CHRIS DOYLE Q&A at THE 44th Thessaloniki Int'l Film 200

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THE 44th Thessaloniki Int'l Film Festival
November 11-23 2003


MEET CHRIS DOYLE

P: Are we ready?

D: I'm never ready! Hi, I'm Christopher Doyle. I'm always like this. It doesn't get any... It only goes downhill from here.

My mother wants me to be the missionary of cinema 'cause I'm such a recovering catholic but I want to be the Mick Jagger of cinema. The problem is I live like Keith Richards.

Ok, so, I got off the set yesterday morning at 6 o'clock and I got on the plane and I'm here and I'm leaving very soon, so it's an average day for me, so thank you for coming. And I'm very disappointed I only saw three discotheques last night, I'm sorry. But I was very happy that there was a girl belly dancing on my table. Well I guess terror has its positive aspects.

Originally I had a plan but I've forgotten, so let's just go ahead, anyway. Which is the way we make most of the movies, (laughs), anyway, so...

In my world, which is... I was told I can talk about other movies, but not to mention the name of the movie, the director, or the production company unless it is released in Greece. So, mainly I'll talk about Sony Playstation and Heineken Beer. My sponsor. Heineken has sponsored me for six films so far, so if anyone wants to, any Greek beer company wants to sponsor me for the next six, I'm ready. It's true, it's true. It's a fact.

So, I'm going to talk about Wong Kar-Wai and then I'm going to throw in some commercial for other beer companies.

So, all film is Mythos!

To me all film is two things. I think that kind of informs all this nonsense that you'll see. I think to me all art aspires to music. Which means, you start together and you end together and then you work it out in the middle. Just like jazz. Yeah, I think it's really... especially in the works of WKW, I think the people who are here, who I've met... what day is it today?... Yeah, I think it's the morning.

I think you probably know we usually don't have a script, we usually take a long time to shoot the film, we usually... you know, in critical terms we'd say we find the film, (laughs), or the film finds us, you know. Which is a very difficult thing to do and to create that work and environment and to have that energy and to have that freedom, and to have rapport between people is a very valuable thing. Most people have that in bed or in film schools but very few people can sustain it like, for some incredible reason WKW has done in almost 20 years of filmmaking. It's really fucking horrible.

It's a very special thing to do and to... it's a very amazing thing to sustain. You know, I don't think anybody, and I've worked with a few people in the world that... ah... I think WKW is really the most special, also the most difficult, also the best, also a pain in the ass, also, the love of my life.
You probably know this image, you might know the music but you don't know the story behind the film.

(Screening starts)

Wrong one!

So, this is the film called Happy Together. Play the song.
I can't sing. It's a good music if you can do it.

(Music plays - starts to explain the shots of the film)

So, the lamp is from a flea market in Buenos Aires and like I said, we found the film when we found the lamp. It's a cameraman's joke.
So, many people say, how come you went to Argentina to make a film in a room, (laughs). I think that's the next thing we want to talk about after we enjoy a little bit of the falls. To me, at that time in our career together, I mean we've done all the films together, at that time it was a point where... we've done so many films that we're very proud of. I'll tell you the story later.

(watching the shot of the waterfall)

You can't keep water off the lens so, why not... just use it.
So, the idea was to get away, to change your life. I mean, I think everybody does it when they change boyfriends or girlfriends, or when they move to another country, the point was, not to repeat yourself, so we went as far away from Hong Kong as we could. And we went as far away from our, ah, some of our sexuality as we could, so we tried to make a gay film. But all the gays in Argentina think they're straight. They just like women's asses....

(joking with the translator and the public)

Ok. So, we go. I think everyone enjoyed the falls, so we go as far as we can from Hong Kong, which is the end of the earth, which is Tierra del Fuego, but we couldn't find any gay people except the ones we took with us, which happens to be the main actor.
I think to me this represents what film is about, that we spent six months, maybe more. I think everyone in my crew is a specialist, an expert in Argentinean wine, because of this film. Because when you try to find the film you have to drink a lot.

