Burel had studied art at the University of Nantes and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris before taking his first steps as a copperplate engraver and in the photo typography of the Éclair company laboratories . In 1913 he directed short films for the first time and two years later began his career as head cameraman for feature films.
In the same year 1915 Léonce-Henri Burel began working with Abel Gance , the 1925-26 in the monumental Napoleon - culminated biography and should include a total of 13 films. Gance's colleague Jacques Feyder also secured the collaboration of the technically adept and artistically innovative Burel on three of his works during the 1920s. Burel's work flattened out during the early years of sound film, but in 1950 he found a director in Robert Bresson , for whose unpretentious portraits of people Burel created strikingly clear and barren images.
Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 1: A - C. Erik Aaes - Jack Carson. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 605 f.
