Camera

Sacha Vierny

Born August 10, 1919 · Bois-le-Roi, Seine-et-Marne, France

Died May 15, 2001 · aged 81

Sacha Vierny was born on August 10, 1919 in Bois-le-Roi, Seine-et-Marne, France. He was a cinematographer and assistant director, known for The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), The Pillow Book (1996) and Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959). He died on May 15, 2001 in Vannes, Morbihan, France.

Known For

Beau Pere

Beau Pere · 1981

MovieDramaRomance

Rémi is a man trapped in a deteriorating marriage. When his wife is unexpectedly killed in a car accident, Rémi is left with his stepdaughter, Marion, who chooses to stay with him rather than live with her birth father. After the initial shock passes, Rémi is caught off-guard when Marion begins expressing her attraction to him. Initially repulsed, Marion's mature beauty wears him down as he finally caves to her seductions.

Belle de Jour

Belle de Jour · 1967

MovieDramaRomance

Beautiful young housewife Séverine Serizy cannot reconcile her masochistic fantasies with her everyday life alongside dutiful husband Pierre. When her lovestruck friend Henri mentions a secretive high-class brothel run by Madame Anais, Séverine begins to work there during the day under the name Belle de Jour. But when one of her clients grows possessive, she must try to go back to her normal life.

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover · 1989

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

MovieCrimeDrama

When churlish mobster Albert Spica acquires an upscale French restaurant in London, he dines there nightly, effectively scaring off the clientele with his bad manners. His wife, Georgina, is especially disgusted by him, and soon begins an affair with regular guest Michael. Despite their best efforts to keep it secret, Spica learns about their trysts, and he plots a terrible revenge.

Night and Fog

Night and Fog · 1956

MovieDocumentaryHistory

Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

Hiroshima Mon Amour

Hiroshima Mon Amour · 1959

Hiroshima Mon Amour

MovieDramaHistory

The deep conversation between a Japanese architect and a French actress forms the basis of this celebrated French film, considered one of the vanguard productions of the French New Wave. Set in Hiroshima after the end of World War II, the couple -- lovers turned friends -- recount, over many hours, previous romances and life experiences. The two intertwine their stories about the past with pondering the devastation wrought by the atomic bomb dropped on the city.

The Public Woman

The Public Woman · 1984

The Public Woman

An inexperienced young actress is invited to play a role in a film based on Dostoyevsky's 'The Possessed'. The film director, a Czech immigrant in Paris, takes over her life, and in a short time she is unable to draw the line between acting and reality. She winds up playing a real-life role posing as the dead wife of another Czech immigrant, who is manipulated by the filmmaker into commiting a political assassination.

The Pillow Book

The Pillow Book · 1995

The Pillow Book

MovieDramaRomance

Nagito has a fetish for calligraphy on the human body and meets her ideal soulmate Jerome, an English translator sent to Japan. However, once Nagiko's father's gay publisher rejoins the scene, the story is overtaken by treachery and bloodlust.

The Tattoo

The Tattoo · 1968

An art dealer wants to buy a Modigliani, which is tattooed on the back of an old soldier.

Filmography

Sort

Beau Pere

Beau Pere · 1981

MovieDramaRomance

Rémi is a man trapped in a deteriorating marriage. When his wife is unexpectedly killed in a car accident, Rémi is left with his stepdaughter, Marion, who chooses to stay with him rather than live with her birth father. After the initial shock passes, Rémi is caught off-guard when Marion begins expressing her attraction to him. Initially repulsed, Marion's mature beauty wears him down as he finally caves to her seductions.

Director of Photography

Belle de Jour

Belle de Jour · 1967

MovieDramaRomance

Beautiful young housewife Séverine Serizy cannot reconcile her masochistic fantasies with her everyday life alongside dutiful husband Pierre. When her lovestruck friend Henri mentions a secretive high-class brothel run by Madame Anais, Séverine begins to work there during the day under the name Belle de Jour. But when one of her clients grows possessive, she must try to go back to her normal life.

