film

Néstor Almendros (1930–1992) was one of the most influential cinematographers of the late 20th century, renowned for his naturalistic lighting and painterly restraint. Born in Barcelona to politically active parents, he grew up partly in exile in Cuba after his family fled Francoism, and then in the US after fleeing Fidel Castro's revolution in Cuba. Filmoteca is in the middle of a gloriously full retrospective of his finest work, including multiple screenings of classics such as Kramer vs Kramer and Days of Heaven.

Sophie's Choice (1982), directed by Alan J. Pakula and adapted from William Styron’s novel, is another classic with Almendros's prints all over it. Set primarily in postwar Brooklyn, the film frames its Holocaust subject matter through the perspective of Stingo, a young Southern writer whose friendship with the mercurial Nathan and the enigmatic Sophie gradually exposes the psychic wounds beneath their bohemian surface. At its centre is Meryl Streep’s extraordinary performance as Sophie Zawistowski, a Polish Catholic survivor of Auschwitz, and Almendros’s muted cinematography is a great strength too – he studiously avoids sensationalism, favouring emotional accumulation over spectacle.