Lights off for Sven Nykvist
by Annika Pham
Legendary Swedish cinematographer Sven Nykvist died Wednesday in Stockholm at the age of 83. He had been suffering from aphasia since the late 1990s.
Nicknamed "the master of light", Nykvist was most famous for his long collaboration with Ingmar Bergman, which began in 1953 and brought him two Academy Awards: in 1973 for Cries and Whispers and in 1982 for Fanny and Alexander.
Top international filmmakers who worked with Nykvist include Andrei Tarkovsky (The Sacrifice), Roman Polanski (The Tenant), Louis Malle (Pretty Baby), Lasse Halström (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape), Richard Attenborough (Chaplin), Philip Kaufman (The Unbearable Lightness of Being) and, of course, Bergman's spiritual son Woody Allen, who made three films with him, including Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Nykvist "lit up" a total 130 feature films and television productions and directed two films of his own, on of which, The Ox, won him an Oscar nomination in 1991.
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