solitary_summer | Entries tagged with brokeback mountain

Had a lovely week full of sunshine, blue sky, biking around a bit, walks in Hellbrunn and around Salzburg, a bit of photography (*), a zoo visit, two museum visits (neither very satisfactory, because I most definitely wasn't in the right mood for looking at art or learning about Salzburg history; everything from taking photos to reading a book or simply being outside seemed more inviting); reading (**), re-watching Doctor Who (S1 & the beginning of S2; it had taken me half a season to get used to David Tennant, but now going back is a bit weird...) and Brokeback Mountain (***). A lovely trip to the Chiemsee, which was a dream of mist and sunshine, frost on trees and and blue water in the morning, sunshine and hazy snowy mountains on the horizon across more blue water in the afternoon, also a boat trip and barely any tourists at all.

Generally felt very balanced and at peace with myself; this week finally a got a bit itchy and restless and thought perhaps now I'd enjoy going skiing after all, but on the whole I'm glad I didn't. In a way I love it too much, and every time I have to drive home again, which is invariably on a day when the sun is shining from a perfect blue sky and the snow is glistening, I slip right into depression again at the thought of my boring job in my sunless shop with nothing but houses and concrete to look at and all the supposed holiday relaxation was for nothing. Less of a endorphin rush, more quiet and peacefulness, which I think was what I needed.

My mother came over for a night because of the skylight we're supposed to be getting, but in my zen state of mind that was all right, too, even if she does drive me kind of crazy by immediately putting away everything which isn't in its proper place and talking all the time, and mostly about things that to me just don't seem really worth talking about; at least not at such a length... But then, that's what she'd think if she knew, oh, about my TW rambling.

And speaking of which... two episodes to watch now. :)

(*) Although I still lack the right kind of eye, or maybe the right kind of feeling, for this city. I'm starting to like it better and to see the beauty, but it seems impossible to take a photo that has individuality and some sort of personal perspective instead ob bland, boring prettiness, and doesn't already exist in a million tourists' versions...

(**) Yevgeny Zamyatin's We (fascinating, loved it), Halid Ziya Uşaklıgil's Verbotene Lieben (good read, even if not exactly my kind of thing), D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover (enjoyed the beginning, but ended up disliking it a lot), the better part of Simon Wiesenthal's Recht, nicht Rache and a bit of Clive Barker's Weaveworld (re-read), some of which I might actually write about a bit (i.e., type up what I wrote in my away-from-the-internet paper-journal), if ever all that TW lets me.

(***) I swear that film depresses me more every time I watch it. Perhaps because it's impossible after the first time to see the romance part and not already also know about the tragedy and futility and waste of lives, or maybe this is simply the part that resonates most strongly with me...

I rather hope this is going to be the last entry about BBM (it certainly is long enough [/sarcasm]). It’s getting kind of embarrassing, and more than a little repetitive, but I've rarely seen a movie that haunted me like that, even that one time last Saturday, when I’d been predominately tired, distracted and irritated and had sat there wondering whether I was making a mistake and why on earth I’d believed I really needed to see it a third time.

Is it the subtle irritation when a character, even if he is different from you in just about every external aspect, in some ways cuts a little too close for comfort...

( I promise I'll shut up eventually. )

What really embarrasses me, and almost tempts me to put this under a privacy lock, is that this turned out to be 2000+ words that i don't expect anyone to read and was written, re-written, added to and adjusted over the space of almost two weeks; in that time I’ve seen the movie a second, third and fourth time, and read the story at least twice. And in the end I’m exasperated with myself, because after all, it rather begs the question, what was the point? Why is it impossible for me to just say that I like something and let it be, why is it important to the point of obsession to attempt to put into words why and what exactly I liked? Ultimately, does it tell me anything about myself? Have I learned anything? Or have I wasted hours of my life that might have been spent more productively, though god knows how exactly? Why the need?

Current Music: Aynur, Can Weza

Dear people who were seeing Brokeback Mountain this evening at 6:15, Artis cinema: I really, really hate [most of; to be fair] you, just so you know.

Specifically those who brought popcorn, taco-chips and such and rustled (loudly and persistently) throughout a good third or half of the movie. And most especially the girls in the row behind me, whose popcorn lasted the longest. I swear, every big emotional scene was unfailingly accompanied by the sound of someone digging into her bag, followed by crunch-chew-squeak noises, just in my right ear. Seriously, people. Rustle all you want in the movies with the big explosions and car chases, I couldn't care less. There's a reason why popcorn movies are popcorn movies.

