By Nathaniel Quest
Winning director Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain" won the GoldenLion for best film at the closing awards ceremonies for the 62ndVenice International Film Festival held recently.
"I am so glad the film has prevailed and has been accepted sowell here, " said Lee, whose touching love portrait of two gaycowboys played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal set theaudience abuzz following its screening. Ang Lee's tale of thehomosexual love between two cowboys was set in the conservativeWest of the 1960s.
Jake Gyllenhaal has admitted that he was hesitant when he firstheard about the cowboy movie with gay theme. But all his doubtsdisappeared when Jake learned that "BrokeBack Mountain" was tobe directed by Academy award winning director, Ang Lee. Lee hadpreviously directed the winning film "Crouching Tiger, HiddenDragon."
At a news conference in Toronto, Gyllenhaal stressed that "whenyou know you have someone who's made movies that deal withpretty challenging themes and has tackled them with the kind ofuniversality and compassion that Ang has, you throw yourselvesinto the arms of that person and you trust them and you feelsafe and you go for it."
"Brokeback Mountain" is based on a novel by Annie Prouix andtells the story of a tormented affair between two men who meetone summer in western Wyoming while herding sheep. Though thefilm's gay theme had undoubtedly ruffled some conservativefeathers due to the explicit scenes between two hot young malestars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, it has already receivedconsiderable praise and pre-Oscar buzz.
Jake Gyllenhaal revealed that kissing a boy--Heath Ledger in thefilm--almost led to a broken nose for him. "He grabs me and heslams me up against the wall and kisses me, and then I grab himand I slam him up against the wall and I kiss him," he saidduring a news conference, adding that the love scenes were themost violent he'd ever done.
Heath Ledger admits that he was attracted to the project becauseit was a fresh take on the stereotyped and often humdrumHollywood love story. In the film, the two cowboys fall in love,and their aching and forceful romance spans the course of closeto 20 years. Ledger had complained about having to work out forthe role. He was even surprised at all the work he's had to putin for the role. "You'd think you would kind of build up andwork out to play a superhero or something, but it ends up beingfor a gay cowboy story," Ledger tells Jay Leno during aninterview.
The 24-year-old Australian heartthrob Heath Ledger is lookingforward to what is sure to be one of the most talked-about filmsof next year. "It's a gorgeous script, and God, Jake's cute," hejokingly tells Leno
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