Career Highlights: Belle de Jour, Last Year at Marienbad, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
First Major Screen Credit: Night and Fog (1955)
Biography
The son of Russian immigrants and a graduate of the Paris film school IDHEC, Sacha Vierny started his film career shooting news documentaries in Africa. In 1953, he began working as an assistant to French cinematographer Ghislain Cloquet and then collaborated on many shorts before switching to features in 1958. He quickly became a well-respected cinematographer, most notably for his collaborations with Alain Resnais and Chris Marker. Vierny's masterful and precise use of lighting and deep focus photography contributed a great deal to the visual opulence of the films of Peter Greenaway. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
Nowadays most film-lovers know his work through his many collaborations with Alain Resnais. They made 10 films together from 1955 to 1984, starting with the Holocaust film Night and Fog (Nuit et brouillard in original French) and ending with L'amour à mort. He was the cinematographer of choice of British film-maker Peter Greenaway from his 1985 film, A Zed & Two Noughts, onward, and virtually shot everything Greenaway directed, including his television work, up to and including 8½ Women. Greenaway has also referred to Vierny as his “most important collaborator”. [1]