The lady in front of me who thought it was a good idea to bring her... I hesitate to say twelve year old, which was the age limit, because this kid looked more like ten, or eleven at best. The kid awe'd about the baby sheep, and then got mostly bored, talked to the mother, got restless, etc. There may or may not be children that age who are able to get the emotional scope of this movie, but he certainly wasn't one of them.

The two girls right beside them, who talked nearly incessantly.

And just about everyone who thought this movie was a comedy apparently? There was loud and pretty widespread laughter in places I'd never ever would have thought anyone could find amusing (and no one had found amusing the first two times I saw it)...

End of petty rant. I always feel guilty about posting one anyway, it's just that it almost entirely killed the mood for me and made it nearly impossible to get into the film emotionally almost until the end, when every snack had been eaten and everyone finally had realised there wouldn't be a happy ending.

::rolls eyes:: Gah.

Current Mood: grumpy

Saw BBM again, am still convinced I'm missing a whole lot of things, but will probably ramble at very long length about it tomorrow, regardless.

Also, on a very brief side-note, interesting audience once again. Granted, 6 pm on a workday isn't an ideal movie-going time and the theatre was far from full, but this time it was mostly women who'd come alone -- it was quite strange really, because usually I'm feeling odd and vaguely pathetic going to a movie alone, but this time we were in the majority, so to speak. Most of them were rather posh first district types, one of whom only came (I'd almost have said sneaked) in when it was dark already, I kid you not. Makes you wonder about these women who apparently couldn't find anyone to watch this movie with in their social circle, yet wanted to see it badly enough to still go. Makes you wonder if they were lying about what they'd done in these two and a half hours.

[Disclaimer -- not that I think there's anything wrong with watching a movie on your own, it's just rare to see that many single women in a cinema and most of them didn't really seem the type for solitary activities.]

Also, at the risk of revealing my stupidity, a question to those who've seen it -- is the shirt Jack was killed in the one that Ennis 'forgot' (but in fact Jack took as a keepsake) at the beginning? Am I being awfully slow?

[ETA: I am slow. ::sigh:: I never pay much attention to what people wear, and I didn't notice that the blood-stain would be Ennis' blood.]

Brokeback Mountain is a film that doesn't let go of you easily. I've rarely, and certainly not recently (old and jaded as I seem to have become, as opposed to the younger, more impressionable me, who would happily watch a movie several times over) seen one that came back so forcefully... Yesterday at night when I couldn't sleep -- perhaps the time change, perhaps the earl grey tea I had earlier -- and was just lying there in the dark, the images kept coming up, impossible to banish...

In other, more blah-ish news, I've decided to see a doctor on Wednesday, because more than two weeks of lingering, if not very bad, nausea isn't fun.

Surprise, surprise; 180 degree mood turn for the better.

It's warm, despite the rain earlier in the afternoon; warm enough to walk with a light coat and leave it unbuttoned, no scarf nor gloves necessary. And much as people may complain, I actually like summer-time, because walking home past 7 pm when it's still light... fuck, YES!. I'm not all that much of a morning person, so having daylight for longer in the evening really reinforces the notion that winter is finally over for me. Met with R. and U., had coffee (well, tea, in my case, because I'm still not altogether certain my stomach won't protest at coffee), chatted, which was really nice in a pleasant, relaxing way.

And I really enjoyed Brokeback Mountain. I've become extremely wary of multi-award movies, but this one definitely does live up to the hype. IMO it would definitely have been Oscar-worthy; not because of the subject matter, but because it's a damn good film in and of itself.

( Does it still need a spoiler cut? )

Not being very eloquent here. ::sigh:: Can I still blame it on caffeine withdrawal?

I really need to see it another time, the English original rather than the German dubbed version... (R. said Ennis was dubbed by Til Schweiger, which she found jarring; personally I haven't seen enough of his movies to recognise his voice, so I have no specific complaints in this respect, but I'd really like to see the original, too.)

On a side-note, we were in an afternoon showing, and it was a rather interesting mix of an audience. Quite a lot of women, a few queer couples, no surprises there, but also quite a few old people (70+, I'd say): two old men who may or may not have been a couple, and a group of men and women who, if I'd thought that at all possible, I'd have said walked into the wrong movie, but apparently not...

Current Mood: better
Current Music: Sezen Aksu, '88

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