HENRI ALEKAN

GREAT CINEMATOGRAPHERS

HENRI ALEKAN

Born: 10 February 1909, Paris [Montmartre], France, as Henri Albert Alakan, son of Bulgarian parents.

Died: 15 June 2001, Auxerre, France.

Education: Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris; Institut d'Optique, Paris.

Career: Entered film industry in 1928 as c.asst. Became c.op in 1935 and doph in 1940. Was imprisoned by the Germans in 1940, but escaped and formed a resistance group with his younger brother Pierre.

Was a member of the AFC. Was member of the Cannes IFF jury in 1963 & 1983.

Was also active as lighting dir for the stage.

1998 edition

Wrote the books 'Des lumières et des ombres' [1984], 'Le vécu et l'imaginaire' [autobiography], 'Question de lumières' [1993; with still ph Robert Doisneau] & 'La belle et la bête' [1994; with Robert Hammond].

Appearances: Appeared in the doc's 'Cinématon' [1978-2003, Gérard Courant; 2,044 ep of 4m], 'Unser Nazi/Notre Nazi/Our Nazi' [1983, Robert Kramer; 113m], 'Henri Alekan, opérateur' [1984, Fernand Moszkowicz; 5m], 'Dorénavant. Tout sera comme d'habitude' [1985, Roland Allard; on the making of 'Wundkanal'], 'Henri Alekan, des lumières et des hommes' [1986, Laurent Roth; ph: Sophie Maintigneux], 'Langlois monumental' [1991, Jacques Richard; ph: Patrick Thibault], 'Le maître de lumière' [1991, Denis Guedj; ph: Dominique Le Rigoleur], 'Der andere Blick/The Other Eye' [1991, Johanna Heer & Werner Schmiedel], 'Carné, vous avez dit Carné?' [1994, Jean-Denis Bonan; ph: Renan Polles; 30m], 'Vivre 120 ans/The Future of Aging' [1994, Carlos Ferrand], '100 ans d'industries techniques du cinéma' [1996, Gilles Adès; ph: Jean-Marie Droisy] & 'Cannes... les 400 coups' [1997, Gilles Nadeau].

Awards: 'Oscar' AA nom [1953; b&w; shared] for 'Roman Holiday'; 'César' Award [1983] for 'La truite'; German Film Award [1988], LAFCA Award [1988], NYFCC Award [1988] & NSFC Award [1989] for 'Der Himmel über Berlin'; ASC International Award [1996]; Brothers Manaki IFF 'Golden Camera 300 for Lifetime Achievement' [2001].

A tribute to Henri Alekan by Wim Wenders

Dear Henri.

Whenever I am asked

which professional collaboration I have cherished the most,

during the 20 films or so that I have done,

or what I am the most proud of from that entire time,

I never hesitate to say:

The two films I had the privilege of shooting with Henri Alekan.

I have learned from you all that I know about lights and shadows,

that's for sure,

but much more than that.

You showed me something unbelievable,

somebody that nobody would even dare to say,

let alone teach,

the most beautiful lesson of cinema:

Every shot done without love,

for its subjects or for film itself,

isn't worth a dime.

Yes, you taught me that,

but probably without being aware of it.

You were the living proof

that every gesture, every little act of our craft,

could be done with tenderness and care.

And with curiosity.

I still see you standing next to the camera,

full of never-ending enthusiasm,

always a smile on your face,

your eyes those of a big kid's…

I see you putting your heads together,

you and your marvelous friend and long-time collaborator,

your gaffer Louis Cochet,

with whom you worked together for sixty years!

You didn't even have to talk about the light,

just a few indications with your hands,

a couple of nods,

and off he went running,

eighty years old,

but younger than all the other electricians on the set

at their age of thirty or forty…

I see you measure the light

just by squinting your eyes.

You trusted them more than your spot-meter.

I see you and it all comes back to me:

YOU yourself,

You were the most beautiful lesson of cinema.

Dear Henri.

[From www.wim-wenders.com, the website of Wim Wenders Productions]

Obituary: The great French cinematographer Henri Alekan, who has died aged 92, was intimately linked with the evolution of European cinematography over the past half century, working with directors ranging from Jean Cocteau to Amos Gitai in the 1990s.

