Legendary Bergman Cinematographer Sven Nykvist Has Died

Director and cinematographer Sven Nykvist has died at the age of 83. Sven Nykvist is most famous for his masterful photography of many classic Ingmar Bergman films. He won two Academy Awards, for Cries and Whispers in 1972 and for Fanny & Alexander in 1982.

Nykvist’s austere camerawork was as much a touchstone of a Bergman film as its philosophical themes and ensemble casts. The black and white photography in such Bergman masterpieces as Through a Glass Darkly and The Silence are chiaroscuro portraits of the psychological madness that permeates the chararacters. Nykvist was a master of lighting and composition and his cinematography was in direct opposition to the colorful big budget cinerama epics of the 1950s.

Which made his foray into color all the more striking. Nykvist won his first Oscar for Bergman’s Cries and Whisper, one of the most beautiful color films of all time. Watch it and notice the use of the color red to symbolize both passion and death. Nykvist’s work signalled the extraordinary work to come of such landmark cinematographers as Gordon Willis and Michael Chapman.