Alexandre Alexeieff and Claire Parker

Alexandre Alexeieff (born as Alexej Alexeieff, sometimes credited as Alexander Alexeieff or Alexander Alexeïeff or Alexandre Alexieff) (August 5, 1901 - August 9, 1982) was born in the town of Kazan in Russia. He spent his early childhood near Istanbul where his father was a military attaché. At the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917 he was a military cadet in the Russian navy.

In 1921 he left Russia for France, where he began his involvement with illustration and animation.

In 1930, Alexeieff married Claire Parker (1910 - 1981), a wealthy American art student living in Paris. Together they formed a life-long partnership working together on animated films. Their main contribution to the art of animation is the pin screen. They also made many stop motion-animated commercials to sustain themselves financially, though they reportedly did not see much difference between their "artistic" and "commercial" films.

Alexeieff worked as well in Berlin, returning 1933 to Paris.

Giannalberto Bendazzi wrote a book about him titled "Alexeieff - Itinerary of a Master" which featured essays from various famous animators such as Yuriy Norshteyn.

On August 7, 1972, Alexeieff and Parker demonstrated the pin screen to a group of animators at the National Film Board of Canada. This demonstration was filmed, and released by the NFB as "Pin Screen". This film appears on disk 7 of "Norman McLaren: The Master's Edition", along with "Pinscreen Tests" (1961).

Filmography

*"Night on Bald Mountain" ("Eine Nacht auf dem kahlen Berge") (1933)
*"Parade of the Hats" ("Parade de chapeaux") (1935)
*"Sleeping Beauty" ("La Belle au bois dormant") (1935)
*"Balatum" (1938)
*"Huilor" (1938)
*"Jaffa's Oranges" ("Les Oranges de Jaffa") (1938)
*"In Passing" ("En passant") (Canada, 1943)
*"Popular Songs nº 5" ("Chants populaires nº 5") (Canada, 1944)
*"Smoked" ("Fumées") (1951)
*"Masks" ("Masques") (1952)
*"Nocturne" (1954)
*"The Sap of the Earth" ("La Sève de la terre") (1955)
*"Hundred Per Cent" ("Cent pour cent") (1957)
*"Anonymous Automation" ("Anonyme automation") (1958)
*"Recreation" ("Divertissement") (1960)
*"Pinscreen Tests" (1961) - brief animation tests filmed in their Paris studio
*title sequence for "The Trial" (1962) directed by Orson Welles
*"The Nose" ("Le Nez") (1963)
*"Water" ("L'Eau") (1966)
*"Pictures at an Exhibition" (1972)
*"Three Moods" ("Trois thèmes") (1980)OTHER:
*"Alexeieff at the Pinboard" (1960) - documentary filmed in their Paris studio
*"Pin Screen" (1972) - documentary of a pinscreen demonstration at the National Film Board of Canada

Bibliography

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0018944/ Alexandre Alexeieff at IMDB]
* [http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=search&sval=bendazzi&article_no=676 Review of the book "Alexeieff: Itinerary of a Master"]
* [http://www.cinedoc.org/EN/apropos/boutique_aadvd.asp PAL R2 DVD of Alexeieff's films]