Taiwanese veteran cinematographer Mark Lee (李屏賓) is being spotlighted by the New York City movie theater, Metrograph, in its film show titled “Daring Motion: The Films of Mark Lee Ping-bing” from Friday last week to Sept. 29.
Best known for his collaboration with Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢), Lee, 70, is “one of the most formidable cinematographers” and “a genius of the long take with an uncanny ability to coax indelibly composed images out of the most unpromising low-light conditions,” the event page said.
Lee attended the Saturday screening of Millennium Mambo (千禧曼波), a 2001 Taiwanese romantic drama film directed by Hou, after which he received a standing ovation from a full house during a symposium.
Photo: CNA
After more than 20 years since the movie debuted, Lee spoke about his and Hou’s creative process at the symposium.
“Our original aim was having a young heart: a trembling, unstable heart. So, we chose camerawork in which everyone can feel instability, with tight images, a very unclear future and expectations for life changes,” he said.
Lee recalled looking forward to the digital era with Hou, even though they did not fully grasp what “digital” meant at the time.
“So, we tried to capture a sense of digitality in Millennium Mambo while anticipating that new era,” he said. “Do you think you felt that sense of digitality while watching the film?”
In the past few years after the digital era was ushered in, Lee embraced small and simple cameras and filming gadgets after initial misgivings.
“I have recently learned how to take pictures with a mobile phone,” Lee said, adding that he used to dislike doing so because it felt “too cheap and easy.”
“Just a click and several shots would be taken, and the photography process is lost, [but] now I am practicing taking one picture at a time, and I think I do quite alright,” he said.
There was no turning back after stepping into the world of cinema, he said.
“Filmmaking is a lifetime pursuit,” he said. “So, this is where I’m at, with 120 or so films at the age of 70.”
The month-long show is being sponsored by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York. Eleven films by Lee as well as Let the Wind Carry Me (乘著光影旅行), a documentary featuring Lee, is to be screened, according to the Metrograph Web site.
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