American Cinematographer - January 1993 - 39

Nykvist lent a
festive glow to
this sumptuous
ballroom, where
Fairbanks

(Kline, at upper
left of table},

Mary Pickford
(Maria Pitillo)
and

Chaplin

(Robert

Downey, Jr., at
upper right of
table) join a
group of friends
celebrating the
end of World
Warll.

photographing Chaplin included, of
studying Chaplin's films -

of

a small, dedicated film
industry
working together to make superla¬

lent-era films, Rollie Tothero, ASC.
The opulent Hollywood

signer Stuart Craig (Gandhi, A
Bridge Too Far, Dangerous Liaisons,
The Mission, The Elephant Man).
In his quest to recreate the
harsher lighting conditions of early
filmmaking, however, Nykvist
again encountered the need for
high contrast. "At that time, the
lighting was so much simpler, by
necessity," he explains. "It was

parties and gracious living that

much more difficult to get an expo¬

needed to learn about color

characterized

segment of
Chaplin's adult life form a part of
the movie, but any filmic biography
of Chaplin would be incomplete

they used a lot of light. It
also has to do with creating the

without recreations of the Little

us] to do it the old way - we were

production designers, the makeup
people, everyone. We invited cin¬
ematographers from other coun¬
tries and representatives from
Kodak, Agfa, Geveart. We built a

Tramp, perhaps the most world-

shooting what they were shooting,

little studio, made all the tests and

renowned film persona ever cre¬
ated. For these early motion

and in that case it's much easier for
me."
With Plus-X loaded into
the camera, a cinematographer
must think in completely different
visual terms; in this case the transi¬
tion was like slipping into a com¬
fortable old sweater. Having pho¬

went

tographed "60 or 70" black & white
films before turning to color in the
1960s, Nykvist found the shift in his
perceptional gears dredging up

sphere. But
experience.

course,

there

were a

dozen

or so on

video¬

cassette in

Nykvist's hotel room
during the L.A. portion of the shoot
well as discussions with the
son and
grandson of Chaplin's cin¬

-

as

ematographer for most of the si¬

a

pictures, often seen through
Chaplin's memory, Nykvist and
Attenborough decided to use black
& white

stock, Eastman Plus-X.
In Santa Clarita, Califor¬
nia, Mack Sennett's studio was rec¬
reated with startling accuracy, com¬

plete with overhead silks like those
favored by the cinematographers of
the day. Questions about the sets
elicited a flood of praise from the
soft-spoken Swede for AcademyAward-winning production de¬

sure, so

proper mood, with deep shadows.
But of course it was necessary [for

tive films.

"It

[happened] around

1962,1 think. We

were

to make a

picture - the first color picture in
Sweden," Nykvist begins, referring
to Now About These Women. "We

formed

a
group of everyone, the
people who made films, who
-

the

through the lab. Everyone

had to study this. But there were a
lot of discussions about the contrast
and about just color film from the

photographic point of view. From
the technical point of view, the film
was
perfect, but unfortunately, I
think we lost some of the real atmo¬

we

learned from the

"After that, I worked with

tions of the advent of color cinema¬

Bergman on a picture called The
Passion of Anna, and we said, 'Now
we
forget the technical.' We all

tography in Sweden paint a picture

knew that the color was too perfect

January 1993

American

some

old memories. His recollec¬

Cinematographer

37
American Cinematographer - January 1993

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