My aim as a filmmaker is to make work that moves the audience, whether it was with love or hate or disgust or admiration, I don't mind. If watching my film leaves the audience 'cold' or if they think my work was merely 'nice', I've failed. Having a bath is nice. Eating good dinner is nice. Scrathing an itchy spot is nice.
If experiencing my work sparks up conversations, or internal thought processes, then I am worth the ticket price you paid.
I am not interested in exploring any particular genre, instead a film should use what ever genre serves its story. My first feature Innuendo could be described as a psychological thriller, but also a dark comedy, certainly a drama, perhaps even a psychosexual thriller, part horror, arthouse or cult. I guess you could say I don't believe in genres. They may be useful marketing tools, but as an audience member, for me, the best kind of film is one that surprises me, goes against the genre, has a little giggle at the confused audience member, and then kicks them on the arse.
They say cinema is dead. Cinema is not dead, but it certainly sometimes comes across comatosed if all it offers is the same overproduced story with different characters, locations and what ever is guestimated to "grab the audiences right now". I am not interested in those films and I know there is an audience out there of people like me. We will go to the cinema, when we feel that we are challenged, respected and not underestimated. Please overestimate me any time, I don't mind, and it may even mean I'll go to see the same movie twice if it leaves me pondering.
Some films I look up to are Happiness by Solondz, the Drifting Clouds by Kaurismaki, the Green Mile by Darabont, the Piano by Campion, Upswing by Vuoksenmaa, Eyes Wide Shut by Kubrick, Mulholland Drive by Lynch, Perfume by Tykwer, Dancer in the Dark by Von Trier, Beautiful Kate by Ward, Some Like It Hot by Wilder, the Invention of Lying by Gervais and Robinson, American Beauty by Mendes, Innocence by Cox to name but a few. All very different films, but one thing that makes or breaks the film for me is performances. If you don't have believable, real, yet subtle and life like performances, you have no movie- you merely have a piece of bad theatre on tape. What's the point of creating pretty pictures with perfect sound if the content is awful?
Having started in films with zero budgets, I've learned to 'Work with what you've got'. With crew- I get the people I trust, then I trust them to do a great job. Above all, I value singular vision and taking responsibility of delivering the art. Being an auteur is extremely hard work and I can't recommend it to anyone unless they are totally mad in the most organised way possible. Personally, I would not have it any other way.
