Light Keeps Me Company

The first thing that strikes one about Sven Nykvist: Light Keeps Me Company, which celebrates the life and work of one of the premiere cinematographers in the history of film, is the extraordinary quality and, in particular, volume of Nykvist's work. Early in this documentary nearly 120 film credits scroll down the screen, a list of his lensed films that run from his first in 1941, through his reputation-making collaborations with Ingmar Bergman in the '60s and '70s, right up to his recent work with Woody Allen--a list featuring such varied styles and film genres as found in Barrabas (1953), Persona (1963), The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) and Sleepless in Seattle (1993). (Nykvist retired in 1998 after being diagnosed with progressive aphasia, a chronic condition which devastated his language skills.) It's an extraordinary body of work, one which no other cinematographer has come close to matching, and this is a loving tribute to his talent, combining a generous collection of film excerpts, rare home movies, family photos, behind-the-scenes footage, and a slew of personal interviews and observations from fellow artists and collaborators, including Liv Ullmann, Stellan Skarsgård, Vilmos Zsigmond, and Bergman and Allen themselves. While this should be a slam dunk recommendation, a couple of poor choices by filmmaker Carl-Gustaf Nykvist (yes, his son) rob the effort of its final half star. Considering the focus on the art of cinematography, I found it odd that the chosen film excerpts were taken from old and often washed out prints, and that literally all of them, including those explicitly used to demonstrate Nykvist's compositional skills, are panned and scanned. Still, this is an essential addition to any serious collection, especially those that celebrate great filmmakers. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (S. C. Sickles)