Gregory Nava on Working with Stanley Kubrick | Interviews

He loved “El Norte,” and one of the reasons that he called me and that he loved that film was that he did something cinematically, like the visual effects breakthroughs that he did with “2001,” for example. He didn’t just do them with the idea that they would be great for “2001.” Rather, he felt that he was opening a door for other filmmakers to move through, to inspire other artists, and, of course, “2001” had that effect. “Star Wars” and all these films leading up to today spawn from the work Stanley Kubrick did in making that huge breakthrough for “2001.”

But for “Barry Lyndon,” he was doing the same thing. In other words, he was showing the world how to light scenes with candlelight only, and that this was really the way to do it. And he was kind of disappointed that people saw it as a one-off, and it didn’t inspire other filmmakers to scenes with natural candlelight.

When he saw “El Norte,” of course I was very inspired by the lighting of “Barry Lyndon,” and we approximated what Kubrick had accomplished in “Barry Lyndon” with these high super-speed lenses. We were able to exactly approximate what he had accomplished in “Barry Lyndon,” and that was very important to me with “El Norte,” because I wanted the light in “El Norte” to make a political statement, if you will—an artistic statement, a cultural statement—because the main characters, Rosa and Enrique, came from a world of candles and kerosene. They didn’t have any electric light in their village in Guatemala. They don’t encounter electric light until they come to the United States and I wanted the light in the film to reflect that.

When he saw “El Norte,” he went, “Yes! Finally we have a filmmaker who understands what I was trying to do with ‘Barry Lyndon.’ I was really trying to inspire other filmmakers to use this natural lighting technique for their films.”

We talked a lot about lighting and how lighting was used to make emotional and psychological statements. We would talk a lot about camera moves. He was very interested in history and so am I. We would talk a lot about Julius Caesar and the strategies of the Battle of Alesia during the Gallic Wars. We just went all over the place, and we became very close, and I remained friends with him for many years.