May
16
A Big Fat Blueberry Kiss
Wong Kar Wai's widescreen My Blueberry Nights is a delicious mood poem, a visually stunning ode to the lips of Norah Jones and Jude Law, who deliver the film's highlight: a soft, sumptuous, slow kiss.
At the packed press conference following the movie Wednesday morning, Wong and his co-stars agreed that even when they were making the film, they knew the kiss was the film's key moment. For Jones, an acting neophyte who agreed to place her trust in Wong after she finished a concert tour and watched In the Mood for Love, Wong's idiosyncratic directing methods were all she knew. Law and the other actors, Rachel Weisz, David Straithairn and Natalie Portman, made the adjustment to constant improvising and last-minute changes. "The notes Kar Wai did give were more about the timing and the mood," Jones said. "We had most of our conversations about rhythm and pace," said Law. "It was almost as if you were tuning an instrument, we were different voices in a duet. I felt we were getting a sense of physicality of character."
The scenes between Law and Jones, who are falling in love at the start of the film, are magical, and closely resemble a six-minute short film Wong made at the same time as In the Mood for Love, which is set in a diner. After Jones agreed to star in My Blueberry Nights (but not sing), Wong and writer Lawrence Block explanded the script into a three-episode cross-country saga. Wong not only worked with composer Ry Cooder but also borrowed some Japanese music from the short. Much of the film's music was suggested by Jones after she read the script, with different moods for each city, L.A., Memphis, Las Vegas and New York.
The kiss itself took days. "A kiss means different things to Chinese characters or to western characters," said Wong, who closely choreographed his actors' moves. "There's a subtle undertone, you have to make sure you do justice to the characters. We have to make sure it's something we can all share, even though we're all different races and cultures." "It was clear that this tiny moment in these people's lives was a huge turning point in the story," said Law. "Everyone's lives turn and change in a moment."
For the pie that Law feeds to Jones night after night, Wong asked Jones which pie she hated most. "Blueberry," she said. "It was like torture for her," Wong said.
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The title is cringe-worthy, like a mid-80s Prince song.
Posted by: David C | May 18, 2007 at 09:26 AM