Although he used color, which he always felt was "way behind painting", his main contribution to cinema was his black-and-white photography, where he was able to play with light and shadows to create dramatic effects. For example, in Cocteau's 'La Belle et la Bête' [1945-46], when the father of the heroine approaches the door of the Beast's castle, Alekan suggests the passage of time evoked by the actor's shadow. To achieve the effect, he put a light on a crane, which was lowered as the actor approached the door, creating a bewitching transition - all in one shot - from a small midday shadow to a huge one that climbs the door.

Of Bulgarian origin, Alekan was born in Paris [Montmartre], near Auguste Renoir's atelier. At 16, Henri and his younger brother, Pierre, became traveling puppeteers. "Behind the puppet facade, there was a small hole through which you could look at the public without being seen," Henri recalled. "There, I could express myself without shyness."

Soon the timid Alekan became third c.asst at Billancourt Studios. After a spell in the military, he returned to Billancourt in 1931 to find the studio transformed by sound technology. The camera had to frame in such a way as to avoid the microphone boom above the actors' heads and the boom shadow. "In the early days of sound, there were terrible problems," Alekan remembered. "In general, cinematographers were on very bad terms with sound technicians. They were enemies."

In the late 1930s, as c.asst and c.op to Eugen Schüfftan, he worked on two Marcel Carné films, 'Drôle de drame' and 'Quai des brumes'. Schüfftan became Alekan's mentor. "I profited greatly from the magnificent lessons in lighting created by an artist. He would say, 'Look here, I'm not doing naturalist lighting. I'm doing lighting as I feel it. Emotional lighting.'"

Alekan's views were similar. "We should break the banality of naturalism. We get naturalism in our everyday lives. Artists are made to invent something else."

Alekan's career was interrupted by the German occupation of France during the Second World War. After escaping from a prisoner-of-war camp in 1940, he and his brother formed a resistance group called 'July 14', based in southern France. The group helped people on the run from the Germans by providing shelter and false papers. Alekan also secretly filmed German beach fortifications. After the war, he received several medals for this work, and the 'Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur'.

Despite his dismissal of naturalism, and his espousal of the creative use of lighting and shadows - as delineated in his book, 'Des lumières et des ombres' - Alekan's first success as director of photography was René Clément's grittily realistic 'Bataille du rail'. Using almost no lighting, he filmed railway workers re-enacting their courageous exploits as résistants during the occupation.

In the same year, in vast contrast, he filmed 'La Belle et la Bête'. Cocteau said that he discouraged Alekan, and the brilliant art director Christian Bérard, from virtuosity in order to show unreality in realistic terms. But thankfully, virtuosity is everywhere evident in the magical scenes in the Beast's castle. Cocteau asked Alekan to note how Gustave Doré had illustrated fairy tales, and also told him to look at the way Vermeer and 17th-century painters used lighting. "It was the first time in my life that a director talked to me about painting," Alekan remarked.

One of his favorite films was the British-made 'Anna Karenina' [1947], directed by Julien Duvivier, and starring Vivien Leigh. This is full of lighting nuance, every tone from black to white is masterfully rendered, as in the final scene when Tolstoy's heroine throws herself under a train. The exterior station was shot at dusk, with clouds of steam billowing from the locomotives.

Rain falls incessantly in the superbly photographed 'Une si jolie petite plage', Yves Allégret's doom-laden romance with Gérard Philipe.

In 1952, Alekan was called in to replace Franz Planer, who had had a violent argument with director William Wyler after two weeks of shooting 'Roman Holiday', with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn, on location in Rome. Alekan's approach to this romantic comedy was upbeat and undramatic, high-key lighting. "A comedy doesn't require lighting effects. You have to keep it simple," he explained.

He was rather left behind by the French New Wave directors, most of whom wanted to break away from the confines of sound stages, film speedily in the streets, and use simple flat lighting, known as 'lumière anglaise' [English lighting]. "In the past, I would often walk around the set before the shoot," Alekan said. "If you hurry the cinematographer, you don't leave him time to dream."

