A Qualityof Light BYM ICHAELS. EDDY t 65, SvenNykvist is findingit hardto slowdown . Heis oneof he mosth onored cinematogra­ hers in the world,and yett he Aonly compromisehe willmake is to cut back fromthree to twofilms a year."The flying is okaywhen yo u are young,b ut the travel takesa lot of strengthfrom you, " saysNykvist, who spendslittle time these days in his native Sweden."We a lwaystend to forgethow old we're getting. Manypeople ask me howI can go on likethis, going from country to country,but I thinkit is interesting.You learn a lot fromev.ery picture,and you learn new possibilities." In a careerthat spansfour decades , Nykvist has mademore than 60 filmsand has worked withmany notable directors--Bob Fosse , Nor­ manJewison , BobRafelson, Andrei Tarkovsky , PhilipKaufman and LouisMalle, to namea few. Heis bestknown , though,for his 30 yearsof collaborationwith Ingmar Bergman , withwhom he made22 films.1\vo of them, Criesand Whispersand Fanny and Alexander, garnered AcademyAwards for Nykvist. Nykvisthas mostrecently added Woody Allen to his listof collaborators.He shot the 1988 film,Another Woman , the Allensegment of NewJ-vrk Stories in 89 andAllen's latest as-yet ­ unnamedfilm starring Woody Allen, Mia Farrow , AnjelicaHuston , andAlan Alda . Nykvistenjoys working with Allen , whose workingstyle is similarto that of Bergman's. "Theyboth are interestedin the psychologyof the humanbeing," he explains,"so theyfocus on the face, sincethe eyesare a mirrorof the soul." Ofutmost importance to Nykvistis the script,to whichhe is a willingslave. " Ofcourse the mainthing for me is to helpcreate the moodand atmospherethat the scriptis asking for and to helpthe focusof the story. I don't wantto justmake ev.ery picture exactly the same. I wantto changemy style for ev.ery script. Thatis myphilosophy ." Nykvisthad the perfectopportunity to show his differentapproaches in NewYork Stories and AnotherWoman . "Whenwe started on New YorkStones, we had justfinished Another Wo ­ CINEMATOGRAPHERSVEN NYKVIST SPANS FOUR man, whichis moreof a psychologicalpicture, DECADES,FROM BERGMAN lO ALLEN and wastherefore lit in a specificway, " Nykvist saidin a recentAmeric:an Cinematographer in­ terview. "SinceNew York Stories is a muchmore 2 1 .