American Cinematographer - March 1989 - 62

Right: Scorsese
wanted the city to

drop. Only the real thing.
"To light this large loft,
we used a lot of available
light which is my trademark. But that is
the only natural thing in the shoot¬
ing! Martin Scorsese is the only

make its presence
felt through the
windows. Below:
Theatrical lighting
style accentuates
Arquette.

director I have
where the

worked with

ever

camera

does the craziest

things!" Almendros says with ob¬
delight. "Most of the direc¬

vious

tors I've worked

with, like Rohmer,

Truffaut and Benton, have a very
naturalistic style. The camera is al¬

the eye level and the lenses
normal 50mm or 35mm

ways at
are

-

nothing extreme. Everything is
very realistic - a la John Ford or
Howard Hawks. The

camera

is

non¬

existent. It does not
is

only

participate
observing thing.

an

-

it

"But Scorsese... I would

with his

partner, Martin Scorsese,

black and
Giorgio Ar¬
mani. ' It aired in Italy, and gave
Almendros a taste of how challeng¬
ing a feature with Scorsese might
be. "Scorsese was very demanding
of me. Strangely enough, after all
these years I had never done a film
like this one. It's nice to do things
that you haven't done before, and
only

once

before

-

on a

white commercial for

this

so

offbeat for me," Al¬

man

New York Stories may re¬
semble Paris vu par... organiza¬

the

tionally, but there the resemblance
ends. With only three stories and

80% of it

and

an

older

should be allowed to do
novel and

a

was

its director

short

the length

not its main attraction
was.

-

Unlike the other

director-cinematographer teams of
New York Stories,

American

he had worked

Cinematographer

camera movements, with lots
of movement around people. This

film

was a

had
It

a

was

festival for me! I've

chance to do such

never

things.

like fireworks with the

camera."
To

begin with, Almen¬

ing but rave
beautiful. The

reviews. "It is
grain is very nice,

and the color rendition is very

good. It gave me quite an
advantage - I did not have to put
gels in every one of the thirty win¬
dows! Gels can be a nuisance. They
always move. If you want to open
the windows you can't - because
then the gel won't cover the open¬
ing. But with this new film we

played by Nick Nolte, is a
successful and highly visible
artist. The young woman, Rosanna
Arquette, is an aspiring artist and
his assistant. Almendros likens it to

story of The Blue Angel.

"Visually speaking, about
happens in a Soho loft,"
explains Almendros. "It's a huge,
empty space with about 30 win¬
a corner

where the artist lives, a place where
he paints and another corner for the
It

was

me

-

was a

the first

thing Scorsese told

he did not want to shoot in

to

actually

windows

-

to

see
see

through the
recognizable

a

landscape that would tell you that
New York City.

you were in Soho, in
He did not want a

March 1989

could work however

painted back¬

we

wanted.

The windows could be open, could
be closed, could be anything. It is a

very

well-balanced film."

'natural' location.

the studio. He wanted to be able

long novel."

For Almendros,

of film

a

wild

very

assistant. It

writer,

anywhere. It can be high up
looking down at people talking, or
very low looking up at them, wide
angles or telephotos. And we used

man,

different. As Almendros character¬
a

the

a young wo¬
The older

dows all around. There is

"a filmmaker, like

on

man.

primarily an oppor¬
tunity for a highly visible group of
filmmakers to try something a little
izes it,

can

anced 5297 filmstock. He had noth¬

relationship between

was

is like God. It

"The Gambler". It centers

recently photographed
footage for the retro¬
spective Imagine: John Lennon, and
his documentary on human rights
violations in Cuba, Nobody Listened,
captured an International Docu¬
mentary Association award.

concerted effort to connect

camera

dros had his first chance to work
with Kodak's new daylight bal¬

the interview

them, it

the

cause

be

mendros says.
The basic story line comes
from a tale by Dostoyevski called
mendros

no

60

was

classify him as an expressionist, be¬

Almendros and Scorsese
well

aware of the
importance
light to an artist. To get a feel for
the practical use of light they visited
a local Soho artist. What
they saw
was that the man did not
rely solely
were

of

natural

light. He used some
light as well as the tradition¬
al north light. Says Almendros, "He
on

electric
American Cinematographer - March 1989

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