Later, however, a new generation of filmmakers sought out Alekan after he had shot a series of conventional Hollywood color movies in the 1960s and 1970s, including 'Topkapi' [1964] and 'Mayerling' [1968]. In 1981, Râúl Ruiz and Wim Wenders both asked him to shoot films, 'The Territory' and 'Der Stand der Dinge/The State of Things' respectively, the latter being about a film crew stranded in Portugal, among them Sam Fuller as a cameraman.

The only real magic in Wenders's whimsical angel-eye's view of Berlin, 'Der Himmel über Berlin/Wings Of Desire', came from the masterful, mostly black and white, photography of Alekan. As a tribute, the circus in the film is called the Cirque Alekan, obviously a place of wondrous light and shadows.

He shot his last films for the Israeli director Amos Gitai, notably 'Golem, l'esprit de l'exil', in which his color images, often built from multiple exposures, created a dark poetry, the sort of cinematography for which he was justly celebrated. [Ronald Bergan in 'The Guardian', 19 June 2001.]

FILMS
*1939*	Les usines Ford à Poissy [Yves Allégret] unfinished doc
1940	Vénus aveugle/Blind Venus [Abel Gance] b&w; 2uc (+ c.op); ph: Léonce-Henri Burel
1940	Tobie est un ange [Yves Allégret] b&w; film destroyed in a fire
1941	Bel ouvrage [Maurice Cloche] b&w; doc/11m; see 1943
1941	Le chariot de Thespis [Jean Canolle] b&w; short/?m
1941	Chefs de demain [René Clément] b&w; doc/40m
1942	Traditions [Maurice Cloche] b&w; doc/?m
1942	Les chevaux du Vercors [Jacqueline Audry] b&w; doc/20m; cph: André Thomas
1942	Tu seras vedette [Jean Mineur] b&w; short/15m
1942	Les deux timides/Jeunes timides [Yves Champlain (= Yves Allégret)] b&w; cph: Philippe Agostini
1942	Ceux du rail [René Clément] b&w; doc/18m
1943	Les petites du Quai-aux-Fleurs [Marc Allégret] b&w
1943	Échec au roi/Échec au roy [Jean-Paul Paulin] b&w
1943	La grande pastorale [René Clément] b&w; doc/26m
1943	La symphonie du travail [Maurice Cloche] b&w; 3 shorts: 'Bel ouvrage' (see 1941), 'La cordée' & 'La ronde sur les toits' (13m)

1945	Bataille du rail/The Battle of the Rails [René Clément] b&w
1945	Pour une nuit d'amour [Edmond T. Gréville] b&w; uncred cph; ph: Jacques Lemare
1945	Comédiens ambulants [Jean Canolle] b&w; short/20m; cph: Raymond Picon-Borel & Raymond Clunie
1945	La Belle et la Bête/Beauty and the Beast [Jean Cocteau] b&w; tech adv: René Clément
1946	La femme en rouge [Louis Cuny] b&w; uncred cph; ph: Pierre Montazel
1946	Les maudits/The Damned [René Clément] b&w
1946	Arch of Triumph [Lewis Milestone] b&w; 2uc; ph: Russell Metty
1947	Le diable souffle [Edmond T. Gréville] b&w

#1: Vivien Leigh - Mary Kerridge - HA - Julien Duvivier - ? - "Anna Karenina"

#2: With actor Orson Welles [left; visitor] & dir Julien Duvivier [right]

1947	Anna Karenina [Julien Duvivier] b&w
1948	Une si jolie petite plage/Riptide/Such a Pretty Little Beach [Yves Allégret] b&w
1948	Les amants de Vérone/The Lovers of Verona [André Cayatte] b&w
1949	La Marie du port [Marcel Carné] b&w
*1949*	Under My Skin/The Big Fall/My Old Man [Jean Negulesco; uncred dir European seq: Otto Lang] b&w; ?; ph: Joseph LaShelle; uncred ph Europe: Norbert Brodine & Dewey Wrigley
1950	Ma pomme/Just Me [Marc-Gilbert Sauvajon] b&w
1950	Juliette ou la clé des songes/Juliette, or Key of Dreams [Marcel Carné] b&w
1950	Paris est toujours Paris/Parigi è sempre Parigi [Luciano Emmer] b&w
1950	La Sarre, pleins feux [Henri Alekan & Henri Bonnière] b&w; doc/30m
1951	La Sarre, forces et voix de France [Henri Alekan & Henri Bonnière] ?; doc/?m
1951	Trois femmes [, trois âmes] [seg #3 'Mouche' dir by André Michel] b&w; 3 seg; other ph: Maurice Barry (#1) & André Bac (#2)
1951	Le voyage en Amérique/Trip to America [Henri Lavorel] b&w
1951	Danses sacrées 1 [René Zuber] ?; comm feature; not shown publicly
1951	Imbarco a mezzanotte/Stranger on the Prowl [Joseph Losey (because Losey was blacklisted in the USA, the direction was credited to Andrea Forzano, son of the producer)] b&w; + small part
1952	Le fruit défendu/Forbidden Fruit [Henri Verneuil] b&w