Director of Photography

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover · 1989

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

MovieCrimeDrama

When churlish mobster Albert Spica acquires an upscale French restaurant in London, he dines there nightly, effectively scaring off the clientele with his bad manners. His wife, Georgina, is especially disgusted by him, and soon begins an affair with regular guest Michael. Despite their best efforts to keep it secret, Spica learns about their trysts, and he plots a terrible revenge.

Director of Photography

Night and Fog

Night and Fog · 1956

MovieDocumentaryHistory

Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

Director of Photography

Hiroshima Mon Amour

Hiroshima Mon Amour · 1959

Hiroshima Mon Amour

MovieDramaHistory

The deep conversation between a Japanese architect and a French actress forms the basis of this celebrated French film, considered one of the vanguard productions of the French New Wave. Set in Hiroshima after the end of World War II, the couple -- lovers turned friends -- recount, over many hours, previous romances and life experiences. The two intertwine their stories about the past with pondering the devastation wrought by the atomic bomb dropped on the city.

Director of Photography

The Public Woman

The Public Woman · 1984

The Public Woman

An inexperienced young actress is invited to play a role in a film based on Dostoyevsky's 'The Possessed'. The film director, a Czech immigrant in Paris, takes over her life, and in a short time she is unable to draw the line between acting and reality. She winds up playing a real-life role posing as the dead wife of another Czech immigrant, who is manipulated by the filmmaker into commiting a political assassination.

Director of Photography

The Pillow Book

The Pillow Book · 1995

The Pillow Book

MovieDramaRomance

Nagito has a fetish for calligraphy on the human body and meets her ideal soulmate Jerome, an English translator sent to Japan. However, once Nagiko's father's gay publisher rejoins the scene, the story is overtaken by treachery and bloodlust.

Director of Photography

The Tattoo

The Tattoo · 1968

An art dealer wants to buy a Modigliani, which is tattooed on the back of an old soldier.

Director of Photography

Last Year at Marienbad

Last Year at Marienbad · 1961

Last Year at Marienbad

MovieDramaRomance

At a weekend gathering, a man tells a woman that they had spent time there together a year prior. But, the woman has no recollection whatsoever and is convinced that he is simply fabricating the encounter. The more he speaks about their activities the previous year however, the more compelling he becomes. The question remains however – did they meet previously or not?

Director of Photography

8 ½ Women

8 ½ Women · 1999

MovieDramaComedy

After his wife dies, middle-aged businessman Philip Emmenthal, at the prompting of his playboy son Storey, populates his Geneva villa with eight-and-a-half concubines. Three are from Kyoto, where Storey manages Pachinco palaces. Each has a distinctive personality: a nun, a child bearer, a gambler, a student of Kabuki, a horsewoman with a pet pig, a maid. As a year passes, the women begin asserting their own power.

Director of Photography

The Man Who Cried

The Man Who Cried · 2000

The Man Who Cried

MovieRomanceDrama

A young refugee travels from Russia to America in search of her lost father and falls in love with a gypsy horseman.

Director of Photography

The Baby of Mâcon

The Baby of Mâcon · 1993

The Baby of Mâcon

MovieDramaHistory

In 17th-century Tuscany, a church play is performed for the benefit of young aristocrat Cosimo. In the play, a grotesque old woman gives birth to a beautiful baby boy. The child's older sister is quick to exploit the situation, selling blessings from the baby, and even claiming she's the true mother by virgin birth. However, when she attempts to seduce the bishop's son, the Church exacts a terrible revenge.

Director of Photography

Stavisky...

Stavisky... · 1974

MovieCrimeDrama

Biarritz, 1933. Charm and talent assist small-time swindler Serge Alexandre, alias Stavisky, to bribe his way into the centre of French politics. But when his great scam involving millions is exposed, he brings the government to the verge of collapse and the country to the brink of civil war.

Director of Photography

A Zed & Two Noughts

A Zed & Two Noughts · 1985

A Zed & Two Noughts

MovieComedyDrama

Identical twin zoologists lose their wives in a car crash caused by a white swan. They become obsessed with the death and decay of animals, and develop a strange and unusual relationship with the driver of the car, a woman who is now an amputee.

