OTHER TECH

You and Jeunet have also embraced digital manipulation of the image as part of the way you present this emotional reality.

Photo by Douglas Kirkland

Yes, although a lot less is digital than people suppose. For instance, in that opening shot in Paris, when we're quoting F. W. Murnau's Sunrise, what we did was to use a mix of digital and the same old modeling techniques from the 1920s that Murnau used.

Do you have a home theater? Well, my organization is based in Sydney, and then we have a secondary base in New York City. Today, I'm actually just going to a new loft where we're setting up a home system, so I've got a load of people showing me what's the latest and the greatest. Back in the house in Sydney, there are a lot of systems. Sony screens and Sony DVD players. We all live and work in the same big old building, where there's the main screening room with a big system, and then I have stuff in my bedroom, but nowhere near as good. I use Bose speakers in the other rooms because they have to be portable to be shunted around different rooms.

I've been on the road since the truly great new home theater systems have come out. When I was working on Moulin Rouge, I think the Philips plasma TV was out, and I thought it was a bit soft, but with the new ones the pixels are really great; they just have depth, so I'm about to buy one.

But even on my laptop computer, I always travel with a dozen DVDs. It's like when you used to travel with CDs; you can have a deepening relationship with a favorite film