Néstor Almendros

Néstor Almendros Cuyás 30 October 1930 4 March 1992 was a Spanish cinematographer One of the most highly appraised contemporary cinematographers Almendros was an artist of deep integrity who believed the most beautiful light was natural lighthe will always be remembered as a cinematographer of absolute trutha true master of light Néstor Almendros Cuyás was born in Barcelona Spain but at 18 moved to Cuba to join his exiled antiFrancisco 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 City 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 Starting in 1964 he became the favorite collaborator of French New Wave director Éric Rohmer In the early seventies he also started working with François Truffaut Barbet Schroeder and other directors Almendros began his Hollywood career with Days of Heaven 1978 written and directed by Terrence Malick who admired Almendros work on The Wild Child 1970 Almendros was impressed by Malicks knowledge of photography and his willingness to use little studio lighting The films 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 three further Academy Award nominations for his work on Kramer vs Kramer 1979 The Blue Lagoon 1980 and Sophies Choice 1982 making him the most nominated Spanish person in Academy history as of the 93rd Academy Awards in 2021 Almendros was the cinematographer for the John Lennon documentary Imagine John Lennon 1988 directed by Andrew Solt In his later years Almendros codirected 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 alleged 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 Human Rights Watch 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 1980 Almendros won the César Award for François Truffauts The Last Metro In 1992 Néstor Almendros died of AIDSrelated lymphoma in New York City at the age of 61 Source Article Néstor Almendros from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30