Well-fortified Switzerland (1964)

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Movie
Original title Well-fortified Switzerland
Country of production Switzerland
original language German , French , Italian
Publishing year 1964
length 22-25 minutes
Rod
Director John Fernhout
script Gustav Däniker ,
Rudolf Farner ,
John Fernhout,
Hans Looser
production Lothar Wolff
music Robert Blum
camera Robert Gaffney ,
Tony Braun
occupation
  • Simon Lack and Jürg Lauterburg: Speaker

Well-fortified Switzerland (English title Fortress of Peace , French title Nous pouvons nous défendre or La Suisse vigilante , Italian title La Svizzera vigilante ) is an Oscar-nominated short film by John Fernhout from 1964, produced by Lothar Wolff .

content

A voice can be heard off-screen: “Switzerland is called the heart of Europe with its mountains, Alps, valleys and lakes. A hard-working, peaceful people who uphold the values ​​of the past and tradition as much as the requirements of the modern of the present and future live here, almost a bit apart from major world events. Even in times of danger and war, this country has always been an island of peace. "

The intro of the film then comes across as psychedelic , in that it makes Switzerland's enemies seem overwhelming and subliminally evokes fear, only to emphasize that the country is well prepared for a defensive battle. Then it says: “Even in dangerous historical periods, Switzerland was always able to preserve its freedom because it was always ready to defend itself. […] For its defense, Switzerland maintains the oldest people's army in Europe. Every man is conscripted and, if fit, has to do his military service. ”This is followed by longer prologues explaining the various positions on national defense. A large-scale, combined combat shooting is intended to demonstrate the interaction of different branches of weapon.

You can then see how the Swiss Army sets its mobile equipment in motion and puts it into position both in the Central Plateau and in the high mountains. Heavy vehicles cross rivers and travel on mountain roads, airplanes and helicopters rise into the air, soldiers on skis are out and about in the mountains. It is fired and bombed from all positions. Tanks move through the woods plowing down everything that comes in their way, valley slopes are no longer safe from explosions and houses are stormed with flamethrowers.

Ultimately, the imaginary aggressor can be driven away, whereupon idyllic landscape shots of mountain peaks, church towers, various flags and then as a single image of the Swiss flag, all of which blow in the wind over lush green meadows, conclude the film.

production

Production notes

The film was produced by Cinerama Productions Corp. and Farner-Looser Films, distributed by Cinerama Releasing Corporation and Shepperton Studios. The film was shot in Switzerland. The prologue was recorded at Turnus Film AG, Zurich. The London Symphony Orchestra plays. The advertising specialist Rudolf Farner and division general Gustav Däniker, who viewed nuclear weapons as a political necessity at the time the film was made , were the main men behind the film. The film was supposed to impress and not show a “staid militia force”, but a “dangerous army”. The production cost over a million Swiss francs, not including material, ammunition and military personnel. The Dutch director John Fernhout ( listed as John Ferno in the English version ) and a "Hollywood-proven film crew" were flown in. The German-American Lothar Wolff acted as the producer.

Difficulties arose with Swiss filmmakers who resisted being barely taken into account in the film work, as provided for by the then newly created film law. As a result, various functions were filled twice and some foreigners had to make room for Swiss. The question also arose how a foreign film crew could be reconciled with the "requirement of military secrecy". The Federal Council's answer was that the “what, where and when” of the film had always been determined by the Swiss.

publication

Swiss Army Pavilion at Expo 64

The film was presented for the first time at the Expo 64 in Lausanne , which took place from April 30 to October 25, 1964. The army propaganda film was the special attraction of the hedgehog-shaped army pavilion with 141 spikes. It was shown - similar to a triptych - on three huge canvases totaling 410 square meters. It was shot in the not often found high quality 70 mm format. However, the Swiss lacked the appropriate equipment and know-how for the extreme broadband process. The expensive panorama screen, which had been carelessly destroyed ten days before the opening of the expo, could only be replaced at the last minute. The film was shown outside of Switzerland in a slightly adapted form.

reception

criticism

The film became a crowd puller at the Expo, with more than four million visitors. Although most of them were enthusiastic, there were also critical voices who said the performance was "too loud, too brutal, too warlike". In addition, the staged military potency reminded individual visitors in an unpleasant way of the propaganda films of totalitarian regimes.

Marc Tribelhorn wrote in the NZZ Digital that the “camera work” was “dynamic and subjective, the recordings from supersonic planes, helicopters or speedboats” were “reminiscent of action scenes from the early James Bond films”. It was also said that the “twenty-minute spectacle” ended in “patriotic kitsch” with correspondingly “idyllic images”.

Awards

Academy Awards 1966

Aftermath

The 40 kilogram rolls of film that were in the armed forces archive were digitized in time for the 50th anniversary of the Expo and restored with great care. Since the chemical aging process affected the film rolls and gave the celluloid a noticeable red tinge, the colors had to be reconstructed picture by picture.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The 38th Academy Awards | 1966 see oscars.org (English)
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Marc Tribelhorn: The Hedgehog's Triptych In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , September 6, 2014. Accessed January 31, 2019.