Second Night in the Tent

[kathy]

I know, jane.  I understand.

How about we make them both 120%?  They are so perfect.

kathy     

[BlueJeanDarlin]

sick fucks? 

No, never, just because there is a whole world going on around us while we can discuss endlessly spit, sorries, s'aright, who said what, when, how.  Did his lips move or not.  What were the subtitles in Sweden vs. Germany.  Why Jack wore jeans.  Why didn't they use one of the 13 takes with his bare tussy.  And where is the current locations of this mythical footage anyway.  Who kissed whose forehead, whose chest.  Who rolled who over.  Why Ennis holds his hat the way he does.  What it means to have Jack take his hat from him.  What happens after the cut?  Is there a cmre or not?  How we all now type in typos on purpose and how do you use a spell check for a word that doesn't really exist in standard American English.

Why in the world would you think we are sick?

Right.
This is a quote from page 106 in this thread - and I've read all posts so far! Which means I can look forward to reading another 100 pages (and more) of this extraordinary thread. And I'll know I'm not the only one who's 'sick'.

It's going to be a fabulous 2013! Yay! 

[Sason]

Have fun with it, Sonja!

And don't hesitate to add your own comments.

[BlueJeanDarlin]

Thanks, Sonja! (So nice there's two of us on here)!

Feel free to join me, lurkers and newbies! We'd love to hear from you!
I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd like to discuss all those epic scenes! Yes, everything has been said before, many many times - but there's always room for more opinions!

[suelyblu]

Be careful what you say about SNIT....it is hallowed ground !!

[BlueJeanDarlin]

I think the reason I never posted on this particular thread before was that I find this scene so incredibly and beautifully private that I almost feel as if commenting would be redundant.
I guess by 'private' I mean personal, as well. Hard to explain.

But here I am, belatedly, wanting to add a few observations.

I don't know about BBM subtitles (nor do I think I want to know, really) or whatever you call it, so I'm just talking from what I see and hear at any given time while watching the movie. (The only subtitles I like are when I see a foreign film that needs the translation, cause I hate dubbed-in mishmash. But that's just me.)

Anyway, I've always had a suspicion that the real reason someone whispers " Sorry, sorry...." and Jack whispers, It's allright..." is that the mechanics of the scene, perhaps got a shade too awkward at that precise moment and maybe almost came spontaneously to a halt. So, JG, slips out of character for a second and whispers that it's allright to continue - they can both hack it.
Don't ask me why I think that. I just do.
And for me, it adds a kind of heated verismillitude that speaks volumes about both men and their devotion to the 'reality' of the scene.

In my opinion, of all the love scenes in the film, this is the most elegant and the most beautifully photographed. This is a true 'love scene', almost old fashioned in nature, but most necessary to the film.
Both men appear, in these few moments, to transcend the material - they become artistically 'larger than life.' Why this happens, I don't know. But when it does in any film, the force of it carries hurricane strength.
The first time I saw this scene, I gasped.
Believe me, my friends, this doesn't happen often.

HL looks the most vulnerable he will EVER look in the film. (Except perhaps for a few seconds into the reunion, just before he goes up the stairs to the apartment to introduce Jack to Alma.) It is such a wonderous transformation.
The closeup of his face against JG's chest as Jack lowers them both to the floor shows complete and total surrender. Then I love the shyness and nervousness and the fact that Ennis can't quite figure out where to put his hands. He's actually shaking with the force of his feelings, allowing Jack to seduce him completely.
This is an Ennis that we never really see again.

JG in profile is unbelievably beautiful, and the trick, I suppose, is to show us his beauty without being superficial about it. Somehow Lee does it.
(Probably JG helps by appearing so unaware in that moment of his own looks and how they'll protograph. I love that he obviously trusts Ang Lee to deal well with him and so can give himself over completely to the material.)

The way that HL runs his hand nervously along JG's torso speaks to everything that one can possibly say or feel or think about sexual attraction or heat or desire or lust or any other word you can think of. We know this is acting, but we forget.
We believe that this is actually Jack and Ennis and they're falling desperately in love, in a tent, on the mountain, in the middle of 1963.

I want to back up a minute and talk about the prelude by the fire outside when Ennis is sitting trying to decide what he's going to do next. (Or so I read it.) He glances shyly at the tent entrance and sees Jack moving around inside, getting ready for bed.
He thinks some more.
Then it's as if he shuts off his thinking process and hands to knees, pushes himself to get up. (I mean, he does push himself.) He turns towards the tent, hunched over. Almost dragging his feet. He is being pulled towards the tent. Jack is reeling him in. Seemingly against Ennis's conscious will, though he does not protest.
Jack as mythical lorelei, I love it. That's how the scene reads to me.

In rereading this for flubs, belatedly, I notice I use the word 'beautiful' an awful lot. But you know, that's the word.
That is precisely the word for this scene.

Still reading here, folks!
This is one of the most amazing posts I've read in this thread, and I felt it needed to be repeated here and now, in 2013, for all new members to read. After all, it is a post from 2006.
This point of view: "the mechanics of the scene, perhaps got a shade too awkward at that precise moment and maybe almost came spontaneously to a halt. So, JG, slips out of character for a second and whispers that it's allright to continue"...
Wait - is this person saying Jake was saying 'It's all right' to Heath ? Actor to actor?