Director of Photography

Drowning by Numbers

Drowning by Numbers · 1988

Drowning by Numbers

MovieComedyCrime

Cissie Colpitts drowns her cheating husband and, in the ensuing cover-up, enlists the help of lonely coroner Henry Madgett, an old friend with a longstanding weakness for her charms. But when Cissie's daughter and granddaughter—both also named Cissie Colpitts—decide to resort to the same methods for solving conflicts with their own frustrating husbands, the women and their repeated appeals for help begin to wear on Madgett's conscience.

Director of Photography

The Monk

The Monk · 1972

MovieDramaHorror

Ambrosio is a monk who is sexually tempted by an emissary of the Devil, a young girl in monk's robes. After he has committed numerous crimes, it appears that he will be caught and punished by the Inquisition. Instead, he signs up on the Devil's team and wins his freedom.. and eventually, the papacy.

Director of Photography

Love Unto Death

Love Unto Death · 1984

Love Unto Death

MovieDramaRomance

Elisabeth and Simon have been deeply in love for two months when Simon momentarily dies, but returns to life. Despite declining further medical tests, the couple are forced to grapple with the possibility of his death. Eventually, they tell their close friends Jérôme and Judith Martignac about the event. The Martignacs are both clerics, and Judith has just been giving a funeral service for a villager who committed suicide, though Jérôme would have nothing to do with suicide...

Director of Photography

Dear Caroline

Dear Caroline · 1968

Against the backdrop of the French revolution, young Caroline tries to reunite with her first love, despite her arranged marriage to an older politician.

Director of Photography

My American Uncle

My American Uncle · 1980

My American Uncle

MovieComedyDrama

Professor Henri Laborit uses three people's stories to discuss behaviourist theories of survival, combat, rewards and punishment, and anxiety: René is a technical manager at a textile factory and must face the anxiety caused by corporate downsizing; Janine is a self-educated actress/stylist who learns that the wife of her lover is dying and must decide to let them reunite; and Jean is a controversial career-climbing writer/politician at a crossroads in life.

Director of Photography

Prospero's Books

Prospero's Books · 1991

Prospero's Books

MovieDramaFantasy

An exiled magician finds an opportunity for revenge against his enemies muted when his daughter and the son of his chief enemy fall in love in this uniquely structured retelling of the 'The Tempest'.

Director of Photography

The Belly of an Architect

The Belly of an Architect · 1987

The Belly of an Architect

Stourley Kracklite, a driven, detail-obsessed architect, travels from America to Rome with his much younger wife, Louisa, to oversee an architectural homage to a personal hero, 18th-century master builder Etienne-Louis Boullée. En route by train, Stourley and Louisa conceive a much-wanted child — but Stourley's obsession with his wife's expanding belly, her perceived infidelity, and his own recurrent bouts of abdominal pain reach epic and dangerous proportions.

Director of Photography

Rosa

A short film based on the work of choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker.

Director of Photography

The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting

The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting · 1978

The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting

MovieDramaMystery

Two narrators, one seen and one unseen, discuss possible connections between a series of paintings. The on-screen narrator walks through three-dimensional reproductions of each painting, featuring real people, sometimes moving, in an effort to explain the series' significance.

Director of Photography

Muriel, or the Time of Return

Muriel, or the Time of Return · 1963

Muriel, or the Time of Return

In the seacoast town of Boulogne, antique furniture saleswoman Hélène lives with her stepson, Bernard, who's back from military duty in Algiers. An old lover of Hélène's comes to visit, Alphonse, with his niece Françoise; he too is back from Algiers, where he ran a café. Bernard speaks of his fiancée, Muriel, whom Hélène has not met. The past is obscured by guilt, misperceptions, and missed possibilities. Appearances deceive, things change. As Hélène and Alphonse try to sort out a renewal, everyone seems off-kilter just enough to hint that all cannot end well.

Director of Photography

Le Secret des Flamands

Le Secret des Flamands · 1974

Le Secret des Flamands

Inspired by the book The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects by painter Giorgio Vasari, this historical soap opera, in which betrayals, kidnappings, murders and police investigations are interwoven, relates the discovery by the Italians of the secret of Flemish painting around 1470.

Director of Photography