>>PREVIEW
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
STARRING Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway
DIRECTED BY Ang Lee
Opens Friday, December 23
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Watching famed director Ang Lee hurry from interview to interview in the lobby of the Palliser Hotel, it’s clear he’s a man on a mission. He has been busy since the early morning promoting his latest film, Brokeback Mountain, and there appears to be no end in sight as various media wait for their turn to speak with the Oscar winner.
At the urging of a local television anchor, he slips on a Flames jacket, punches the air and shouts, "Go Flames go!" (His affection for the Flames has been well documented and his schedule is being strictly adhered to so he can have dinner with the team’s president, Ken King.) He then slithers out of the jacket, hands it to his assistant and moves on to his next appointment. Amid the glare of the television cameras and probing questions, he appears centred and focused, as though this is the most natural place in the world for him to be.
It’s just after 3 p.m. and he has yet to eat lunch. His assistant arranges for a clubhouse sandwich that sits ignored as he perches at our table, wearing faded jeans, a navy blue pullover and white tube socks with patent leather oxfords.
"I fell in love with this story," he says of the short work by Annie Proulx. Lee first read it seven years ago. He says while working on The Hulk, something was haunting him, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He later realized he had to make the tale into a film.
"I think a movie finds me and enslaves me. I don’t feel like the master of a movie, but the slave to a movie," he says softly, a hint of his native Mandarin still present in his voice. Lee says the same thing about love, that it’s not a choice.
"Love, it finds you. I do believe that. I also found love sometimes can be elusive. It’s very hard to solidify, it’s whimsical. It’s like the wind."
The movie is visually stunning, poetic and ultimately, heartbreaking. Proulx’s story was adapted for the big screen by Pulitzer Prize-winner Larry McMurtry and his partner Dianna Ossana. The result is a dialogue that is achingly simple and ripe with raw truth.
It follows the lives of two ranch hands who first meet herding sheep up Brokeback Mountain, a remote, rugged region of Wyoming. Jack is the more outgoing and open of the two, and he soon has Ennis talking about very personal details of his life. The bond that forms between them evolves into something physical and they struggle with what that means in a world not ready to accept gay men.
At the heart of the story is also what appears on the promotional posters that are stacked neatly on a nearby table, waiting to be signed by Lee.
"Love is a force of nature."
Clearly, it’s not a choice for the two men in the movie as 20 years pass and they each struggle to understand the depth of their emotions.
Lee says it presented a big challenge to show Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger aging believably over the course of the movie.
"Thank God I’m more experienced at this point in my career so I saw that coming and I was very careful about carrying it out. Scene by scene, the way they carried themselves, their voices get deeper, the way they carried themselves changed."
Surprisingly, the love scene didn’t present a problem as Lee originally anticipated.
"We imagined it would be a challenge, but once we did it, it was fine."
The backdrop to the story of Brokeback Mountain is the breathtaking locations surrounding Calgary and the Rockies. Lee says that the area cast a kind of spell on him and that he developed a connection with the area.
"The mountains, the people, for me it’s been quite an experience making a movie here. Some people keep coming back for the oil or natural gas, I don’t know. But for me, it’s the experience I had with the movie. That’s my Brokeback. Fighting the weather, the sheep and it was something I didn’t quite understand. Personally, I don’t think I could find anything that’s further away from me than gay ranch hands in Wyoming," he says, adding, "Why did I come here? Why did I feel this material belongs to me?"
"I found it here, not in Wyoming. That’s mystical."
Lee says one of the biggest logistical difficulties during filming was managing the sheep.
"The sheep," he says, shifting for effect in his chair. "It took awhile to figure out. They’re not cattle, they move differently. They’re not the smartest animals in the world."
Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto creates beautiful images of the animals moving up the mountain. The effect is striking, they appear to pulsate, much like the way blood surges and pulses pound in the presence of a loved one.
Lee smiles as he jokes about how he pursued Annie Proulx in Wyoming and over dinner, persuading her to allow him to make her story into a movie by taking part in a regional delicacy.
"I was very afraid of her," he says. "She’s very authoritative and serious. We were having dinner and she ordered some Rocky Mountain oysters and started smiling. I could tell what it was. I know there are no oysters in the Rocky Mountains," he continues, adding that the mood at the table became friendlier as the night wore on.
"She said women are not supposed to eat them, and started smiling again. After a couple of drinks, she really loosened up," he says, laughing.
"I guess she thought I was all right as the director of the movie."
Lee says he was pleasantly surprised by the flavour of the bull’s fried former pride.
"They’re pretty good. Lots of protein, I’m sure."
Since the subject matter of the film is bound to raise a few eyebrows, Lee feels the need to address that and he does so tactfully.
"I think it’s easy to categorize people for social or moral purposes. Inside of our consciousness – what we can guard, what we can communicate, it’s complicated. It’s rich."
He also points out that emotion transcends gender and that this movie is meant to show the complexity of the human experience.
"Hopefully, they will come and see the movie and let it sink in. Everybody has a right to feel the sensitive part of humanity."
Lee’s biggest hope is for the characters to resonate.
"I hope they’re real enough for you to care."
He says he believes the role of art is to educate and enlighten in a way no formal education can.
"It takes sensitivity to look for truth and morally, politically, we cannot always get in there," he says. "We have to live with each other. We need patterns. We need laws. That’s why we need art, to fill that gap. To understand each other. To understand ourselves to each other. I think that’s the beauty of Annie’s writing – I tried to deliver that on screen."
So, with the movie set to open December 23, how does he feel?
"I’m very fulfilled. I just hope other people are like myself and share the experience," he pauses, then adds. "The human experience."
· Brokeback Mountain (2005) – Filmed in the Rocky Mountains west of Calgary, this film explores the exquisitely painful, highly textured relationship between two ranch hands who meet while herding sheep and ultimately fall in love. Nominated for eight Golden Globe awards.
· The Hulk (2003) – Don’t make me angry. You won’t like me when I’m angry. Lee’s take on the scientist-turned-public menace offered a sensitive view of the comic book’s green behemoth, but garnered mixed reviews.
· Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000)– A love story, fable, and martial arts masterpiece, it made it easy to believe warriors could fly and skim across water. An instant smash hit, it is the highest grossing foreign film of all time.
· Ride with the Devil: Civil War (1999)– An epic that took a closer look at the murky areas of the conflict between America’s North and South.
· The Ice Storm (1997) – A razor sharp take on suburban angst and ennui. Lee had yet to learn English, but nailed the era of narcissism and flare bottoms in a way that attracted generous praise from the critics.
· Sense and Sensibility (1995) – Adapted from the Jane Austen novel, the power of love and importance of family bonds is celebrated in gorgeous period attire with breathtaking cinematography.
· Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) –Three headstrong, independent daughters with a brilliant chef for a father struggle with their relationships with men and each other.
· The Wedding Banquet (1993)– A marriage of convenience between a gay landlord and one of his tenants becomes messy when the groom’s parents stop in for a visit.
· Pushing Hands (1992) – A sensitive portrayal of the complex relationship between a former Tai Chi master and his author son, who is struggling with writer’s block. |
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