American Cinematographer - December 2006 - 36

Coping with a
serious illness,
Agustina
(Blanca
Portillo), a

longtime friend
of Raimunda's

family, keeps a
close eye on the
neighborhood.

Sole (Lola Duenas); their aging aunt
(Chus
Lampreave);
Raimunda's
teenaged daughter (Yohana Cobo); and
a
family friend, Agustina (Blanca
Portillo). During the course of the movie,
Raimunda buries her husband, opens a

cally 5500°K. This gives me the control I
need [to re-create] the light from the sun
as it undergoes changes both in temper¬
ature and angle."
Alcaine pays special attention to
when each scene occurs, going so far as
to ask that his copy of the script always
include the time of day the director or
writer thinks a given event is taking
place. If shooting in a studio, he
mentally marks the four cardinal points
on the set and then abides by them in
creating the light for the various times
of the day. Dusk always comes from the
same side, while dawn always comes
from the opposite side.
He points to a scene inside

their mix of genres; the mood shifts from
drama to comedy and back again within

used four Primo lenses, a 40mm, 50mm,

Raimunda's restaurant that shows her

a

75mm and 100mm,

plus a 1,4x telextender. (All camera equipment was rented
from E.P.C. Representatives of Panavision Spain.)
He photographed interiors and

serving lunch to a visiting film crew.
Reflecting Spanish meal times, it is late
afternoon. "I lit as if it were approxi¬
mately 4 p.m. The principal backlight,
imitating the sun, comes through the

select exteriors

windows but doesn't reach farther than

restaurant and

deceased

reconciles with her

mother.

(In Almodovar's
universe, the living and the dead co¬

exist

peaceably.)
Alcaine filmed

Volver in the

anamorphic 2.40:1 aspect ratio. The
larger negative gave him greater defini¬
tion, cleaner colors and
-

three hallmarks of

more

saturation

an

Almodovar

film. A

single Panaflex Millennium was
employed for the 12-week shoot, and he

on

Kodak Vision2 500T

5218 and used Vision2 250D 5205 for
most exteriors. "I have

always had one
particularity in my work: I can't conceive
of any shoot if I don't use the tonality of
real light," he says. "Whether in a studio
or
natural interiors, all my day
sequences are shot with light of basi¬
34 December 2006

the customers' tables.

Additionally, I
kept this light a little golden in relation
to the fill lighting."
Constructed

on

location, the

required no lighting grid in
the ceiling; the fluorescent lights were
small and narrow enough that Alcaine
restaurant

could conceal them almost

anywhere he

wanted. He also eschewed colored

filters, including the 85. "I haven't used
85 filter for 25

years," he asserts.
on neutral-density
filters and graduated NDs.
"With anamorphic lenses, I try to
work with the highest possible stop," he
adds. "I don't like the blurring of faces
that can happen in this format." Nor
does he like bounced light, claiming it is
more complicated to control. "I prefer
the light from my fluorescent appli¬
an

Instead, he relied

ances."

Almodovar's films

are

famous for

single sequence. "In terms of lighting,
it is very important to Pedro that both
'tones' have the same treatment," notes

Alcaine. "It's his way of saying that life
is comic, dramatic, grotesque and tragic
almost

simultaneously."
Even death

can

be all of these

things. With Volver, the director wanted
to pay tribute to the social rites
surrounding death in his hometown. The
dead never die, he claims, because they
continue to be present in the daily lives
of those still living. This is suggested in
the film's opening sequence, which
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