American Cinematographer - November 1991 - 28

Almendros Illuminates

Billy Bathgate

by Rick Baker
In the early

stages of his work on Billy
Bathgate, cinematographer Nestor
Almendros kept a personal diary of his
notes and impressions. These notes are
reproduced here, with minor editing, in
italics to differentiate them from quotes
taken from interviews during produc¬
tion.

Ed.

and, in terms of "film language,"

tious

approach if there was to be
any hope of capturing its soul on
film.
From all indications, pro¬
ducers Arlene Donovan and Bob

strives to

improve upon.
The odyssey begins
Dutch Schultz (Hoffman)

when
spies
young Billy Bathgate - Loren
Dean in his feature debut
jug¬
gling in the streets. Schultz takes the
young lad under his wing, and
from that moment on Billy probes
a world of
big-time rackets and
human decadence, pulled by the
strong lash of fate through love, life,
and betrayal.

Colesbury seem dedicated to
maintaining the novel's narrative
strengths. From the film's star,

"Robert Benton spoke to me
about doing Billy Bathgate around the
I last of the month of March (1990). A

-"'A®

MBEk
■VA'/'-.

script by Tom Stoppard of the book by

£ Doctorow was sent to me. I had to pick
T up the book. Then I realized the great
n visual
potential the film could have.

"7 started really to visualize

§ my version ofthefilm in a
physical way.
*

I saw the possibilities and the manyfolded occasions to shine in my department. Previously I had shot two film
noirs, two thrillers: Still of the Night,

j§ with Robert Benton and, in France,
This page:
Almendros feels
that he is

the

right track in his
attempt to
convey the

poetry of E.L.
Doctorow's
acclaimed
novel.

Opposite:

The film's visual

approach -
aided by
authentic-

looking sets and
costumes

intended to
evoke genre

classics while

simultaneously
staking out its
own

spot in

movie

history.

Amid the staid landscape of a small
North Carolina town seemingly left
untouched by time, unfluttered by
the slightest breeze from the winds
of modern development, Robert

Dustin

Benton, director, Nestor Almen¬
dros, ASC, cinematographer, and a

Bathgate" into what they hope will
equally enduring cinema.
A finely-crafted and viv¬
idly authentic work vibrating with
classic images of the past, "Billy
Bathgate" has been hailed as a true

yielded notable results in Still of the
Night and Kramer vs. Kramer, giving
rise to expectations that the story
may shine as brightly on film as on
the printed page.
Billy Bathgate takes place in
the depression-ridden '30s, an era
which film noir has stylized to such
a
degree that only the careful eye
can
separate its remarkable true
history from our romanticized im¬

American masterpiece.

pressions

the novel demanded

derived from the seminal films to
which this production pays tribute

stellar above- and below-the-line
cast and crew weave the poignant
web of E.L. Doctorow's novel "Billy
be

As with any
literary work of scope and power,

American

Cinematographer

conscien¬

Hoffman,

down, they
have fitted the project with a team
on

of professionals famous for perfec¬
tionism in every detail. Almendros'

Confidentially Yours with Francois
Truffaut. But both have little to do with
Billy Bathgate, which is rather [of the]
'gangster film' genre, not exactly a
thriller."

past collaborations with Benton

November 1991

impressions largely

out that

Almendros also pointed
on Truffaut's film he had

the option of shooting in black &
white to further its resemblance to
the classics of the period.

Just

with Benton's Still

of the Night, there were discussions
of various ways to reduce or erase
Directed

by Robert Benton
by

Produced
Bob

Colesbury and Arlene Donovan
Director of photography,
Nestor Almendros, ASC

American Cinematographer - November 1991

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