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Introduction to Swiss cinema
Moving images were first exhibited in Switzerland in 1896, at an exhibition of the Lumière Cinématographe, and the earliest permanent cinemas followed eleven years later. In these early years local filmmakers specialized in actualities, especially landscapes and travelogues, a trend which fed into the country’s later documentary tradition. Early Swiss feature films include Der Bergführer/The Mountain Guide (Eduard Bienz, 1917) and Le pauvre village (Jean Hervé, 1922). The first international avant-garde conference, attended by such cosmopolitan luminaries of avant-garde film as Sergei Eisenstein, Alberto Cavalcanti, Hans Richter, and Walther Ruttmann, took place in La Sarraz, Switzerland in 1929. After the coming of sound a series of popular comedies shot in the Swiss-German dialect was made (for example Wie d’Wahrheit würkt/The Effects of Truth (Walter Lesch, 1933). However, in a small country with four separate linguistic groups, these had strictly local appeal. More significantly, the 1930s saw the production of a number of political films and films with social messages, including Charles-Georges Duvanel’s Pionniers/Pioneers (1936), about the co-operative movement. Swiss neutrality during World War II brought about a small boom in local production, with between ten and fifteen films made per year. But although more than two hundred 35 mm feature films were made domestically between 1908 and 1964, Switzerland’s cinema screens were dominated by imports, especially from the US and France, and there was no established film industry before the mid 1960s.
In 1962 the Swiss government passed legislation aimed at subsidizing domestic film production and this, together with the availability of lightweight sound recording equipment and 16 mm cameras, launched what is regarded as Swiss cinema’s most successful period. There emerged an independent critical cinema that aimed to expose the contradictions beneath the outward order and calm of Swiss society. The young filmmakers associated with this movement worked in documentary or a mix of documentary and fiction, and included Alain Tanner and Claude Goretta, who had learned their craft in Britain’s Free Cinema group, forming the nucleus (alongside Michel Soutter, Yves Yersin, and Jean-Louis Roy) of the influential ‘Group Five’ which pioneered the new Swiss cinema of the late 1960s and 1970s. Key films of the movement include Tanner’s Jonas qui aura vingt-cinq ans en l’an 2000/Jonah Who Will be 25 in the Year 2000 (1976) and Goretta’s 1977 French/German/Swiss co-production La dentellière/The Lacemaker (1977). Although Swiss-born filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard established his career in France with the Nouvelle Vague, he has occasionally returned to his native land to make films, including Sauve qui peut/La vie/Every Man for Himself (1980) and Le livre d’image/The Image Book (2018). ...
Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). Switzerland, film in. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 31 May. 2024
In the library's collections/Searching the online catalog
You can start your search here with these subject headings below:
Selected book title(s)
The emergence of film culture: knowledge production, institution building and the fate of the Avant-Garde in Europe by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .E96 E44 2014ISBN: 9781782384236Between the two world wars, a distinct and vibrant film culture emerged in Europe. Film festivals and schools were established; film theory and history was written that took cinema seriously as an art form; and critical writing that created the film canon flourished. This scene was decidedly transnational and creative, overcoming traditional boundaries between theory and practice, and between national and linguistic borders. This new European film culture established film as a valid form of social expression, as an art form, and as a political force to be reckoned with. By examining the extraordinarily rich and creative uses of cinema in the interwar period, we can examine the roots of film culture as we know it today.
The Francophone film: a struggle for identity by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .F7 S63 2000ISBN: 9780719058615This book introduces the reader to the rich film production of the French-speaking countries outside France, commonly called Francophonia, comprised of Belgium, Switzerland, Quebec, the Caribbean, the Maghreb and many sub-Saharan countries. It brings together films that might otherwise be divided by questions of race, gender, genre, period or national boundary. Individual countries, film-makers and films are treated separately in order to emphasise their specific identities or those which are represented in their films. ...
