Known for Camera
Christopher Doyle is an Australian-Hong Kong cinematographer who often works on Chinese language films. He has won awards at the Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival, as well as AFI Award for cinematography, the Golden Horse awards (four times), and Hong Kong Film Award (six times). Doyle is an affiliate of the Hong Kong Society of Cinematographers. Doyle was born in Sydney, Australia in 1952. He left his native country on a Norwegian merchant ship at the age of eighteen, after which he took on a number of odd jobs including as a Kibbutz-nick cowboy in Israel, homeopathic doctor in Thailand, and “green agriculturalist” in India work. In the late seventies, Doyle was “re-birthed” as Du Ke Feng, which means “like the wind.” Following his time as a language student in Taiwan and having found work as a photographer, he was hired as a cinematographer on Edward Yang’s That Day, on the Beach in 1983. Since his “birth in art,” Du Ke Feng has worked on over fifty Chinese-language films. He is best known for his collaborations with Wong Kar-Wai, including Chungking Express, In the Mood for Love and 2046 (the latter of which saw Doyle walking off set mid-way through production). He has collaborated with other Chinese filmmakers on projects including Temptress Moon, Hero, Happy Together, and Dumplings. As his "alter ego" Christopher Doyle he has made more than twenty in various other languages and film cultures, working as director of photography on Gus Van Sant's remake of Psycho, Liberty Heights, Last Life in the Universe, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Paranoid Park, The Limits of Control. He also wrote, shot, and directed Warsaw Dark, Away with Words starring Asano Tadanobu, and Hong Kong Trilogy: Preschooled Preoccupied Preposterous, an experimental portrait of three generations of Hong Kong people.[5] He is currently filming The White Girl, another tribute to his adopted hometown of Hong Kong, with co-director Jenny Suen. On May 26, 2017 Doyle was honored during the 70th Cannes Festival with the “Pierre Angénieux ExcelLens in Cinematography” award, in tribute to his rich and influential career. The ceremony was co-hosted by filmmaker Olivier Assayas and actress Juliette Binoche, among others.
Born
May 2, 1952 (age 74)
Birthplace
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Filmography
150 films, 2 shows


Love Only
2018
country: Unknown
Assembling actors and actresses from Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China spread positivity through several stories about love and friendship.


The White Girl
2017 · 1h 37m
country: Hong Kong
A noir fairytale revolving around three outsiders: a mysterious artist on the run from the real world, a street kid who dreams of getting rich and a girl who is allergic to the sun.


Hong Kong Trilogy: Preschooled Preoccupied Preposterous
2015 · 1h 30m
country: Hong Kong
A story of Hong Kong told by three generations of real people: 'preschooled' children, 'preoccupied' young people, and 'preposterous' senior citizens.
Christopher Doyle: Filming in the Neon World
Christopher Doyle: Filming in the Neon World
2014 · 10m
country: Hong Kong
"I feel like a piece of neon, I'm just a gas inside a tube." — 'Christopher Doyle: Filming in the Neon World' is part of NEONSIGNS.HK — an online exhibition on Hong Kong's neon signs.


Beautiful 2014
2014 · 1h 57m
country: Unknown
The 2014 edition of an annual short film compilation. Zhang Yuan directs "I love you boss," about the relationship between a wealthy man and his driver. Kang Je-kyu directs "Awaiting," about a South Korean woman striving to reconnect with her husband in Pyongyang. Christopher Doyle does "Education for All," a documentary about the next generation in Hong Kong and Shu Kei's the dream focuses on a bored housewife who fixates on an attractive stranger at the next table.


Warsaw Dark
2008 · 1h 25m
country: Poland
Prominent cinematographer Christopher Doyle continues to hone his talents as a director with this thriller set in Eastern Europe and inspired by the as-yet-unsolved murder of a Polish politician in 2001. A young prostitute is spending the evening with a prominent Polish official when he's suddenly assassinated in Warsaw. In the aftermath of the hit, the triggerman takes the prostitute to an apartment and subjects her to a complex personality replacement program designed to wipe out any memories she may have retained about the evening's events.


Paris Je T'aime
2006 · 2h
country: France
Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven and Alfonso Cuaron are among the 20 distinguished directors who contribute to this collection of 18 stories, each exploring a different aspect of Parisian life. The colourful characters in this drama include a pair of mimes, a husband trying to choose between his wife and his lover, and a married man who turns to a prostitute for advice.


Blue
2004 · 15m
country: Japan
Short film accompaniment to photos of Rieko Miura.


Away with Words
1999 · 1h 30m
country: Hong Kong
A Japanese man and a gay bar-owner in Hong Kong drink beer as they talk about their childhood and experiences.


Typhoon Shelter
1998 · 1h 28m
country: Unknown
A ensemble drama set against the backdrop of the typhoon shelters scattered throughout Hong Kong, depicting the day Hong Kong was handed back to China on July 1, 1997


My Nostalgia, My Songs
1991 · 48m
country: Unknown
My Nostalgia, My Songs is a poetic documentary centered on Lin Hwai-min’s landmark dance work for Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan. The music, curated by iconic photographer Chang Chao-tang, weaves Taiwanese folk melodies into reflections on urban migration and collective memory. Through the cinematography and editing of Christopher Doyle, the stage becomes a cinematic space, transforming performance into a sensory meditation on Taiwanese identity and cultural displacement in the 1980s.


家庭/電影
1981
country: Unknown
During his period working in Taiwan, Christopher Doyle made this experimental short film documenting the families of friends around him. This film received an Honorable Mention at the 4th Golden Harvest Awards (1981).


Journey through Images
1981 · 25m
country: Unknown
This landmark 1981–82 documentary series consists of weekly 25-minute episodes filmed across Taiwan using an ENG (Electronic News Gathering) camera. It documents local customs and social textures through a distinctly humanistic lens. The project also marks an early collaboration between Christopher Doyle and Chang Chao-Tang.


Christine (Film of Her)
1980 · 8m
country: Unknown
A man tries to capture her by making a film. She travels through different countries and time zones, telling her life and thoughts. But the closer he tries to get to her, the further away he finds her, and he ends up with a film of his “Her” but not her.