Geez, turn Christopher Doyle and you’ll get a good quote. The famed and cinematographer is nothing if not candid about this feelings on movies, prone to pouring his particular brand of acid on stuff like “Life Of Pi” or “Lincoln.“ Dropping into Canada last week to speak at Toronto’s TIFF Bell Lightbox he wasted no time in giving the audience an evening full of notable quotables to bring home with them.
“Fuck ‘The Departed‘ (I love you, Marty),” was just one of the nuggets of worldly wisdom provided by Doyle (who has previously shared his distaste for that remake), as he proceeded to give almost Vincent Gallo-esque advice to budding moviemakers. “I wanna make films. How should I do it?” Doyle said, repeating a familiar question he receives: “Have you been in jail recently? Have you fucked a black woman? Have you been in a car crash? If you haven’t had any of these experiences then what the fuck are you going to talk about?” Uhhh, okay.
Meanwhile, the current studio culture is struggling from a dearth of quality because, Doyle believes, there is simply no creativity to be found. “That’s why there are so many franchises, bceause nobody is living. Nobody is living, therefore they think filmmaking is about filmmaking,” he said. “The French have told us how big a mistake that is.”
So what else does Doyle have going on? Well, he now has an Mandarin speaking alter ego named Dù Kefeng, which Doyle explains thusly: “I’m a Chinese with a skin disease.” Never change, Chris, never change. [Filmmaker Magazine]