ons stival . - California Film Institute

the west. [but to] tell a story . . . gets me
excited; I tend to forget, and I’m empowered.
So I feel very much like the central character.”
lee’s point underscores the reason that
stories are so important, whether they’re in
books or onscreen: they can lead us to an
understanding of truth. He emphatically
agrees that this is what motivates his work:
“yes! That’s why I make movies; that’s why
people go to the movie theater in the dark
space, and look into and react to something
on the silver screen. [It may be] an image, a
fantasy that’s totally fake and artificial, but [it]
might be the truth.”
A screenwriter on his earlier projects, lee
now mostly directs. He frequently works with
the same writers—in the case of Lust,
Caution, longtime collaborators Hui-ling
Wang and James Schamus—and he has a lot
of input into the way his projects are
developed, working and creating together
with the screenwriters, and, when it’s in
Chinese, finalizing the script. Occasionally,
he has to write something while the film is in
production. but, he says, “I don’t call myself
writer; I see myself as director.”
lee’s collaboration with James Schamus is
one of those great filmmaking partnerships. It
began with lee’s first feature. “[I] got money
in Taiwan to make Pushing Hands (MVFF
1992), and came back to New york, [as] it
was written to be shot here. So, through
some mutual friends . . . I got to meet Ted
Hope, [Schamus’] partner in Good Machine.
right then, they [worked at] two tables in the
back of another company.
“I pitched them the story in broken english.
They told me they were the kings of nobudget
filmmaking. They [said] listen: no
budget, not low budget. So we hit it off, and
I was just praying the whole time that they
weren’t crooks! I had no idea. . . . Talk about
fate!”
From that fateful moment an incredibly
successful long-term creative partnership
was born. One of the things notable about
lee and Schamus as a duo is the diversity of
the work they’ve produced together. The
choices they make come about in different
ways. lee says, “every project is different—
[James] does development, too, for his
company. The first four movies were just
something I wanted to do. The first three
(Pushing Hands, the Wedding Banquet,
Eat Drink Man Woman), sometimes I
[wrote], sometimes I [developed]. The fourth
movie, sense and sensibility, was pitched to
ANG lee ANd SIGOurNey WeAVer ON THe SeT OF tHE iCE storM
online | mvff.com
me. I didn’t know anyone in england, I was
very afraid, so I dragged him along.” lee
laughs as he remembers their foray to
england together: “He started out being my
entourage then ended up producer of the
movie—[meanwhile] learning how to really
produce.”
by the time they made sense and
sensibility, their work together had
developed considerably. “you know, we sort
of grow together, and the ice storm (MVFF
1997) is just something that he introduced
to read, as reading, for pleasure, then I [said]
I want to make this into a movie.” From ice
storm’s look into early ’70s American
suburbia, they hopped to the Civil War:
“ride With the Devil (MVFF 1999) was
something [James] developed, he brought to
my attention as movie.” The next one was
lee’s choice: “Crouching tiger was
something I wanted to do. It goes both ways.
This one is something I wanted to do. And I
always ask his opinion. If he says, ah, that’s
rubbish, then that’s discouraging to me, but
if he says great, that’s a plus to me.
Brokeback . . . it was something he wanted
to produce in the past and couldn’t get it off
the ground. [The script was already] written,
[it was] a set-to-go project, and . . . he green
lit it.”
As our 15 minutes come to an end, I ask lee
about the clip program we will be putting
together for his Tribute at MVFF: does he
have requests, does he want to sign off on
our choices beforehand? He thinks a little,
and says, “No, I trust you.” Ah, that makes
two of us.
Zoë Elton is director of programming for MVFF,
and an artist, writer and theater director.
seleCted FilMography
Lust, Caution (2007)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Hulk (2003)
Crouching tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
ride with the Devil (1999)
the ice storm (1997)
sense and sensibility (1995)
Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)
the Wedding Banquet (1993)
Pushing Hands (1992)
45