Alekan shot several American features, notably Billy Wilder's "Roman Holiday" (1953). Switching to color, he earned notice for his work on Abel Gance's "Austerlitz" and Jean Delannoy's "La Princess de Cleves" (both 1960). For his work on Joseph Losey's "The Trout" (1982), Alekan earned a Cesar and contemporary audiences may best know him for his lyrical return to black-and-white in Wim Wenders' "Wings of Desire" (1987). More recently, Alekan collaborated with Amos Gitai on four films: "Esther" (1986), that used the harsh desert sun for dramatic effect through contrasts of light and shadow; and the thematic trilogy, "Berlin/Jerusalem" (1989), which employed German expressionism giving way to an almost travelogue-like view of Israel; "Golem-L'Esprit de l'exil" (1992), employing a multi-exposure technique to create poetic effects; and "Golem-Le Jardin petrifie" (1993), which used landscape photography as symbolism of the central character's search for lost family heirlooms.