Henri Alekan

Henri Alekan was a French cinematographer who was born in Montmartre in 1909. He started his career as a third assistant cameraman at the Billancourt Studios in 1927, and later became a camera operator under Eugene Shufftan, who influenced his non-naturalistic style of lighting. During the German occupation of France in World War II, he escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp and formed his own resistance group, filming anti-Nazi documentaries in the south of France. He also secretly filmed German beach fortifications, for which he received several medals and the Legion of Honor. After the war, he worked on many films with different directors and genres, such as René Clément's realistic war drama La Bataille du Rail (1946), Jean Cocteau's fable La Belle et la Bête (1946), William Wyler's romantic comedy Roman Holiday (1953), François Truffaut's debut film The 400 Blows (1959), Joseph Losey's drama The Trout (1982), and Wim Wenders' fantasy Wings of Desire (1987). He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for Beauty and the Beast, and won several awards for Wings of Desire, including the César Award, the European Film Award, and the German Film Award. He also wrote a book about cinematography, Des lumières et des ombres (1984), in which he shared his artistic vision and technical knowledge. He was a professor at L'IDHEC (La Fémis) and a member of AFC (Association Française de la photo Cinématographique). He died from leukemia on 15 June 2001 in Auxerre, Bourgogne, at the age of 92. He was buried at Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris. He is regarded as one of the greatest cinematographers in the history of cinema, and a master of light and shadow.