Maxime Alexandre

Maxime Alexandre, born in '71 in Renaix, Belgium, basically grew up surrounded by film. When he was five, he packed up and moved to Rome with his family—his stepdad, Inigo Lezzi, was deep in the Italian cinema world, working with some heavy hitters like Marco Bellocchio and Nanni Moretti. So yeah, Maxime got a front-row seat to the whole movie-making circus. The kid even acted in a few films, like “Une Page d’Amour” and Moretti’s “Bianca.” But honestly, playing in front of the camera wasn’t what grabbed him for good. His real spark? Photography. He found it while hanging around one of his stepdad’s short film sets—something just clicked. Fast forward a bit, late ‘80s, the family shifts to Paris. Maxime starts hustling in the camera department, soaking up everything from legends like Darius Khondji and Tonino Delli Colli. That’s a wild education right there. His first shot as Director of Photography came from shooting for Michel Gondry’s commercial (no big deal). Then, in 2001, he crossed paths with Alexandre Aja and Gregory Levasseur—together, they’d kickstart the whole French New Wave of horror with “High Tension.” That film blew up, got international attention, and suddenly Maxime’s name was everywhere. He went on to shoot “The Hills Have Eyes” remake, “Mirrors,” and linked up with legends like Wes Craven for “Paris, Je T’aime,” which even made it to Cannes. Variety named him a cinematographer to watch, and he’s kept the hits coming—“P2,” “The Crazies,” “The Voices,” “Crawl,” “Shazam,” and more. The guy’s just unstoppable.