settima

switzerland

Mauvais sang [Bad Blood / The Night Is Young] (Leos Carax, 1986)

Jan

8

David Bowie's birthday

Mauvais sang (1986)

(Alex) Denis Lavant in a scene set to David Bowie's Modern Love. DP: Jean-Yves Escoffier.

A [favourite] scene featuring a Bowie song for David Bowie's birthday (1947).

“They pulled in just behind the fridge He lays her down, he frowns “Gee, my life's a funny thing Am I still too young?” He kissed her then and there She took his ring, took his babies It took him minutes, took her nowhere Heaven knows, she'd have taken anything”

– David Bowie, Modern Love (from Let's Dance, 1983)

Die Sage vom alten Hirten Xeudi und seinem Freund Reiman [The Legend of the Old Shepherd Xeudi and His Friend Reimann] (Hans-Jakob Siber, 1973)

Dec

11

International Mountain Day

Die Sage vom alten Hirten Xeudi und seinem Freund Reiman (1973)

The two friends setting off on their track of the Swiss mountains. Their chalet can be seen in the foreground. DP: Hans-Jakob Siber.

Mountain living on International Mountain Day. Available to watch via the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste's media archive.

Die Sage vom alten Hirten Xeudi und seinem Freund Reiman [The Legend of the Old Shepherd Xeudi and His Friend Reimann] (Hans-Jakob Siber, 1973)

Sep

3

potatoes

Die Sage vom alten Hirten Xeudi und seinem Freund Reiman (1973)

Gloomy potatoes and a small metal peeler on a wooden surface. DP: Hans-Jakob Siber.

Available to watch via the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste's media archive.

Kick That Habit (Peter Liechti, 1989)

Nov

16

National Andy Day

Kick That Habit (1989)

Andy Guhl of experimental Swiss music/art group Voice Crack playing metal wire strung along a room. DP: Peter Liechti.

Everything is noise. Everything is light. Everything is dark. Everything is motion. Everything is static. Everything is energy. Everything is lethargy. Everything is rhythm. Everything is chaos. Everything is silent

Die schwarze Spinne [The Black Spider] (Mark M. Rissi, 1983)

Oct

20

Die schwarze Spinne (1983)

Christine (Beatrice Kessler) and her junkie friends eating the old man's food. DP: Edwin Horak.

“Nur ein leichtfertig Knechtlein, dem es gleichgültig war, regne oder sonnenscheine es in der Ernte, wenn nur das Jahr umging und der Lohn kam und zu jeder Essenszeit das Essen auf den Tisch, griff zum Löffel und berichtete Christine, daß noch keine Buche gepflanzet sei und alles gehe, als ob sie verhext wären.”

– Jeremias Gotthelf, Die schwarze Spinne (1842)

Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz + Rouben Mamoulian, 1963)

Aug

26

National Spark The World Day

Cleopatra (1963)

Cleopatra's – Elizabeth Taylor, anachronistically dressed as the goddess Nekhbet – grande entrée in Rome. She sits on top of a black, basalt-like sphinx, pulled by numerous slaves and greeted by a cast of thousands. There are 20 000 Italian extras; there's no CGI. DPs: Leon Shamroy & Jack Hildyard.

Like Rome, Cleopatra wasn't built in a day. Joseph L. Mankiewicz's epic studio breaker took six years to make and, despite it being the highest-grossing film of 1963, didn't break even until 1973. Was it a #flop? A classic flop but a flop nevertheless?

“There are never enough hours in the days of a queen, and her nights have too many.”

– Cleopatra

 

Is it all bad? Cleopatra is one of those movies that so many – and that includes obsessive cinephiles – will get around to watch. Eventually. All four hours of it. I'm still holding out, but ooh, the spectacle!

Général Idi Amin Dada: Autoportrait [General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait / No One Can Run Faster Than a Rifle Bullet] (Barbet Schroeder, 1974)

Jun

9

National Heroes Day Of Uganda

Général Idi Amin Dada: Autoportrait (1974)

Schroeder in tuxedo interviewing General Idi Amin Dada Oumee. Even in the context of the scene, Schroeder just came from a gala event, the tuxedo is a statement of assumed superiority. DP: Néstor Almendros.

It's easy… no lazy to put this documentary away as a failed Idi Amin propaganda project. In 1974, German-Swiss Barbet Schroeder, privileged son of a diplomat, already knew more than enough about how to select framing and manipulate timing. The result, Général Idi Amin Dada: Autoportrait, is a prime example of the neo-colonialist gaze.

“You film. Film helicopter.”

– The General explaining a director's one and only task

Amin, clearly not speaking his native language, tries to explain his plans for #Uganda. The camera (Spanish cinematographer) moves in on his gesturing hands, then a jump cut (French editor) to soldiers who – instructed in English – seem unsure of what is asked of them. When (in the copy I watched) people speak in Swahili, no translation is provided and the portrayed are little more than undeveloped, exotic backdrop. Everything seems to be a joke to Schroeder: the air force's MiGs, Amin and his higher-ups joining tribesmen in dance, even the President's children are used to exemplify the stereotype of the overly virile, primitive African male.

 

Amin was, as Schroeder is, a product of Europe's Scramble. With the difference that, although bloody and despicable, Amin's strategy was not to embolden the West's moribund empire.

Grauzone [Zones] (Fredi M. Murer, 1979)

May

29

Mount Everest Day

Grauzone (1979)

Julia (Olga Piazza) waking from a unusually deep sleep. DP: Hans Liechti.

Grauzone takes place in one of the three spaces documented in Murer's beautifully titled documentary Wir Bergler in den Bergen sind eigentlich nicht schuld, daß wir da sind [We, the mountain people, who live in the mountains are not really to blame for being there] (1974). One valley lives in tune with its natural rhythm, the second experiences a transition to modernity.

Sie fallen unerwartet in einem traumlosen Schlaf.

The third space, the “grey zone” – both this film's title and a descriptive term for an undefined neutral zone – is where the Bergler have become technology dwellers, where they live on summits made of concrete instead of rock. Where rumours about a #pandemic stir an ancient, unnamed fear. And symptoms: the sudden urge to wander out in nature, an acute melancholy, an overall hyper awareness. A young, prosperous couple become infected and pick up secret radio transmissions. What they believed was concrete, solid, immovable, suddenly shows signs of a shift.

Fetish & Dreams (Steff Gruber, 1985)

Jan

16

National Boston Day

Fetish & Dreams (1985)

Michèle (Michèle Rusconi) and S. (Steff Gruber) in front of a mirror. While she combs her long dark hair, he films the reflection of the both of them. DP: Rainer Klausmann.

Swiss documentary maker S. (Steff Gruber) explores New York's high-tech dating market when he slowly comes to the realisation that he himself is lonely. Trying to track down the woman he saw on the plane en route to America, S. and his crew find themselves in Boston.

“Fifty ways to meet your lover”

– computer dating ad