Alexandre Trauner

{{Short description|Hungarian-born cinema production and set designer}}

File:Alexandre Trauner en 1961 avec J. et P. Prevert.jpg

Alexandre Trauner (born Sándor Trau; 3 August 1906 in Budapest, Hungary – 5 December 1993 in Omonville-la-Petite, France) was a Hungarian film production designer.

After studying painting at Hungarian Royal Drawing School, he left the country in 1929, fleeing from the antisemitic government of Admiral Horthy.{{cite book|last=Reader|first=Keith A.|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2XefIrfRuzkC&dq=%22Alexandre+Trauner%22+%22Horthy%22&pg=PA35|chapter=Subtext: Paris of Alexandre Trauner|editor-last=Konstantarakos|editor-first=Myrto|title=Spaces in European Cinema|location=Exeter, UK|publisher=Intellect|year=2000|page=35–|isbn=9781841500041 }} In Paris, he became the assistant of set designer Lazare Meerson, at the studios in Épinay-sur-Seine working on such films as À nous la liberté (1932) and La Kermesse héroïque (1935).{{cite book|author-last=Darke|author-first=Chris|chapter=Alexandre Trauner|editor-last=Nowell-Smith|editor-first=Geoffrey|title=The Oxford History of World Cinema|location=Oxford, UK & New York City|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1996|page=346}} In 1937, he became a chief set designer.[http://www.lpce.com/trauner/us/bio-us.html "Alexandre Trauner 50 ans de cinéma"], lpce.com, c.2007

Trauner worked with director Marcel Carné for some years on such films as Port of Shadows (Quai des brumes, 1938), Le Jour se lève (1939), and Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du paradis, 1945). Trauner worked in hiding on Children of Paradise, which was filmed at the Victorine Studios in Nice during 1943 and 1944 during the Nazi's Occupation of France.{{cite news|last=Shipman|first=David|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-alexandre-trauner-1468794.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107000444/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-alexandre-trauner-1468794.html |archive-date=2012-11-07 |url-access=limited |url-status=live|title=Obituary: Alexandre Trauner|work=The Independent|date=21 December 1993|access-date=13 April 2022}}

He worked with Billy Wilder on eight films between 1958 and 1978, including the sets for The Apartment (1960), on which he made use of false perspective, a characteristic of his work. For his work on this film, he won an Academy Award. He also worked on John Huston's The Man Who Would Be King (1975), Joseph Losey's Don Giovanni (1979), and Luc Besson's Subway (1985).

In 1980, he was a member of the jury at the 30th Berlin International Film Festival.{{cite web |url=http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1980/04_jury_1980/04_Jury_1980.html |title=Berlinale 1980: Juries |access-date=2010-08-15 |work=berlinale.de}}