TRAUNER, ALEXANDRE

born Aug. 3, 1906, Budapest, Hung. died Dec. 5, 1993, Omonville-La-Petit, France Alexandre also spelled Alexander Hungarian-born French motion-picture art director whose studio-built setsthe fairground in Quai des brumes (1938; Port of Shadows), the St. Martin Canal in Hotel du Nord (1938), the metro station in Les Portes de la nuit (1946; Gates of Night)formed the moviegoing public's images of France. Trauner, who had studied painting at the School of Fine Arts in Budapest, began his film career in Paris in the early 1930s as an assistant to the art director Lazare Meerson. Influenced by Meerson, Trauner's poetic realismexemplified in Quai des brumes, Le Jour se lve (1939; Daybreak), and other films with director Marcel Carn and screenwriter Jacques Prverttypified set design in the late 1930s and was adopted by many European filmmakers. In later work with Carn and Prvert, Trauner developed his style of constructing detailed but uncluttered period interiors. Notable examples include Les Visiteurs du soir (1942; The Devil's Envoy) and Les Enfants du paradis (1945; Children of Paradise), on both of which Trauner worked clandestinely while in hiding during the Nazi occupation of France. After 1952 he designed sets for international and American productions, including a number directed by Billy Wilder, such as Love in the Afternoon (1957), The Apartment (1960), for which he won an Academy Award, and Fedora (1978). Trauner's later films included Don Giovanni (1979) and Round Midnight (1986).