1952	Roman Holiday [William Wyler] b&w; cph: Franz Planer (when Planer fell ill, Alekan replaced him)
1952	Les amours finissent à l'aube [Henri Calef] b&w
1953	Quand tu liras cette lettre [Jean-Pierre Melville] b&w
1953	Zoé [Charles Brabant] b&w
1953	Julietta [Marc Allégret] b&w
1954	Les amants du Tage/The Lovers of Lisbon/Lovers' Nest [Henri Verneuil] b&w; uncred cph; ph: Roger Hubert
1954	La reine Margot/Queen Margot/A Woman of Evil [Jean Dréville] c; cph: Roger Hubert
1954	Les impures [Pierre Chevalier] b&w
1954	Le port du désir/House on the Waterfront [Edmond T. Gréville] b&w; uwph: Louis Malle
1954	Frou-Frou/The Toy Wife [Augusto Genina] cs/c
1955	Les héros sont fatigués/Heroes and Sinners [Yves Ciampi] b&w
1955	Des gens sans importance [Henri Verneuil] b&w; uncred cph; ph: Louis Page
1955	La meilleure part [Yves Allégret] cs/c

"Le salaire du péché"

1956	Le salaire du péché/The Wages of Sin [Denys de la Patellière] b&w
1956	Typhon sur Nagasaki [Yves Ciampi] c
1956	Le cas du docteur Laurent/The Case of Dr. Laurent [Jean-Paul le Chanois] b&w
1956	Die Windrose/The Wild Rose [seg (29m) 'Un matin comme les autres' dir by Yannick Bellon] b&w; 5 seg; prod International Democratic Women's Federation
1957	L'enfer de Rodin [Henri Alekan] b&w; dance film/17m
1957	Casino de Paris [André Hunebelle] fs/c; uncred cph; cph: Erwin Hillier & Bruno Mondi
1957	Cerf-volant du bout du monde/The Magic of the Kite [Roger Pigaut & Wang Kai Yi] c
1958	Le bourgeois gentilhomme/Would-Be Gentleman [Jean Meyer] c
1958	Douze heures d'horloge [Géza von Radványi] b&w
1959	Le mariage de Figaro/La folle journée/The Marriage of Figaro [Jean Meyer] c
1959	Le secret du Chevalier d'Éon [Jacqueline Audry] ds/c; cph: Marcel Grignon
1959	La Princesse de Clèves [Jean Delannoy] ds/c

[Right] with c.op Raymond Picon-Borel - "Austerlitz"

