The New Yorker critic Anthony Lane described the cinematography of Christopher Doyle as “a snake — savouring the air of the streets.” Across the Atlantic Ocean, on BBC , he is credited with “changing the look of cinema”. Doyle’s “anti-Hollywood” aesthetic, associated with the streaks of thick, luminous paint in Wong Kar-wai’s films, have a striking and lasting visual vitality. It has often been described as “post-modern” — though what that means exactly is everybody’s guess. My guess is the reliance, in his images, on feelings over narrative, on style over substance — the kind that skyrocketed post-World War II artists like Mark Rothko into fame. Rothko would just paint fields of colour, and people would stand and weep in front of his large, enveloping canvases. The effect of Doyle’s imagery is not much different. For all his artistry, Doyle is flippant, moony, and charming. During an e-mail exchange produced below, edited for length and clarity, Doyle warns, “I think you s...
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