Néstor Almendros’ Lost Film Found in Montreal

By Breixo Viejo

Editor's Note: Breixo Viejo is a film scholar currently writing the first critical biography of the Catalan-Cuban cineaste Néstor Almendros (1930-1992). Viejo recently found Almendros’ Fifty-Eight/Fifty-Nine (1959), a short film believed to be lost. This confirms Almendros’ role as a director of experimental and documentary films with a catalog of over 25 titles.. - The Editors

Still from *Fifty-Eight/Fifty-Nine* (1959)

Before becoming one of the major cinematographers of modern cinema, Néstor Almendros (Barcelona, 1930 - New York, 1992) worked as an experimental and documentary filmmaker in the United States, Cuba, and France. One of his short films, Fifty-Eight/Fifty-Nine (1959), believed to be lost, has recently been found at the Cinémathèque québécoise. Shot in New York City, this 8-minute film portrays the celebration of 1958 New Year’s Eve in Times Square, following the principles of Direct Cinema, or, as Almendros called it at the time, “cine verdad”(cinema of truth).

Assisted by his collaborator Charles Ramery, Almendros filmed on location, at night, with two 16mm cameras, black and white Kodak Tri X negative stock, and no extra lighting: “I used the marquees of movie theaters, neon lights in the streets, and illuminated billboards,” he later remembered in his book A Man with a Camera (1984). The resulting cinematography is superb, as it is the non-editorial montage capturing the excitement of the New Year.

still from Néstor Almendros film — Still from *Fifty-Eight/Fifty-Nine* (1959)

Fifty-Eight/Fifty-Nine was first screened in May 1959 at Vassar College, where Almendros worked as an instructor, and weeks later in private projections for Maya Deren, Jonas Mekas and members of Film Culture, who praised the work of his colleague (Almendros had contributed two articles to the journal). In August 1959, called by the newly established Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos, Almendros moved to revolutionary Havana, where the film was shown at the Lyceum’s seminal Experimental Film session in November.

The historical relevance of Fifty-Eight/Fifty-Nine may lie in its direct influence on Orlando Jiménez Leal and Sabá Cabrera Infante’s P.M. (1961), the first film censored by the Cuban government, and the one that motivated Fidel Castro’s famous speech “Palabras a los intelectuales” (Words to Intellectuals). There is little information on other screenings in Havana and abroad—Jean Rouch chose it for a Cinéma vérité program at the Cinémathèque française in 1962—before the film got lost. This only surviving copy, a 16mm positive with optical sound, has been digitized by Mels Studios in collaboration with Barnard College, which has generously financed the digitization process.