1959	Austerlitz/The Battle of Austerlitz [Abel Gance] ds/c; cph: Robert Juillard
1960	Danses sacrées 2 [René Zuber] ?; comm feature/?m; not shown publicly
1960	Les collants noirs/Un, deux, trois, quatre.../Black Tights [Terence Young] str/c; ballet film (4 seg)/140m
1960	Un oiseau s'envole [Caro Canaille] c; short/16m
1961	Les Parisiennes/Tales of Paris [seg 'Ella' dir by Jacques Poitrenaud & 'Antonia' dir by Michel Boisrond] b&w; other ph: Armand Thirard
1961	Danses sacrées 4 [René Zuber] c; comm feature; not shown publicly
1961	The Counterfeit Traitor [George Seaton] c; cph: Jean Bourgoin
1961	Avant le petit déjeuner [Artur Ramos] 16mm/b&w; short/19m
1962	Five Miles to Midnight/Le couteau dans la plaie [Anatole Litvak] b&w
1963	L'autre Cristobal/El otro Cristóbal [Armand Gatti] b&w
1963	Réunion des artistes [Marcos Madanes] b&w
1964	Topkapi [Jules Dassin] c; 2uc: Philippe Brun & Raymond Picon-Borel
1965	Lady L [Peter Ustinov] p/c
1965	The Poppy Is Also a Flower/Poppies Are Also Flowers/Danger Grows Wild [Terence Young] c; prod for the United Nations
1966	Triple Cross [Terence Young] c
1966	Versailles [Albert Lamorisse] c; doc/19m
1967	Diderot et l'encyclopédie [Jean Vidal] ?
*1968*	Ici et maintenant [Serge Bard] unreleased
1968	Mayerling [Terence Young] p/c; 2uc: Godfrey Godar
1968	Darling Lili [Blake Edwards] p/c; uncred cph; ph: Russell Harlan
1968	The Picasso Summer [Serge Bourguignon & (reshoots c.1971) Robert Sallin] c; co-addph; ph: Vilmos Zsigmond
1969	Giselle [Bernard Farrel] c
1969	L'arbre de Noël/The Christmas Tree/When Wolves Cry [Terence Young] c
1969	Figures in a Landscape [Joseph Losey] p/c; cph: Peter Suschitzky; aph: Guy Tabary
1971	Soleil rouge/Red Sun [Terence Young] vv/c; 2uc: Raymond Picon-Borel
1974	La pupa del gangster/Lady of the Evening/Sex Pot/Oopsy Poopsy [Giorgio Capitani] c; cph: Alberto Spagnoli
*1975*	Jackpot [Terence Young] unfinished
1977	Le Parc Monceau [Patrick Besnard] ?; short/?m; + small part
1977	L'ombre et la nuit [Jean-Louis Leconte] c; released in 1980
1978	Les divisions de la nature [Râúl Ruiz] 16mm/c; short/29m
1979	La dame de Monte-Carlo [Dominique Delouche] c; short/8m
1979	Pour la vie [Chantal Picault] c; short/23m; cph: Claude Michaud & Dominique Gentil
197?	Réalités rares [Bruno Delbonnel] ?; short/7m
1981	Der Stand der Dinge/The State of Things [Wim Wenders] b&w; cph: Fred Murphy (was c.op, but replaced Alekan for a short period) & Martin Schäfer
1981	The Territory [Râúl Ruiz] c; cph: Acácio de Almeida
1981	Le toit de la baleine/Het dak van de walvis/On Top of the Whale [Râúl Ruiz] b&w-c; cph: Theo Bierkens
1982	La truite/The Trout [Joseph Losey] c
1982	La belle captive/The Beautiful Prisoner [Alain Robbe-Grillet] c
1982	en rachâchant [Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet] b&w; short/7m
1982	Une pierre dans la bouche/A Stone in the Mouth [Jean-Louis Leconte] c
1983	Wundkanal. Hinrichtung für vier Stimmen/Exécution à quatre voix/Doktor S. [Thomas Harlan] c; video ph: Robert Kramer & Gérard Pierrard; H. Alekan appeared in a behind-the-scenes doc, ''Unser Nazi/Notre Nazi/Our Nazi', dir and ph by Robert Kramer
1985	A Strange Love Affair [Eric De Kuyper & Paul Verstaten] b&w
1985	The Perfect Kiss [Jonathan Demme] c; mus short (with band New Order)/11m; + tech adv
1985	Esther/Esther Forever [Amos Gitai] c

Wim Wenders - Peter Falk - H. Alekan - Bruno Ganz

"Der Himmel über Berlin/Wings of Desire"

1986	Der Himmel über Berlin/Les ailes du désir/Wings of Desire [Wim Wenders] b&w-c; addph: Peter Ch. Arnold & Martin Kukula; 2uc: Frank Blasberg & Peter Braatz; hph: Klemens Becker & Klaus Krieger; filmed 1986-87
1988	Im Exil der Ertrunkenen Tiger [Gi Brenig] b&w; short/10m
1989	J'écris dans l'espace/Vite et loin [Pierre Étaix] IMAX-Omnimax-70mm/c; doc/40m

