Alexander Alexeieff on AllMovie

Alexander Alexeieff was an internationally acclaimed and innovative animator best remembered for his classic interpretation of Mussorgsky's "A Night on Bald Mountain,"--the film version was entitled A Night on a Bare Mountain (1933). As a young man, Alexeieff originally trained to be a military officer. He then studied linguistics in Paris before becoming an artist. In the latter capacity, he worked as a book illustrator, stage designer, and finally, a film animator. In films, he created a special print-like effect by lighting thousands of pinheads. The effect is called the "pin screen" method and creates an effect similar to the pointillistic drawings of Seurat. In 1931 Alexeieff and his wife Claire Parker began collaborating. In 1963, he earned acclaim for his title sequence of The Trial (1963). During the last two decades of his life, Alexeieff primarily made animated shorts and commercials in France and Germany. He also occasionally returned to the U.S.