1999 - LIGHT KEEPS ME COMPANY, documentary on Sven Nykvist

A documentary on the life and career of Sven Nykvist made about seven years before his death.  Sven Nykvist was the cinematographer who was as responsible for the look of an Ingmar Bergman film as much as Bergman himself was.  As the film opens, Nykvist is retired and suffering from a rare form of dementia that has made it difficult for him to speak.

 

The documentary is short and zips through his life and career with the primary focus on his work with Bergman and even that part of the film only looks at a few of their films.  Nykvist was apparently a very private person so the usual collection of "talking heads" and film clips are featured. 

Nykvist apparently had a rather messy personal life.  He had an affair with Mia Farrow on the set of The Hurricane.  The writer Nora Ephron made a witty comment that she was "the only woman in Hollywood who hadn't slept with Sven Nykvist" is unfortunately not interviewed.  She probably had a story or two.

The film ends on a kind of moving note showing Nykvist spending time with his family and childhood friends, not a movie star in sight.  The final shot of the old and ill photographer still able to load a camera magazine is touching.  This is a film that will probably interest film buffs for the most part.

75 minutes.