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John (Ferno) Fernhout | Self portrait (1973-1975)
John (Ferno) Fernhout
Europe
During the first post-war years Fernhout lives in Paris, working on seven geographical films entitled The People of the Earth, a project for which he films in several European countries. After this, John and Polly and their son Douwes settle in Bougival in France, where he produces a series of information films about the reconstruction of Europe.
Fernhout gets better and better at shooting special footage with ingenious techniques, including filming from aeroplanes and underwater.
In 1954, he takes time off, and the family goes to Rome for 18 months.
Cas Oorthuys
The Netherlands Antilles
In 1957, Fernhout moves to London where he produces the films ABC and Blue Peter, about the Netherlands Antilles. ABC is nominated for a Golden Palm at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival. The award, however, goes to Joris Ivens’ La Seine a rencontré Paris.
Fernhout then returns to the Netherlands and produces the animation film Dam de Delta, about how the Dutch have struggled against the water for centuries.
Paris
In 1962, it is off to Paris again, to produce Parlons Français (Let’s Speak French), a series of almost 60 films about the French language for American television.
John (Ferno) Fernhout
In the beginning of the year his wife Polly Korchien dies. His son
Douwes starts assisting him with his films, a collaboration that proves
lasting.
Oscar Nomination
In 1965, Fernhout becomes quite famous with Vigilant Switzerland, his documentary about the Swiss Army in peacetime that contains spectacular images of military exercises. The 70mm film is screened on super panorama screens with 18 sound channels. A revised edition under the title Fortress of Peace is nominated for an Oscar.
Cas Oorthuys
Sky over Holland
After the success of Fortress of Peace, in 1965 Fernhout rents an old mill in Abcoude (a small town in the central Dutch province of Utrecht) and produces the film Delta Data about the enormous Delta Works (a series of constructions started in 1950 in the southwest of the Netherlands to protect a large area of land against the sea). In 1967, this is followed up by the successful 17mm film Sky over Holland, produced for the World Expo in Montréal, about the Dutch landscape with its famous skies and about Dutch art. The film is highly acclaimed, especially abroad, also because it points at the relationship between the work of Mondrian and the parcelled Dutch landscape. That same year, Sky over Holland wins a Golden Palm in Cannes.
Israel
Between 1969 and 1980, John and Douwes mainly live in Israel. Here they make films in which John Fernhout clearly sides with the Israelis in their fight against the Arabs and Palestinians. Father and son often travel to the Netherlands and back to Israel. Through his filmmaking in Israel, Fernhout meets the Russian scriptwriter Julia Wiener, whom he marries in 1978.
Last Films
In his last films, Fernhout again focuses on the Netherlands. Drie generaties (Three Generations) is a personal film about his grandfather Jan Toorop, his mother Charley Toorop and his brother Edgar Fernhout. Their paintings, together with the house ‘De Vlerken’, form the basis of this film.
Fernhout also makes a film portrait of his late friend, the photographer Cas Oorthuys, based on his photographs, titled Mijn generatie is zwart-wit (My Generation is Black & White).
Finally, in 1985, he finishes the documentary Het bewaarde landschap (The Preserved Landscape) about the ‘De Hoge Veluwe’ National Park and the Kröller-Müller Museum situated in it. For this film he is awarded the Edo Bergsma Award in 1986, by the ANWB (the Dutch Automobile Association).
Death
While preparing a film about Vincent van Gogh, on 1 March 1987 John Fernhout dies of cardiac arrest in Jerusalem, at the age of 73.
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