Spike Jonze held a Q&A session after a screening of his upcoming film “Her” at AMC Georgetown Theaters on Dec 2.
The film follows the relationship of Theodore Twombly, a lonely middle-aged man recovering from his separation from his wife, and Samantha, the world’s first artificially intelligent operating system, as they work through the struggles and humanity of romance in a futuristic society.
Hollywood writer and producer George Stevens Jr., who moderated the session, began with an anecdote about his days in the conservatory alongside directors David Lynch and Terrence Malick when everyone was “trying to make something original.”
“This film is truly original,” Stevens said.
Jonze spoke briefly on the origin of the film. He was online when he saw an ad for “a chatroom where you were able to chat with an artificial intelligence.” He was captivated by the illusion of a real person talking through the computer.
“I wrote down maybe a paragraph about the idea and I just kept coming back to this idea over the next months of turning it into a relationship movie,” he said.
The first question asked was “What’s with all the orange?” Jonze said he wanted the whole movie to feel “warm” and convey the feeling of a love story. He told of how his cinematographer wanted no blue in the film and vetoed any wardrobe or set that included the color blue.
“He would always say ‘the sky is already blue and that’s too much,’” Jonze said.
A follow-up question was asked about the music in the film and whether it was a “chicken or the egg” scenario with choosing music. Jonze said he sent shots to Arcade Fire, who would then wrote corresponding music to try and capture the feeling.
“After that we would play the music for Joaquin while he was acting and he would adapt accordingly,” Jonze said.
The film involved a lot of interpretation and imagination, and the audience was desperately trying to get Jonze to explain the motive. The director was steadfast against such questions, however.
“I’d prefer you to have your own relationship with the film,” he said.
Jonze was open and honest about his work. He even admitted that at an early stage of the film, he thought it was all a disaster.
“I thought about just getting on a plane and leaving… sending an apology to the financiers,” he said.
Jonze’s responses were almost as earnest as the film itself, and it was obvious he cared greatly for the work both in his explanation and in the payoff of the film itself.
“A film is like childbirth,” Jonze said. “It’s incredibly painful to go through, but at the end you forget about all of that and step back to see the final work come together.”
thescene@theeagleonline.com
