Faces of Switzerland
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Faces of Switzerland |
| Original title | Visages suisses |
| Country of production | Switzerland |
| original language | French , German , Italian , Romansh , Portuguese , Japanese |
| Publishing year | 1991 |
| length | 94 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK not specified |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Matteo Bellinelli Simon Edelstein Nicolas Gessner Kurt Gloor Claude Goretta Thomas Koerfer Pierre Koralnik Urs Odermatt François Reichenbach Francis Reusser Hans-Ulrich Schlumpf Jacqueline Veuve Victor J. Tognola |
| script | Claude Richardet |
| production | Vidéo-Films SA, Geneva |
| music |
Jonas C. Haefeli Louis Crelier Pascal Auberson |
| camera |
Martin Fuhrer Jürg Allgaier Hugues Ryffel Patrick Lindenmaier Pio Corradi Carlo Varini |
| cut |
André Amsler Christian Bonvin Denise de Casabianca Elisabeth Waelchli Claudine Merlin Claudine Bouché Kathrin Plüss |
| occupation | |
Faces of Switzerland (French: Visages suisses , Italian: Volti svizzeri , eng. Swiss profiles ) is a Swiss documentary film from 1991.
In the tradition of the episode film , it brings together different portraits from Switzerland for the 700th anniversary celebration of the Confederation in 1991, designed by thirteen directors from three language regions. They each submit a five-minute contribution that outlines a personal vision of Switzerland in the filmmaker's handwriting.
This portrait of a diverse Switzerland with seventeen individual short films from politics, culture, sport and science was shot on 35 mm film, produced by Claude Richardet from Geneva and premiered on August 9, 1991 at the Locarno Film Festival . Faces of Switzerland was later shown in Swiss cinemas with great success.
action
A grandfather takes his granddaughter on an imaginary journey through Switzerland. Before them the myth of William Tell comes alive again. The little girl finally discovers the mountains and follows Nicole Niquille, the first Swiss mountain guide, to an altitude of over 4000 meters. While the grandfather and his granddaughter listen to the architect Mario Botta in Ticino, they realize that the way we look at things has probably also changed today.
The Swiss have created institutions for which they are envied all over the world. We get to know two aspects of Swiss politics, through Federal Councilor Jean-Pascal Delamuraz and Elisabeth Eschler, mayor of the canton of Appenzell. In the physics laboratories of CERN, Nobel Prize winner Carlo Rubbia researches the origin of the universe.
The grandfather leads us into the exciting world of Swiss artists. He shows us the incredible machines of Jean Tinguely, the fantastic world of Bruno Weber and the erotic automatons of Francois Junod. We meet the singer and rebel Pascal Auberson and the dancer Xavier Ferla, a student of Maurice Béjart. Not to forget the Knie Circus, a real Swiss institution and popular with young and old all over the country. After a stop in Einsiedeln Monastery with Father Christoph, we visit the Rhaeto-Romanic journalist Maria Cadruvi in Graubünden.
In Basel we visit the laboratory of the researcher Jean-François Borel, who revolutionized the technique of organ transplantation. Then we even fly to Brazil to see Roméo Braun, the director of a large multinational Swiss company. In Ticino we meet Machi and Miho, two Japanese tourists who basically see Switzerland as their home country - as an island.
Episodes
Kurt Gloor : Wilhelm Tell, Myth
In order to bring this apparently mythical hero to life again, we go to Interlaken , where Schiller's play is performed in the open air.
Stefan Guyer, reigning world champion in crossbow shooting , appears. He'll try to hit the apple at eighty paces. In his competition suit and with his crossbow in hand, Stefan Guyer takes eighty paces and prepares for the shot. William Tell , seated on a bench, watches what is happening.
Another person joins: Georg Winzeler, designer and manufacturer of crossbows. This craftsman at the age of 72 has perfected the weapon with an electronic trigger and explains how his crossbow works. Stefan Guyer concentrates and shoots. The arrow rushes off in a flash. Will he be able to hit the apple with the first shot?
Claude Goretta : Nicole Niquille, mountain guide
Before Nicole Niquille was accepted into the closed circle of mountain guides, this highly dangerous profession was only available to men fit for military service. Nicole, who comes from Freiburg, now meets her male colleagues on the highest mountain peaks.
Thanks to her energy, her courage and not least because of her smile, she was able to assert herself and conquer this profession. Climbing the Obergabelhorn, not far from the Matterhorn , poses serious problems for every mountaineer. Nicole undertakes her mountain tour at over 4000 m altitude with a young customer who has never climbed so high.
Matteo Bellinelli : Mario Botta, architect
Mario Botta is a well-known Swiss architect. There are works by him in Japan, the United States, Korea, Paris, Italy, Germany and Switzerland.
Mario Botta has rediscovered the long tradition of Ticino architecture, which goes back to the Romanesque period and made the Ticino people a people of builders, and helped Swiss architecture to revive by keeping the traditions and the pessimism of the end 20th century brought into harmony.
Pierre Koralnik: Elisabeth Eschler, mayor
We meet Elisabeth Eschler, the first female mayor, in a small village in the canton of Appenzell . April 29, 1990, a Sunday, is a historic day. She and her husband go to the rural community in Trogen - on foot, as is tradition.
In the evening, the Eschlers watch the vote in Innerrhoden in front of the television . In November 1990, according to a federal court ruling, an objection from around a hundred citizens was granted, giving all Swiss women the right to vote at all levels.
Simon Edelstein: Jean-Pascal Delamuraz, Federal Councilor
The director came up with something special to portray the activities of a Federal Council: the viewer follows from Jean-Pascal Delamuraz's Bern apartment - on a television screen - various speeches and speeches of a political and cultural nature.
