Celebrated cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, known for his frequent and successful collaborations with Steven Spielberg, has an exceptionally private compound in a particularly plummy pocket of Beverly Hills available as a super-luxe rental at $40,000 per month. The Polish-born cinematographer —who has been nominated for six Oscars and has won two, for “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan” — purchased the 1.12-acre spread in 1996 for just over $2.1 million, shortly after he married his first wife, actress Holly Hunter.
Electronic security gates open to a long driveway that passes under a dense canopy of trees as it makes its way to the main residence of the multi-winged 1920s Spanish-style home, which has been made over in a contemporary manner. The nearly 5,000-square-foot house has four bedrooms and four bathrooms, plus a playroom/office with a separate entrance. A comfortably ample living room with high ceiling has a fireplace and steel-trimmed glass doors, and the skylit combination kitchen and family room opens to an outdoor living room with kiva-style corner fireplace that leads to a swimming pool and spa.
A detached one-bedroom and one-bathroom guesthouse dates to the 1920s and offers self-contained seclusion, with living room and full kitchen. A third structure — a partially subterranean contemporary pavilion with a drought-tolerant green roof, was built as an office/media lounge, with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a long wall of glass sliders.
Property records indicate that Kaminski and his second ex-wife, former ABC reporter and producer Rebecca Rankin, continue to co-own a charming and relatively modest, if not exactly inexpensive, Craftsman-style residence on a palm-tree-lined block in Venice, purchased in 2011 for a bit less than $2 million.
listing photos: The Agency
