Néstor Almendros Movies
While growing up in Barcelona, cinematographer Nestor Almendros and his friends spent their spare time making amateur movies. Almendros curbed his cinematic impulses long enough to major in philosophy and literature at Havana University, but he was back behind the camera in the film department of CCNY and at Rome's Centro Sperimente di Cinematografia. After briefly teaching Spanish at Vassar, Almendros returned to Cuba in 1959. He worked as a documentary director with Havana's ICAIC, but eventually grew weary of having his creativity rechannelled into pro-Castro propaganda. Moving to Paris in 1961, he worked on a number of TV programs and short subjects. Beginning with his camerawork for 1965's Six in Paris, Almendros inaugurated his long and rewarding collaboration with director Eric Rohmer, a teaming that yielded such splendid results as La Collectioneuse (1967) My Night at Maude's (1969) Claire's Knee (1970), Chloe in the Afternoon (1972), and Pauline at the Beach (1983). The hallmarks of Almendro's cinematic vision included his skill at perfectly matching a film's characters with their environment, and his fondness for diffused natural lighting. During his Rohmer period, Almendros also photographed several Francois Truffaut projects (The Wild Child, 2 English Girls, Story of Adele H, Man Who Loved Women and The Last Metro). An occasional visitor to Hollywood from 1978 on, Almendros worked extensively with director Robert Benton, winning an Oscar nomination for Benton's Places in the Heart (1983). Additional industry honors bestowed upon Almendros included France's Cesar award for The Last Metro (1980), another Academy Award nomination for Sophie's Choice (1981), and an Oscar win for Days of Heaven (1978). In the early 1980s, Almendros returned to directing, collaborating on two short films decrying Cuba's human rights violations: Improper Conduct (1983) and Nobody Listened (1988). He wrote his autobiography (A Man with a Camera) in 1980, and in 1987 was awarded the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. Nestor Almendros died of lymphoma at the age of 61. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1993
- NR
- Add Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography to Queue Add Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography to top of Queue
The film equivalent of a stroll through the Louvre, the documentary Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography collects interviews with many of modern-day Hollywood's finest directors of photography and is illustrated by examples of their best work as well as scenes from the pictures which most influenced them. A who's-who of cinematographers -- Nestor Almendros, John Bailey, Conrad Hall, Laszlo Kovacs, Sven Nykvist, Vittorio Storaro, Haskell Wexler, Gordon Willis, Vilmos Zsigmond and others -- discuss their craft with rare perception and insight, paying homage to pioneers like Gregg Toland, Billy Bitzer and John Alton and explaining the origins behind many of the most indelible images in movie history; from Citizen Kane to The Godfather and from Sunrise to Night of the Hunter, many of the truly unforgettable moments in American film history are here in all their brilliance and glory. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
- Starring:
- Néstor Almendros, John A. Alonzo, (more)
In this film version of E. L. Doctorow's Billy Bathgate, Loren Dean plays the title character, a street-smart kid who inveigles his way into the confidence of 1930s gangster Dutch Schultz (Dustin Hoffman). Billy is ordered to look after Schultz' new moll, Drew Preston (Nicole Kidman), while Dutch fends off tax evasion charges and such up-and-coming rivals as Lucky Luciano (Stanley Tucci). Even though they know they're playing with dynamite, Billy and Drew fall in love. In attempting to escape Schultz' wrath, Billy succeeds only in putting himself in the thick of a gun battle between his boss and Luciano. When "Charley Lucky" emerges triumphant, Billy is forced once again to rely on his wits to escape being sent to the bottom of the briny in a cement overcoat. Bruce Willis shows up in an extended cameo as Dutch Schultz' former business associate. Billy Bathgate was adapted for the screen by British playwright Tom Stoppard. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dustin Hoffman, Nicole Kidman, (more)