1989	ברלין ירושלים/Berlin Yerushalaim/Berlin Jerusalem [Amos Gitai] c; cph (Israel ph): Nurith Aviv
1989	Pant'o Jazz/Tapage nocturne [Jean-Louis Bompoint & Hélène Bromberg] b&w-c; anim + live action/3m
1989	Paul Cézanne im Gespräch mit Joachim Gasquet/Cézanne [Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet] b&w-c; doc/52m
1989	Naissance d'un Golem/Birth of a Golem/Creation of the Golem [Amos Gitai] c; docudrama/60m; cph: Nurith Aviv & Laurent Truchot; + small part
1991	Golem, l'esprit de l'exil/Golem, the Spirit of the Exile [Amos Gitai] c
1992	Golem, le jardin pétrifié/Golem: The Petrified Garden [Amos Gitai] c; cph: Luc Drion & Eduard Timlin

TELEVISION
1962	Le taxi [Fernand étiez'
1963	Les femmes savantes
1963	La vérité sur l'affaire cph: Roger Dormoy;
1963	Le récit de Rebecca
1964	Le Mandarin merveilleux
1964	La possédée [Eric Le Hung] tvm
1964	A King in New York Chaplin
1970	The Henri Matisse Centennial Hans Namuth] doc/

Marzelle] tvm; ep series 'En France comme vous [Jean Meyer] tvm/b&w du courier de Lyon [Stellio Lorenzi] tvm; ep series 'La caméra explore le temps' [Paul Vecchiali] tvm/20m [Yves-André Hubert] tvm [?] prologue to tv-showing of film by Charles at the Grand Palais [Paul Falkenberg & color="#FF0000">?m

MISCELLANEOUS

1929

Deux balles au coeur [Jean Milva & Claude Heymann] c.asst; ph: Marcel Lucien; unreleased

1931

La petite chocolatière/The Chocolate Girl [Marc Allégret] c.asst; ph: Roger Hubert, Georges Périnal & Nikolai Toporkoff

1931

Amour à l'américaine/American Love [Claude Heymann] c.asst; ph: Roger Hubert & Theodore Sparkuhl

1931

Pourquoi, parce que [Robert Bossis; short] c.asst; ph: ?

1931

Fantômas [Paul Fejos] c.asst; ph: J. Peverell Marley

1932

Fanny [Marc Allégret] c.asst; ph: Roger Hubert & Nikolai Toporkoff

1932

Direct au coeur [Roger Lion & Antoine Arnaudy] c.asst; ph: Enzo Riccioni & Marcel Franchi

1932

Les bleus de l'amour [Jean de Marguenat] c.asst; ph: ?

1932

Le martyre de l'obèse/Fat Man's Worries [Pierre Chenal] c.asst; ph: Roger Hubert

1934

Roi de Camargue [Jacques de Baroncelli] c.asst; ph: Nikolai Toporkoff

1934

Le voyage imprévu/Les pantoufles/Slipper Episode [Jean de Limur] c.asst (+ sound asst); ph: Fédote Bourgasoff

1935

Jeunes filles à marier [Jean Vallée] c.asst; ph: Nikolai Toporkoff

1936

La vie est à nous/The People of France [director's collective] co-c.asst; ph: Jean-Serge Bourgoin, Claude Renoir & Louis Page

1936

La tendre ennemie [Max Ophüls] c.asst; ph: Eugen Schüfftan

1936

Maria de la nuit [Willy Rozier] sound asst; ph: Georges Lucas

1936

Les jumeaux de Brighton [Claude Heymann] c.asst; ph: Armand Thirard

1936

Au service du tsar [Pierre Billon] c.asst; ph: Nikolai Toporkoff

1936

L'homme du jour/The Man of the Hour [Julien Duvivier] c.asst; ph: Roger Hubert

1937

Trois artilleurs au pensionnat [René Pujol] c.asst; ph: Nikolai Toporkoff

1937

La bataille silencieuse [Pierre Billon] c.asst; ph: Joseph-Louis Mundwiller & Louis Page