Histoire du cinéma suisse: films de fiction 1896-1965 by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .S9 D86 1987ISBN: 9782882670007
Le cinéma des femmes: 105 femmes cinéastes d'expression française (France, Belgique, Suisse) 1895-1987 by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .W6 L45 1987ISBN: 9782731205756
Revisioning Europe: the films of John Berger and Alain Tanner by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781552385500Revisioning Europe is among the few existing English-language discussions of the films made by British novelist John Berger and Swiss film director Alain Tanner. It brings to light a political cinema that was unsentimental about the possibilities of revolutionary struggle and unsparing in its critique of the European left, and at the same time optimistic about the ability of radicalism--and radical art--to transform the world. ...
Other library resource(s)
Switzerland from Media History Digital Library by Call Number: Electronic resourceAs an active film magazine, Close Up lasted only a short time, from 1927 to 1933. Yet the legacy of this English-language periodical, published in Switzerland, continues to matter. Edited by Bryher and her husband Kenneth Macpherson, Close Up, became THE magazine for energetic debates about the nature of cinema and manifestos imagining new forms of filmmaking and spectatorship. The magazine published articles by filmmakers, such as Sergei Eisenstein, and female literary modernists, such as H.D. and Gertrude Stein. As film scholar Anne Friedberg explains in the anthology Close Up, 1927-1933: Cinema & Modernism, “Close Up became the model for a certain type of writing about film—writing that was theoretically astute, politically incisive, critical of films that were simply ‘entertainment.’ For six and a half years, Close Up maintained a forum for a broad variety of ideas about the cinema; it never advocated a single direction of development, but rather posed alternatives to existing modes of production, consumption, and film style.” Like Friedberg's own writing, Close Up continues to be essential reading for anyone interested in the history of film and media theory.
Finding scholarly articles and journal title(s)
You can find scholarly literature for Swiss cinema in a variety of journals. However, if you want to do targeted searching, you can use a subject specific database such as Film & Television Literature Index. You can also use the search box at the top of the page. We have a journal which looks exclusively at Swiss cinema.
Film & television literature indexCall Number: Electronic resourceThis index covers over 300 journal and magazine titles for film and television reviews, scholarly and critical analysis of cinema and television, and articles of popular interest about film and television. About half the journals and magazines are film periodicals and the other half cover film and television with some regularity. Subject coverage includes film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews.
Web of science citation databases by Call Number: Electronic resourceThe online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.
Selected movie title(s)
Find more Swiss films in the Library's collections.
Das Boot ist voll = The boat is full by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #16331A group of refugees fleeing Nazi Germany are taken in by a Swiss innkeeper who is forced to make a difficult decision.
Der Kreis = The circle by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #19522Zurich: 1958. A bashful teacher and a German cabaret artist get to know one another in the Swiss underground organization called "Der Kreis". As the two dissimilar men defend their love, they witness the heyday and decline of this Europe-wide pioneering organization for gay emancipation. Features a unique blend of narrative and documentary formats.
Nordwand by Call Number: Streaming videoBased on a true story, North Face is a suspenseful adventure film about a competition to climb the most dangerous rock face in the Alps. Set in 1936, as Nazi propaganda urges the nation's Alpinists to conquer the unclimbed north face of the Swiss massif - the Eiger - two reluctant German climbers begin their daring ascent.
Salvation army = L'Armée du Salut by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #20559Abdellah is a young gay man navigating the sexual, racial and political climate of Morrocco. Growing up in a large family, Abdellah is caught between a distant father, an authoritarian mother, and a handful of predatory older men, in a society that denies his homosexuality. As a college student, Abdellah moves to Geneva and while faced with the new possibilities of freedom, he grapples with the loss of his homeland.
Vollmond = Full moon by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #7491Emmi asks her mom what happened to Toni. Emmi's mother does not listen to her child until Toni never returns from school. In fact, Toni never even made it to school. Enter Inspector Anatole Wasser whose preliminary investigation turns up 11 other missing 10-year-olds who disappeared on the exact same day as Toni. The only link between the children is their age and that each lives near a lake. The first clue arrives on the tenth day whan all the parents receive the exact same letter from each child, giving the parents until the next full moon to meet some very cryptic demands.
Internet resource(s)
- Swiss FilmsSwiss Films is the national agency for the promotion of films made in Switzerland. They give Swiss film-making global visibility. On behalf of the Federal Office of Culture, they provide Swiss filmmakers with support in promoting and marketing their works and help them to build an international network. ...
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