From The Company of Wolves to The Crying Game, Mona Lisa to Michael Collins, and Interview with the Vampire to The Butcher Boy, Neil Jordan has consistently made films that take us deep into the woods of his unusual characters' imaginations. At the time of the DVD release of Breakfast on Pluto (Sony), his latest exploration, Jordan talked to me from Dublin.
I read that you're going to work on a film called Me and My Monster (2007). Couldn't that be the title of many of your films?
You mean like the beast inside? Yes, it could. I like stories about people who don't know what's within them, that underscore the parts they never knew existed. And I like to make movies that confront characters with areas of experience that are inexplicable to them — where their rational explanations of the world don't suffice.
Since your films often have fairy-tale elements to them, do you find that they're better experienced in an intimate home theater environment, rather than in a cinema?
I never watch my films after I make them, unless they come on late-night TV. But I do see a lot of movies on my home theater.
What kind of system is it?
I haven't got a clue. The system is, you stick a DVD in and you watch it. [JK laughs] No, it's one of those overhead three-color projectors.
With surround sound?
Yes. It's as good as cinema, but the problem is that someone always upsets the programming. You have to be a techno head to get it to consistently work right.
