by Dee Jefferson/Talent Press

For someone who has a reputation for 24-7 insobriety and unpredictability, Chris Doyle is extremely lucid – a reflection of his work with such respected directors as Wong Kar-Wai, Zhang Yimou and Phillip Noyce. Born in Australia, Doyle travelled extensively and eventually experimented with his first camera in Taiwan at the age of 28.

Now 52 and a repeat guest at the Berlinale, Doyle is still unmatched in favour amongst the 530 young filmmakers of the talent campus. He is worshipped by young cinematographers, but his philosophy is unpretentious. He is more than ready to admit his errors. When asked how he copes with mistakes on set, his answer quickly exposes a life philosophy: “You assimilate them”. He talks about working on a picture in South America where a scene was shot near a huge waterfall: the air was full of water, and while they were trying to film the main character, the camera shots were becoming distorted by droplets. “Westerners would have said they couldn’t shoot it, and stop until someone could fix the camera”. Instead, the filmmakers adopted the unexpected visual effect as part of the emotional mise-en-scene – as the character became sadder, so too did the image.

[Christopher Doyle at Talent Campus. Image provided by the Berlinale.]

Aspects of his camerawork, such as highly controlled tracking shots, sometimes fast ("Hero", 2002) and sometimes slow ("In The Mood for Love", 2001), are seemingly belied by his very improvisational approach. However his ability to accept the unexpected and to let things go rather than control them, actually seem to give him a wonderful balance. When asked if his approach entails fatalism, he says the word has negative connotations from the west, and he prefers the concept of destiny. He suggests we are all here on earth to discover certain things that the world reveals to us. The journey, not the destination, is important.

The best artists are often possessed of a certain darkness, a state of mind necessary for their creativity. Doyle describes his ideal working state as drunk, but when pushed says his best work is done when depressed, especially after the end of a relationship. "I'm quieter; I don't drink so much; I'm not going out trying to fuck every woman I see". So the depression is a positive experience? "Definitely".

Music is crucial to Doyle’s concept of cinema. "All art aspires to music, just as all science aspires to mathematics". This beautifully rendered idea is manifested in his own films by a structure and rhythm drawn from music. When asked about music that inspires him, Doyle cites a song by country music legend Willie Nelson, "Mothers don’t let your sons grow up to be cowboys". The point of the song, he says, is that your children would be better being doctors or lawyers, making lots of money and living the good life, because cowboys are lonely, even when with someone. Really it is a song about being an artist. If ascribing this kind of philosophy to country music seems a stretch, Chris points out that Willie Nelson is also a Taoist.

[Dee Jefferson is from Australia where she runs a short film festival. She started writing film reviews for a youth media website in 2002.]

© Berlinale Talent Campus 2005