1937

Ramuntcho [René Barberis] c.asst; ph: Nikolai Toporkoff

1937

Mademoiselle Docteur/Salonique nid d'espions/Street of Shadows/Spies from Salonika [G.W. Pabst] c.op; ph: Eugen Schüfftan

1937

La danseuse rouge/La chèvre aux pieds d'or [Jean-Paul Paulin] c.op; ph: Nikolai Toporkoff

1937

Drôle de drame [ou L'étrange aventure de Docteur Molyneux]/Bizarre, Bizarre [Marcel Carné] c.op; ph: Eugen Schüfftan

1937

Mollenard/Hatred [Robert Siodmak] c.op; ph: Eugen Schüfftan

1937

Le drame de Shanghaï/The Shanghai Drama [G.W. Pabst] c.op; ph: Eugen Schüfftan

1938

Quai des brumes/Port of Shadows [Marcel Carné] co-c.op; ph: Eugen Schüfftan

1938

Vidocq [Jacques Daroy] c.op; ph: Nikolai Toporkoff & Pierre Montazel

1938

Le prince Bouboule [Jacques Houssin] c.asst; ph: Willy Gricha

1938

Campement 13 [Jacques Constant] c.op; ph: Nikolai Toporkoff

1938

L'esclave blanche [Marc Sorkin & G.W. Pabst (superv)] c.op; ph: Michel Kelber

1939

Sans lendemain/There's No Tomorrow [Max Ophüls] c.op; ph: Eugen Schüfftan

1939

Le dernier tournant/The Last Turn [Pierre Chenal] c.op; ph: Christian Matras & Claude Renoir

1939

Jeunes filles en détresse/Girls in Distress [G.W. Pabst] c.asst; ph: Michel Kelber & Marcel Weiss

1939

L'émigrante [Léo Joannon] c.op; ph: Eugen Schüfftan

1939

Les musiciens du ciel [Georges Lacombe] c.op; ph: Eugen Schüfftan

1940

Vénus aveugle/Blind Venus [Abel Gance] c.op (+ 2uc); ph: Léonce-Henri Burel

1940

Parade en sept nuits [Marc Allégret] c.op; ph: Christian Matras

1941

Une femme dans la nuit [Edmond T. Gréville (started by Abel Gance)] c.op; ph: Léonce-Henri Burel

1993

In weiter Ferne, so nah!/Faraway, So Close! [Wim Wenders] small part; ph: Jürgen Jürges & Martin Gressmann

FILMS AS DIRECTOR

1950

La Sarre, pleins feux [co-d; + ph] see Films

1951

La Sarre, forces et voix de France [co-d; + ph] see Films

1957

L'enfer de Rodin [+ ph] see Films

1985

La petite danseuse de 14 ans d'Edgar Degas/La danseuse de 14 ans [dance film/6m/16mm] ph: François Ede & Agnès Godard; ep of series 'Le musée dansé' for Musée d'Orsay

1989

Détective [dance film/4m] ph: ?

1991

Morpho-cristallographie [doc/30m] ph: ?

