Edward Berger has left the secret hallways of the Vatican in “Conclave” for the glitzy world of Macau in his latest film, “Ballad of a Small Player.”

In the movie, Colin Farrell‘s character Lord Doyle plays a gambler who can’t quite beat his addiction and losing streak. As Lord Doyle sits at the baccarat tables, looking to win to pay off his debts, Tilda Swinton’s Cynthia Blithe is on his tail, and along the way, a mysterious ghostly benefactor (Fala Chen) stakes her claim on him.

Netflix has slated the film for a prime release: It opens in U.S. theaters on Oct. 15, arrives in the U.K. and Ireland cinemas on Oct. 17, and debuts on the streamer on Oct. 29.

Speaking with Variety ahead of the film’s Telluride screening, Berger explained he worked closely with his go-to cinematographer, James Friend, to ensure audiences are placed firmly at the center of a character’s heart. Berger said, “This story is a first-person perspective story. We want to go every step with Colin Farrell. We want to sweat, we want to laugh, we want to cry with them.”

To achieve that, Berger and Friend spent time discussing the camera. But even before filming and during their scout, Berger noted how “Macau is such an over-the-top place. It’s so over the top; the humidity, the colors, music and fountains, there’s an overload of senses. I wanted to create a pop opera full of humor, drama and contradictions. That’s what drove my conversations with James.”

Here, the two discuss centering the camera on Colin’s performance and creating Macau as a character.

That opening sequence drops us in this gaudy world of Macau, almost like a trippy Las Vegas. How did you prime it as a character?

JAMES FRIEND: I had no idea what to expect when the script landed on my desk, and I obviously started reading it because it came from Edward. I read it, and I thought, “How far down the sort of Colonel Kurtz River can this guy go in this environment? How insane is this place for him to become a product of his environment? It was only when Edward and I went there for the first time, I was floored. The scale of the buildings and the streets is overwhelming. So, on camera, you don’t want it to be too overwhelming for the audience, because you need to get into the grounded nature of what Lord Doyle’s going through. So, we just reacted to our environment and built upon that. The city is a little bit schizophrenic. Everything revolves around gambling, but during the day, it’s quiet. But when the sun goes down, the lights come on, and it’s like the opening of the Olympics with billions of kilowatts streaming through the city. We wanted to show the different sides of Macau because there is a sad side to the to the place, which is very much reflected in Lord Doyle’s character, and that, for me, was more challenging, trying to capture something which, at one level, almost felt like a documentary, and then at the other level, something that shot on large format and felt bombastic.

How did you want to introduce Lord Doyle in the way he presents himself and how you’re framing him? Early on, he’s literally descending on the escalator. What did you want to show?

EDWARD BERGER: I love that shot so much. It twists from the side, and it’s kind of his descent into this hell. All the lights are dancing, and it’s James playing around with this wonderful, crazy mind that he has, and is full of visual ideas and trying to find expressions for that descent. A lot of it comes from long conversations, putting one shot after another and really trying to understand the best way to represent what Lord Doyle is going through.

FRIEND: I looked at this film a bit like Dante’s Inferno. All these different levels of hell, and how deep down that river do you really go? We would go to some of these quite grotty gambling dens. As Ed says, he’s descending into hell, and naturally trying to frame it. I thought, “What if I do put the camera on its side at this moment and rotate it? Is that too much? Is that too discombobulating?” But also thinking about the nature of the scene and where Colin’s character is at that point in the story, it just seemed to be a kind of perfect move.

In another scene, Lord Doyle is stuffing his face with lobster and chocolate cake in his room. Meanwhile, there’s the spiritual aspect going through his mind. What did you want to impart to the audience?

BERGER: He very much turns into what Dao Ming predicted, that vision of hell and the hungry ghost. He eats and eats. We tried to find an expression of that. Very often, we start with a wide shot to get an impression of the place. But in this case, because Colin had to eat so much, we started with the close-ups. The scene consists of a lot of shots. I remember standing there with [camera operator] Danny Bishop and we didn’t rehearse it, because there was nothing that we wanted to rehearse. We just asked Colin, “What are you going to do? He said, “Well, he’s probably going to sit in his chair, and I’m probably going to go for this lobster here, and I’m going to go for the cake and drink the champagne. Is that okay?” Danny said, “Yeah, let’s shoot,” and he just operated, following whatever Colin was doing. One of the interesting things that really influenced that scene was music.

In what way did music influence that scene?

BERGER: The Bach Cantata came about because I was sitting with James, and I kept hearing this music. I was like, “Who the hell is listening to music?” I realized it was Colin, listening to this piece of music. I went up to him and asked. He said, “I’m trying to get into the mood.” And that just goes to show how in tune Colin is with the movie. He knows exactly what type of movie this is, and he delivered this music for the scene just by listening to it to get into the mood.

James, talk about how you captured this scene because he’s gorging on the food relentlessly, like an addict.

FRIEND: The man never complained, once. He never said, “I’m full” or “That’s disgusting.” He was into it. So, we chose this handheld approach, and we shot the whole thing on a 12mm lens, a fisheye lens to distort the audience’s view of the world. And, it works really beautifully in that instance, to the point where I had to use entirely natural light for the scene because we were seeing the whole room. We wanted to go in completely free and liberated to react to what Colin was going to do.

This interview has been edited and condensed.