I think we're scared of intimacy - all of us, a little bit.
In 'Tree of Life,' the cinematography records a small story, a celebration of the courage of everyday life. But it does it so up close and so effortlessly that it has the effect of elevating the intimacy of the story to a grand scale.
Technology and communicating with people online or through a phone or through social media - it's a false sense of intimacy and connection.
It's very hard to make grand, romantic gestures on a mandolin, and there are times, particularly when playing Bach, that you long for just a little more sustain. But for better or worse it's my voice, and the trade-off comes with increased intimacy. It's like you're beckoning the audience closer: 'C'mere, I've got something to tell ya.'
People with film careers get a whole onslaught of people they spend 12 hours a day with every three months. It's like speed dating. You've got a fast-track to social intimacy with a whole bunch of people.
When you're writing, you think: How does intimacy happen in the work? You don't know who your reader is, woman, man, child, black person, Asian, who knows?
There is no more moving a professional relationship than that between a law clerk and a Supreme Court justice. As a place to work, the court is unique in its intimacy and intensity.
After my second marriage failed... I said, 'You know, could I have a relationship with a man? A loving relationship with a man that would involve intimacy?' For a while, before I did get into a relationship, I saw, for a few years, either women or men. And I found that I could be attracted to both.
I feel like, whatever movie I was making, there would always be moments of human intimacy and insight into a little bit of what makes us tick as people.
Intimacy between humans need not be relegated to independent film. Real characters can exist no matter what the scale of a movie is.
