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Sven Nykvist dies


Jeff Wexler

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Sven Nykvist, the Oscar-winning cinematographer and filmmaker whose naturalistic, straightforward camera work distinguished the movies of directors Ingmar Bergman and Woody Allen, died Wednesday. He was 83.

Sven will be missed...  one of the few truly artistic, creative cinematographers of our time and a wonderful human being.

-  JW

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I had the honor of working with Sven in 1984 on "Agnes of God". He was a real gentleman and a true artist. Months before shooting I received a phone call from Sven. We had not even met and yet he is calling me to ask what camera he should use, because a New York Mixer (name inmentioned) had hounded him into using a Panaflex instead of his beloved Arri BL on a previous show.

First to receive a personal call from Sven, to me was a thrill and then to be asked by one of the world's greatest cinematographers what camera to use  - I just about fell of my chair.  I immeadiately said to Sven that since he had always used an Arri and also won an Academy Award with that camera and lenses I would never dare to tell him what camera to use. He replied by saying "Oh thank you very much Richard, thank you."

On set he was the calmest and happiest person I've ever worked with. Just watching him paint with light - and the barest at that was as exciting as it gets.

I had an opportunity to meet up with him again in 1998 in New York while he was shooting Woody Allen's film "Celebrity". It was a Sunday so we enjoyed a long lunch - already there were early signs of dementia - his english once immpecable was now hard to understand and he often lost his train of thought. We reminisced about working for Norman Jewison and the differences with Woody. But then he started to tell me about a new book he was writing (in Swedish) about his life and work with Bergman. Sven had grown up with missionary parents and spent a long time in Africa, he showed me some of the pages and incredible historic photos. He was hoping to get an American publishing deal - I have no idea if it ever got finished.  He will be missed.

Richard

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With one exception, Bergman's films leave me completely cold. The exception is his last film, Fanny and Alexander.

The first time that I saw it, on VCR, I almost turned it off after about 20 minutes. I thought, this is shaping up to be yet another Bergman exercise in pretension. For some reason, I persisted. Quite suddenly, the film became a piece of magic, literally as well as figuratively, and I learned that it is indeed possible to capture the narrative sweep of a great novel on film. 

I now watch Fanny and Alexander once a year, at Christmas (because it is, after all, a Christmas film), either in the theatrical version or the original, five hour television version.

I think that it is the finest film that I have ever seen, and that Mr. Nyqvist's photography is exquisite.

Cheers,

Rory

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