So, we're in Argentina for a long time and we actually ended up with 90% of the film in one room, and everyone says "Why didn't you stay in Hong Kong?" Because Hong Kong is not corrupt enough. Like Argentina... Anyway. That's a joke. The rest is serious.
No, I think the point is... what I was trying to say is, that the film to me is about the familiar and the dream. I think that's it. If it's not familiar enough then you can't really talk about it, you can't talk about something you don't know unless you just make, you know, Matrix 7. I mean Bible 7, I'm sorry. The Bible Reloaded. Yeah. I think that's the real name of the film. That's a joke about Matrix. But you know, I think only me and Keanu Reeves understand it. I went to this cast... anyway, that's another story...

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So, I really think that's what you see in most of the films I made with WKW. I would say that 50% of the films I've done in Hong Kong are like one minute away from where I live. In fact, one of them is shot in my apartment, which... you know the story...
I think that's very important. I think everyone that tries to make their first film has the same experience. It tends to be usually very autobiographic or associated with people you know, or in some way it has to be. Which, makes sense. So, the familiar is very important, that you should only speak about what you know, otherwise you're talking, through your hat.

And so, we went to Argentina to find how we felt about Hong Kong, basically. Because, yeah, basically that's what most of the films are about, I think that you sense that in a film, that these films couldn't have been made in the style that they're made in ... they have to be made in the language they're made in, because this is, this place is like this. I think many people respond to the energy of the films, I mean In the Mood for Love is a turning point. I think many people respond to the intimacy, I think that very much comes from the people who make them, so even though it takes for ever, the complicity and the closeness and the intimacy and the personal involvement in everything, not just the story, I think the living together, walking together and the space that we work in, I think, I really believe that's what makes these films a little bit different from other films.

So, I'm going to show you our Hong Kong right now. (the screening delays). Almost right now. It's ok, he's in love with my girlfriend, that's a big problem (addressing the technician).

This is a film called Happy Together, oh, oh... (he mixed up the films)... everything is called Happy Together today. Ah, they're all Happy Together Nr3. It is actually called Days of Being Wild. Which, Days of Being Wild is the Chinese name of Giant, I'm sorry Rebel without a Cause. And the main character has the same name as James Dean in that film.

(starts to explain the film - it's the shot with the actor in the room with the low ceiling)

This is one minute from my house, but the phone is about 5km away, we moved it (a phone is ringing in the shot). Ok, here we go. I'll act this out for you. Ready? See me.

(starts to show how he did it)

There is the camera. It's a heavy camera. You see how tall the room is? (ironic). Ok, come on Tony, we only have 5 minutes of film in the camera. Hurry up. Ok, ok. This one, this is the difficult one, ok. Tony, we don't need so much money, ok, we have enough... it's when we're going gambling. Ok. Thank you, I feel better now, ok. Oh, no, no, you don't need the cash we have plenty. You're a gambler, I know. Ok, here we go again. Ok, ready. This was the good one, cause I go over here. No, no your hair is fine, it's ok! It's ok! Ok. Now, this is the difficult part. He's going to go out the doors. No, he's going to go and get the keys, yeah, yeah, that's fine. One more time. Good, no more lights, so, maybe we can stop now. Here we go now, ready. So, he goes out the door and I'm really tired from this 5 minute shot and I stand up and I hit my head. Five times. That's what a WKW film is like. Intimate. Physical. And a very interesting concept. So, I think this is another interesting thing I've done with WKW. This film, actually this character you never see again, until the film we're just shooting now, 10 years later.

So, time is very important, the intimacy of the space, there are many, many things that I'm sure you've read in the new book that is out with the Festival. I think that the intimacy of the space, the intimacy of the people, the physicality of what is happening... I mean you can see it from this one shot that this person... you can tell a great deal about this person, I think those are things that structure the films, that hold them together, like I said, the intimate, the familiar. And then of course, the dream that that takes you to. So I think much of what we do is very much like literature... with faces.