The omnibus film New York Stories is the product of three powerhouse filmmakers. The film is divided into three stories, each exploring a different aspect of life in the Big Apple. Life Lessons, directed by Martin Scorcese, is a Dostoevsky-like tale of the rarefied Art World, with Nick Nolte as a self-indulgent abstractionist who loves Rosanna Arquette, but can't bring himself to lie to her about her negligible artistic talents. Life Without Zoe, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, is more than a little reminiscent of Kay Thompson's Eloise stories, with 12-year-old Zoe (Heather McComb) running amok at the Sherry-Netherland hotel while her parents are embarked upon a world-girdling vacation. The last and is Woody Allen's Oedipus Wrecks, wherein a schnooky lawyer (guess who?) inadvertently "creates" the Jewish Mother From Hell: thanks to a misguided magic trick, Allen's mama (the incomparable Mae Questel) becomes a huge spectral vision on the New York skyline, telling everyone within earshot about her son's inadequacies. The cinematographer lineup on New York Stories includes Nestor Almendros, Vittorio Storaro and Sven Nykvist. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nick Nolte, Rosanna Arquette, (more)
- 1988
Despite a well-established record of mass torture and imprisonment of thousands of law-abiding citizens for political reasons, it sometimes appears that the regime of Ferdinand Castro in Cuba has gotten away with its crimes. So completely is this the case that, to leftists all over the world, the name "Castro" still has a heroic ring to it. Consequently it has become almost taboo to discuss the horrific misdeeds of the "hero's" regime, but the makers of this documentary intend to set the record straight, and in a series of interviews with survivors of Castro's prisons, they reveal many surprising facts about the dictator's perfidious regime. Many of those interviewed were formerly high officials in Cuba's communist government who fell from favor. They know (literally) where the bodies are buried. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
Despite a well-established record of mass torture and imprisonment of thousands of law-abiding citizens for political reasons, it sometimes appears that the regime of Ferdinand Castro in Cuba has gotten away with its crimes. So completely is this the case that, to leftists all over the world, the name "Castro" still has a heroic ring to it. Consequently it has become almost taboo to discuss the horrific misdeeds of the "hero's" regime, but the makers of this documentary intend to set the record straight, and in a series of interviews with survivors of Castro's prisons, they reveal many surprising facts about the dictator's perfidious regime. Many of those interviewed were formerly high officials in Cuba's communist government who fell from favor. They know (literally) where the bodies are buried. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- 1988
- R
- Add Imagine: John Lennon - The Definitive Film Portrait to Queue Add Imagine: John Lennon - The Definitive Film Portrait to top of Queue
The personal film archives of Yoko Ono were utilized for this feature-length documentary on the life of John Lennon. Predictably, it downplays Lennon's association with the Beatles and concentrates on his years with Ono. The film spends a lot of time recounting Lennon's anti-war activities, highlighted by a confrontation on a talk show hosted by conservative cartoonist Al Capp. The title of the documentary is, of course, taken from Lennon's idyllic ballad about a world free of hatred and discord. Imagine: John Lennon is a reverent but ultimately depressing chronicle of an artist who died the untimeliest of deaths. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
A woman trying to keep a momentary indiscretion quiet finds herself in more trouble than she ever imagined in this comedy written and directed by Robert Benton. Nadine Hightower (Kim Basinger), who is significantly more beautiful than intelligent, is fast-talked into posing for some cheesecake pictures by sleazy photographer Raymond Escobar (Jerry Stiller). When Nadine learns that Escobar plans to use the pictures for a set of racy playing cards, Nadine decides to steal the photos back, and she enlists the help of her soon-to-be-former husband Vernon (Jeff Bridges), who is already engaged to the winner of a local beauty pageant. In the midst of the robbery, intruders shoot and kill Escobar in the next room; Nadine and Vernon grab an envelope marked "Nadine" and make tracks. But the envelope doesn't contain any photos; instead, there are plans for a road to be built in town that reveal dirty dealings by local politicians, and now Nadine and Vernon are on the run from both Escobar's killers and land baron Buford Pope (Rip Torn). Popular country and western group Sweethearts of the Rodeo perform several tunes for the film's soundtrack. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeff Bridges, Kim Basinger, (more)
