Away with Words

“The more I wrote the more I realized that words are not enough" - claims the protagonist of Mishima: a Life in Four Chapters, directed by Paul Schrader. After participating in Away with Words it may seem that Chris Doyle would fully agree with such a statement. During the performance named after the first film he directed, the legendary cinematographer was wondering about the role of words in the process of creating images and was trying to prove that the latter often give much more opportunities.

Some people hold seminars, others prepare PowerPoint presentations, while Chris Doyle takes an audience on a journey. How otherwise one could call an encounter that took place yesterday as part of Camerimage Festival? The room was jam-packed already half an hour before the performance. With disheveled hair similar to Lynch, Chris Doyle was trying to create a casual relationship with the listeners from the very beginning. “What you're doing now it's pornography" - he sighed on seeing a student slipping through with four beers in his hands. “But I see that we're on the same wavelength."

“Away with Words to me is what cinematography is about. It's about a way of using words, taking a script, taking an idea or even taking a word like “blue" and giving it a form." Words often mean different things to different people, that's why the power of communication of an image is much stronger: “Your blue and my blue might be a different blue, so we have to get beyond words, we have to get away from words, we have to make an image which will be able to resonate in a way that words can only suggest."


Chris Doyle illustrated his performance with fragments of films, music videos and video art he made, he also mentioned several people, who proved to be important in his life in one way or another; Willie Nelson, Gong Li, Charles Bukowski, Alan Watts, Ai WeiWei, Tilda Swinton, father of Chinese rock Cui Jian, Prince, Frank O'Hara, a poet writing about cinema and sardines and Tony Leung, wearing striped pants, pretending to be a tourist, and many others. “The great thing about Camerimage, and this is why so many of us are coming back so often, is that you have this sense of community. Cinematographer's job is often all about people with whom you share this journey" - said Doyle. It's all about friends, colleagues, all about people who inspire, but also those, who are not afraid to point out our mistakes. “Be your own best critic" - he advised the students. He already has one - during the performance he would have conversations with his Chinese alter ego Du Ke Feng, who, as he himself noticed, finds Doyle to be a piece of s... On a split screen one was on the left, and the other - on the right. “Du Ke Feng doesn't have parents, an ID card, he doesn't even pay taxes, the bastard. He only exists as a kind of stimulus."

According to Chris Doyle there are no answers, just questions and he is not afraid to pose them. Is wanking a creative engagement? Did Joan of Arc had style? What is cinematographer's job all about, what kind of challenges does he have to face? “Do what you can, not what you want. If only I knew that when I was twenty, thirty, forty years old (...) What's important in this job is focus, enthusiasm, time, repetition, frame, complicity, light & shadow, trust, composition (...) The point is not to make art, it's to try to become a great cinematographer. It's not about hard work; it's about being ready, preparing oneself. Just like in this famous story about Picasso not being able to pay his bills in Café de Flore in Paris, making this quick drawing on a tablecloth and giving it to the waiter. When the waiter said that this was nothing because he did it in 5 seconds, Picasso responded that it took him his whole life to make this drawing." It's important to constantly better oneself, even at the cost of many errors: “Mistakes are what motivated me to become a cinematographer. I was curious to find out how it works. Why does it work. What does the camera see that we don't see. How to find a way with words, how to express an idea in images. I think that mistakes are a gift actually. They keep you up at night, they make you want to do better next time."

For him his job is never done. He tries to understand the essence of an image, to get to its core. “Most people go back to their families or go our drinking with their friends, or go and see a movie after a days work. I go back to what I shot to look at it differently, to find out what really works." He deconstructs the footage by destroying film tape, making collages, and creating installations by juxtaposing takes. Borrowing a title of Willie Nelson's song, he called one of his installations I Didn't Come Here (And I Ain't Leavin'), those were also his last words. And then, after a standing ovation, he invited the whole room out for a beer.

Marta Bałaga
Camerimage