Henri Alekan

Henri Alekan

  • Birthday: 1909-02-10
  • Deathday: 2001-06-15
  • Place of birth: Paris, France
  • Also know as: Henri Albert Alakan

Biography

Henri Alekan (10 February 1909, Paris – 15 June 2001, Auxerre, Bourgogne) was a French cinematographer. Alekan was born in Montmartre in 1909. At the age of sixteen he and his brother became travelling puppeteers. A little later he started work as third assistant cameraman at the Billancourt Studios. He then spent a short time in the army, returning to Billancourt in 1931. In the late 1930s he was the camera operator to Eugene Shufftan on Marcel Carné's Quai des Brumes and Drôle de drame. He was greatly influenced by Schufftan's non-naturalistic style. His first success as a director of photography was René Clément's realistic war drama La Bataille du Rail of 1946. In the same year he worked on Jean Cocteau's fable La Belle et la Bête. He found himself out of sympathy with the French New Wave cinema which emerged in the late 1950s and Alekan shot some rather conventional films in Hollywood. A new generation of directors appreciated his visionary style, however, and he worked with Raúl Ruiz on The Territory and On Top of the Whale, with Joseph Losey on Figures in a Landscape and The Trout, and with Wim Wenders on The State Of Things and Wings of Desire. His last films were made with the Israeli director Amos Gitai. He wrote one of the best books about cinematography Des lumières et des ombres (1984, Éditions du Collectionneur). Alekan died from leukemia on 15 June 2001 in Auxerre, Bourgogne, aged 92. Source: Article "Henri Alekan" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Filmography

Production

Wings of Desire

1987

As Director of Photography

Beauty and the Beast

1946

As Director of Photography

Roman Holiday

1953

As Director of Photography

Triple Cross

1966

As Director of Photography

Topkapi

1964

As Director of Photography

Red Sun

1971

As Director of Photography

The Trout

1982

As Director of Photography

Birth of a Golem

1990

As Director of Photography

Paris Casino

1957

As Director of Photography

Our Nazi

1984

As Director of Photography

Anna Karenina

1948

As Director of Photography

Golem, l'esprit de l'exil

1992

As Director of Photography

The Damned

1947

As Director of Photography

Wundkanal

1984

As Director of Photography

Blind Venus

1941

As Director of Photography

Twelve Hours by the Clock

1959

As Director of Photography

Golem: The Petrified Garden

1993

As Director of Photography

Three Women

1952

As Director of Photography

Black Tights

1961

As Director of Photography

The Little Ones of the Flower Platform

1944

As Director of Photography

The State of Things

1982

As Director of Photography

Paris Is Always Paris

1951

As Director of Photography

Berlin-Jerusalem

1989

As Director of Photography

The Territory

1981

As Director of Photography

The Battle of the Rails

1946

As Director of Photography

The Beautiful Prisoner

1983

As Director of Photography

Esther

1986

As Director of Photography

A Stone in the Mouth

1983

As Director of Photography

Just Me

1950

As Director of Photography

A Strange Love Affair

1985

As Director of Photography

On Top of the Whale

1982

As Director of Photography

Gun Moll

1975

As Director of Photography

Five Miles to Midnight

1962

As Director of Photography

Figures in a Landscape

1970

As Director of Photography

En rachâchant

1982

As Director of Photography

Mayerling

1968

As Director of Photography

Marie of the Port

1950

As Director of Photography

Julietta

1953

As Director of Photography

The Christmas Tree

1969

As Director of Photography

Queen Margot

1954

As Director of Photography

Poppies Are Also Flowers

1966

As Director of Photography

paint'o jazz

1991

As Director of Photography

The Lovers of Verona

1949

As Director of Photography

Woman of Evil

1947

As Director of Photography

Such a Pretty Little Beach

1949

As Director of Photography

Typhoon Over Nagasaki

1957

As Director of Photography

Port of Shadows

1938

As Camera Operator

Heroes and Sinners

1955

As Camera Operator

Juliette, or Key of Dreams

1951

As Camera Operator

Life Is Ours

1936

As Director of Photography

The Best Part

1955

As Director of Photography

The Magic of the Kite

1958

As Director of Photography

Frou-Frou

1955

As Director of Photography

Would-Be Gentleman

1958

As Director of Photography

The Great Deception

1959

As Director of Photography

Stranger on the Prowl

1952

As Director of Photography

The Case of Dr. Laurent

1957

As Director of Photography

Hatred

1938

As Camera Operator

Les impures

1954

As Director of Photography

Street of Shadows

1937

As Assistant Camera

The Shanghai Drama

1938

As Assistant Camera

The Battle of Austerlitz

1960

As Director of Photography

New Order: The Perfect Kiss

1985

As Director of Photography

Rodin's Hell

1959

As Director of Photography

Les Chevaux du Vercors

1943

As Camera Operator

Cézanne – Conversation with Joachim Gasquet

1990

As Director of Photography

The Divisions of Nature

1978

As Director of Photography

Fun and Games for Everyone

1969

As Director of Photography

Ici et maintenant

1969

As Director of Photography

When You Read This Letter

1953

As Director of Photography

The Story of Rebecca

1964

As Director of Photography

The Other Christopher

1963

As Director of Photography

Trip to America

1951

As Director of Photography

Lady L

1965

As Director of Photography

La Dame de Monte-Carlo

1979

As Cinematography

Rodin's Hell

1959

As Director

keyboard_arrow_up