Though she always played coy about the fact in interviews, Nora Ephron's novel Heartburn is a thinly disguised "à clef" rehash of her marriage to Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein. Meryl Streep plays Rachel, an influential food critic who marries charismatic columnist Mark (Jack Nicholson) after a whirlwind courtship. Warned that Mark is constitutionally incapable of settling down with any one woman, Rachel gives up her own job to make certain that her marriage works. When Rachel announces that she's pregnant, Mark virtually jumps out of his skin with delight. But as the news sinks in, Mark chafes at the impending responsibilities of fatherhood, and the philandering begins -- as if it had ever really stopped! Our favorite scene: Rachel and her friends being robbed at her therapy group -- that's Kevin Spacey as the robber, in his film debut. Meryl Streep's real-life child Mamie Gummer also appeared in the film as Rachel's daughter. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, (more)
Of the three "mortgage on the farm" films of 1984 (Country and The River were the other two), Places in the Heart is the only one set during the Depression. After her husband is killed, Sally Field is forced to take over the debt-ridden Texas family farm herself. Though slightly embittered by the fact that a black man was responsible for her husband's death, Field accepts the help of another African-American, Danny Glover. She is also given aid and comfort by her blind boarder, John Malkovich. Despite almost insurmountable odds, Field manages to bring in the cotton crop and to hold her farm and family together. Throughout the film, director Robert Benton stresses the importance of solidarity in facing down disaster, underlining this point with a remarkable surrealistic finale, in which the "live" members of the cast are seen singing a hymn with the characters who have "died" in the course of the film. Places in the Heart won Sally Field her second Academy Award. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sally Field, Lindsay Crouse, (more)
- 1984
Improper Conduct was written and directed by famed Spanish cinematographer Nestor Alemandros. With uncompromising clarity, Alemandros lays bare the cruelties and despotism of Cuba's Castro regime. The director interviews several Cuban expatriates, including writers, filmmakers and political prisoners who once supported Castro in his struggle to oust the corrupt dictator Batista and then turned against him as he fully revealed his communist beliefs who relate in disturbing detail their treatment for alleged "crimes against the state"--such as homosexuality. Even long-time Castro apologists will be hard put to deny the truths set forth in this harrowing 112-minute documentary. Nestor Alemandros later compiled the interviews heard in Improper Conduct into an illustrated book. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Pauline a la Plage is the third of French filmmaker Eric Rohmer's "Comedies et Proverbes." Pauline (Amanda Langlet) is the teen-aged cousin of the seemingly more worldly and sensible Marion (Arielle Dombasle). Both girls become entwined in amorous escapades while vacationing at the beach. It gradually develops that Marion is the one least capable of handling herself, while Pauline grows in maturity from her summertime experiences. It is nothing short of amazing how Eric Rohmer can take the most conventional and obvious of material and weave something as charming and profound as Pauline at the Beach. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Amanda Langlet, Arielle Dombasle, (more)
- 1983
- PG
In this light, sometimes tongue-in-cheek mystery based on a Charles Williams thriller -- with snippets of Hitchcock, Kubrick, and even Victor Hugo -- director François Truffaut showcases one of his favorite actresses, Fanny Ardant, as an enterprising secretary in love with her boss but up against clearing him of murder. Julien Vercel (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a real estate dealer accused of killing his wife and her lover. He hides in his office while his secretary, Barbara (Ardant), sets out to discover what really happened and why. When Barbara starts looking into the dark past of her boss' wife, she comes across illicit love affairs, a prostitution ring, and shady private detectives, until, finally, her suspicions turn toward Julien's lawyer himself. Tragically, Vivement Dimanche was to be Truffaut's last film; the great French director died of a cancerous brain tumor in 1984. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Fanny Ardant, Jean-Louis Trintignant, (more)
- 1982
- PG
