So I thought, the one great love of his life, certainly in the past, was his wife, but over the years, that love has withered, probably through neglect, rather than any deliberate sense. So it became brown by the end, the color of dried blood, I could say. And when we meet Bettina, she's only wearing some red gloves and than as his feelings for her grew, we increased the red on her until they consummate their affair when the whole screen goes to red. I don't want audiences to see this, I want them to feel it. I don't remember it, it's all sort of sub-conscious, I think.
Film certainly works on a sub-conscious level.
And yet the film is photographed quite beautifully. I think we've all seen gritty realism ad infinitum. I never stopped talking to my heads of department, not just the cinematographer, but the costume designer, make-up designer. So much so, for example, that in Bettina, in Rachel Griffith's hair when the relationship between them is getting very close, we actually put some red in her hair, so it would just really warm it up. And so when we shot her, the light would be slightly softer, so we would see her as he saw her.