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Swiss Filmmakers
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20234 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1992 |
2,084 Words |
| Author
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F.E. Siegel
F.E. Siegel is a New York-based free-lance writer. |
Last year Xavier Koller's Journey of Hope won the Oscar for best foreign-language picture, giving the tiny Swiss film industry its greatest boost since Alain Tanner debuted his 1976 award-winning Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000. This year Switzerland commemorates its seven hundredth anniversary, and Pro Helvetia, the Swiss arts council, is celebrating the auspicious occasion worldwide by exporting one of the country's most lauded cultural contributions--five retrospectives of Swiss films.
In the United States, the series is being screened everywhere from UCLA's film Archives to the film Center of Lincoln Center, and is highlighted by the film canons of directors Alain Tanner and Daniel Schmid.
Yet despite the accolades, the Swiss film industry is inundated at home by competition from abroad. Though the Swiss remain Europe's biggest per capita consumers of movies, paying a walloping nine dollars in ticket prices, "there is no internal industrial structure to sustain Swiss cinema," laments Cecile Kung, head of Pro Helvetia's film department.
"We are a rich country with a small population, and there is a limit to the public monies awarded to each film project. Moreover, Switzerland is a country divided between three cultures--French, German, and Italian--all of whom compete for a finite amount of francs. To promote the marketplace means producing work in several languages, addressing distinct cultures. Hence, cinema co-productions are the order of the day."
Condor Production's Peter Christian Fueter, of Switzerland's largest production house and a partner in Journey of Hope, agrees. He believes future opportunities for Swiss film production lie "in those projects which are indeed Swiss, but have a European feel." Since 1985, there have been eighty-five coproductions in Switzerland, of which thirty-eight were made with German and French companies. "The Swiss must produce locally," explains Fueter, "but think globally." The question remains: What exactly is a "Swiss film"?
Introverted Themes
According to Kung, Swiss themes are evident in introverted stories and characters. "In almost all Swiss movies there is a critical stance on society, married to a concern for the privacy of the individual. The Swiss are stubborn. We build our own universe," she smiles, "and we're proudly
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