American Cinematographer - January 1993 - 40

we

wanted with color. It was a turn¬

ing point in my work as a cinema¬
tographer.
"Of course, I wasn't at all
the first to use that kind of light," he

hastens to add.

"They were already
doing that in 1927. But looking

back, that's how I came to have my

style. Sometimes I think I've talked
too much about it
to the point
where I'm afraid it's uninteresting
to hear it-but that is the way it is."
Any conversation with
Sven Nykvist about cinema even¬
tually turns to his legendary col¬
laboration with Ingmar Bergman,
as is the case here, but the
story of
their meeting is rarely told.
Nykvist's talent for motion picture
photography had revealed itself
early; he was pulling focus by the
time he was 18 years old. He stud¬
-

ied in Rome at Cinecitta for nine

months, and by age 22 had become
a

director of

photography.
Documentaries

Above: Prior to

embarking on
production of
The Great

Dictator, Chaplin
the auteur
studies

footage
of Adolph Hitler
on an

empty

soundstage.
Right: Director
Attenborough
gives Downey
some

pointers.

and beautiful, and depending on
the story, it's very difficult not to
make it beautiful. On that picture,
we had a
very good collaboration
with the production designer,

followed, and
soon
Nykvist, at

found the right location with as
little color as possible, and, instead
of being technically perfect, tried to

recting his

simplify everything in color. We
tried to change what was in front of

while, Bergman

the camera, because we knew the
raw stock was too perfect.
"One of the most difficult

picture called
with

things

Strindberg,

was to get

30, was entertaining

age

dreams of di¬
own
films.
Mean-

had started
The Naked

the right skin

tones. We didn't want the very

skin that is so popular today,
and which I am still very much
warm

against. We controlled the warmth
mostly in the lab, and also by using
very little makeup. Ever since then,
I try to follow that rule - I try to get
the skin tones right without too
much makeup."
Just prior to Now About
These Women, Nykvist and
Bergman had begun to make a dis¬

despair.
light played
an
important part in the story, we
determined not to stray from that
winter light - indirect light, with¬
out shadow

any

-

and to take away

unnatural effects. We both be¬

came

fascinated with it," he says.
After about 1969, Nykvist

that, combined with their
impending use of color, would
change forever the way they made

began to work exclusively with in¬
direct light. "I reached the point
where I would feel physically sick
if I looked a direct light in the face,
with these terrible, strong shad¬

movies. The film at hand

called

ows," he shudders. "So it was very

Light, and it took place over
a
period of three hours in a church.

interesting for me to have done that
black & white picture just before we

covery

was

Winter

The

story concerned a widowed
village pastor losing his vocation,
and it stands

38

clearest statements of
"Because the

American

as one

of

Cinematographer

Bergman's

a

Night

Goran

who was recog¬
nized at the time as Sweden's pre¬
mier cinematographer, behind the

Strindberg had been spe¬
cifically requested by Bergman. But
the opportunity arose for a
cameraperson, who would repre¬
sent the Swedish film industry, to
fly to Hollywood in order to make
a
study of Cinemascope and wide
screen
photography in general. As
Nykvist tells it, with a certain grav¬
ity, "He was the best one, so he was
the one to go. And I took over his
job. It was my good luck, because
through this I became a collabora¬
tor of Bergman's."
The Naked Night (a.k.a.
camera.

started with color. That kind of

Sawdust and Tinsel) marked

bounce

ing point for Bergman. Although it

lighting was exactly right,
in my opinion, to achieve the result

January 1993

a

turn¬

passed quietly in Sweden, the film
American Cinematographer - January 1993

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - January 1993
