Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum

Still Lifes

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Mikaela:
Wow, Meryl, I'm in awe! Those two pictures speak new volumes after I've read Penthesilea's very informative post on Memento Mori and Vanitas still life. Good call!  :)

Seems to me though that in the various Jack and Ennis scenes, the symbolic reminders aren't as much about either one of their lives' impermanence per se, as about their relationship's impermanence... their time together slowly but inexorably running out. For Ennis, in the end, that arguably proves to be the same as truly lived life's ending, or near enough.  :-\

Front-Ranger:

--- Quote from: Penthesilea on November 12, 2006, 06:12:26 pm ---On my way to bed. Just wanted to add a pic that immediately came to my mind. Someone posted a much better version of the same pic lately, but I can't find it right now. Anyway, here it is:



--- End quote ---
Thanks for posting that pic, Chrissi. I have been musing on it for some time now, and I just have a couple of observations. I notice how in some ways it mirrors the campfire scene with Ennis and Jack stretched out before the fire, only in this instance it's the TV. The two daughters are like the two horses (Ennis called them little darlin' same as his horses). And I also notice how cluttered the area is. In fact, all of the scenes of the interior of their apartment are very cluttered, and the thing you notice the most are all of the containers...tins, baskets, thermoses. All of these different containers filling up Ennis's life whereas all he really needed was the bucket, the coffeepot, and the skillet when he was on the mountain.

Ellemeno:

--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on November 15, 2006, 05:09:08 pm ---All of these different containers filling up Ennis's life whereas all he really needed was the bucket, the coffeepot, and the skillet when he was on the mountain.

--- End quote ---

And tent.  :)

I'm pretty sure that the French for 'still life' is 'nature morte,' which is a little more overt as to meaning.

Front-Ranger:
There are also many pairs in the first picture: the pair of rockers in the background with two little cups, the two bottles of beer and smaller bottles next to Ennis, the two hassocks. . . .

Penthesilea:
On request, I post an observation from my latest viewing here, too:

Last Monday I saw BBM in theatre again, and even the original version without dubbing (God bless those little arthouse cinemas  ).

A new thing, which I didn't notice before:

The first is a horse behind Alma. Not a real horse, but a children's toy, a hobbyhorse. In the fire-and-brimstone-crowd scene. She's sitting in an easy chair, knitting, talking about smartening up for the church social. The hobbyhorse is red and wooden, it leans at a rack behind her. I attach a pic of it.

I don't know if this is important, but it catched my eye. Reminded me of the horse pictures we see in the Twist household and the fact that we see mountain pictures, but no horse pics in the various Del Mar households.
Hm. Being around horses was everyday life for Ennis, the mountains were what he craved for (or what they symbolized for him).
Quickly becoming a salesman, Jack's everyday life didn't include being around horses anymore. Maybe the horses symbolized for him what the mountain pics did for Ennis: their time together.

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