Sven Nykvist update
The New York Times reported the other day that Sven Nykvist’s “last film” was the thudding, club-footed rom-com Curtain Call, causing me no end of distress.
I am pleased to report that, while technically true, Curtain Call was not the last feature Mr. Nykvist shot. That honor belongs to Woody Allen’s thorny, scabrous, underrated, impeccably staged, luminously shot Celebrity. Celebrity was shot, cut and released into theaters while Curtain Call was still failing to find a distributor.
I can’t tell you how much better this makes me feel.
Hey, whatever helps you sleep at night. And you’re absolutely correct. Celebrity is not a bad one to go out on since it was Woody Allen’s best-looking film since the late-’80s one-two punch of Another Woman and Crimes and Misdemeanors — both of which Nykvist also shot (go figure).
Kind of like how “Street Fighter” isn’t actually Raul Julia’s last film!
😉
At least Street Fighter made it into theaters.
According to his Wikipedia entry (today), Sven Nykvist wrote a book called Curtain Call in 1999.
Does it feel better to be written out of history? I doubt it.
The Wikipedia entry does not mention that the complete title of Sven’s book is Curtain Call: There’s No Fucking Way This is Going to be My Last Movie. The book chronicles his experiences on what he considered “The lamest script ever shot.”
I can’t read Swedish, but I had the first sentence translated by a friend of mine. It goes “I knew this wasn’t The Seventh Seal, but shit, it turned out this wasn’t even Sleepless in Seattle.” Later, he refers to the screenwriter as “a bullet-headed fireplug.”