy fact under the carpet but anger should be part of a desperate kiss. Think of it. I’m me. I’m happy being me. But then you come along and make me need you. You’ve got your nerve.
Full Article Here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11257793/
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http://www.greatestfilms.org/filmkisses10.html
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Mmm,if they say so.I know which one i would rather have in first place ;)
Jennis.x
I agree. ;)
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http://www.greatestfilms.org/filmkisses10.html
Thank you for this Jennis ^f^
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I don't see a News Coverage September thread. Or should this be under Annie Proulx topic?
This is about Annie Proulx's home in Wyoming being up for sale.
kathy
http://www.newwest.net/index.php/city/article/11179/C94/L94
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Apologies, kathy. I shall create one... I should note, nonetheless, that this piece of news has been posted elsewhere:
http://www.ennisjack.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=7666993147da3f560155c1d596856811&topic=6308.msg251257#msg251257
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Apologies, kathy. I shall create one... I should note, nonetheless, that this piece of news has been posted elsewhere:
http://www.ennisjack.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=7666993147da3f560155c1d596856811&topic=6308.msg251257#msg251257
Thank you, Tom -- doesn't surprise me it was already posted. I think a whole lot of other people here are on top of things a whole lot faster than I am!
kathy