„Stemming the Rose, queering the song“: Brokeback Mountain, old Hollywood and the radical politics of Rufus Wainwright. Vortrag im Rahmen der Veranstaltungsreihe „Queere Interventionen. Gespräche zu Kulturwissenschaften und Kunst“
Zeit: MONTAG, 18 JUNI 2007, 18.00 UHR
Ort: INSTITUT FÜR MUSIKWISSENSCHAFT der UNIVERSITÄT WIEN, HÖRSAAL 1
Castigated by the Christian right, and slighted for Best Picture by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain also drew sharp rebuke from some gay critics for depoliticizing its subject matter. Brokeback nevertheless made American film history as a “landmark film” with the “potential to change the national conversation and to challenge people’s ideas about the value and validity of same-sex relationships.“ The film garnered countless industry accolades and elicited emotional reactions of unforeseen seismic proportions from viewers around the globe.
The role of the soundtrack in effecting these life-changing and socially transformative responses has yet to be interrogated. Argentinean refugee Gustavo Santaolalla’s musical score, possibly the most culturally subversive ever to garner an Oscar, ingeniously redeploys a musical genre (country-western) associated with the conservative, rural United States for a film whose subject matter radically challenges “traditional American values.” The soundtrack assembles an unusually queer (-identified, -activist, -friendly) and politically engaged cast of musicians.
My paper directs its attention to the ten-minute closing sequence where “The Maker Makes” forms the third panel of a meticulously crafted and emotionally charged audio-visual triptych. I contextualize the song with respect to the queer inflection of the film’s provocative phrase, “stem the rose”; the homophobic political climate in the United States; Wainwright’s increasingly vociferous resistance as a political activist; his autobiographical links with icons of both Old and New Hollywood; and, above all, the trademark allusivity of his songs.
Professorin Paula Higgins hat derzeit die Käthe-Leichter-Professorin für Frauenforschung und Gender Studies inne und ist Chair of Music an der University of Nottingham.
http://www.oeh.univie.ac.at/referate/homobitrans/aktionswoche/2007.html