Still Lifes

[Front-Ranger]

Someone mentioned that domestic scenes in the movie are a lot like paintings by Vermeer and the other Dutch Impressionists who, for the first time, painted intimate scenes of family life set not in churches or landscapes but in private homes. The first scene like this that I noticed in the movie was where Ennis came home to the little apartment above the laundromat, where Jack's post card was waiting for him. The cluttered kitchen features many items, most notably many with handles, such as a skillet on the stove, a teakettle above the fridge, a teacup on the drainboard, and another teacup on the windowsill. Another notable thing is the many pairs seen: there is a big 2 on the wall as Ennis comes in the door, there are two cans on the counter, without labels, and we spy salt and pepper shakers next to Alma. Alma and Jr. are a pair, both cooking together, side by side (Jr using a toy stove).

[Penthesilea]

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:

[Front-Ranger]

They even have the same expression, LOL!! Thanks for posting that!

BTW, these still lifes are also present on the mountain. The placement of items in the camp, as well as the placement of the horses, adds to the action going on in the scenes.

[Front-Ranger]

Here's an example of what I mean:



Notice how the axe is coming right out of Jack's head, 

[Front-Ranger]

Another example that has already been mentioned is how, on the morning after the reunion, Alma is sitting at the kitchen table between the sugar shaker and a cup of bitter coffee. Another thing I just noticed is the ashtray immediately in front of her (do we have a thread about ashes? Surely we do). She is sitting in front of a sickly green wall wearing a housecoat patterned with roses, and a soft light is coming in from a window we can't see to her left.

[Penthesilea]

When I went to bed yesterday, this thread was still on my mind and I remembered something I learned at school: still-life is not the correct expression here, becaue still-life is defined as work of art depicting inanimate subject matter.
I looked "still-life" up at wikipedia this morning and found something interesting in the German version: Still-lifes often contain a memento mori, respectively a thought of Vanitas. This means they contain a reminder of the transience of life (and of all things). There is even a specific kind of still-lifes which is called "Vanitas-Still-lifes". In those the principle of still-life, to depict inamimate things, is carried to extremes by adding clear symbols of transience, e.g. skulls.
Here is an example for a Vanitas still-life:


(by Pieter Claest, 1630)

But "normal" still-lifes are also full of symbolic meanings: empty glasses, toppled down containers, broken containers, which all are symbols for transience. Insekts, bugs stand for rotting and decay. Dead animals, especially kill of a hunt. Cut flowers in a vase, who shrivel within a few days. And on and on; it was a very long list I found on wikipedia.

Although the expresion still-life may not be correct for many of the pics of BBM that come to my mind, it's something close and it describes those pics very well. The backdrop is still-life like, but there are people in it.
This pic from Lee is a good example for it:

Here's an example of what I mean:



Notice how the axe is coming right out of Jack's head, 

There is a symbolic axe (coming out of Jack's head!), the still somewhat bloody flesh of the elk, a big rotten snag between our boys and another where Ennis is leaning at.

Lee, you came on something very interesting here. I'll be looking for more still-life like pics and still-life typical symbols in them.

BTW: the English wikipedia's article about still-lifes contains a paragraph about Vanitas, too, but sadly no list of symbols. I quote it here, because it describes it better than I did.

Excursus Vantitas Still-lifes:
"Especially popular in this period were vanitas paintings, in which sumptuous arrangements of fruit and flowers, or lavish banquet tables with fine silver and crystal, were accompanied by symbolic reminders of life's impermanence. A skull, an hourglass or pocket watch, a candle burning down or a book with pages turning, would serve as a moralizing message on the ephemerality of sensory pleasures. Often some of the luscious fruits and flowers themselves would be shown starting to spoil or fade."

[Front-Ranger]

Thanks, this is very interesting!! Thanks to your post, I noticed another detail: notice how the fire spit goes between Ennis and Jack, and where it's pointing LOL! It's like a cupid's arrow!!

[Meryl]

Thanks for that clarification on still lifes, Penthesilea.  Based on the idea of vanitas, these two scenes make even more sense, one with a skull, another with a stopped clock and baby shoes encased in bronze:

[Penthesilea]

Thanks for that clarification on still lifes, Penthesilea.  Based on the idea of vanitas, these two scenes make even more sense, one with a skull, another with a stopped clock and baby shoes encased in bronze:

Good call, Meryl. Reading of the sculls this morning, the first pic came to my mind,too. But not the second one.
On the first pic: there are a few empty bottles in front of Jack(!). Empty bottles, glasses, jars (all kind of containers) are symbols of life's impermanence, too. The axe coming out of his head, the empty bottles in front of him, his flatterned harmonica, of which Ennis said it would have broken in two if he was lucky, him wearing wrist watches and Ennis not (Jack's time is running out, not Ennis's) and so on. The still-life symbols add to what we already sensed: (seems like) poor Jack was doomed from the beginning and there are foreshadowings and symbols of it throughout the film 


Edit for another thought: as usual, this whole symbolism topic is arguable. For example, it's Ennis who sits next to the skull, leans at the snag and has the bloody elk meat in his back. I just wanted to add this to be fair and a bit more balanced in reasoning. But I bet counted throughout the movie, Jack would outnumber Ennis by far, regarding those symbols.

[Front-Ranger]

I have said this before, but it bears repeating here, that there is a little tableaux in the corner of the apartment above the laundromat that bothers me whenever I see it: a water heater, a vacumm cleaner, and an ironing board with an iron on it. The combination of water, wind, and an iron always seems to spell doom for Jack to me.