The film clips include Delamuraz's appointment to the Federal Council in 1983, a speech before the European Parliament, a meeting with François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl in Basel, and the visit of the French President to Valais .
Nicolas Gessner: Carlo Rubbia, physicist
Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia is head of the nuclear research center CERN , in which 5,000 researchers from all parts of the world investigate the origin of the universe.
Carlo Rubbia had the rare pleasure of dining in the kitchen of the famous master chef Frédy Girardet . Even the dishes are astonishingly symmetrical and geometrical.
Claude Goretta : Jean Tinguely, artist
With Jean Tinguely we encounter the unusual, the absurd and the fear. His modern works are to be understood not only as a glorification of the industrial age, but also as an accusation of the consumer and throwaway society. His workshop is an old factory. There is an extraordinary atmosphere in her.
Urs Odermatt : Maria Cadruvi, journalist
As a journalist at Radio DRS , Maria Cadruvi deals with programs in Romansh for the Canton of Graubünden . After the damage caused by storm «Vivian» in February 1990, she made a report in the Grisons town of Curaglia .
Question to the Mayor of Curaglia: - "How do you see the coming winter?" - «In the last few years it was nice, little snow. But I think of 1975. When there is that much snow again, the situation will be critical for part of the village. Then you would even have to think about evacuating. " - «Evacuate? Where?" - «In 1975 we evacuated entire villages. The people lived with relatives. "
A foreman: “One Italian is there, the others are Yugoslavs. The work is very hard. They are all very good workers. The wood above was taken down by hand. "
One villager regrets: “Here was our protective forest. It was beautiful above our houses. Now there is nothing left, just messed up devastated trunks. It's bleak when you look up. We cried after the storm. "
Thomas Koerfer : Father Christoph, monk
The interior of the Einsiedeln Monastery is one of the masterpieces of baroque architecture. With Father Christoph we experience the atmosphere in this monastery, the long corridors and the prevailing silence. We get to know his brothers and have a quiet meal in the refectory .
In the evening, Father Christoph sits comfortably at the table with three brothers while eating . It's already getting dark.
François Reichenbach: Jean-François Borel, researcher
Thanks to the cyclospirin developed by Professor Jean-François Borel, the technology of organ transplantation has been fundamentally revolutionized.
He spends his free time painting, making collages with pieces of wood that he picks up on his walks. Nature is the source of his inspiration.
Jacqueline Veuve : François Junod, machine builder
Precision mechanics is a prestigious item in Swiss industry, and the craft of machine construction has a long artistic tradition in the Jura . When you come to François Junod's workshop, you are surprised; he continues the tradition of building machines, but in his own way!
Matteo Bellinelli: Machi and Miho, two tourists
Tourist paradise, land of sunshine, oasis of happiness with colors and perfumes that are only known from the Mediterranean. These clichés - whether false or true - have always been associated with Ticino . Machi and Miho, two young tourists from Japan , come to Ticino. You enter Chiasso and visit Morcote , Lugano and Verzasca Valley . In the Swiss miniature museum Swissminiatur you will encounter some Swiss clichés.
The two record their impressions on a video camera. The director of this portrait incorporates these images into his 35mm version.
Claude Goretta: Pascal Auberson, singer
The musician Pascal Auberson , best known as a singer-songwriter, sings about his expectations, disappointments and fears. He is always looking for love and friendship.
We see Pascal Auberson on stage and in his studio. He is looking for different sound forms and sings one of his last compositions.
Simon Edelstein: Roméo Braun, manager
Roméo Braun, sixty years old, comes from St. Gallen . He heads the subsidiary of a multinational Swiss company in Brazil .
He is driven to the store early in the morning and escorted by two bodyguards for security reasons . He leads a management meeting and speaks on the phone in Portuguese, English or Swiss German. To visit the chocolate factory in Caçapava, he takes the company's own jet .
Victor J. Tognola: Marie-Josée Knie, horse dresser
Marie-Josée Galland was a mannequin . One day when she wanted to go to a circus performance , it was completely sold out. Then Fredy Knie happened to pass by, who noticed her and had an additional armchair set up for her. This is how the romance began.
At this level, riding is a difficult art. It requires an iron will and absolute discipline. Marie-Josée Knie went to school with some of the most competent teachers in the world: with Fredy Knie father and son.
Hans-Ulrich Schlumpf : Bruno Weber, artist
Concrete ravages the landscape with highways, shopping centers and factories. But concrete can also be a material from which dreams are made.
As a reaction to the concreting of the environment, Bruno Weber creates his own world. In Spreitenbach in verbetonierten Limmat near Zurich to do his morning toilet with stalactites in a bathroom in the form of a cave . In the twenty hectare forest there are all kinds of good-natured monsters: wing-swinging dragons, giant snakes, toads and flowers in female form, which freeze. He had a giant bird erected in his garden. A truck brings concrete and a giant crane lifts the thirty-ton statue into place. Thanks to its imagination, concrete becomes a work of art.
François Reichenbach: Xavier Ferla, dancer
Xavier Ferla is 22 years old. At the age of four he attended the Geneva Conservatory . Maurice Béjart became aware of him and hired him for several important roles.
Oddities
Before the shooting of Urs Odermatt's Rhaeto-Romanic portrait, the journalist Maria Cadruvi was a member of the appraisal committee of the Federal Film Funding in Bern for several years and at the time recommended that the funding of Urs Odermatt's work be rejected, including the rejection of the later very successful with the press and the public movie -selling happiness .
Web links
- Faces of Switzerland in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Faces of Switzerland in the lexicon of international film
- Urs Odermatt: Maria Cadruvi