From the 1930s he was involved in many masterpieces of French cinema. He was one of the few 'behind the scenes' film workers who succeeded in stepping out from the stars' shadow and making film history. France has been influential in the development of film as a mass medium and as an art form. ...
His philosophy was one of 'light and shadows', which he practised impressively in movies like La Belle et la Bête (1946), La Bataille du rail (1946) and Der Himmel über Berlin (1992). Beauty and the Beast (in French La Belle et la Bête) is a French film, made in 1946, based on the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast. The film was directed by Jean Cocteau, and starred his gay lover Jean Marais as the Beast and Josette Day as Beauty. ... La bataille du Rail (The Battle of the Rails) is a 1945 war movie which tells the courageous efforts by French railway workers to sabotage Nazi reinforcement-troop trains. ... Wings of Desire is the English title of Der Himmel über Berlin, a 1987 film by the German-born director Wim Wenders. ...
In his long career, Alekan adapted his style to the script and the director he was working with.
Filmography
Golem, the Ghost of Exile (1992)
Berlin-Jerusalem (1989)
I Write in Space (1989)
Wings of Desire (1987)
Esther (1986)
Wundkanal (1985)
Our Nazi (1984)
A Strange Love Affair (1984)
Une pierre dans la bouche (1983)
The Beautiful Prisoner (1982)
On Top of the Whale (1982)
En rachachant (1982)
Golem, the Ghost of Exile (1992)
Berlin-Jerusalem (1989)
I Write in Space (1989)
The State of Things (1982)
The Trout (1982)
The Territory (1981)
Red Sun (1971)
Figures in a Landscape (1970)
The Christmas Tree (1969) (aka When Wolves Cry)
Mayerling (1968)
Triple Cross (1967)
Poppies Are Also Flowers (1966) (aka Danger Grows Wild, The Opium Connection, The Poppy Is Also a Flower)
Lady L (1965)
Topkapi (1964)
Five Miles to Midnight (1963)
Tales of Paris (1962)
The Battle of Austerlitz (1960)
Black Tights (1960)
Princesse de Clèves (1960)
Marriage of Figaro (1959)
Douze heures d'horloge (1959)
Le Secret du Chevalier d'Éon (1959)
Would-Be Gentleman (1958)
Cerf-volant du bout du monde (1958)
The Magic of the Kite (1971)
Casino de Paris (1957)
The Case of Dr. Laurent (1957)
Typhoon Over Nagasaki (1957)
Le Salaire du péché (1956)
La Meilleure part (1956)
The Toy Wife (1955)
The Heroes Are Tired (1955) (aka Heroes and Sinners)
House on the Waterfront (1955)
Les Impures (1955)
La Reine Margot (1954)
Zoé (1954)
Quand tu liras cette lettre (1953)
Les Amours finissent à l'aube (1953)
Julietta (1953)
Roman Holiday (1953)
Forbidden Fruit (1959)
Trois femmes (1952) (segment "Boitelle")
Trois femmes, trois âmes (1952)
The Voyage to America (1951)
Stranger on the Prowl (1951)
Paris est toujours Paris (1952)
Just Me (1950)
Juliette ou la clé des songes (1950)
The Lovers of Verona (1949)
La Marie du port (1949)
Anna Karenina (1948)
Riptide (1948) (aka Such a Pretty Little Beach)
The Damned (1947)
La Belle et la bête (1946) (aka Beauty and the Beast)
Born in Paris in 1909, HenriAlekan had participated in the production of a number of masterpieces of French cinema, such as Marcel Carné's Le Quai des Brumes (1938), René Clément's La Bataille du rail (1946), and Jean Cocteau's La Belle et la Bête (1946).
Alekan is also the author of an extraordinary book on the nature of light in the cinema and in painting, Des lumières et des ombres, the most recent edition of which was published in Paris in 1991 by la Librairie du Collectionneur.
In reference works on film, Alekan is typically described as follows: "He is one of France's most reliable cinematographers, adapting his style to the needs of the script and the director and always capturing the essence of a location" (Ephraïm Katz, The Film Encyclopedia).
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