I think that's the job. I think that my collaboration with WKW is much more based in literature than in the history of cinema, or cinematic references or other things like that... We talk much more about music and literature, I mean, actually, we never talk about the films, and I think that's the other aspect of the films which I think all films should have, which is the dream. So, it's the familiar and the dream. You know, I mean you could analyze any film like that. That's what Indiana Jones is about, that's what Matrix is about. That's what intimacy is about, that it takes you to another space and I think that's very much the parallel and the world in which these films have been created, for me anyway. WKW would say I'm full of shit, but that's some other story. I'm a recovering catholic.
Ok, so there we were in Buenos Aires, the country of our dreams, as far away as you can get from Hong Kong, and so they put me in a helicopter. So, the good thing is that the helicopter is in the Brazilian side of Igua�u. You know where Igua�u is? Igua�u is on the border of Paraguay, Argentina... it makes the border, it's this... the second biggest waterfall. So, Australia is here, Argentina is here, Igua�u is there. Ok, so, anyway... But the good thing is, the helicopter goes from Argentina... Anyone Argentinean here?

P: No!

D: Oh, good, I can say everything. It's boring. But Brazil is not so boring. So the helicopter goes from the Brazilian side, so we take a very long time to prepare. And they go up. And we go up. You have to go, the shot you saw, you have to go 1,5 km above the falls, because it's like 3 million meters of water every second. So, if you go too low, you go...whomp! So, we have a very simple idea. We take the helicopter and we put a metal like a frame, like a cage. Ok, this is the helicopter, it's from my beer to your beer, oh no, my other beer, yeah, my kind of helicopter. And this is inside the helicopter and this is outside the helicopter and this is the frame. And we have bungee, you know, like bungee cords, to hold the camera. Yeah, Hong Kong style, ok. And Greek style. So, there I am. And the point of this image is what I was trying to say. So, I think in many of the films the image... well, my job as a cameraman, as a cinematographer is to make an idea into images, I think people know that. So, what is the idea? Hah! Ok, let's find the idea. Or let's give the idea a form it didn't have, if you use words or if you use another form... painting, or if you told it to your friends. That's the point of what we're doing and that's the challenge and in one film, maybe for me, if you get one, one image like that in one film, you are a really good cameraman, cause it's really, really, really difficult.

I can't move the helicopter that's why I went to get the beer from the back of the plane. Ok, so the idea is how do you make a picture of a waterfall that nobody has seen before, which is not a postcard. Because for the people in the film, what does the waterfall represent? Maybe loss, maybe gay sex, I don't know, maybe I'm on the edge, maybe... I don't know. I mean we never talk about those ideas, but we have to find an image that talks about them. That's the job. That's my job. So, that's where we're going back to music. Because you don't ask music to explain itself to you. So why do you ask a film to explain itself to you? Why can't we go to the area of music? A painting doesn't... a sunset... the sun doesn't have to explain itself to you, and I think that is the real... the journey, that's the real challenge, that's the real work. And I'm very proud, I am very, very proud and I am very challenged that at this particular period of cultural history, or world history, or cinema history the audience knows more than all the critics who are not here today. The audience, because the internet, has an incredible visual sophistication -I haven't said this word since I was 12, I don't need it. So that means we can go very far, like 1,5 km above Igua�u and hang out of the helicopter.

P: With safety?

D: No, no, no safety. My assistant is holding my jacket. This is my safety. And because we don't want to make a postcard, because we want to make, you know, "the future of cinema", (laughs), oh yeah, we want to just show the energy, the sexuality, the physicality, we don't want to see anything but water. Ok? So we're travelling 1,5 km above Igua�u Falls, at 175 km per hour, I'm holding a camera like this and I say: why don't we tilt. Which means... (he leans forward). Oh, good idea! So, that's how it works really, ultimately. So, you know, you have to die for your art, or you have to be ready to die for your art. Because it doesn't happen any other way. So we get back to land and the producers go "Oh, that's a really good shot, let's go one more time". No, thank you. YOU do it, ok? This one is a one shot. We use it two times in the movie but it's only one shot. Ok, I'm going to show you my Hong Kong.

Ok, I'm going to move away for WKW because... hold on, hold on, why don't we stop. Are there are really intelligent questions, only from women please, 8529095346, e-mail... no, any questions? You are not allowed to ask questions. You're the one who made the mistake of bringing me here (addressing Alexis Grivas)

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P: What does the name WKW mean?

