Another chapter in the continuing series about Art Directors and Production Designers in British Film up to 1948.
This excerpt considers the work of Ferdinand Bellan.
(Click the thumbnails to enlarge)
`Bonnie Prince Charlie´ Starring the youthful Ivor Novello and Gladys Cooper.
`Bonnie Prince Charlie´
`Salute The Soldier´
(Probably `The Adventures of Mr. Pickwick´, 1921)
The text continues after the fold:
Ferdinand Bellan.
BELLAN is probably the most facile and prolific designer in the film industry. I* would describe him as a mixture of Adolph Menzel, Gavani and Gustave Dore. He possesses the facility, charm and romantic vision of all three.
He is, however, essentially a painter-one who puts on paper or canvas the fleeting visions of a fertile imagination., When he has art directed films, he has seldom been as preoccupied with the problem of the three-dimensional set in the studio as with that of two dimensions on his drawing pad.
Studying the historical development of film decor in England and Europe one is continually coming across Bellan’s influence, for as a designer he has worked silently making sketches for directors like Lubitsch, Dreyer and Czinner, as well as for art directors like Andrejew and Korda.
When working for designers he has turned their rough sketches into brilliant finished pictures-when working with producers, like Lubitsch or Dreyer, it has been to materialize their vague imaginings.
Bellan tells me that since 1920, when he left his studies in the Vienna Art School and went to work in Berlin, he has been associated with the following productions as co-designer: .’Anne Boleyn’, ‘Sumarun’, ‘Madam Dubarry’, ‘Congress Dances’, ‘Thief of Baghdad’, ‘The Drum’, ‘Four Feathers’, ‘Dark Journey’, ‘Perfect Stranger’-to name only a few.
He also has a great reputation as a scenic artist and has painted the most gigantic tapestries and mural paintings in so short a time as to be considered almost miraculous.
Bellan’s drawings are complete compositions in themselves. One feels that the movement of any of the figures or any of the lights and shades and the composition would be ruined; which is a pity, since the main requirement of a good set is that it should look good from any point, and the secret of the art is movement.
Bellan’s opinion of modern. films is, however, that ‘they talk too much and move too little!’
*Edward Carrick, the compiler of “Art and Design of the British Film” in which these profiles were first published.
Table of contents for Art & Design in The British Film
- Art & Design in The British Film # 1: W.C.Andrews
- Art & Design in The British Film # 2: Andre Andrejew
- Art & Design in The British Film # 3: Norman Arnold
- Art & Design in The British Film # 4: Wilfred Arnold
- Art & Design in The British Film # 5: Ferdinand Bellan
- Art & Design in The British Film # 6: Ralph Brinton
- Art & Design in The British Film # 7: John Bryan
- Art & Design in The British Film # 8 Edward Carrick
- Art & Design in The British Film # 9 Maurice Carter
- Art & Design in The British Film # 10: Douglas Daniels
- Art & Design in The British Film # 11: Cedric Dawe
- Art & Design in The British Film # 12: Roger Furse
- Art & Design in The British Film # 13: Hein Heckroth
- Art & Design in The British Film # 14: John Howell
- Art & Design in The British Film # 15: Laurence Irving
- Art & Design in The British Film # 16: Alfred Junge
- Art & Design in The British Film # 17 Vincent Korda
- Art & Design in The British Film # 18 Oliver Messel
- Art & Design in The British Film #19 Tom Morahan
- Art & Design in The British Film #20 C.P.Norman
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[...] translating Messel’s ideas on to the floor–Heckroth helping with the costumes and Bellan working out camera set-ups and working on continuity sketches—perhaps there were too many good [...]