Among the many, many cinematographers lensing pictures in the movie industry, there are few whose names immediately evoke a singular, stylistic sensibility. One of those folks is Christohper Doyle. Rising to fame thanks to his collaborations with Wong Kar-Wai, the cinemtographer has mostly worked in foreign cinema with unique entries in American film thanks to M. Night Shyamalan‘s “Lady In The Water,” and Gus Van Sant‘s “Psycho” remake and his lo-fi “Paranoid Park.” Doyle is always a good raconteur and this short doc is worth a spin.
Created for BBC Two‘s “The Culture Show,” and seemingly put together not long after the release of “2046” (and definitely before Doyle fell out with Kar-Wai), the segment visits the cinematographer in his Hong Kong home and he takes them around to the locations used for “In The Mood For Love” and “Chungking Express.” He explains how he achieved certain shots, and what his methodology is behind the camera. All told, it’s some interesting stuff.
Give it a spin below. And you’ll likely next see Doyle’s work in Sebastian Silva‘s thriller “Magic Magic” starring Michael Cera. [One Shot]
Doyle and Wong "fell out" during the making of 2046. Doyle left in the middle of filming and most of it was shot by a sort of "pickup team" (there were three credited DPs and several other uncredited ones). In any case the film Doyle's working on in this segment appears to be LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE, so this would probably be 2002 or 2003, even though it was aired later.
Thanks for the suggestion Kevin — Doyle & WKW = cinematic bliss.
Chris has just shot his first UK-set drama. It's a half hour directed by the BBC's Simon Pitts. Facebook.com/TheBoyAndTheBus