BetterMost, Wyoming & Brokeback Mountain Forum
Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond => Brokeback Mountain Open Forum => Topic started by: Sason on November 30, 2010, 04:59:07 pm
-
Here's an interview with Anne Hathaway, where she talks about the 'pumping up a flat' scene and how Jack died.
Scroll down just a little.
It's at about 9 minutes.
http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/
-
Cool I have downloaded it and will listen to it this evening.
She needs to interview Ang now.
-
Thanks so much for sharing this!! :-*
I'll definitely listen to it later tonight. Still at work at the moment...
-
^^^^^^^^
You're welcome. :)
Hope you both enjoy it.
It's only a couple of minutes, after a lot of questions about nudity.... ::)
-
^^^^^^^^
You're welcome. :)
Hope you both enjoy it.
It's only a couple of minutes, after a lot of questions about nudity.... ::)
Great interview (all 36 minutes of it)--
Thanks Sonja!
-
Glad you like it John!
I think it's quite interesting to hear her own thoughts about that scene.
-
Thanks, Sonja. I love Teri Gross.
I wonder if Anne is contradicting herself here, though. She said she "played it both ways" and doesn't know which is true, that only Ang knows.
However, in an earlier interview, when Oprah asked her about that scene and how Jack died, she said she thought it was obvious.
-
Glad you like it Paul!
Sometimes things change over time.
Maybe it was obvious to her at one point, and later, maybe after following some discussions about it, it wasn't as obvious any more. Or sumptin'...
-
Many thanks for posting this interesting interview, Sason.
I found the whole interview very appealing but the Brokeback section I found slightly confusing. I didn't fully understand what Anne was saying about the playing of that scene.The heart of this lies in her reply to the interviewer's question about whether Lureen knew if it was a gay bashing or not. She says (my transcription): "I never asked Ang. I played it both ways and those takes got merged in the final film so I don't actually know." When asked to explain the two ways she says that one was where she was aware of Jack's gay affair(s) and that this had led to his death from gay bashing and the other way was where she knew nothing about her husband and Ennis and completely believed that he had died in a freak accident.
So are we asked to believe that Ang shot the scene first with the "knowing" Lureen and then again with the "innocent" Lureen and somehow merged bits of these two versions together? I suppose that's possible though I find it a rather strange way to achieve "ambiguity". Or am I missing something here?
Ambiguity, however, is central to Anne's final comments on that scene. "Ang knows the truth in his head", she claims but she doesn't. As she doesn't know which version is true, she claims in her conclusion that "I actually get to be a part of the film as audience member as I don't know. Because I think the ambiguity is the strength of that scene and what's heartbreaking about it".
With that, I find myself in full agreement.
-
You're welcome, chowhound!
IMO, there is no "truth" about this scene, just like so many other scenes.
Annie P wrote the story including so much ambiguity, and the film reflects it.
If someone knows the truth, it's Annie. Unless she told Ang what she actually intended with that scene,
he doesn't know it either. He may have his own interpretation, but it isn't any "truer" than any interpretation we
all might have. If the scene was made like Anne explains, with two different takes on it, I think Ang's intention was exactly that: to leave us with the ambiguity. Because there is no truth. It is, after all, fiction, and therefore noone knows what really happened.
This does in no way diminish the reason and need to discuss what happened, and everyone's interpretation of it!