settima

HenriAlekan

Der Stand der Dinge [The State of Things] (Wim Wenders, 1982)

Aug

13

1942

Der Stand der Dinge (1982)

Friedrich Munro's (Patrick Bauchau) Hollywood, Ca address and date of birth: August 13, 1942. DPs: Henri Alekan, Fred Murphy & Martin Schäfer.

– You know, I take pictures, photographs, but I never really thought in black and white before I saw our rushes. Do you know what I mean? You can see the shape of things.   – Life is in colour, but black and white is more realistic.

Figures in a Landscape (Joseph Losey, 1970)

Jul

17

Figures in a Landscape (1970)

MacConnachie (Robert Shaw, standing and peering upwards) and Ansell (Malcolm McDowell, squatting and facing away) in a barren landscape. Both have their hands tied behind their back. DPs: Henri Alekan, Peter Suschitzky & Guy Tabary.

“I'll tell you what though, Mac. There'll be no more games from now on.”

– Ansell

La Belle et la Bête [Beauty and the Beast] (Jean Cocteau + René Clément, 1946)

Nov

28

Giving Tuesday

La Belle et la Bête (1946)

The most beautiful flower, a rose, in La Bête's enchanted garden. DP: Henri Alekan.

Just before leaving home for a business trip, a father asks his three daughters what he can bring them as a return gift. The eldest two ask for silly, extravagant things. A monkey! A parrot! The youngest simply wishes the most beautiful flower which the father finds in an enchanted garden, guarded by a terrible beast. And will pay for with his life unless he gives his youngest away to the beast, to die in his place.

– Can such miracles really happen? – You and I are living proof.

#Cocteau and Clément's La Belle et la Bête is of course based on Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve's fairy-tale, which on its turn was based on the classic myth of Cupid and Psyche.

La Belle et la Bête [Beauty and the Beast] (Jean Cocteau + René Clément, 1946)

Aug

15

a cornucopia of wonder

La Belle et la Bête (1946)

La Belle (Josette Day) at a fancy table stacked with good foods and nice wines. She's cleaning her fingernails with the silverware while a chagrined Bête (Jean Marais) looks on. As magical as the story are the production and set design by Christian Bérard, Lucien Carré, and René Moulaert. They breathed a soul into almost everything, including the candelabras. DP: Henri Alekan.

– Does he crawl on four legs? What does he eat and drink?

– I've given him water to drink on occasion. He would never eat me.

O Território [The Territory] (Raúl Ruiz, 1981)

Apr

2

Nature Day

The Territory (1981)

A man and woman, plus a little girl perched on the man's shoulders, hike through an illusory landscape. DP: Henri Alekan.

Two American families, adults and their children, go on a #HikingTrip somewhere in the south of France. They find themselves increasingly lost, not only in #nature but also in and among themselves.

 

Supposedly based on a real troublesome event and riddled with much filmmaking adversity, O Território nearly stranded as much as the hikers did. In support, #WimWenders used the same cast for his Der Stand der Dinge (1982), about a film crew's attempt to remake #RogerCorman's Day the World Ended (1955).

 

In a wonderful, unscripted circular way, Corman was one of the executive producers of Ruiz's film.