Luis Cuadrado

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Luis Cuadrado
Born(1934-07-08)8 July 1934
Died18 January 1980(1980-01-18) (aged 45)
Madrid, Spain
OccupationCinematographer
Known forThe Spirit of the Beehive

Luis Cuadrado Encinar (8 July 1934 – 18 January 1980) was a Spanish cinematographer. He became especially known for his work on the 1973 film The Spirit of the Beehive.

Early life and education[edit]

Luis Cuadrado Encinar was born on 8 July 1934 in the town of Toro, in the province of Zamora in the autonomous community of Castile and León in Spain. His father, Santos Cuadrado, was a master glassmaker, who worked on the restoration of many cathedrals damaged in the Spanish Civil War. Luis initially tried glassmaking, but then switched to studying medicine, which he gave up after two years.[1][2]

He spent seven years at the Official School of Cinematography [es] (EOC), voluntarily repeating some of the courses in order to learn lighting techniques of certain masters, as well as gain experience in the Spanish film industry. By the time of his departure from the school in 1963, he had worked in several films, including Los golfos (1959), by Carlos Saura, and El cochecito (1960), by Marco Ferreri.[2][1]

Career[edit]

Cuadrado's debut as head cinematographer was in Saura's film La Caza (1965), which was filmed in black and white, followed by a couple of films in colour during the 1960s, including Saura's 1967 thriller Peppermint Frappe and Jaime Camino's Mañana será otro día, released in the same year.[1] He worked on four spaghetti westerns during the early 1970s: Cut-Throats Nine (1970); Sonny and Jed (1972); Yankee Dudler (1973); and The White, the Yellow, and the Black (1975). He was cinematographer on Victor Erice's acclaimed film The Spirit of the Beehive, released in 1973,[2][3] providing an essential contribution which many critics have attributed to its success.[4]

Due to an inoperable brain tumour,[2] he started to lose his vision during the filming of The Spirit of the Beehive, and had to rely on his assistants for input.[3] However he continued to provide his services of films made by several of his former fellow EOC students, including José Luis Borau's Furtivos (1975) and Ricardo Franco's Pascual Duarte (1976). During the filming of Angelino Fons' Emilia, parada y fonda (released 1976), went completely blind.[2]

Awards[edit]

Cuadrado won many CEC Awards (Cinema Writers Circle Awards) for best cinematography, almost every year between 1966 and 1977.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]

Death[edit]

Cuadrado became very depressed, and when the pain of the tumour became too much to bear, he committed suicide on 18 January 1980, in Madrid.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "Luis Enrique Cuadrado Encinar". Real Academia de la Historia: DB-e (in Spanish). Retrieved 5 September 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Who Are Those Guns? ~ Luis Cuadrado". Westerns...All'Italiana!. 1 June 2022. Retrieved 5 September 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Erice, Victor – Senses of Cinema". Senses of Cinema. 31 January 2022. Retrieved 5 September 2023.
  4. ^ Smith, P.J. (2000). The Moderns: Time, Space, and Subjectivity in Contemporary Spanish Culture. Oxford Hispanic studies. Oxford University Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-19-816000-7. Retrieved 5 September 2023.
  5. ^ "Premios del CEC a la producción española de 1966". Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2018.
  6. ^ "Premios del CEC a la producción española de 1967". CEC. Archived from the original on 6 May 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
  7. ^ "Premios del CEC a la producción española de 1968". CEC. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
  8. ^ "Premios del CEC a la producción española de 1969". CEC. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  9. ^ "Premios del CEC a la producción española de 1970". CEC. Madrid. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  10. ^ "Medallas del CEC a la producción española de 1973". CEC. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  11. ^ "Premios del CEC a la producción española de 1974". CEC. Archived from the original on 6 May 2021. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  12. ^ "Premios del CEC a la producción española de 1976". Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos. Archived from the original on 6 May 2021. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  13. ^ "Premios del CEC a la producción española de 1977". Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 6 January 2019.

External links[edit]