Michel Soutter

Michel Soutter (1990)

Michel Soutter (born June 2, 1932 in Geneva ; † September 10, 1991 ibid) was a Swiss film director , screenwriter and film producer . Alongside Alain Tanner and Claude Goretta, Soutter was the third well-known director of French-speaking Swiss film.

biography

In 1953 Soutter published a collection of poems, after which he played in cabaret and appeared as a songwriter in Geneva and Paris. In 1961, Soutter began working as a writer and director of documentaries at Télévision Suisse Romande . There he later filmed plays by Harold Pinter and Eugene O'Neill . In 1966 he made his first feature film, shortly afterwards his teacher Goretta followed him. In 1968 Goretta, Tanner and Soutter founded a production company to finance French-language films in Switzerland. What all three had in common was that their films were sometimes very poetic, sometimes very bulky.

Soutter's films in the 1970s earned him a good reputation among film buffs , and his work mostly focused on the identity problems of urban intellectuals and common people in the countryside. In his last years Soutter produced more productions for the stage, for example the premiere of Max Frisch's « Triptychon » in 1979 . His last film work was the mini television series "Condorcet".

In 1974 Soutter was a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival after he had been nominated in 1972 for "The Land Surveyor". In 1982 Soutter's film "L'Amour des femmes" was nominated at the Berlinale . In 1990 he was awarded the French television prize 7 d'Or for his series "Condorcet" .

In 2005, Soutter's estate was given to the Cinémathèque suisse .

Filmography (selection)

• 1967: La lune avec les dents
• 1968: hashish
• 1969: La Pomme
• 1970: James ou pas
• 1972: The land surveyors (Les arpenteurs)
• 1972: Les nénuphars (TV)
• 1973: Ce Schubert qui décoiffe (TV)
• 1974: The Affair (L'escapade)
• 1974: L'Eolienne
• 1977: role-playing games (Repérages)
• 1981: L'Amour des femmes
• 1983: Adam et Eve
• 1985: Signé Renart
• 1989: Condorcet (mini-TV series)
• 1991: Le Film du Cinéma Suisse - director of the episode "L'homme révolté, 1966–1973"

literature

• Éric Eigenmann: Michel Soutter . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz - Dictionnaire du théâtre en Suisse. Volume 3, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 1702. (French)
• Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 .

Web links

• Michel Soutter in the Internet Movie Database .
• Bernard Gasser: Michel Soutter. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Michel Soutter Fund (1923-2000). Signature: CH CS CSL 006. Research and archiving center, Penthaz, Cinémathèque suisse.