Herman van der Horst

Herman van der Horst

Herman Hendrikus van der Horst (born December 30, 1910 in Alblasserdam , Netherlands ; † January 8, 1976 in Haarlem ) was a multi-award-winning Dutch documentary filmmaker .

Live and act

Herman van der Horst, son of a ship's carpenter and steel worker, was not allowed to go to the cinema as a child and first attended a performance in 1931 when he saw the Hollywood production Trader Horn . He was so enthusiastic about the dramatic role nature and wilderness played there that the nature enthusiast decided to make documentaries himself at some point. Before that, however, he had to find a job to earn a living and became an accountant . As an enthusiastic nature lover, he also drew birds and began to observe them intensively. As a result, van der Horst made a name for himself in relevant circles and was appointed the new director of the Texel Museum of Natural History in 1941, at the time of the German occupation , after the previous director had suddenly died shortly before. Van der Horst was completely absorbed in this task and in the following years made all sorts of photographs of the landscape characteristics of this largest Dutch Frisian island. With the support of Texel's steam boat company TESO, he completed his first natural history film documentary during the war: Texel, parel der waddeneilanden (in German: Texel, pearl of the Wadden Sea Islands ). His follow-up work Metamorphose was also created during the German occupation and was only presented to the general public after the liberation in 1945.

When the Nederlandsche Werkgemeenschap voor Filmproductie (NWF) was founded in June 1945, van der Horst developed into their most important nature filmmaker. One of his tasks was to record the reconstruction efforts of the war-torn country on film. Herman van der Horst made a total of four of these films. The NWF was dissolved again in 1947, and van der Horst now worked for the production company Multifilm. He concentrated more and more on nature as the central element of his work. He was also frequently involved in his films as a producer, author, cameraman and composer. In the mid-1950s, Herman van der Horst had developed into one of the most important filmmakers in his homeland after his short film Houen zo! at the Cannes Film Festival in 1953 . In 1957 he completed another, this time 21-minute masterpiece, which was presented in Germany under the title Lobet the Sea and for which he received the Golden Bear in the category "Best Short Film" at the 1959 Berlinale . Just one year later, Herman van der Horst received another Golden Bear in the same category, this time for Faja Lobbi , a documentary film made in what was then the Dutch colony of Dutch Guiana , now Suriname . The Dutch Queen Juliana also attended the premiere on June 23, 1960 .

Another artistic highlight in the life of the culture and nature filmmaker was the film Pan in 1962 . He won the Prix spécial du Jury - court métrage (ex-aequo) at the Cannes International Film Festival in 1962 and was nominated for the BAFTA 1963. It received special attention in the United States, where it was nominated for an Oscar in the category of best short film in 1963 . Nevertheless, van der Horst's decline began at this point; he could no longer make worthwhile films, especially since hardly any funds were available for them. In addition, the up-and-coming generation of filmmakers began to be more and more critical of the tradition of a “Dutch documentary film school”, which was decisively influenced by van der Horst. With his short film Toccata , which was published in the student unrest year of 1968 and tells of a boy looking for his cat in an Amsterdam church, he only met with incomprehension and ridicule. The fact that this film, which was to be presented at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1968 , was no longer shown because the festival was canceled as a result of the student unrest, must seem almost symbolic . Van der Horst, who recently suffered from health problems, was never able to put together a film again. His last project, which he had been preparing for many years, entitled Musica Humana , which wanted to devote himself entirely to the magic of music, got stuck in the preparatory stage. Herman van der Horst died a good week after completing his 65th birthday in the Elisabeth Hospital in Haarlem.

Awards

• Cannes Film Festival Film: 1952 Grand Prix for 't Schot is te boord
• Cannes Film Festival Film: 1953 Grand Prix for Houen So!
• State Prize for Cinematography 1955 for Vieren maar!
• State Prize for Cinematography 1958 for Prijs de zee
• Golden Bear at the Berlinale 1959 for Prijs de zee
• Golden Bear at the Berlinale 1960 for Faja Lobbi
• Cannes Film Festival 1962: Prix spécial du Jury - court métrage (ex-aequo) for Pan

Filmography (selection)

Directing short documentary films:

• approx. 1942: Texel, parel of the wadden islands
• ca.1943: metamorphosis
• 1945: Arnhem
• 1946: Ontluisterd land
• 1946: Rotterdam aan den slag (co-director)
• 1946: Herwonnen vaart (co-director)
• 1948: Dragers van het gulden Vlies
• 1948: Toernooi
• 1948: Het bijsteren land van Veluwen
• 1950: the zee ontrukt
• 1950: 't Schot is te Bord
• 1951: Long loud sounds
• 1952: Houen zo!
• 1954: Four Maar
• 1957: Praise the Sea (Prijs de zee)
• 1960: Faja Lobbi
• 1962: Pan
• 1964: Amsterdam
• 1968: Toccata

Web links

• Detailed biography on beeldengeluid.nl (in Dutch)
• Van der Horst in the Dutch media
• Herman van der Horst in the Internet Movie Database (English)