D: Oh, oh, Wong is a family name, which, yeah it's just a family name that comes from King. It's complicated. The latinization of Chinese words gets mixed between different dialects, but in this case Wong means King, Kar means Family or Home, and Wai means Guardian or Protector. So, the King Protector of the Home. I don't think he knows that. You know what my name means?

P: DuKefeng?

D: Yeah, it means "Like the Wind".

P: Yes, but in Chinese?

D: DuKefeng. My Chinese name is DuKefeng. Du means the Earth, it's Wood and Earth together, (laughs), sometimes, and Kefeng means Like the Wind and it comes from a very famous poem which says "a gentleman is like the wind". Think about it. Sometimes typhoon, sometimes nothing, sometimes passing through... But most Chinese names come from a kind of a... you can actually tell it in Chinese much more easily than... I mean in English I am Christopher, oh my God, no wonder I'm a recovering catholic, you know, the bearer of Christ. But in Chinese is more obvious. Your social background, the education of your parents, the period, you know the period you're born in, all these kinds of things very much affect... and also of course there is a system for your family, so often its like a repetition of one aspect. So my brother should be called like "The Beer". Wait, there's a woman's question!

P: Is there a special laboratory process in the making of your images?

D: Yeah, yeah, that's a good question. I think that especially at this moment in history and I'm sure in any medium... that there is so much rapport, there is so much energy, there is so much possibility in digital processing. But I think if you want to be an artist obviously it's not about the camera, it's not about the machines, it's not about the lab, it's not even about the film, it's about your eye of course. So that's the real challenge of the moment. How to share your eye with the people you work with. So, if you're a Hollywood mainstream cameraman, you know, you have to have the eye of someone living in Minnesota. You have to work with their eyes otherwise they fire you. It's true.

(the translator translates the previous question -what does WKW means- and he interferes)

Did you say Wong is the family name by the way? Because some people might not know. Because Ang Lee is not. It's actually... his real name is Lee. His family name is Lee. So, he got fucked up. But we won't tell everybody.

I'm still going to show some nonsense of what we do, because... I still haven't answered the question. So, yeah. So the point I think is your taste and the people. For me, I only work with friends. If I don't know them I don't care about the script cause we never have a script with WKW anyway (laughs), and you could make a really bad film with a really good script, or you could make a wonderful film with no script. So that's why I usually say a film school is really good for your sex life, which is a metaphor for "it's the only time you have the time for sex". Because once you start trying to make movies then you have too many other things to be concerned with. So I think this is the freedom that we look for and I think that you find with a collaborator like WKW, or you look at some of the great collaborations in history like Robbie Muller with various directors, I think that you can see it in.... many of the great directors work repeatedly... Peter Greenaway always works with the same people, basically because it's not about the processing, it's not about what goes into the camera itself. It's about this collaborative energy, which is also sometimes good for your sex life. But... You see, I forgot the question.... Yes.... The lab also involves collaboration and I think that even if you go to digital, to other people, they can be collaborative, the digital effects people. If you look at Crouching Tiger for example, the moment to remember is when the image and the idea and this wonderful martial arts, they actually become one person. That's when it works, the rest is bullshit. It's a very good film but it's not as good as that moment. So, to really answer the question. Yes, you have to use whatever is available and one of the aspects of filmmaking is, of course, what can be done in the lab. So, yes, I'd spend a lot of energy looking for that. Because if the film doesn't look special... who cares... if the film doesn't have it's own atmosphere, which means it's own space, then you don't go there. But if we create a space, no matter if it's black & white, no matter if it's like Kieslowski's green, you know mainly because the film stock is green by the way, if you didn't know it. As long as you are consistent to that I think that's the real point. That you have to spend the energy and the time to find the group that can make something together, which belongs to all of you, and then you say, ah this is ours. And then I think people respond to it, saying, oh, that's not, you know Home Alone 7, it's not a James Bond movie, It's something a little bit... it might not make as much money as James Bond but one day.... You never know.

Is there a question or you're just checking your hair? I know, it is very difficult to imitate my hair style.

P: The procedure you follow is crossing or pushing?

