Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
The Laundry Room
Ellemeno:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on July 04, 2006, 02:02:22 am ---The big difference I've always noticed is that Jack does the laundry outdoors, in nature, whereas Alma does the laundry the way she does the dishes -- inside, with civilized "society" water. But earlier on, we see her as a hopeful young bride, hanging laundry outside in the yard, relatively in nature but also somewhat domestic. Is that because she is hoping at that point that their relationship will be "a force of nature"?
--- End quote ---
Beautiful thread you're wringin' out here, everyone. The above quote by Katherine makes me think of the line from the story:
"I looked in the case when I got a chance and there was my note still tied there and that line hadn't touched water in its life." As though the word "water" had called out its domestic cousin she twisted the faucet, sluiced the plates.
When I saw the line 'clothes + water = laundry,' I thought it was brilliant, and wanted a bumper sticker saying it. Then I pictured that bumper sticker, and knew that no one would ever begin to get the wisdom it expresses. Thanks for starting this beautiful thread, Lee. Happy Birthday again. :)
Brown Eyes:
Isn't it amazing how this movie -and really all our analysis of the movie- make completely mundane things seem super-meaningful. Who would have ever guessed that laundry, buckets, coffeepots and even shirts could be so exciting and interesting?
:)
moremojo:
--- Quote from: atz75 on July 19, 2006, 10:47:43 pm ---Isn't it amazing how this movie -and really all our analysis of the movie- make completely mundane things seem super-meaningful. Who would have ever guessed that laundry, buckets, coffeepots and even shirts could be so exciting and interesting?
:)
--- End quote ---
Amazing, indeed. I know of very few works of cinematic fiction that posit so much meaning into everyday objects. The nearest other example that came to mind was that of the oeuvre of the great Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu, who lovingly detailed the daily domestic world of his middle-class characters, sometimes paying as close attention to the accoutrements of their environment as to the human beings wielding them. His famous 'pillow shots', wherein the camera lingers on a space after the human inhabitants have departed, are a salient example of this. But in Ozu, these objects always exist in and of themselves. They never serve as symbols for some underlying human or archetypal element, which is precisely how the objects in BBM function.
Jean-Luc Godard has written of Alfred Hitchcock being a filmmaker from whose films we primarily remember objects as opposed to people. Windmills, wine bottles, a glass of milk...we retain more vivid memories of these things than we do of the characters and stories comprising Foreign Correspondent, Notorious, and I Confess, respectively. As a conveyor of mysterious yet vital power through objects, Hitchcock attained not only supremacy as a rare poet of cinema, but even became "master of the universe". I submit that in Brokeback Mountain, Hitchcock's oeuvre has met its equal in the poetic and mythic uses of symbol-laden objects that Godard so evidently celebrates.
Front-Ranger:
Thank you, Scott, for lending some class to this subject! I was rereading the story today, and noticed another laundry reference in the scene where Ennis discovers the shirts in Jack's closet. In addition to thinking his shirt had been lost "in some damn laundry" in the past, Ennis at first glance into the closet saw a couple of pairs of jeans that had been crease-pressed and folded neatly over a wire hanger. Not only would the iron have made an impression upon the jeans but also the hanger would have left a crease too. This is a haunting allusion to the tire iron that, in Ennis's mind, caused Jack's death. And the vertical and horizontal creases in the jeans would have made a cross. Finally, there were two pair of jeans, just like there were two shirts. In just a few words, the author has hinted at several different meanings. Pretty amazing.
Front-Ranger:
Yea, really amazing, he replied...
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