Not a year has passed since the pandemic came into our lives and changed many things drastically. Of course, what concerns here is the cinema and this has suffered several setbacks over many months in which audiences are increasingly more inclined to watch content from home. Many are the directors who defend the theatrical experience and fear that this new model could change the cinema forever, however, some filmmakers like Ang Lee already propose plans to rescue the classic customs and for him technology plays a fundamental role.
«I think we always need the cinema. It is our church, our temple », dice Read. It’s a ceremony. It is in our nature, the congregation. But now television is very convenient, so you have to think of something that you cannot experience at home. Not just the crowd, not just the size, but the ceremonial effect. It has to evolve. “
Ang Lee broke into the big leagues with artisanal action movies like The tiger and the dragon and later with measured dramas like Secret in the mountain, for which he obtained his first Oscar as director. However, it was from An extraordinary adventure -for which he obtained his second statuette- that he fell in love with the possibilities offered by technological advances. That film, shot in three dimensions and configured with various pioneering visual effects, opened Lee’s mind to the new resources.
Later he continued to experiment with the possibilities of technology with films such as Gemini Project where he shot at 120 frames per second, thus far surpassing the traditional 24. The film starring Will Smith was a flop with audiences and critics, but that doesn’t discourage the director from continuing to push the limits.
“I think the next step, logically, is immersion that you can’t do with a TV screen,” explains Lee. «But, how to achieve that [el público] participate, instead of just watching? How to involve it? That is something we must work on to get them to go to the movies.
Despite the fact that the third dimension had its great moment at the beginning of the last decade, interest soon dropped due to the excess of films in that format and the little or no evolution that it actually offered. Other filmmakers who innovate with the visual aspect of their films and in the same way defend the cinematographic experience are Christopher Nolan or Steven Spielberg, who have obtained better results with the public and critics.
For Lee the road has been difficult, since after An extraordinary adventure, it hardly returned to find the acclaim of the audiences. His intentions to combine 3D with frame rates in high quantities, have not yet found the right project. However, he assures that he will continue in the search.
“Sometimes you get it right and sometimes you hit the wrong place,” he admits. But that is making movies. Keep cool, keep innocence, keep your curiosity, keep your dreams. You have to hug your audience and expect them to join you. That is why we make films.
Ang Lee is already preparing his next project. A ribbon that bears by name Thrilla in Manila and will tell the story of the third time that Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazer met over the ring. The heavyweight championship occurred in 1975 and although at first glance it would seem that it is a drama closer to the biopic, the director already anticipated that “there is action in it.”
How will Lee combine sports drama with action and technological innovations? We will know when Thrilla in Manila hit screens sometime in 2022.
–
–