MISCELLANEOUS
*1929*	Deux balles au coeur [Jean Milva & Claude Heymann] c.asst; ph: Marcel Lucien; unreleased
1931	La petite chocolatière/The Chocolate Girl [Marc Allégret] c.asst; ph: Roger Hubert, Georges Périnal & Nikolai Toporkoff
1931	Amour à l'américaine/American Love [Claude Heymann] c.asst; ph: Roger Hubert & Theodore Sparkuhl
1931	Pourquoi, parce que [Robert Bossis; short] c.asst; ph: ?
1931	Fantômas [Paul Fejos] c.asst; ph: J. Peverell Marley
1932	Fanny [Marc Allégret] c.asst; ph: Roger Hubert & Nikolai Toporkoff
1932	Direct au coeur [Roger Lion & Antoine Arnaudy] c.asst; ph: Enzo Riccioni & Marcel Franchi
1932	Les bleus de l'amour [Jean de Marguenat] c.asst; ph: ?
1932	Le martyre de l'obèse/Fat Man's Worries [Pierre Chenal] c.asst; ph: Roger Hubert
1934	Roi de Camargue [Jacques de Baroncelli] c.asst; ph: Nikolai Toporkoff
1934	Le voyage imprévu/Les pantoufles/Slipper Episode [Jean de Limur] c.asst (+ sound asst); ph: Fédote Bourgasoff
1935	Jeunes filles à marier [Jean Vallée] c.asst; ph: Nikolai Toporkoff
1936	La vie est à nous/The People of France [director's collective] co-c.asst; ph: Jean-Serge Bourgoin, Claude Renoir & Louis Page
1936	La tendre ennemie [Max Ophüls] c.asst; ph: Eugen Schüfftan
1936	Maria de la nuit [Willy Rozier] sound asst; ph: Georges Lucas
1936	Les jumeaux de Brighton [Claude Heymann] c.asst; ph: Armand Thirard
1936	Au service du tsar [Pierre Billon] c.asst; ph: Nikolai Toporkoff
1936	L'homme du jour/The Man of the Hour [Julien Duvivier] c.asst; ph: Roger Hubert
1937	Trois artilleurs au pensionnat [René Pujol] c.asst; ph: Nikolai Toporkoff
1937	La bataille silencieuse [Pierre Billon] c.asst; ph: Joseph-Louis Mundwiller & Louis Page
1937	Ramuntcho [René Barberis] c.asst; ph: Nikolai Toporkoff
1937	Mademoiselle Docteur/Salonique nid d'espions/Street of Shadows/Spies from Salonika [G.W. Pabst] c.op; ph: Eugen Schüfftan
1937	La danseuse rouge/La chèvre aux pieds d'or [Jean-Paul Paulin] c.op; ph: Nikolai Toporkoff
1937	Drôle de drame [ou L'étrange aventure de Docteur Molyneux]/Bizarre, Bizarre [Marcel Carné] c.op; ph: Eugen Schüfftan
1937	Mollenard/Hatred [Robert Siodmak] c.op; ph: Eugen Schüfftan
1937	Le drame de Shanghaï/The Shanghai Drama [G.W. Pabst] c.op; ph: Eugen Schüfftan
1938	Quai des brumes/Port of Shadows [Marcel Carné] co-c.op; ph: Eugen Schüfftan
1938	Vidocq [Jacques Daroy] c.op; ph: Nikolai Toporkoff & Pierre Montazel
1938	Le prince Bouboule [Jacques Houssin] c.asst; ph: Willy Gricha
1938	Campement 13 [Jacques Constant] c.op; ph: Nikolai Toporkoff
1938	L'esclave blanche [Marc Sorkin & G.W. Pabst (superv)] c.op; ph: Michel Kelber
1939	Sans lendemain/There's No Tomorrow [Max Ophüls] c.op; ph: Eugen Schüfftan
1939	Le dernier tournant/The Last Turn [Pierre Chenal] c.op; ph: Christian Matras & Claude Renoir
1939	Jeunes filles en détresse/Girls in Distress [G.W. Pabst] c.asst; ph: Michel Kelber & Marcel Weiss
1939	L'émigrante [Léo Joannon] c.op; ph: Eugen Schüfftan
1939	Les musiciens du ciel [Georges Lacombe] c.op; ph: Eugen Schüfftan
1940	Vénus aveugle/Blind Venus [Abel Gance] c.op (+ 2uc); ph: Léonce-Henri Burel
1940	Parade en sept nuits [Marc Allégret] c.op; ph: Christian Matras
1941	Une femme dans la nuit [Edmond T. Gréville (started by Abel Gance)] c.op; ph: Léonce-Henri Burel
1993	In weiter Ferne, so nah!/Faraway, So Close! [Wim Wenders] small part; ph: Jürgen Jürges & Martin Gressmann

FILMS AS DIRECTOR
1950	La Sarre, pleins feux [co-d; + ph] see Films
1951	La Sarre, forces et voix de France [co-d; + ph] see Films
1957	L'enfer de Rodin [+ ph] see Films
1985	La petite danseuse de 14 ans d'Edgar Degas/La danseuse de 14 ans [dance film/6m/16mm] ph: François Ede & Agnès Godard; ep of series 'Le musée dansé' for Musée d'Orsay
1989	Détective [dance film/4m] ph: ?
1991	Morpho-cristallographie [doc/30m] ph: ?