D: Oh, cross processing. How many people from a lab are here today? Yeah, usually it's... It seems to me you know the idea of cross processing, yes, it's a similar technique but it's usually done just between the processing and the printing stage. But sometimes we use the technique... actually I'll show you a film in a minute. You'll see this technique, which is called, sometimes is called bleach bypass, which means you don't take away the silver from the film. I think a very famous example is Seven. So what happens is, the colours are more saturated, and the blacks are more... but then the white is very... ethereal, almost ghostlike. I did this film in Thailand which was in competition in Venice and the actor won Best Actor in Venice this year and I did this process in Thailand, and it was the first time they did it. And then everybody wanted to do it in Thailand and I think I destroyed 5 films because of my film. Because if you don't know what you're doing, don't do it. So everyone thinks, oh wow, this looks so great but you have to have a certain working situation, you have to have a certain relationship with the other people, the producers, the director, the art directors, you have to have a special location etc, etc. So, to say this is about technical things I think is very dangerous and I was trying to avoid it, because I think it makes you think that the technical can compensate for what you don't have. But if you don't have it, the technical won't give it to you...

(addressing the translator) That's not an easy one to translate, hah! Don't do it, just talk about sex!

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We're going to show you a film called Going Home. Originally the film was called Three. It's not a WKW film, I'm sorry WKW. But don't tell him, please. Stop the camera, would you! This part is off the record, sometimes I work with other people. Yeah, just to pay the rent. And like I said its very important when you work in this kind of direction, you know that you work with people you love. Or with people you owe something to. So, once upon a time, this person asked me to act in a film. Anyway, it was a really good film when I wasn't in it. I was really terrible. It's called Comrades, Almost a love story and the director is Peter Chan. Peter Chan is Hong Kong born but raised in Thailand, his father is an artist and he studied in the States. And he and a number of people who I work with have realized that just like Europe, Asia has to find a way to be together. Asian people have to find a way to be together just like European people are trying so hard to do now. So, we don't say cinema can change the world, but maybe it makes the economics better. So that's what's happening in my world at the moment, like I said I made a Thai film, I was the only non, ah two non Thai people in the film, one is me behind the camera and the actor, a Japanese actor in front of the camera. So many of these things that have happened in Europe, say from the 70s and the 80s on, are happening now in Asia. So, I think we go back to what we started talking about, which is: if it works for you and you're solid enough about it, if you're sincere enough about it, you are communicating really enough, then no matter how personal what you are talking about is, it can actually talk to other people... Oh, I'm such a catholic!

So, here we go. Music. The film is bleach bypass. Even though this is DVD, you can see the colours are very removed. In this movie everybody is dead. Except... oh actually I was dead, late at night I was dead also. This is the next street to where I live. And apart from these scenes in the beginning of the film, the whole film takes place in two rooms in the building. And the building used to be the police dormitories, for Hong Kong Police.

(the film goes on playing)

So, I'll just keep playing it, so you get an idea. Anyway. And to me this is kind of.... First of all, this film originally was three films: Hong Kong, Thailand and Korean directors. Unfortunately, the other two films were not so good, so everyone wanted to see this film. So we made it a separate version. But to me, the fact that this film takes place basically in two rooms in this building -I'll just keep on playing, so you see a little bit of the idea- I think that's one of the things that I learnt from WKW, the importance of the space, like I said it has to be familiar, it has to say something to you, that when we go to look for a location whether it's in Argentina, or now in Shanghai, or if we came here, that the space actually informs the film much, much more, in my experience, than in any other filmmaker's... We don't know the film until we find the space. I think people know that, people who are involved with actors, they know that once the actors have their hair, once they have the costumes, once they have a space to relate to, you know, THEY feel more confident. I think it works at all levels, that if you trust a space enough that will give you so much, but of course you have to inform yourself well enough of what you need. In usual filmmaking that means you have discussions, and maybe you make references to things. With WKW it means you just keep on looking until you say "ah ok!". So basically, the space actually informs the film, the space tells you this is a place where this kind of person could live. So, it's much more, it's almost the opposite cycle to the normal way where you say, oh, I need a bridge that looks down on a river and I need an apartment with a view, with another wall... And then I need green, blue and red, but it's ok if there's some yellow. That's the old way. I think that's the great freedom of working with an artist that... Actually, the unexpected... actually creates the film in many cases that the mistakes... I think the great thing about the films that we've made is that, like you saw in the scene with the waterfalls, there's no way we can stop the water going on the lens. And in Hollywood they would say: Oh shit, let's get the machine that keeps water off the lens. There is a machine that does that, by the way. But then, we say: Wow, that's so beautiful. And it is...

