Sven Nykvist passed away

The most famous cinematographer of all times has left us last September 20th in the afternoon. He was retired already for a few years. Sven Nykvist was born in December 3 rd 1922 . He was about to be 84 years of age.

IMAGO pays his tribute to one of the greatest cinematographers of all time. Sven Nykvist was for a few generations the example and mentor for many cinematographers. The beauty of his images and the language of his light, have given to cinematography the high class of artistry. His talent has lead to a new language in cinematography.

There isn't, perhaps, another perfect example of a better combination director/cinematographer as Bergman and Nykvist. The mutual artistic vision developed by this duo in several films, gave to the world extraordinary results on screen.

IMAGO sends his condolences to his family and to all his friends around the world.

Tony Costa
Editor

«Not only was Sven an outstanding cinematographer, but he was also my mentor. I started out my career as his camera assistant. »

Paul René Roestad FNF

«I am writing this with a great regret. Today evening the greatest master of light passed away. The unforgettable creator of amazing images and lighting-Sven Nykvist passed away. We will all miss our tutor, master and great friend. Camerimage festival was created thanks to him in a large part, and we are all staying in deep sorrow. He was a great man and we will always remember him this way. Faithfully yours. »

Marek Zydowicz And Camerimage team

To now more about Sven Nykvist visit Wikipedia.

Biography

«Sven Nykvist, considered by many to be one of the greatest cinematographers of all time, entered the Swedish film industry at the age of 19. In 1941, he became an assistant cameraman. In 1945, at the age of 23, he became a full-fledged cinematographer. He worked on many small Swedish films for the next few years, but it was in 1953 that he worked with the legendary director Ingmar Bergman on Sawdust and Tinsel ; he was one of three cinematographers working on that movie. Nykvist would eventually become Bergman's full-time cinematographer and push the director's work in a new direction, away from the theatrical look of his earlier films.

Eventually, Nykvist won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for two of his movies, Cries and Whispers (1973), and Fanny and Alexander (1982), both of which were Bergman films. He was also nominated for The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), and for The Ox (1991) - which he directed - in the category of Best Foreign Language Film.

Nykvist's career was brought to a sudden end in 1998 when he was diagnosed with aphasia.»

Visit links related to Sven Nykvist

cinematographers.nl

theasc.com

bostonphoenix.com

hollywood.com

ingmarbergman.se

ucalgary.ca

everything2.com

www.fsfl.se

GREAT FILMS

Cries and Whispers

« The fruit of a partnership that spanned many outstanding movies, this film explores the barren landscape of the soul. Sven Nykvist's marvelous cinematography accentuates the grim mood with images that makes it seem as though a broading canvas by Edvard Munch has suddently come to life. »

Imago

Cries and Whispers
1973
Cinematography: Sven Nykvist
Directed by: Ingmar Bergman
Production: Cinematograph/Swedish Film Institute
Country: Sweden
Film: 35 mm, colour
Format: 1:1.66

Thinking about this film, while writing his autobiography and after he had retired from film-making, Ingmar Bergman said, 'Most of all I miss working with Sven Nikvist, perhaps because we are both utterly, captivated by the problems of light, the gentle, dangerous, dreamlike, living, dead, clear, misty, hot, violent, bare, sudden, dark, springlike, falling, straight, slanting, sensual, sensual, subdued, limited, poisonous, calming, pale light. Light' and Nykvist uses all those sort of light in "Cries and Whispers".

Sven Nykvist was born in Moheda , Sweden in 1922, and in 1941 entered the film industry as a camera assistant. He moved up to lighting cameraman in 1945, and after further films came into contact with Ingmar Bergman in 1953, when he photographed some of "Sawdust and Tinsel" at the Sandrews studio. At this point in his career, Nykvist was lighting in a fairly traditional style, but when he came to work regularly with Bergman in 1959 (The Virgin Spring) onwards, he adopted the new much simplified and more naturalistic style appearing elsewhere in Europe.

Bergman evolved the film from an image he had of three women waiting in a red room for a forth to die. In the final script, three of the women are sisters: Karin, Maria and Agnes and the forth is Anna, a servant in the country mansion in which events take place at the turn of the century. The film opens with shots of the park around the mansion, a low morning sun striking through the mist, producing a series of hazy, pastel silhouette planes out of the trees and statuary.

Then a series of big details of ornate clocks lit with soft sources, and then to Agnes, the sister who is dying, as she wakes. She is lit with a single direct light, whose edges fade into the dimmer background lighting of the room with its red walls and carpets. This is Nykvist basic method throughout the film. The rooms themselves are lit with softish sources, and on top of that the actors are lit with their own direct key lights. Often the actors are allowed to go a little underexposed as they move about the room and this is one of the most distinctive features of the lighting. Also, there is no backlighting of the figures and their separation from the background is achieved purely by the painterly method of colour difference.

There is some relief for Agnes in remembering childhood happiness with her mother. Here the past images in the park outside move to high-key daylight with strong fill, while the images themselves. As elsewhere, evoke composition seen in Nordic painting of the period. Agnes has another attack and after the doctor has seen her, Maria, the vain, sensual sister, embraces him, and another flashback shows a time in the past when she seduced him, and her husband attempted suicide when he discovered her unfaithfulness. The seduction is treated in high key, with a lurid red dress for Maria, and her husband's suicide attempt suddenly introduces black into the décor.

Anna, the servant, comforts Agnes in the night by taking to her to her breast in bed, like the child she had lost long before. Then Agnes dies in agony, and is laid out in a white room. We are shown in flash back the time when Karin, the cold, socially ambitious sister, was staying in the mansion with her husband, and gashed her sex with broken glass to spite him. Now big black furniture and darkness are more pronounced in the images, and there is only key light, with no fill.

In the right of the present, Maria tries to obtain affection from Karin, but is rejected. Then Anna hears crying from the room containing Anna's body. When the other sisters come in, the corpse says that she cannot leave them, and grasps Maria to her. Maria flees in terror, and Anna calms the dead woman by cradling her in her lap again. Here the lighting goes in the opposite direction from tradition as, with curtained windows glowing, a dimmer soft light evenly fills the room. The next day, Anna is sacked, but is consoled by memories of happiness with the sisters in the full light of day outdoors.

Sven Nykvist's collaborations with Bergman continued up to "Fanny and Alexander" (1982), by which time he was being asked to photograph films elsewhere in Europe and the United States . In Europe he worked with Andrei Tarkovsky on the "Sacrifice" (1986), and among his American ventures are the "Postman Always Rings Twice" (Bob Rafelson, 1980) and "Sleepless in Seattle "(Nora Ephron, 1993).

in IMAGO book "Making Pictures: a Century of European Cinematography.
Written by Zoë Bicât and Barry Salt.

Book available from Abrams US and Aurum UK . Check up through the AMAZON link in this site.

Artful composition under a window light plus
diffuse fill from the right.

Nykvist frames a painterly composition in the style of 19th century
Nordic painting. Low sunlight is boosted on the figure from the front
with extra fill light.

This two-shot of Maria and the doctor is simply lit with a key light
from the right and a little fill from a spot at the left.

The servant Annacradles the dying Agnes in her lap lit solely by soft
lights out to the right

The three women wait in the red room. Flood lights above the windows do
most of the work, plus fill from the other side, and backlight on the
blonde sister.