Gay cowboy romance scoops the Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival

LookingFor

This is excellent news I've had my eye on this one for a long time, glad it's finally surfacing, and how!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/4233902.stm

Ang Lee takes top prize at Venice

Ang Lee's gay cowboy film Brokeback Mountain has won the coveted Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

The film is adapted from a story by E Annie Proulx and stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger as cowboys whose secret love affair spans 20 years.

Watch the trailer here: http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/brokebackmountain.html

The trailer already has me tearing up

Goodshape

Ang Lee Cool.

(not to mention Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal... as gay cowboys )

Looking forward to this anyway.. when's it out?

bopper

I think December 9th is the release date in America, and December 31st in the UK and Ireland.

hazimel

I read the short story that the film was based on. Incredibly explicit and porny. We can but hope

tonyinuae

When I saw 'Gay cowboy romance', I immediately thought 'E Annie Proulx' - God, she's awesome. How does she get into the male gay mind/ethos like that?

I read the short story a few years back and I was amazed at its both moving and erotic quality. What a great subject for a film!

damien

tonyinuae wrote:

How does she get into the male gay mind/ethos like that?

Because romance and love is universal.

or smartarse answer which could be something akin to this movie quote:

Woman: How do you write women so well?
Melvin: I think of a man... then I take away reason, and accountability.

Saw the clip today. Very sweet. There's no sex though in this. They cut that from the script.

LookingFor

damien.m wrote:

Saw the clip today. Very sweet. There's no sex though in this. They cut that from the script.

Scenes were shot, and the last screenplay that was leaked in the web still had at least one. Have you heard something new? Either way, it's nowhere near as graphic as the book, apparently. And anyway, it's a love story

damien

Either way there'll be people reaching for kleenex.

bopper

I'd rather that the film was good with no sex scenes, then a film that just throws an explicit sex scene in there for no good reason.

hazimel

bopper wrote:

I'd rather that the film was good with no sex scenes, then a film that just throws an explicit sex scene in there for no good reason.

It's a valid point. There haven't really been that many (any?) mainstream gay romance films. The only one I can think of is "All Over the Guy", which was...well...not very good.

Fingers crossed this breaks some boundaries in mainstream cinema and doesn't rely on sex scenes or humour to qualify its existence.

LookingFor

hazimel wrote:

It's a valid point. There haven't really been that many (any?) mainstream gay romance films. The only one I can think of is "All Over the Guy", which was...well...not very good.

Fingers crossed this breaks some boundaries in mainstream cinema and doesn't rely on sex scenes or humour to qualify its existence.

Agreed, but I'm not worried about this one. It's early days, but the great festival reception aside,the first reviews so far have been great to brilliant (see: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/brokeback_mountain/?show=all), and it's certainly not the stereotypical rom-com with a gay best friend or something of that sort. It's quite a dramatic, heartbreaking, moving story apparently. There are apparently some moments of light relief in scenes where they're hiding from their wives, but I doubt you'll be leaving the cinema laughing..

Freaky Angelo

LookingFor wrote:

Agreed, but I'm not worried about this one. It's early days, but the great festival reception aside,the first reviews so far have been great to brilliant (see: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/brokeback_mountain/?show=all), and it's certainly not the stereotypical rom-com with a gay best friend or something of that sort. It's quite a dramatic, heartbreaking, moving story apparently. There are apparently some moments of light relief in scenes where they're hiding from their wives, but I doubt you'll be leaving the cinema laughing..

Just as well I guess, If you left the cinema laughing the power would be gone. It's like Queer As Folk I suppose - they were serious I guess with some light relief and ultimately the story was about "love" (I scoff but that's just me) in any life. It's funny and complicated all at once, when you're watching it at least.

It's important gay relationships are taken seriously!

bopper

Freaky Angelo wrote:

It's like Queer As Folk I suppose - they were serious I guess with some light relief and ultimately the story was about "love" (I scoff but that's just me) in any life. It's funny and complicated all at once, when you're watching it at least.

Really?! I thought queer as folk was great and there were moments that I could definitely relate to, but I wouldn't have said it was ultimately about love. I'd describe it more like an accurate depiction of the ups and downs of the gay scene and life as a gay men in general, not a love story like Brokeback Mountain.