In Still of the Night, a mystery thriller written and directed by Robert Benton, a psychiatrist falls in love with a woman who is suspected of the murder of one of his patients. Dr. Sam Rice (Roy Scheider) is treating a married museum curator. When the man is killed, Sam is visited by his dead patient's mistress and co-worker Brooke Reynolds (Meryl Streep) who wants him to return a watch -- that was left at her home -- to the patient's wife. Sam is immediately attracted to the cool, aloof Brooke, who has been discussed during numerous therapy sessions. When he hears about the mysterious death of Brook's father, and he himself is stalked by a woman who resembles Brook, he begins to both desire and fear her. Despite its rather leisurely pace, and some dream sequences which distract from the suspense, Still of the Night is an effective thriller despite a contrived surprise ending when the killer is revealed. Scheider is believable as the doctor in love, but Streep is rather strained in a role that demands a sexual allure and eroticism which she seems uncomfortable portraying. Benton's cinematography is moody and frightening, particularly when Scheider is followed through Central Park. Despite its flaws, Still of the Night should please fans of psychological thrillers. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi
- Starring:
- Roy Scheider, Meryl Streep, (more)
The year is 1947. Aspiring southern author Stingo (Peter MacNichol) heads to New York to seek his fortune. Moving into a dingy Brooklyn boarding house, Stingo strikes up a friendship with research chemist Nathan Landau (Kevin Kline) and Nathan's girlfriend, Polish refugee Sophie Zawistowska (Oscar-winner Meryl Streep). There is something unsettling about the relationship; Nathan is subject to violent mood swings, while Sophie seems to be harboring a horrible secret. Stingo soons learns that both Nathan and Sophie are strangers to truth; the audience is likewise led down several garden paths by a series of sepia-toned flashbacks, depicting Sophie's ordeal in a wartime concentration camp. The scene in which we discover the facts behind Sophie's "choice" is a gut-wrenching one; it might have been even more powerful had not the film taken so long to get there. It is betraying nothing to reveal that the character of Stingo is the alter ego of William Styron, upon whose best-selling novel the film was based. The film is rated R, due in great part to a disposable scene wherein Stingo tries to put the make on a "liberated" female intellectual. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, (more)
This 1980 version of the oft-filmed Henry Devere Stackpoole novel The Blue Lagoon was the first to be stamped with an "R" rating. The basic story remains unchanged. Two very small children, a boy and a girl, are shipwrecked on a lush tropical island. They are cared for by fellow castaway Leo McKern. When he dies, the kids, played with a minimum of clothing by Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins, have no one but each other. When they grow into teen-hood, they also fall madly in love. Heavily reshaped and reedited before its release, The Blue Lagoon's principal attribute is the lush photography by Nestor Almendros. In 1990, a sequel was made, Return to the Blue Lagoon. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Brooke Shields, Christopher Atkins, (more)
The Last Metro is set virtually in its entirety in a crumbling French theatre. During the Nazi occupation, Jewish director Lucas Steiner (Heinz Bennent) hides in the basement of the theatre, while his wife Marion (Catherine Deneuve) stars in its latest production. Marion is enamored of leading man Bernard Granger (Gerard Depardieu), and he with her, but they resist temptation out of respect to her husband. When she is given a choice between loyalty to her husband and to her countrymen, her dilemma offers two logical solutions--both of which are acted out on stage during the play. This Pirandellian ending aside, The Last Metro is one of the few films to accurately capture the feeling of what it was like to live in Paris under the thumb of the Nazis. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, (more)
This dignified and stylized film, set in the Middle Ages, follows the exploits of Sir Perceval, a legendary exemplar of knightly chivalry and one of the champions of King Arthur's Round Table. The story is based on the verse tale Perceval ou le Conte del Graal as recounted by the 12th-century French belletrist Chrétien de Troyes. While living with his widowed mother, the young Perceval (Fabrice Luchini) is much impressed by the grandeur of the knights he sees, and he undertakes to become one. In one respect his sense of honor is peculiar, because he rapes several virgins in accordance with an enigmatic command from his mother. Even in this, he practically quivers with a burning desire to do good. Though the story's language has been modernized to make it comprehensible to modern French speakers, Eric Rohmer's screenplay retains the verse forms of the original. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Fabrice Luchini, André Dussollier, (more)