So, once we were shooting Happy Together in one room for three months... everything you see in the shot... there's no lights basically, and we went to lunch and the assistant put the camera on the bed and, I don't know if you know but in films now they have the camera and then they have a cord, just like this, they have a cord which goes to a monitor, so you can see what the camera is seeing on the TV. It's just called Video Assist. And we go back and we turn on the TV and we say wow... the room is like this (rotated 90 degrees), oh that's interesting, and half of the image is covered by the clothes of someone. And we say, wow, let's shoot it.

So, we shot for two days. We put the camera under the bed and in the closet and we put my shoes in front of the camera, and we put... well, we had a great time for two days. We just made mistakes, you know, but it was great. But it's not in the film. I think that's important for the... like I said, you know that's our film school. The mistakes and the possibilities of the unexpected. I made a film in Taiwan where I walked into a very old studio and, just like here, like that light over there (points at a spotlight) is giving a strange effect. And I said to the lighting man who's been very famous for 50 years, a 65 year old guy, most famous lighting man in Taiwan, and I said just do that. Just put one lamp up there. Twelve hours later he had 20 lamps trying to imitate the sun. You can't do it. You really can't. Instead of accepting what was there he felt that what he created was more cinematic, it's not true anymore. I think the tools we have, the way people see things, our own personal response is the most important technical aspect of filmmaking. I think if I didn't make Ashes of Time I couldn't have made another film I did in the desert. I've made four films in the desert so far. And the one thing about the desert is, you know, you cannot light the desert. God does that, or Allah, or, I don't know, my mother in law. I don't know. Somebody lights the desert, but not a cameraman. I don't have a mother in law, by the way, just in case you worry...

So I think that comes back to the simple... and the very simple basic thing is that... again it's a clichŽ but, the less you do the more it is. It really is sculpting at the end of the day. What we do has to be more about taking things away that you don't need, than adding things that you usually don't need either. The Bible Reloaded, you know. I think that's why I'm here. I mean, I assume that we're in a similar situation, we don't have 500 million dollars and Keanu Reeves, pretending to be whatever. I think we have a similar situation and the remarkable thing is that actually sometimes the less you do the more you get. It sounds ridiculous but it can work, you know, but, it's a lot of work, (laughs). It's a lot of work here (points at the heart), I mean, not necessarily here (the mind) or here (the money), you know. This is a very good moment in cinema history, downstairs in my home, because you're going to see a naked woman in a bath, you know, it's very important...

P: We saw her! (a shot from the film Going Home)

D: Oh, I'm sorry. So, what happens is everyone's dead in this film so nobody has to act, so the actor who's very... turn off the camera (lowers his voice)... the actor is a really bad actor, and he won best actor this year because of this film, because he's playing a dead person. So, the thing about filmmaking is people... This woman is naked in the bath for 12 days. At the beginning, I said "everybody go away", "how is the temperature, is it ok?", "let me check the lights". Two days later: "Hi, how are you today?", "You want some sandwiches?". After two days with a naked woman in the bath anything is possible. It doesn't matter. And I think that's the beauty of filmmaking that it really is such an intimate experience that, you know, if you go backstage at a ballet everybody acts like models, you don't have time to think about the rest. And I think that's a remarkable aspect of filmmaking, that people are so close, that all the other stuff disappears. Anyway, let's play some smoking. You like smoking?

(looking at some of his photo-collages projected on the screen)

The thing about filmmaking in my world, it takes up, basically 20 hours of every day. So where do you get the energy to continue? Personally, apart from the helicopter beer and the other one which we don't talk about in front of my mother is try to make something of your own. Maybe we take the lights down a little bit. So I think if you want to make something that has any impact, that has something to say to other people, you have to collaborate with other people or you dare. You dare to think that what you have to say, people should pay money to see. I think you have an obligation to that. I think that's the journey of life, I think that the famous line is, you know "Picasso takes 5 seconds to make a drawing and asks for 1000 dollars", and you say "but it only took you 5 seconds". No, it took all of your life. It took all of his life to have that ability. And I think that's really true. Where do we get our energy from? If we dare to expect to give energy to other people. And for me it's this kind of stuff.

