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年冬天，我看了一部西班牙電影《睜開你的雙眼》。難以磨滅的印象。電影帶給我民謠般的感受，像寓 言，又像詩歌，也像朋友間在深夜一次靈感飛濺的談話。我很想加入到這樣的'談話中。正如所有的電影一樣，我覺得《香草的天空》這個片名富有樂感，蘊含着一種 令人躁動的特質。片組人員基本是製作《近乎成名》的同一班子。我們接連拍出這兩部電影，讓它們煥發出迥然不同的美。《香草的天空》非常看重視覺效果，尤其 是在片頭，我們清空了十一月一個早晨的時代廣場。能和優秀的約翰托爾一起合作舉足輕重。他是《近乎成名》的攝影師，將那部電影拍出一種揮灑自如的記錄片 感覺，《香草的天空》則要求更高。沒有哪個鏡頭不經過周詳計劃，沒有哪個畫面是多餘的。
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.
我們的目標做出一部貫穿線索和徵兆的影片，就像《佩鉑軍士》的封面，每看一次都會有新的收穫。我們都很投入地來講述這個奇特而迷人的故事，關於夢境和現實 的故事。我們常常是在晚上進行交流，之後還有很多人留下來商討電影的表現手法，甚至一邊拍攝一邊討論。兩年後還是依然如此。
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》不是部淺顯的電影。它既能讓你用心細品，也可以點到即止。它是一個故事，一個謎語，一個夢魘，一個清晰的夢，一首迷幻般的流行歌，是一部具爭議的影片，最重要的是--這電影發出一張邀請函，無論何地，只要你願意，就會看到。
