Daniel Scheinert: Kwan in particular will return to the opening scene a lot. We rewrote Swiss Army Man ‘s opening a lot. With this one, many drafts of the script started more like The Matrix, with a psychedelic, crazy multiversal tease of sorts. And then as we wrote it, it became increasingly personal of a story, and we were like, “Oh, the sci-fi is just a tool we use to tell a family story. We should start with the family.”
Daniel Kwan: The very first draft had an almost Magnolia -style opening with a narrator talking about probability and scale and infinity, with different stories throughout the multiverse. It was very fun and I’m very proud of it, but the longer we worked on this movie, the more multiverse stuff was coming out and we realized we actually didn’t have to be quite so explicit or explanatory.
Daniel Scheinert: We got to publish a book with A24, and there’s like a 10- or 11-page section with that old intro, which we mildly reworked. We put it in the book, which was fun. So it’s just 10 screenplay pages at the beginning of that book that are just the way it used to start when it was more focused on the science of the movie.
Daniel Kwan: It’s a completely different t1. It feels like it’s from a different movie, but it shows how much we explored.
The movie has a lot of beautiful, mind-bending images, but the close-ups you employ throughout hold a lot of power, too. I’m thinking specifically of Jobu’s close-up as she tells Evelyn about creating her destructive bagel.
Daniel Kwan: When we were filming that scene in the hallway, I was like, “This is the best thing I’ve ever filmed.” It’s just her face and a little bit of wind blowing her hair.
Daniel Scheinert: And then she sings “sucked into a bagel” right when a tear rolls down her cheek. In the moment, we were like, “That’s haunting. Oh mio Dio." I was creeped out and moved at the same time [laughs].
Daniel Kwan: Yeah, I was like, “I’ve never seen this feeling in a movie before.” As a filmmaker, you’re always looking for those magic moments where you capture lightning in a bottle and her face in that moment … what it felt like even on set made us both say, “This is incredible.”
I’d also be remiss not to mention the film’s Wong Kar Wai-inspired universe, which contains some of the most visually beautiful images I’ve seen in a sci-fi film in a long time.
Daniel Scheinert: You know, Ke used to work for Wong Kar Wai, so he talked to us about his process, which is famously very slow-moving. He was like, “We’d frame up and it looked good, and then Wong Kar Wai would be like, ‘Let’s work on it for another few hours.’ And then a few hours later, after all these little adjustments, you’d say, ‘Ooh, that’s a better shot.'” I remember one time, Ke told us that Wong Kar Wai is very frustrated by other filmmakers who don’t care about the imagery and that he watches movies and he’ll say, “Oh, I like this actor and I like the screenwriting, but man, they don’t care about the imagery.”
Obviously, that would be Wong Kar Wai’s opinion, but it always kind of stuck with me. That is such a treat with certain filmmakers, when you’re like, “Hmmm. They care about this shot.”
Daniel Kwan: It’s harder and harder to come by these days, I think.
Moving away from the film’s visual style, I wanted to ask: If you could program a double feature for Everything Everywhere All at Once, what film would you pick to accompany it?
Daniel Kwan: Just a black screen for an hour [laughs]. I feel like this movie already feels like a triple feature, and I feel bad for anyone who has to watch it with another movie. It just seems unfair. But what would you say?
Daniel Scheinert: I’m trying to think of a fun documentary because something like that would be a nice palate cleanser.
Daniel Kwan: Oh, this is a kind of shilling for another A24 movie coming out this summer, but Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. Lo hai visto?
Non ho.
Daniel Scheinert: It’s kind of a minimalist masterpiece, which makes it pleasantly the opposite of our movie.
Daniel Kwan: They’re both about community but from completely different angles. It’s just so beautiful. I think that’s the only movie that is gentle enough that our movie wouldn’t be so obnoxious next to.
Daniel Scheinert: My documentary would be Jasper Mall, which is a movie that some friends of mine made about a mall in Alabama and the people who like hanging out there, and that’s it. It’s just a gentle film.
Obviously, for Michelle Yeoh fans, this film is a gift. What do you think are the five essential Michelle Yeoh movies everyone needs to see? You can include Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Daniel Kwan: Voglio dire, supercop è stato il grande per me perché come ero innamorato di Jackie Chan e poi mio padre mi ha mostrato _supercop, _ ed ero come "Cosa? Questa è come una versione femminile di Jackie Chan. Questo è incredibile." Quindi è stato enorme per me.
Daniel Scheinert: yes, signora! _ Era il suo primo, giusto? Alcune delle scene di combattimento in quel film sono follia. E _wing chun. Questi sono i tre film che abbiamo visto la maggior parte delle scene di [per questo].
Daniel Kwan: Sì, la scena del tofu Chun_wing è nel DNA per il nostro film per quanto riguarda il modo in cui scene di combattimento sciocco e assurde possono essere, ma anche quanto possono essere ben eseguiti. È selvaggio e molto divertente. E poi…
Daniel Scheinert: ... CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON?
Daniel Kwan: CROUCHING TIGER era piuttosto enorme per tutti nella mia famiglia. Siamo andati a guardarlo un paio di volte, e quando ha vinto quegli Oscar, tutti erano come, "Wow, che avrebbe pensato?" Era questo momento di piegatura davvero realtà perché penso molti americani cinesi. La sua scena di combattimento con Zhang Ziyi dove stanno andando avanti e indietro con diverse armi è una classe così master in stile e diversi stili di combattimento, e c'è anche un senso dell'umorismo. Lo amo. Abbiamo detto cinque? Penso che abbiamo detto cinque.
Daniel Scheinert: Penso che abbiamo lanciato quattro.
Daniel Kwan: OK, allora il nostro film è il numero 5 [ride].
Ultima domanda: quali sono i biscotti che Waymond fa per Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis)? Sembrano deliziosi.
Daniel Kwan: Oh, sì! Sono questi biscotti tradizionali di mandorle che sono spesso dati durante le celebrazioni del Capodanno cinese e del Capodanno lunare. Ma di solito, hanno solo una singola mandorla o un singolo punto rosso di tintura perché il rosso è un colore molto fortunato e prestigioso nella cultura cinese.
Daniel Scheinert: Ci invitiamo a ciò e abbiamo dato loro facce felici, ma sì, sono i biscotti di mandorla del Capodanno cinese.
Daniel Kwan: Sono davvero secchi e friabili, ma hanno un sapore davvero buono. Di solito li mangio con il tè di Boba o qualcosa del genere perché sono asciutti. Ma sono davvero buoni.
Tutto ovunque tutto subito _ è ora giocando in theakers nationwide._
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