American Cinematographer - March 1989 - 58

Right: Zoe (Sofia
Coppola) bathed in
Storaro's stylish
lighting. Below:

tled "Life Without Zoe", makes up
another third of New York Stories.
The

enigmatic Vittorio Storaro once
again joined Coppola as director of
photography, reprising their collab¬
orations on Apocalypse Now, One
From the Heart, Captain EO, and
Tucker. Other credits are Last Tango
in Paris, Ishtar, and Ladyhawke. Stor¬
aro's Academy recognition includes
cinematography Oscars for Apoca¬
lypse Now (1979), Reds (1982), and
The Last Emperor (1988), and he re¬
ceived a 1986 Emmy nomination for

Storaro with

GianCarlo Giannini

looking

on.

Peter the Great.

The

story concerns an 11-

year-old girl and her struggle to
find balance and identity for herself
and her family. An only child, Zoe
lives alone in a posh Central Park
hotel, alienated from her parents as
measure very much,
because I'm not really a technical

usually don't

When

person.

shooting, I
from my expe¬
because every

we are

think it's better to go
rience and feelings,

is different. Sometimes it

scene

should be very contrasty and some¬
times it should be less so, and I
decide that by eye when we are

lighting.
"I also

course

very little fil¬
Nykvist. "Of

use

tration,'' relates

I have the 85 for exteriors,

me

warm

light. Also, if you
do to

change it. When the filtra¬
on the lamps, I can still have

detailed control of

a scene

further

down the line.

sion, but that

and musician father

problem has been
have all
possibilities at your disposal."

overcome.

the

This way, you

With

a

career's worth of

shooting in Sweden under his belt,
Nykvist brings a new perspective
to American filmmaking. One con¬
trast was pointed up in his discus¬
sion

of the

recent

think it's fantastic

-

all these

in small rooms,

lens for the whole movie. I

think

we

had two

or

three shots

dusk and dawn, and we
didn't have the light. For those
were

shots I used

or fast lenses,
but otherwise the whole picture
was

prime

shot with the Cooke varietal. I

used the

procedure for New
York Stories. I didn't start using the
zooms until Cries and Whispers, but
now the zooms are so good that it's

American

components at war

within the

daughter. In a recent
interview, Storaro expounded on
his conceptual ideas for the film
and his passionate opinions con¬
cerning cinematography in general.

"For 'Life Without Zoe', I

Of course,

in America,

how it used to be."

same

Cinematographer

and female

trying to represent the oppo¬
sing forces in the family through
the symbolic use of the sun, repre¬
senting the father, and moon, the
mother. For many reasons, the child
has been trying to live in the world
of her father. She is trying to be
something which she is not, some¬
thing that is only a part of her.
When she finally understands that

shooting in the studio has become
very expensive. In Sweden, it is still
relatively economical. Fanny and
Alexander, for example, was shot al¬
most entirely in the studios. In Eu¬
rope, there is a perception that
American films are always shot in
the very big studios, because that's

same

represent two

points of view, the male

good results. In Sweden,
many of these locations would be

have

stead.

Alexander,
I used the

different

big

shot,'' Nykvist states. "As a matter

the Cooke

use

and occasional

and yet you

crews

of fact, for Fanny and
which is 6V2 hours long,

always

a

American

deemed too small, and the set
would be built in the studio in¬

that

56

the lens did not work with Panavi-

because

varietal lenses, for almost every

"I

result of their constant

traveling
disagreements. Ac¬
cording to Storaro, the artist mother

camera

shoot in such small locations. I

between

tion is

to the Arriflex

there's not much the lab

lights, which gives

can

me

the differ¬
light and cold
put filters on the

occasionally I use low contrast
filters, number one or two. If I do
use filters, I
try to use them on the

camera,

a

tendency towards practical location
shooting. "Again, because a lot of
the film takes place in the mother's
house, we were presented with
many possibilities for the camera. I
am
always surprised when I come
to America, how they are able to

and

ence

problem. Earlier, this limited

not

Vittorio Storaro, ASC
Francis Ford Coppola's
semi-autobiographical short, enti¬

March 1989

was

she is
move

incomplete, she starts to
towards

the two main

a

balance between

figures in her life, the

father and the mother. This

was

my

guiding principle for shooting the
film, to move with tFie story from
an

unbalanced situation towards

reconciliation.
American Cinematographer - March 1989

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