He became interested in the cinema and designed sets for Julien Duvivier, René Clair, Maurice Tourneur and Marc Allégret.

After first working as an assistant to Lazare Meerson, Alexandre Trauner became chief set designer in 1937 and embarked upon a fertile collaboration with Marcel Carné and Jacques Prévert that produced such classics as Drôle de Drame, Quai des Brumes, Hôtel du Nord, Le Jour se Lève, Les Portes de la Nuit and Les Enfants du Paradis.

In all Alexandre Trauner designed sets for more than eighty motion pictures.

He was made a citizen of honour of the town of Cherbourg in March 1990.

He lies in the cemetery of Omonville la Petite alongside his old friend Jacques Prévert.