The saucy Aussie

Cinematographer Chris Doyle likes a beer -- and the perfect shot, says The Times of the UK.

"I think I work better when I walk out of the bar and on to the set," Doyle told The Times. "But you do tend to fall asleep in the middle of a shot if you’re not careful. I mean, there have been moments when I saw the beginning of the shot and I saw the end of the shot, and I have no idea what happened in between."

Thai director Pen-ek Ratanaruang, who worked with the hard-drinking Australian on Last Life in the Universe, a sumptuously shot black comedy, confirms that the shoot was fuelled by "dozens and dozens of Heinekens.

"Chris was never 'drunk' on set, though," Ratanaruang said. "He drinks all the time but that’s his diet. I don’t know if he does his best work drunk or not, but the stuff he shot with me when he was 100 per cent sober didn’t work."

In recent years Doyle has worked with more mainstream western directors, including Phillip Noyce (Rabbit Proof Fence), Barry Levinson (Diner) and Gus Van Sant (Psycho). But his most striking work remains in Asian cinema, from the poetic splendour of Zhang Yimou’s martial arts epic Hero to the rich, shadowy grandeur he lends as "visual consultant" on Andrew Lau’s and Alan Mak’s Hong Kong gangster trilogy Infernal Affairs, the second chapter of which is opening in London.

"People say, ‘You changed the genre’," Doyle smiles. "I say yes, that’s because I don’t know what the hell the genre’s about! I never see those kind of films, like Infernal Affairs. I fall asleep if I do. Same with Hero, I don’t see martial arts films."

Doyle calls himself a “good whore” who occasionally submits to “missionary position” jobs like Hero. But most directors who work with him would disagree. "Chris is someone I couldn’t control," says Ratanaruang. "It was impossible, and that was great. Chris is great because he doesn’t give a shit about a 'career'.

"He is more like a traveller — unusual places, unusual people, unusual spaces give him energy. If he continues like this for four or five years he’ll be totally bankrupt."

Doyle has also staged art exhibitions in London and Berlin, published a photography book and even directed his own debut feature film, the impressionistic Away With Words, in 1999. Having just completed a marathon session on Wong Kar Wai’s time-jumping epic 2046, his future work schedule is already full.