Sven Nykvist

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sven Vilhem Nykvist (born December 3, 1922 in Moheda , Alvesta municipality , † September 20, 2006 in Stockholm ) was a Swedish cameraman and film director . In addition to many films by Ingmar Bergman , he photographed works by Woody Allen , Louis Malle and Andrei Tarkowski .

life and work

Early years

Sven Nykvist was born into a missionary family working in the Belgian Congo . He grew up with strictly Lutheran relatives, as his parents only visited their Swedish homeland every four years. When Nykvist was 10 years old, his parents returned from Africa and moved with their children to Rönninge in Stockholm County . He was interested in his father's large slide and photo collection and bought his first 8-millimeter camera when he was 15 . In 1941, at the age of 19, he became Sweden's youngest camera assistant. In 1945 he made his debut as the first cameraman with Barnen från Frostmofjället and made 30 films with various Swedish directors over the next ten years. According to his own statement, Alf Sjöberg's compositions impressed him in particular . In 1952 he was co-director and second cameraman in the feature film Under the Southern Cross , which is set in the Belgian Congo and based on his parents' experiences in Africa.

Collaboration with Ingmar Bergman

In 1953 he shot some scenes for Ingmar Bergman's Evening of Jugglers , as the originally hired cameraman was not available for the entire shooting time. The second work for Bergman was The Jungfrauenquelle (1960). With Wie in einer Spiegel (1961), Nykvist replaced Gunnar Fischer as Bergman's regular cameraman, with whom he worked continuously until After the Rehearsal (1983). Films like Licht im Winter (1962) and Schreie und Whisper (1973) are, in the opinion of many critics, among Nykvist's masterpieces of his visual art. Light in winter was one of Nykvist's first conscious attempts to use light as a central design element. He got the suggestion when he was sitting in a church with Bergman and watching the play of light and shadow on the walls and windows all day long. With one exception, all of their joint films were made in black and white until the late 1960s, and from Passion (1969) onwards they used color as a conscious dramaturgical element.

In 1973 Nykvist received an Oscar for Best Cinematography for Screams and Whispers , and in 1983 a second for Fanny and Alexander .

More work

In addition to Bergman, Nykvist has worked for internationally renowned directors such as Bergman admirer Woody Allen, Louis Malle, Andrei Tarkowski, Richard Attenborough , Roman Polański and his compatriot Lasse Hallström . He received a special award at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival for Tarkowski's film Sacrifice , and another Oscar nomination in 1989 for The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Philip Kaufman .

After he was diagnosed with aphasia in 1998 , he retired from the film business. He died in 2006 at the age of 83. Nykvist's wife Ulrika died in 1982. The two had a son, Carl-Gustaf , who made a documentary about his father in 2000.

Quotes

"For me, light has become a passion of my life."

- Sven Nykvist

“The truth of a story is always in the eyes of a character. It is very important to set the light so that the audience can see what is going on behind the character's eyes. "

- Sven Nykvist

“Technically, Nykvist is extremely skilled, one of the most skilled in the world. A sign of his ability is that he can work with three lamps and some foil. What really matters is that you eliminate a mass of useless technical complications and thus reduce the machinery to the bare essentials. "

- Ingmar Bergman

“Sometimes I mourn not making films anymore, and more than anything I miss working with Sven Nykvist. Maybe because we were both so caught up in the problems of light, this tender, dangerous, dreamy, living, dead, clear, misty, hot, cruel, naked, sudden, spring-like, falling, straight, crooked, sensual, subdued, poisonous, soothing, pale light. "

- Ingmar Bergman : autobiography

"Nykvist's invisible lighting made a feature film appear as authentic as a documentary."

- Daniel Kothenschulte

Filmography

Nykvist's oeuvre comprises a total of 120 films.

Camera (selection)

Director

About Sven Nykvist

  • 2000: Ljuset håller mig sällskap - Director: Carl-Gustaf Nykvist

Awards (selection)

literature

  • Sven Nykvist, Bengt Forslund: Vördnad för ljuset: om film ochhabenkor, Bonnier, Stockholm 1997, ISBN 9789100563165

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ According to Daniel Kothenschulte / Frankfurter Rundschau and Stephen Holden / New York Times. According to the Ingmar Bergman Foundation website, the children grew up in a Christian children's home while their parents were absent.
  2. ↑ Sven Nykvist on the website of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation , accessed on September 21, 2012.
  3. ↑ a b Stephen Holden : Sven Nykvist, 83, a Master of Light in Films, Dies , AP / New York Times , September 21, 2006, accessed December 3, 2010.
  4. ^ Evening of jugglers on the website of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation , accessed on August 9, 2012.
  5. ↑ Passion on the website of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation, accessed on September 21, 2012.
  6. ↑ Ljuset håller mig sällskap on the New York Times website , accessed September 13, 2012.
  7. ↑ a b Peter W. Jansen: Bergman's eye. On the death of the great cameraman Sven Nykvist , Tagesspiegel , September 22, 2006
  8. ↑ Hanns-Georg Rodek: The truth is behind the eyes , Die Welt , September 21, 2006, accessed on December 3, 2010
  9. ↑ a b Daniel Kothenschulte: On the death of Sven Nykvist. Light in winter  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Frankfurter Rundschau , September 22, 2006@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.fr-aktuell.de  
personal data
SURNAME Nykvist, Sven
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nykvist, Sven Vilhem (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish cameraman and film director
DATE OF BIRTH December 3, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Moheda , Alvesta municipality
DATE OF DEATH September 20, 2006
Place of death Stockholm