Nestor Almendros is one of the world's most sought-after directors of cinematography. He is most closely associated with the French cinema, having shot nine of Truffaut's films and seven of Rohmer's, but recently his Oscar for Malick's Days of Heaven has encouraged Americans to take a chance on this independent Spaniard who has three times been exiled - from Franco's Spain, Batista's Cuba and Castro's Cuba. Among his Transatlantic credits are Jack Nicholson's Goin' south, Benton's Kramer vs Kramer, Places in the Heart and Still of the Night, and Pakula's Sophie's Choice. He was closest of all, though, to Truffaut, who contributes a preface. The book ends just before Truffaut's death last year and the final pages in which Almendros speaks with characteristic warmth, gratitude and modesty of their collaboration, then at a fine point of mature balance, are lent an unexpected poignancy.

LRB 1 August 1985 | PDF Download