IMAGO - European Federation of Cinematographers

HENRY ALEKAN, AFC

10 Feb, 1909 / Paris , France - 15 June 2001 / Bourgogne , France

"You were the most beautiful lesson of cinema" - Wim Wenders about Henry Aleakn

ALEKAN's education started at the French Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers , followed by a superior education, hands-on, at the Institut d'Optique , Paris , France . When he was 20 years-old he made his first long feature as camera assistant in the unreleased Deux balles au coeur ( 1929) by Jean Milva & Claude Heymann . From 1929 to 1941 he collaborates in 29 features (most of them long) starting as a cameraman in 1935. During those years he is camera assistant for Max Ophüls in La Tendre ennemie (1936) and in Sans lendemain (1939) and also for director G. W. Pabst in Mademoiselle Docteur (1937), Le Drame de Shanghaï (1938) and Jeunes filles en détresse (1939). By this time, though his career has started few years before, he was already working with high quality demanding directors.

In 1940 he debuts his career as Director of Photography along with director Abel Gance in Vénus aveugle (1941) - they will collaborate again twenty years later in Austerlitz (1960). In that same year, director Yves Allégret works for the first time with ALEKAN in Tobie est un ange (1940) and then in Une si jolie petite plage (1949) and La Meilleure part (1956). Also leading French director after 1945 world war end, René Clément , chooses him for Ceux du rail (1942), La Bataille du rail (1946) and Les Maudits (1947). Multi-talented Jean Cocteau and René Clément ( uncredited ) also do that when filming La Belle et la bête (1946).

During the 50's among his many collaborations he works closely with directors: Marcel Carne in Juliette ou La clef des songes (1950) and La Marie du port (1950); Joseph Losey in Imbarco a mezzanotte (1952), Figures in a Landscape (1970) and La Truite (1982); Jean-Pierre Melville in Quand tu liras cette lettre (1953); Yves Ciampi in Les Héros sont fatigués (1955) and Typhon sur Nagasaki (1957); and Jean Meyer in Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1958) and Le Mariage de Figaro .

Director Terence Young is a presence in ALEKAN's work during the 60's in titles like: 1-2-3-4 ou Les Collants noirs (1960), Poppies Are Also Flowers (1966), Triple Cross (1966), Mayerling (1968), L'Arbre de Noël (1969) and Soleil rouge (1971). In 1965 he does Lady L (1965) with director Peter Ustinov .

During the ten final years of his career he works with high profile directors: Raoul Ruiz in Les Divisions de la nature (1978) (short), The Territory (1981), Het Dak van de Walvis (1982); Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub in En rachâchant (1982); Wim Wenders in Der Stand der Dinge (1982) and Der Himmel über Berlin / Wings of Desire (1987); and last but not least with Amos Gitai in Esther (1986), Berlin- Yerushalaim (1989), Naissance d'un Golem (1991), Golem, l'esprit de l'exil (1992) and Golem, le jardin pétrifié (1993) - this last title, written by Amos Gitai and Tonino Guerra ( Fellini's highly acclaimed scriptwriter and poet).

He was a professor at L'IDHEC (La Fémis ) and has written several books: "Des lumières et des ombres " (1984), "Question de lumières " (1993) with still photography by Robert Doisneau and "La belle et la bête" (1994) with Robert Hammond. He was also an invited member of Cannes IFF jury in 1963 and in 1983. For those you wish to know HENRY ALEKAN better an autobiography in available: "Le vécu et l'imaginaire ".

For Wim Wenders moving tribute to HENRY ALEKAN go here

FILM AWARDS

Der Himmel über Berlin / Wings of Desire (1987), awarded by New York Film Critics Circle Awards, 1988; Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, 1988; German Film Awards, 1988; and National Society of Film Critics Awards, 1989.

La Truite (1982) awarded by César Awards (France), 1983