Henri Alekan Cinematographer - Born February 10, 1909 in Paris, France

Died June 15, 2001 in Auxerre, Yonne, France (leukemia)

Birth Name Henri Albert Alakan

Mini Bio (1) Henri Alekan was born on February 10, 1909 in Paris, France as Henri Albert Alakan. He is known for his work on Wings of Desire (1987), Roman Holiday (1953) and La Truite (The Trout) (1982). He was married to Nadia Starcevic. He died on June 15, 2001 in Auxerre, Yonne, France.

Spouse (1) Nadia Starcevic (? - 15 June 2001) his death

Trivia (6) 1. Professor at L'IDHEC (La Fémis) 2. Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1983 3. Was captured and imprisoned by the Germans when they invaded France in 1940, but he escaped from prison and formed his own resistance group. 4. Worked as camera operator under Eugene Schufftan in the late 1930's. 5. A former puppeteer, he started as third assistant cameraman at the Billancourt studios in 1927. 6. Member of AFC (Association Française de la photo Cinématographique).

Personal Quotes (1) [when asked what a cinematographer's job really was] To obtain psychological reactions out of mere technical means.

Henri Alekan (10 February 1909, Paris – 15 June 2001, Auxerre, Bourgogne) was a French cinematographer.

Life 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 1930's 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 1950's and Alekan shot some rather conventional films in Hollywood. A new generation of directors appreciated his visionary style, and he worked with Raúl Ruiz on The Territory and On Top of the Whale 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)..

Death Alekan died from leukemia on 15 June 2001 in Auxerre, Bourgogne, aged 92