Ang Lee and James Schamus

Last night I went to a talk with Ang Lee and James Schamus. As a refresher, Ang Lee directed Eat Drink Man Woman, Sense and Sensibility, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hulk, Brokeback Mountain, among others. James Schamus has collaborated as a writer/producer with Ang Lee on eleven films. The talk was a conversational format, with Professor Jeffrey Knapp discussing their movies with them.

Unfortunately, the discussion focused heavily on The Ice Storm, which I have not seen. Apparently it was the first movie Ang Lee intentionally tried to make artistic. I did enjoy listening to the insights and connections Knapp made about the movie, and then Ang Lee describing how he approached certain elements. Ang Lee really enjoys figuring out how to make something that's seemingly unfilmable into a movie and delving into the psychology of the characters - to elevate melodrama.

In regards to Lee and Schamus's frequent collaborations, Knapp tried to make some connection to the titles of the movies, to which Ang Lee replied that only a scholar would make such a connection. The scripts that Schamus writes are often pretty bare. A lot is left in the margins of the pages for the director to interpret. This is why Ang Lee enjoys working with him. He receives a lot of scripts, but oftentimes he feels that a script is so carefully planned out, plotted for success (in whatever genre), that any director could do a reasonable job by following the script, and that there would be nothing extra that he could bring to the table. This is especially the case in the TV industry. The writers run the show and the directors aren't important. With Schamus's scripts, the director has more room to work.

We were also shown a few minutes from their next movie, Taking Woodstock, starring Demetri Martin. I think it's about the inception of Woodstock. After making a string of depressing movies, they wanted to do something a bit more upbeat. In fact, they even mentioned that they had one point thought about making a musical, and are still open to the idea. Regarding Taking Woodstock, I'm not that interested in the subject matter, so unless it gets amazing reviews, I probably won't watch it.

In the Q&A portion (questions submitted by audience members), Ang Lee responded to a question about the advice he'd give to Asian-Americans trying to make it in the movie industry. His advice was to write your own material and to be willing to expand beyond your own personal experience. You have to be relevant to many people and oftentimes Asian-American films are too narrowly focused on a slice of Asian culture (at least I think that's what he was getting at).

Ang Lee was pretty low key, but he had some funny remarks. On the subject of Sense and Sensibility, he said whenever someone tells him that they love that movie, he wants to punch them in the face. I think he's tired of hearing about that movie. When asked what he would do if he wasn't directing, he said he'd probably be a loser.

So after the talk, which lasted only 90 minutes, my brother wanted to wait around the stage exit to see if we could catch Ang Lee leaving. We were quickly able to meet James Schamus for a brief moment. However, there apparently was also some private reception going on. Not sure where Ang Lee would be leaving from, my brother actually made his way to the parking lot and found Ang Lee and got an autograph and picture with him. I didn't :-/. I guess Ang Lee is a pretty private person, and we're a bunch of bothersome gnats. Oh well!

Sorry Dennis, I wasn't able to have Ang Lee corroborate your claim that he held you when you were a baby.