Robert Benton's Oscar-winning adaptation of Avery Corman's bestseller takes on contemporary problems of divorce and shifting gender roles, as a jilted husband learns how to be a nurturing father. Manhattan housewife Joanna Kramer (Meryl Streep) walks out on her workaholic ad man husband Ted (Dustin Hoffman), leaving their young son Billy (Justin Henry) in Ted's less than capable hands. Through trial and error, Ted learns how to take care of Billy, devoting more energy to his family than to his work, and finally losing his high-powered job because of his new priorities. When Joanna returns with her own lucrative job and the intent to take custody of Billy, Ted finds employment that won't interfere with his paternal duties. Even though he proves that he can do it all, Joanna still wins in court. Joanna, however, rethinks her desires when she finally grasps how close father and son have become. Addressing the male side of the self-actualization question, previously explored from the female perspective in such 1970s movies as An Unmarried Woman (1978), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), and The Turning Point (1977), Kramer focuses on Ted's evolution from absent parent to ideal father, as he learns to balance domestic and professional lives in the shifting late-1970s social landscape. Joanna's attempt to achieve the same, however, gets buried; only Streep's sensitive performance prevents Joanna from seeming an unsympathetic harridan. Critics praised the film's realistic depiction of Ted's travails, as well as the three lead actors' work; and audiences, perhaps facing the same questions of divorce and self-realization, turned it into a box-office smash. It went on to win five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actress. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, (more)
L'Amour en Fuite (Love on the Run) is presented in flashbacks from the previous four movies as Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) meets up with people from his past. As the fifth and final film in the series, Antoine is over 30 years old and meets with his wife, Christine (Claude Jade), to sign the papers for their divorce. As it is the first no-fault divorce of its kind in France, the press surrounds them. In the crowd is also Antoine's past love, Colette (Marie-France Pisier), who is now a lawyer and in love with Xaiver the Librarian (Daniel Mesguich). Antoine is in love with Sabine (Dorothée), but she breaks things off when he ditches her to go see his son at the train station. While he is there, he impulsively joins Colette on a train ride where they recall their past and go through his recent autobiographical novel. Finally, Monsieur Lucien (Julien Bertheau) also re-enters Antoine's life and they visit his mother's grave at Montmartre. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean-Pierre Léaud, Marie-France Pisier, (more)
Sentenced to hang in a backwater western town, horse thief Henry Moon (Jack Nicholson) is saved when frontierswoman Julia Tate (Mary Steenburgen) agrees to marry him. Taking advantage of the town law that prohibits the execution of married men, Moon follows Tate back to her ranch, planning all the while to escape at the first possible opportunity. But Tate insists that he honor his end of the bargain at work on the ranch. She has no intention of consummating the union, a fact that drives the hot-to-trot Moon up a wall. She puts him to work on the gold mine that she has on her property, while his old gang prepares to relieve the couple of their gold once it's on the surface. Jack Nicholson personally selected movie newcomer Mary Steenburgen for Goin' South. The film also features John Belushi in the role of a dyspeptic deputy. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jack Nicholson, Mary Steenburgen, (more)
Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven, the long-awaited follow-up to his 1973 debut Badlands, confirmed his reputation as a visual poet and narrative iconoclast with a story of love and murder told through the jaded voice of a child and expressive images of nature. In 1916, Chicago steelworker Bill (Richard Gere, stepping in for John Travolta) flees to Texas with his little sister Linda (Linda Manz) and girlfriend Abby (Brooke Adams) after fatally erupting at his boss. Along with other itinerant laborers, they work the harvest at a wealthy, ailing farmer's ranch, but the farmer (playwright Sam Shepard) falls in love with Abby, and, believing her to be Bill's sister, asks the three to stay on at his elysian spread. Seeing it as his one real chance to escape perpetual poverty, Bill urges Abby to marry the sick man. Marriage, however, has more restorative powers, and the farmer has more magnetism, than Bill had planned. "Nobody's perfect," Linda impassively observes in one of her many voiceovers, after their brief paradise is erased by plagues of locusts, fire, and lethal jealousy. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
- Starring:
- Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, (more)
- 1978
- PG
The Green Room (La Chambre Verte) is perhaps the least well-known of Francois Truffaut's 1970s films. Truffaut himself stars as Julien Davenne, a WW I-era journalist obsessed with death. As his friends drop like flies on the battlefield, Davenne's obsessions overwhelm him. At war's end, he devotes all his energies to building a special shrine to his fallen comrades. No matter how elaborate this shrine becomes, it will always pale in comparison to its counterpart in Davenne's own home, constructed in the memory of his late wife. He briefly comes out of his morbid shell when he falls in love with Cecilia Mandel (Nathalie Baye), but she proves to be a disappointment to him, driving him farther and farther into necrophilia, not to mention an all-consuming death wish. The Green Room was adapted from a short story by Henry James. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nathalie Baye, Jean Dasté, (more)
Penny Patterson, an American psychology student, began an experiment in primate communication in the early 1970s using a young zoo gorilla named Koko, who was loaned to Penny for the experiment. Due to a philosophical predisposition to consider that "humanizing" animals is wrong, and alarmed at the increasing publicity over the experiments, the zoo took back the gorilla, which by then had learned over three hundred signs and showed, to many observers, an almost human comprehension of her condition. This French documentary explores the experiments, the circumstances of Koko's being withdrawn from them, and the question of the gorilla's "civil rights," if any. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- 1977
Madame Rosa (Simone Signoret) is an aging former prostitute who, in her dotage, makes a living by caring for the children of other prostitutes in Paris' Arab community. Haunted by memories of her experiences in a Nazi concentration camp, Rosa is seized with the notion that the Gestapo is still after her. She thus begs one of her young charges (Samy Ben Youb) not to give away her "hiding place." Madame Rosa was based on Momo, a novel by one Emile Ajar (better known as Romaine Gary). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Simone Signoret, Claude Dauphin, (more)
When he suddenly dies and is buried, the late Bertrand Morane (Charles Denner), an aeronautical engineer from Montpelier, receives funeral visitation from hundreds of women. Little wonder: in life, Morane simply couldn't keep his mind off of women -- one glance at a well-turned ankle and he was lost. Astonishingly, women felt the same way about him. Though more than one paramour held it against Bertrand when his eyes wandered, he never considered his promiscuousness a shortcoming -- which led him into amorous relationships with such colorful characters as a married sociopath (with a taste for lovemaking in risky places), a shapely blonde babysitter, an introspective book editor, and dozens of others. Ironically, Morane's success with women hardly represented a gift, for a deep, abiding loneliness lingered within him, resulting from his utter inability to love one woman. Bertrand (who eventually decided to write and publish his autobiography, "The Man Who Loved Women," as a form of self-analysis), could never quite pinpoint the source of his lack of romantic faithfulness, until a fateful and utterly unexpected chance encounter with someone from his past. Read by many as a thinly disguised film à clef for writer/director François Truffaut, The Man Who Loved Women mixes sharp, witty comedy with scenes of gentle poignancy; Truffaut uses the tale to make some deep and tremendously profound comments about love, sex, fidelity, and the underlying differences between men and women. The picture was thinly remade in 1983 by Blake Edwards, with Burt Reynolds as the irresistible hero and Julie Andrews as his therapist. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Charles Denner, Brigitte Fossey, (more)
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