So basically, every day I'm working, and then I have a camera in my apartment, like I have now, and something attracts my eye and I think that these are not records or research, they are just a response, are just a kind of note to what happens in my day. Most of my days I'm with people that make films, so most of these images are about films. What I know is that when I go home and I'm alone, because filmmaking is such... is so many people, I mean, sometimes its a thousand people... in Hero I mean, you have 30.000 people, literally 30.000 people to take care of. And I think it is really important to find your own space in that incredible crowd, you know, the amount that you have to give to other people, you have to take back something for yourself. And my way is trying just to be alone with colours, with an image, with a piece of paper and make some crazy collage. And to me it's a really important therapy. But I'm still crazy. In case you didn't notice.

(screening of In the Mood for Love, where the actors are smoking)

Some people smoke. But I think somebody should do a PhD about smoke and WKW. You don't have to act in a movie with WKW, you have to smoke. I have such bad lungs. And I don't smoke! I think we should start winding down cause I ran out of things to say, unless you ask me some questions...

[news]

P: The question is, were you a still photographer in the past, or did you become one later?

D: Who, me? No, no. You saw these photographs? These are snapshots. No, no. In my family, when I was a kid... I think you know, when you leave the battery in the camera, the camera kind of smells like your grandmother. I mean, in my family one roll of film we finished in like 10 years. And only 12 frames and not 24 or 36. I just wanted to meet girls actually. You know that's bullshit. You know I'm playing. Ok. And that's the film school and the sex problems... It's a parable. It's a metaphor. The thing is, some of the great directors in the world used to be doctors. Now. The guy who made Mad Max was a doctor. And some great musicians, so I think what happens is the journey. I never dreamt I would be sitting here in this wonderful place, in front of all these wonderful people, but ok it happens. So how do you assume it. And I think that I really, really believe that you've got to trust that, you REALLY have to trust that ... and if that means you have a Hollywood dream it's ok. You know, Jet Li really wants to be in Hollywood, that's ok it doesn't mean he's less of a Chinese actor. Australian actors have to go to Hollywood because they know there's no business, there's no work. And they have such wonderful training, they spent 10 years of their life having wonderful... I'm sure it's the same for many people. Ok. That's one way, or you know, be crazy like me and it just happens and if tomorrow I don't make any more films, it's ok, really. I'd really like to be a sailor, I used to be a sailor, I don't mind being a sailor again. But Greek ships.... you know, I mean, the boys like me too much. But that's another story. I've tried one. I'll tell you my story about Piraeus. Listen, after... later tonight I'll tell you.

But, that's it, I mean you really....

(points at a photo-collage on the screen)

I think this is a beautiful image but I don't know why. But I know I came to this step by step. Not from here (points at his mind), from here actually, from you, from.... I really believe that these steps have taken me. So that's my personality, it may not be your personality. And I really have to insist on that. Some people really need to think 1, 2, 3, 4, some people really have to work in a bank, some people... you know. There's no judgment and there's no real difference. The thing is if you're happy working in a bank, happy being a cook, if you're happy being a festival director who has to buy beer for Christopher Doyle... If you're happy, then you're ok. Then you do a good job. I'm such a catholic!

(again, watching a photo-collage inspired by the film Hero)

Yes, ah, I shot this film called Hero and then I played at night, when nobody could see. They're just the response to a very long day or a response...

(the translator spills his beer)

Oh, you're fired! Go!

(His cell phone rings -it's his mother!)

