15/11/2024 - We chatted to the seasoned DoP, who has won an Honorary Mikeldi at Zinebi this year, about his career and what he views as the golden age of cinema

(© Zinebi)

Experienced DoP José Luis Alcaine, now aged 85, is at Zinebi to pick up an Honorary Mikeldi Award. The professional, who has won five Goya Awards, has worked with many of the great names in Spanish and international cinema, such as Pedro Almodóvar (ranging from Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown [+see also:
trailer
film profile] up to last year’s Strange Way of Life), Fernando Trueba, Brian De Palma, Adolfo Aristarain and Montxo Armendáriz. We chatted to him about his career and what he views as the golden age of cinema.

Cineuropa: Congratulations on being awarded an Honorary Mikeldi at Zinebi. What does winning this prize mean to you?
José Luis Alcaine: Thank you – I’m really happy about this prize. My father was from Málaga, but really, I grew up in Morocco. And so, my prevailing heritage is from the south of Spain, from Andalusia and Morocco. This is like a form of recognition from the north, so suddenly it seems as though I have a certain influence there as well. Somehow, I’m aware that people appreciate me in many parts of Spain. The truth is that I’m getting on a bit, to put it mildly, so this fills me with satisfaction and enables me to see the work I’ve done in a positive light. What’s more, in my line of work, you never stop learning. One must never think that one knows everything already.

Is there anything in particular about your relationship with Pedro Almodóvar that makes him want to keep working with you time and time again?
There’s something that happens in the film world that people are unaware of: folks think that the director is in close contact with the crew, but that’s not the case. There is very sporadic contact because the director is under enormous pressure, and when you shoot, there’s a need to communicate with too many departments at once. The director really can’t be on top of everything. So, they trust you if you’ve made films with them before – and obviously, I’ve made nine with Pedro, so we understand one another without the need to speak to each other, practically. All I need to do is read the screenplay and see the sets, and I already know which direction he thinks the film needs to go in. When you are familiar with their other works, you can grasp their idea for the film, although it could always differ from yours.

You are renowned for experimenting during shoots and for being inventive via hands-on solutions. Is it still so easy to do this with the digital tools at your disposal today?
It can be done. The film I have just finished, which is the only one I’ve made this year, was shot very quickly, in just four weeks. You won’t see it for another two or three months. I suggest you call me once you’ve seen it because it’s made in a completely different way to virtually every other film in the world. The approach to shooting and planning will really surprise you when you consider the camera set-ups and things like that. It's a film that will alter people’s perspectives in the film world because it invests strongly in a particular change that’s been made.

Is there a “golden age” of cinema for you?
For me, it’s from the 1930s to the year 2000. That’s the period when most of the classic films were made. They’re classics in the sense that time tells us whether they’re classics or not, it’s that simple. When you remember a movie, and then you see it again and again, and you still think it works like a charm after that, that means it’s a classic film. However, there are movies you see that grab your attention, and then you watch them again ten years later and think, “Why did that film stand out to me? It’s shocking!” That would not be a classic. There’s been a change in perspectives in film, and when I see movies being made today, I think, “This is drivel; we’re going backwards.”

From the 1930s until 2000, movies still drew inspiration from silent films, believe it or not, because silent films were eminently creative in terms of their visuals. There were people from this period who continued making films afterwards, such as William Wyler, Alfred Hitchcock and Ernst Lubitsch – loads of directors who had worked on silent films and who left a whole school of thought behind them on how to make movies. However, now, people have totally shunned that school.

Does the fact that many people now watch films on small screens change your approach to your job?
It doesn’t change anything for me, because I’ve always thought in terms of the big screen. But it could be that it changes things for other people because that’s how they’ve been brought up, watching films on phones or tablets. Of course, the size of the image matters [laughs]. In films up until 2000, there were practically no out-of-focus shots; now, everything is full of them. But the problem is that these soft focuses distance the viewer from the screen because it’s a way to guide the audience’s gaze to a certain point determined by the focus. The biggest achievement of the films from last century was that they were created, and they played with the actors and scenes, using deep focus. That way, you, the viewer, are free to choose what you want to look at.

(Translated from Spanish)