Néstor Almendros
Encyclopedia
Néstor Almendros, ASC
(30 October 1930 – 4 March 1992) was an Oscar winning Spanish
cinematographer
. One of the highest appraised contemporary cinematographers, "Almendros was an artist of deep integrity, who believed the most beautiful light was natural light...he will always be remembered as a cinematographer of absolute truth...a true master of light"
, Spain
, but at 18 moved to Cuba
to join his exiled anti-Francisco Franco
father. In Havana
, he wrote film reviews. Then he went on to study in Rome
at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia
. He directed six shorts in Cuba and two in New York
.
After the 1959 Cuban Revolution
, he returned and made several documentaries for the Castro regime. But after two of his shorts (Gente En La Playa and La Tumba Francesa) were banned, he moved to Paris
. There he became the favorite collaborator of Éric Rohmer
and François Truffaut
.
(1978), written and directed by Terrence Malick
, who admired Almendros' work on The Wild Child
(1970) so much that he wanted him to shoot Days of Heaven.. Almendros was impressed by Malick's knowledge of photography and his willingness to use little studio lighting. The film's cinematography was modeled after silent films, which often used natural light. In 1979, Almendros won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography
for Days of Heaven.
Almendros received Academy Award nominations for his work on Kramer vs Kramer (1979), The Blue Lagoon
(1980) and Sophie's Choice
(1982).
Almendros was the cinematographer for the John Lennon
documentary, Imagine: John Lennon
(1988), directed by Andrew Solt
.
In his later years, Almendros co-directed two documentaries about the human rights situation in Cuba, Mauvaise Conduite
(1984) (Improper Conduct) about the persecution of gay people in Cuba, and Nadie escuchaba (Nobody Was Listening) about the arrest, imprisonment, and torture of former comrades of Fidel Castro
. He also shot several prestigious advertisements for Giorgio Armani
(directed by Martin Scorsese
), Calvin Klein
(directed by Richard Avedon
) and Freixenet
.
A Man With a Camera, published in 1984, is his account of the source of his creative inspirations.
International has named an award after him by establishing the Nestor Almendros Award for Courage in Filmmaking and it is given every year at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival.
In 1979, Almendros won the Oscar for Best Cinematography for the film Days of Heaven.
In 1980, Almendros won the César Award
for François Truffaut's The Last Metro
.
American Society of Cinematographers
The American Society of Cinematographers is an educational, cultural, and professional organization. It is not a labor union, and it is not a guild. Membership is by invitation and is extended only to directors of photography and special effects experts with distinguished credits in the film...
(30 October 1930 – 4 March 1992) was an Oscar winning Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
. One of the highest appraised contemporary cinematographers, "Almendros was an artist of deep integrity, who believed the most beautiful light was natural light...he will always be remembered as a cinematographer of absolute truth...a true master of light"
Early life
Néstor Almendros Cuyás was born in BarcelonaBarcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, but at 18 moved to Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
to join his exiled anti-Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
father. In Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, he wrote film reviews. Then he went on to study in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia
Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia
The Centro sperimentale di cinematografia was established in 1935 in Italy and aims to promote the art and technique of cinematography and film....
. He directed six shorts in Cuba and two in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
After the 1959 Cuban Revolution
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
, he returned and made several documentaries for the Castro regime. But after two of his shorts (Gente En La Playa and La Tumba Francesa) were banned, he moved to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. There he became the favorite collaborator of Éric Rohmer
Éric Rohmer
Éric Rohmer was a French film director, film critic, journalist, novelist, screenwriter and teacher. A figure in the post-war New Wave cinema, he was a former editor of Cahiers du cinéma....
and François Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
.
Career
Almendros began his Hollywood career with Days of HeavenDays of Heaven
Days of Heaven is a 1978 American romantic drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick and starring Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard and Linda Manz. Set in the early 20th century, it tells the story of two poor lovers, Bill and Abby, as they travel to the Texas Panhandle to harvest...
