Directors downsize their productions' scales

According to Mendes, Soderbergh calls these cinematic excursions "purification films." "It's like detoxing. You can get into the habits when making bigger films where you sort of expect everything to be there for you. You don't have to work for it. You can get into a rhythm that sometimes you need to break," said Mendes, who also worked with an entirely new crew, editor, cinematographer and production designer to make the $17-million film (only $2 million more than his budget for "American Beauty" 10 years ago).

The production also made a concerted effort to be environmentally conscious, with smaller trailers, and Priuses to ferry people about. "As a consequence there was even less conspicuous consumption," Mendes said, and less of a feeling of running a small empire. "There aren't as many people, and you feel less guilty because you're not spending as much money."

For Mendes, "Away We Go," which opened Friday, meant a welcome plunge into romance after years of dwelling on the marital despair of "Revolutionary Road." "I love that it was written by a couple [married novelists Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida] who love each other, about a couple who love each other." Like the characters in "Revolutionary Road," this couple "wanted to escape, but this time they could. It mirrors my own philosophy much more closely. I'm not Yatesian," he said, referring to the bleak worldview sometimes taken by "Revolutionary Road" author Richard Yates. "I don't believe we're all doomed."

Lee said that "Taking Woodstock" is his response to doing "six tragedies in a row for 13 years." His most recent film, 2007's "Lust, Caution," dealt with a Chinese resistance fighter sent to seduce the head of the secret police during the Japanese occupation. "That was the last straw," says the Taiwanese-born director. "That was like hell for me, not only the sex part but the intensity of the drama, all the killings. It challenged Chinese patriarchal society with female sexuality. It was nerve-racking for me. I faced a lot of pressure. . . . It gets to be too much."

Because of censorship demands from the government, seven minutes of "Lust, Caution" were edited out of the version shown in mainland China, and star Tang Wei was banned from appearing in the Chinese media. All of the controversy weighed heavily on Lee. Afterward, "I really tried to get healthier. . . . Spiritually and philosophically I was yearning to do something warm," Lee said.