My Blueberry Nights

Singer Norah Jones stars in Wong Kar Wai’s first English-language film which he describes as a "road movie about the soul".

Premiering at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, Wong Kar Wai’s first English-language film featured an A-List Hollywood cast including Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz and David Strathairn. But it was a chance meeting in New York with singer Norah Jones that inspired the whole project. Realising his star couldn’t work in the Chinese language, Wong shifted the action to America and worked with novelist Lawrence Block on the English-language script. The director originally planned to develop one of his earlier story ideas about a man and woman who have a chance encounter in a convenience store, but after embarking on a series of road trips with Block, cinematographer Darius Khondji and regular collaborator William Chang, they developed the story of Elizabeth (Jones) who traverses the country to soothe her broken heart. Along the way she encounters other lovelorn souls, only to find that her happiness might reside much closer to home. Using the central protagonist (Jones) as the audience’s guide, My Blueberry Nights offers a more traditional, linear story. However, with its episodic structure, detailed production design and Darius Khondji’s wildly expressive camerawork, there’s no mistaking My Blueberry Nights is America, Wong Kar Wai style.

– Kristy Matheson, Director of Film Programs