In the winter of 1997, I saw a Spanish film called Abre Los Ojos. I couldn't get it out of my mind. The movie felt like a folk song to me, part fable, part poem, partly a committed conversation that you'd have with someone late at night when big ideas flowed easily. I wanted to be a part of that conversation. As all movies do, Vanilla Sky, a title I thought had a kind of musical quality, acquired a driven adrenalinalized personality all its own. Much of the same crew had worked on Almost Famous. We made the two movies back to back and they couldn't have been more beautifully dissimilar. Visuals mattered a lot on this one, especially the opening sequence where we emptied Times Square on an early November morning. Working with the great John Toll was key. He had been the 4)cinematographer on Almost Famous and while that movie had a free flowing documeturish feel, this one would be even more demanding. Not a shot would go unplanned, not an image wasted.
1997年冬季，我看了一部西班牙电影《睁开你的眼睛》。很难磨灭的印象。电影带给我民谣般的感受，像寓 言，又像诗歌，也像朋友间在深夜一次想法飞溅的谈话。我非常想加入到如此的谈话中。正如所有些电影一样，我感觉《香草的天空》这个片名富有乐感，蕴含着一种 让人躁动的特质。片组职员基本是制作《近乎成名》的同一班子。大家接连拍出这两部电影，让它们焕发出迥然不一样的美。《香草的天空》很重视视觉成效，特别 是在片头，大家清空了11月一个早晨的年代广场。能和出色的约翰•托尔一块合作举足轻重。他是《近乎成名》的摄影师，将那部电影拍出一种挥洒自如的记录片 感觉，《香草的天空》则需要更高。没什么镜头不经过周详计划，没什么画面是多余的。
The goal was a movie filled with clues and signposts, kind of like the cover of Sergeant Pepper, every time you look at it, you might see something different. We all pitched in to tell this odd and intoxicating story about dreams and reality. Often after we'd rapped for the evening, many of us still stayed behind and talked about the layers of the movie even while we were making it. Not quite 2 years later, we still do.
大家的目的做出一部贯穿线索和预兆的影片，就像《佩铂军士》的封面，每看一次都会有新的收成。大家都非常投入地来讲述这个奇特而迷人的故事，关于梦境和现实 的故事。大家常常是在晚上进行交流，之后还有不少人留下来商讨电影的表现手法，甚至一边拍摄一边讨论。两年后还是依旧这样。
Vanilla Sky isn't obvious. It's a movie to be watched closely, but it's also a movie you can let wash over you. It's a story, a puzzle, a nightmare, a lucid dream, a psychedelic pop song, a movie to argue over and most of all, a movie that extends an invitation. Wherever you want to meet it, it will meet you there.
《香草的天空》不是部浅显的电影。它既能叫你用心细品，也可以点到即止。它是一个故事，一个谜语，一个梦魇，一个明确的梦，一首迷幻般的时尚歌，是一部具争议的影片，非常重要的是--这电影发出一张请柬，无论何地，只须你想，就会看到。
