“All About My Mother. I’ve never seen this film, but, when I was in pre-production on Ghost World, my producer said, “Have you thought about a DP yet?” And I started listing DPs that I thought might be good, thinking what she thought, and her answer was, on each one, “Too expensive, too expensive.” I said, “All right, well, let me think.” And she said, “I got to go make a phone call. It’s going to take me two hours, I’m going to be on this phone. I’ve got a bunch of VHS tapes in here, if you want to watch movies, whatever. Maybe you’ll find a DP among these movies.” I come across this film. I don’t know anything about it. Put it in, put it on, see the opening. The colors look absolutely right for Ghost World, I don’t know why. Fast forward, “Oh, it’s still perfect.” I don’t know, just hit me. It was like, “This is… This is the perfect look. Who is this cinematographer?” Affonso Beato. So Lianne gets off the phone, comes in, I said, “What about this guy Affonso Beato?” She says, “He’s a friend of mine. I can get him.” And he was great. He was a great artist and helped me a lot, really taught me a lot about film. So, I still think Lianne may have planted that VHS tape in there, hoping that I would think that it was my idea, but it was actually hers. I don’t know. She won’t admit it to this day. So, All About My Mother. I’m going to go watch this now, and thanks so much.”
