OTHER TECH

Will you do all new extras when your films are released on the new formats? No, that's too hard. Basically, you just release it in high-def and it becomes a catalog item. But reworking 15 or 20 films - that's exhausting. I wouldn't be making any new films; I'd just be redoing old ones.

Do you have a favorite way of watching movies? Do you prefer a movie theater? To see a movie I really want to see, yes. To see a movie I'm not so interested in seeing, I prefer to watch that at home. But when I really want to see a film, I want to see the size and scope, the cinematography, the sense of the theater and audience - I want to be part of a participatory event. But I'm very grateful to have been born into an era that went from movies just being shown in theaters to a multiplication of techniques. The younger generation doesn't realize how difficult it used to be to see movies, so they don't value them in the same way. To them, it's more like a can of Coke - they don't see it as inherently valuable. You'll be able to buy a great movie for $1.39 eventually somewhere, right? So a movie on DVD is like a paperback. But inside that little paperback is a whole world. It could be something classical like Alexander or it could be more modern - it doesn't matter; it's just a beautiful treasure. It's fortunate more people get to see a movie - and hopefully appreciate it - on DVD, but the movie's devalued, in a sense.

Have you shot anything digitally? Yes, some - the Cuban documentary, Comandante, and the three other documentaries I did.

You still prefer film? Well, film has a resolution that I like. It's not to say I can't change, but I'm used to seeing film. Sometimes digital can be squeaky clean. It's just waxy at times, synthetic. I've seen good projections of digital footage, but I still think I can see the difference, feel it. But it'll make film cheaper, in a sense - easier to handle and smaller. And you'll have bigger distribution worldwide. But it does feel a little plastic-y sometimes, like a modern chair or something - a post-war middle-class boom-housing kind of thing.