Where were we? Yeah, I don't know, I think I said it earlier. I think of myself as the missionary of cinema, because if I can do all this, everybody can. It's not that difficult. Seriously, I mean I think that's why I'm here and that's pretty much more than any other reason, but.... many people seem to think that where we are is a special place, that what we're doing is, oh so great blah, blah, blah... Bullshit. We all came by exactly the same way. I started with an 8mm camera when I was 30 years old and by accident this happened. And that's it, it's really that simple and it's really that difficult. That's all. And I think I've done -I just did a new book- many, many books and that's because I can't be at every Film Festival and I can't teach in a school, cause we have to make the films. But the balance is being here today and hopefully maybe, we have some connection. And that's it. And the works are just another way to make the connection. And the films are just... you know, to me it's just going to work and trying to find a voice. And don't look at it as anything more or less than that. Don't think it's this great, incredible art. But it may be, I don't know. It's like my usual line: Love is not forever but we can build it day by day. It's true. Britney Spears told me.

They say we ran out of beer so you should ask questions.

(addressing a lady who already had 2 questions)
You can only have five!!

We have to take one from a man.

P: We watched a documentary on you shooting a film...

D: And you are still here? You're crazy.

P: When the film finished, and you had it, you said "I wouldn't do art any more, I'll do something else and I'll try to live dangerously". So what exactly have you done that's so dangerous.

D: I came to Thessaloniki. I went to a bar last night. There I was on the streets of Thessaloniki, and thinking, what am I doing? Well, let me just tell you that, for some reason, all the whores in Shanghai know my name. But I've never seen, I've never paid, I mean, there must be something I am doing that they know about.... But I'm not with them, I don't know what is happening. I think the film we're doing at the moment is like going to Argentina. This one is really almost impossible, to put 60s Hong Kong and the future in one film. I don't know why we're doing it, it is called 2046 and that's what I left yesterday morning and that's what I go back tomorrow. That's the intellectual living dangerously. Don't worry. When I'm not working I live dangerously enough. But it's ok. If I am not here tomorrow I'd be very happy. Thank you very much for helping me do it by the way. Don't translate that, it's a little sloppy. Me and Britney Spears, so melodramatic...!

P: I have two questions. From the way that you work we know that you have a lot of material when you shoot.

D: Is that a question?

P: No. So, how do you sift through all of that material, how do you find your way through all of that material. And also, if you have seen any Greek films.

D: Aha, the second question is the real question! The question behind the question! I see. I've been to Greece, I don't need to see films. (laughs). The reality is more cinematic than anything you could see on screen. Ok, ok. We go back. The great thing is the invention of DVD. I think that WKW will be a multi millionaire one day because there's so much stuff that they can make multiple DVDs. So maybe, he knew more than he knew 10 years ago. I think that's the incredible, I don't know if you call it genius, or the bravery, or the adventurousness of WKW that really, really... you know, 97% of what we shoot you won't see, because it's ruthless. Once we've done what we do, the next step is editing, and I think that's what any artist has to do ... the metaphor is, and it's true, you have to step back. You have to step back, that's what it means. It's a bullshit clichŽ but you have to step back. (as painters do) And there are different ways to do that. I think these collages for me are one way to step back because having a great director, I mean I think I should know this.... So I think in my work my responsibility is to just... is to go there. And the director's responsibility is to pull me back. And anybody who knows me knows that. And I don't give a shit how much, if you take 90% of what I shoot and throw it away, that's ok, because the 10% is the essence. And I have no problem with that. In fact, I give more because I know you will take away. If you take everything, you look crazy. This is too much. Even for me. So, you have to find a way to step back. So maybe, its the person you love in life, or maybe your boss, or maybe in a collaborative work, the people you work with, you are at balance with each other. So you can give what they don't have, they can take what they don't have. You know: your money is my money, my money is my money! Yeah!

And the seaside, outside... what is the name of that hotel, the one with the blue light...

P: Macedonia Palace Hotel.

D: Not a good choice! Ok, anyway, it reminds me of a very famous Greek film, with an old man and a young boy.... You know the one, right?

P: Angelopoulos. He's not here!

D: Oh, ok. There are other films I like!! Don't believe everything I said.

(He is interrupted because he has to go to the press conference)

Hold on, hold on. We'll just leave with Maggie and Tony. Come on, we've got a great... So, the love of my life.

(screening of another shot of In the Mood for Love)

This is also 1 meter away from where I live.

http://www.filmfestival.gr/2003/uk/doyle1.html