Henri Alekan

Personal Info

Known For Camera

Gender Male

Birthday 1909-02-10

Deathday 2001-06-15 (92 years old)

Place of Birth Paris, France

Also Known As Henri Albert Alakan, H. Alekan, Henry Alekan, Henri Alékan

Henri Alekan

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.

Known For

Camera

1993
Golem: The Petrified Garden

as Director of Photography

1992
Golem, l'esprit de l'exil

as Director of Photography

1991
paint'o jazz

as Director of Photography

1990
Birth of a Golem

as Director of Photography

1990
1989
Berlin-Jerusalem

as Director of Photography

1987
Wings of Desire

as Director of Photography

1986
Esther

as Director of Photography

1985
A Strange Love Affair

as Director of Photography

1984
Our Nazi

as Director of Photography

1984
Wundkanal

as Director of Photography

1983
A Stone in the Mouth

as Director of Photography

1983
The Beautiful Prisoner

as Director of Photography

1982
The Trout

as Director of Photography

1982
The State of Things

as Director of Photography

1982
On Top of the Whale

as Director of Photography

1982
En rachâchant

as Director of Photography

1981
The Territory

as Director of Photography

1978
The Divisions of Nature

as Director of Photography

1975
Gun Moll

as Director of Photography

1971
Red Sun

as Director of Photography

1970
Figures in a Landscape

as Director of Photography

1969
Ici et maintenant

as Director of Photography

1969
Fun and Games for Everyone

as Director of Photography

1969
The Christmas Tree

as Director of Photography

1968
Mayerling

as Director of Photography

1966
Triple Cross

as Director of Photography

1966
The Poppy Is Also a Flower

as Director of Photography

1965
Lady L

as Director of Photography

1964
Topkapi

as Director of Photography

1964
The Story of Rebecca

as Director of Photography

1963
The Other Christopher

as Director of Photography

1962
Five Miles to Midnight

as Director of Photography

1961
Black Tights

as Director of Photography

1960
The Battle of Austerlitz

as Director of Photography

1959
Twelve Hours by the Clock

as Director of Photography

1959
Rodin's Hell

as Director of Photography

1959
The Great Deception

as Director of Photography

1958
The Magic of the Kite

as Director of Photography

1958
Would-Be Gentleman

as Director of Photography

1957
The Case of Dr. Laurent

as Director of Photography

1957
Paris Casino

as Director of Photography

1957
Typhoon Over Nagasaki

as Director of Photography

1955
Heroes and Sinners

as Camera Operator

1955
The Best Part

as Director of Photography

1955
Frou-Frou

as Director of Photography

1954
Les impures

as Director of Photography

1954
Queen Margot

as Director of Photography

1953
Roman Holiday

as Director of Photography

1953
When You Read This Letter

as Director of Photography

1953
Julietta

as Director of Photography

1952
Three Women

as Director of Photography

1952
Stranger on the Prowl

as Director of Photography

1951
Paris Is Always Paris

as Director of Photography

1951
Trip to America

as Director of Photography

1951
Juliette, or Key of Dreams

as Camera Operator

1950
Just Me

as Director of Photography

1950
Marie of the Port

as Director of Photography

1949
The Lovers of Verona

as Director of Photography

1949
Such a Pretty Little Beach

as Director of Photography

1948
Anna Karenina

as Director of Photography

1947
The Damned

as Director of Photography

1947
Woman of Evil

as Director of Photography

1946
Beauty and the Beast

as Director of Photography

1946
The Battle of the Rails

as Director of Photography

1944
The Little Ones of the Flower Platform

as Director of Photography

1943
Les Chevaux du Vercors

as Camera Operator

1941
Blind Venus

as Director of Photography

1938
Hatred

as Camera Operator

1938
The Shanghai Drama

as Assistant Camera

1938
Port of Shadows

as Camera Operator

1937
Street of Shadows

as Assistant Camera

1936
Life Is Ours

as Director of Photography

Crew

1989
J'écris dans l'espace

as Cinematography

1979
La Dame de Monte-Carlo

as Cinematography

Director

1959
Rodin's Hell

as Director