|
|
 |
|
|
To celebrate the release of period epic Lust, Caution, Blockbuster.co.uk's Marshall Julius looks at the life and career of jack of all genres and master of all, director Ang Lee.
"Every movie I make - that's my hideout, the place I don't quite understand, but feel most at home."
A startling erotic espionage thriller set in Second World War-torn Shanghai, Lust, Caution is based on the short story by revered Chinese author Eileen Chang, and stars Asian cinema icon Tony Leung opposite screen newcomer Tang Wei. "The title doesn't just refer to love and sex," explains celebrated director Ang Lee, "but to life and art. Lust for life, caution in society, and it's all from a woman's point of view."
"It was wonderful watching Ang direct," enthuses co-star Joan Chen. "He is focused, honest, precise, and thoughtful. He is confident but never cocky. As a matter of fact, he amazed me with his sense of humility. I always wanted to be directed by Ang regardless of how big or small the part was. For me, it was meaningful to contribute to his vision and to see him practice his craft."
Adds actor Wang Leehom, "Just meeting an icon like Ang Lee, who crosses borders among languages and generations, at the audition would have been enough. What I found was that Ang is a great teacher as well."
"For all of us," echoes producer Bill Kong, "every day was like going to school with Professor Ang Lee. Each day, we all learned something new and then graduated with a master's degree in our field."
"At the audition," remembers newcomer Tang, "I was nervous and had a fever, but Ang was very friendly. He poured tea for me. He was very kind, no big-director ego. By the end, I felt I had found someone I could talk from the heart to. I found out he was a very good director, because he gives actors a lot of information about the characters - homework, and a lot of training. I felt no boundaries working with Ang. He can discover the potential that you don't know you have."
An international director equally comfortable creating Eastern and Western works of art, a nurturing, empowering filmmaker driven to experience as many different genres as possible, Ang Lee is a 'you name it, he's done it' kind of filmmaker, a man just as likely to make a martial arts epic or superhero flick as he is a costume drama, western or comedy. And that's just for starters.
"I'm a drifter and an outsider," reveals Lee. "There's not one single environment I can totally belong to. My cultural roots are something illusive. I think I find something new in each culture after being away for a bit, and that's creatively important. You can't move forward without changing, and that's why I try to stay open to new perspectives. I want to keep learning. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that you can never learn enough."
Well known for never storyboarding his movies, even films as complex as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Lee, says actor Wang Leehom, "never writes anything down. No shot lists or storyboards. Everything is in his head." If ever a man was born to make movies, then surely that man is Ang Lee.
Born in Pingtung, Taiwan on October 23, 1954, Ang Lee was largely educated in the United States, and after receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Theatre Studies from the University of Illinois, he went to New York University to complete a Masters Degree in Fine Arts. His short film Fine Line won Best Film at the annual NYU Film Festival, and his first feature, Pushing Hands, won Best Film at the Asian-Pacific Film Festival. The film was also nominated for 9 Golden Horse Awards, Taiwan's equivalent of the Academy Award.
Pushing Hands was also the first film in Lee's 'Father Knows Best' trilogy, all of which starred actor Sihung Lung. The next film in the series, The Wedding Banquet, won top prize at the 1993 Berlin International Film Festival, while the final film of the trio, Eat Drink Man Woman, was selected as the opening night feature for the Directors Fortnight section of the 1994 Cannes International Film Festival, and named Best Foreign-Language Film by the National Board of Review.
In 1995, Lee directed his first English language feature, Sense and Sensibility, with Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet. The film was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won for Best Adapted Screenplay (Emma Thompson, from the Jane Austen novel). The movie also won Golden Globe Awards for Best Picture (Drama) and Best Screenplay, the BAFTA for Best Picture and The Golden Bear at the 1996 Berlin International Film Festival. "I was never romantic in real life," admits Lee. "That is why I have to make movies about it."
Premiering at the 1997 Cannes International Film Festival, where it walked away with the Best Screenplay award, Lee's The Ice Storm was an intense, emotional drama starring Joan Allen, Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Christina Ricci, and Tobey Maguire. A western with Tobey Maguire, Ride With the Devil followed in 1999, and in 2001, along came Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to conquer the world. A thrilling and beautiful martial arts epic, the movie won four Academy Awards, for Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Art Direction and Best Foreign Language Film. Among the honours bestowed upon him, Lee won Best Director awards from the Directors Guild of America, BAFTA and the Golden Globes.
The Hulk, a grown up take on the superhero genre with Eric Bana in the title role, was less favourably received in 2003, but despite the occasional slow patch and a regrettably pretentious climax, it remains a bold and exciting comic book movie with world class special effects. In 2005, Lee's few remaining critics were silenced when the filmmaker delivered Brokeback Mountain, a sensitive drama about gay cowboys with Jake Gyllenhaal and the late Heath Ledger.
"Working with Heath was one of the purest joys of my life," said Lee after the actor's premature demise. "He brought to the role of Ennis more than any of us could have imagined - a thirst for life, for love, and for truth, and a vulnerability that made everyone who knew him love him. His death was heartbreaking."
Nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, Brokeback Mountain won for Lee the coveted Best Director Oscar, as well as nods for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score. In addition the film won Best Picture and Best Director awards at the BAFTAs, Golden Globes and Independent Spirit Awards, rounding off awards season by winning Outstanding Film at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation's (GLAAD) Media Awards. "There's a private feeling to the movie," offers Lee, "an intimate feeling."
Most recently, Lee enjoyed tremendous success with Lust, Caution, and is currently in pre-production on A Little Game, a comedy/drama due in 2009. Now comfortably in his Fifties, with a respected body of work and the power to make virtually any film he wants to, in any language, anywhere in the world, Lee continues to delight and surprise audiences, insisting that nothing makes him happier. "I trust the elusive world created by movies more than anything else," says the director with a smile. "I'm very happy when I'm making a movie."
|
|