Don't ask me why, but I've also thought about that! It doesn't seem all that strange to me. These actors had to do some pretty intimate stuff together, and seemed to know their characters inside out. I can imagine that, in the heat of the moment, they relied on each other's instincts, rather than just relying on Ang Lee's instructions.
And yes, I know "It's all right" was in the script, but since SNIT (as a scene) was added late in the process, maybe "It's all right" was too, after Jake whispered it to Heath.

No one really commented on this back then, as far as I can tell. Maybe because people thought it was silly? I don't think it's silly at all.

[janjo]

Rosewood did write the most amazing posts................................

[BlueJeanDarlin]

Yes, she sure did, Janjo! Here's another one of her posts. If only I could express my feelings about SNIT like that...

Speaking of light and its uses in the film, I wanted to comment on its effect in the SNIT as well. We know perfectly well that the rosey glow which is cast on both actors in the interior of the tent is unreal. As a matter of fact, the interior would probably, in reality, have been darker and not lit much from the exterior fire, even if the tent flap had been partially open.
Here, to my mind, Ang Lee takes a step away from reality and it suits the scene well. In a way, he uses light to paint both actors. To soften their outlines. To visually warm them so we don't think too much about the fact that it would have been cold in the tent. He wants us to think warm of course. And we do. At least, I do. I'm won over by subterfuge.

Though the two actors generate their own brand of heat, it is helped along by this painterly use of light.

I love the way Jack is colored in gold in the over-Ennis's-shoulder shot. This is quite startlingly beautiful. Now it is possible, that here, the glow from the fire might have burnished the actors from the outside, but not to this intensity.
(I'm thinking the fire may not have existed in these close-up scenes anyway. Just the 'idea' of it.)

But I go along with the 'golding' of Jack, because the effect works. It is exquisite. In fact, there is no other time in the film where either Jack or Ennis are tinted in this subjective fashion. One of the many ways we're meant to know that this is a special night.

I love the way she uses the word 'actors' a few times. Just to remind us we're watching a film. You know, when I'm watching this particular scene, most of the time I forget they're actors. They're Jack and Ennis. They're real.
And that's a credit to their acting, I suppose 

I will (again) tell you all this is an extraordinary thread for an extraordinary scene. I can't believe how many times the posts have made me smile, cry, agree or disagree... But above all they gave me an insight to this film (and this scene) I thought I would never accomplish. Even if I'd never post on this forum again, I will always be grateful for finding it.

[magicmountain]

But I go along with the 'golding' of Jack, because the effect works. It is exquisite.

It so happens that Gyllen in Gyllenhaal means golden.

[Ennis Del Mark]

Please tell me the "Haal" doesn't mean "showers."

[magicmountain]

Please tell me the "Haal" doesn't mean "showers."

Take your pick:

Hall/Hahl/Haal could derive from hall, a word meaning "rock formation." "Nature names" of one or two syllables which incorporated the vocabulary of the local countryside were common in Sweden and Finland (but not in other parts of Scandinavia). There is a steep, rocky hillock in Södra Härene, as well as stone-bound pastures-terrain which could lend support to this interpretation.

Hall/Hahl/Haal could derive from hara. This could mean "hare" or "rabbit," and in fact other families have held the name Hara and used the image of the animal in their coats of arms.

Hall/Hahl/Haal could derive from the word hård, meaning "hard." Hård is attested as a soldier's name as early as 1545. Soldiers' names often referred to a characteristic that the soldier was supposed to possess, and so Hård may have meant "tough," in the sense of being invulnerable to weapons. Hård was not an unusual name, and in fact Leonard Gyllenhaal married a certain Anna Hård in 1788. However, Haal is not very likely to have evolved from hård, since one would expect the å-vowel to appear instead of aa in 17th century Västergötland.

Hall/Hahl/Haal could derive from hal meaning "slippery," "smooth" (or perhaps by extension "sleek" or "smoothtongued"). The circumstances giving rise to such a byname would probably have been forgotten over the course of a few generations, but the name would no doubt have related to some personal characteristic of the person in question.

Hall/Hahl/Haal could derive from hin håle, meaning "the Devil," i.e. the Hard One. The reason for such a byname must be obscure, but would, like hal above, have relation to some characteristic of the person. Many other strange bynames are known for soldiers, such as Drivare (Drifter), Dobblare (Gambler) and Kåhlhufvud (Cabbage Head)! Sometimes bynames like these were dropped by the soldiers themselves when they left military service, or were not taken up by their children.

http://www.gyllenhaal.org/TheName.html

[BlueJeanDarlin]

I thought our new members might like to see this which I first posted about 100 years ago.

Re-posted (again) for new 'new members' 

Thanks for this, Janjo! Good to know you're still here after all these years. You posted some pretty amazing comments in this thread, I enjoyed reading them.

Sonja.

[janjo]

Thank you Sonja. You are very kind. I think I am part of the furniture here now, and | wouldn't have it any other way.

[BlueJeanDarlin]

I think I am part of the furniture here now.

Never mind, I intend to be part of the furniture as well! Just give me a couple of years...

Also, I hope all of you don't mind I keep quoting other people's posts. It's just that there are so many wonderful comments! I couldn't possibly express myself like that, English isn't my native tongue, and still I feel those comments should be read by new members, who maybe only read the last couple of pages.

I just can't think of anyone, even if they are obsessed by this scene, to read through 238 pages of comments... except me, maybe 

It took me months and months and months, but it's been a joy and a total pleasure.

Now I feel it's time for me to start reading the whole FNIT thread... it's a tough job, but someone has to do it! 

[janjo]

I don't mind at all Sonja. I am incredibly flattered by your kind words.