(1978), written and directed by Terrence Malick
Terrence Malick
Terrence Frederick Malick is a U.S. film director, screenwriter, and producer. In a career spanning almost four decades, Malick has directed five feature films....
, who admired Almendros' work on The Wild Child
The Wild Child
The Wild Child is a French film by director François Truffaut. The film features Jean-Pierre Cargol, François Truffaut, Françoise Seigner and Jean Dasté. The film had a total of 1,458,164 admissions in France...
(1970) so much that he wanted him to shoot Days of Heaven.. Almendros was impressed by Malick's knowledge of photography and his willingness to use little studio lighting. The film's cinematography was modeled after silent films, which often used natural light. In 1979, Almendros won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
for Days of Heaven.
Almendros received Academy Award nominations for his work on Kramer vs Kramer (1979), The Blue Lagoon
The Blue Lagoon (1980 film)
The Blue Lagoon is a 1980 American romance and adventure film directed by Randal Kleiser. The screenplay by Douglas Day Stewart was based on the novel The Blue Lagoon by Henry De Vere Stacpoole. The film stars Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins...
(1980) and Sophie's Choice
Sophie's Choice (film)
Sophie's Choice is a 1982 American romantic drama film that tells the story of a Polish immigrant, Sophie, and her tempestuous lover who share a boarding house with a young writer in Brooklyn. The film stars Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, and Peter MacNicol. Alan J...
(1982).
Almendros was the cinematographer for the John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
documentary, Imagine: John Lennon
Imagine: John Lennon
Imagine: John Lennon is a soundtrack album of popular music composed by John Lennon for the 1988 documentary film, Imagine: John Lennon...
(1988), directed by Andrew Solt
Andrew Solt
Andrew Solt is a producer, director, writer and documentary filmmaker. He has done numerous television specials and series for both broadcast and cable television and also movies. Solt owns the rights to the The Ed Sullivan Show library and has produced over 100 hours of new programming from the...
.
In his later years, Almendros co-directed two documentaries about the human rights situation in Cuba, Mauvaise Conduite
Improper Conduct
Mauvaise Conduite or Improper Conduct is a 1984 documentary film directed by Néstor Almendros and Orlando Jiménez Leal. The documentary interviews Cuban refugees to explore the Cuban government's imprisonment of homosexuals, political dissidents, and Jehovah's Witnesses into concentration camps...
(1984) (Improper Conduct) about the persecution of gay people in Cuba, and Nadie escuchaba (Nobody Was Listening) about the arrest, imprisonment, and torture of former comrades of Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
. He also shot several prestigious advertisements for Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani is an Italian fashion designer, particularly noted for his menswear. He is known today for his clean, tailored lines. He formed his company, Armani, in 1975, and by 2001 was acclaimed as the most successful designer to come out of Italy, with an annual turnover of $1.6 billion and a...
(directed by Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
), Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc. in 1968. In addition to clothing, Klein has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewelry....
(directed by Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon was an American photographer. An obituary published in The New York Times said that "his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century."-Photography career:Avedon was born in New York City to a Jewish Russian...
) and Freixenet
Freixenet
Freixenet is a Cava producer in Spain, located west of Barcelona in Catalonia. Cava is a sparkling wine produced in Spain.Freixenet was started after the union of two Spanish families with a lengthy history in winemaking: the Ferrers, owners of La Freixeneda, a 12th-century farming estate in Sant...
.
A Man With a Camera, published in 1984, is his account of the source of his creative inspirations.
Legacy and honors
Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
International has named an award after him by establishing the Nestor Almendros Award for Courage in Filmmaking and it is given every year at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival.
In 1979, Almendros won the Oscar for Best Cinematography for the film Days of Heaven.
In 1980, Almendros won the César Award
César Award
The César Award is the national film award of France, first given out in 1975. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma....
for François Truffaut's The Last Metro
The Last Metro
The Last Metro is a 1980 film made by Les Films du Carrosse, written and directed by the French filmmaker François Truffaut, and starring Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu....
.