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Schweizer Filmer ?? Gibt es das??


gerald ruppen

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Hello Swiss Freaks

 

Are there some guys from Switzerland out there??? Switzerland is very underdevelopped in making films. It means there is no work for moviemakers. There are 2 ways: working on a tv station, or make your own movies without any budget and support.

T would like to make contact with other swiss guys interessted in moviemaking. If there exist people in CH.

 

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Hello Swiss Freaks

 

Are there some guys from Switzerland out there??? Switzerland is very underdevelopped in making films. It means there is no work for moviemakers. There are 2 ways: working on a tv station, or make your own movies without any budget and support.

T would like to make contact with other swiss guys interessted in moviemaking. If there exist people in CH.

 

 

Population of 7,600,000 & 3 main languages is the main issue. It's not even as through the Germans can understand Swiss German, so the audience is tiny. Because there are so many rich kids who can work for nothing & supply a Red One, is it surprising there is no real business as it's just a hobby to most.

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Switzerland was always the counter-market to Belgium where they go to see almost everything. I think the problem is that we’ve never had a court. Theatre and film grow best in surroundings of chieftains or moguls. It takes a decided Yes and the necessary cash to make it happen. Here it’s rather bodies.

 

We do have a good reputation for documentary work. Maybe it has a come of age a bit. But of stronger influence is really the overflow here, idle people free from needs. Frozen stiff inside

 

Second last film lab closed ten days ago, there’s now only one left with ECN-ECP lines.

 

Worst of all is that even colleges of higher education dropped film entirely. Not one foot of film exposed any more in Basel, Zürich or Genève. The cowards.

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  • 6 years later...

I'm swiss and I'm a filmer. But for inexplicable reasons I live in Barcelona. I love shooting on film, but now I'm trying my luck as a screenwriter. It's not going too well. Would it be worth it to return to Switzerland? Is it hard to get any sort of job in television that'll pay the bills?

Edited by Alessandro Malfatti
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A filmer is too general a designation. I’m a filmer, too, although a tech, not creative. Define yourself more concisely, tell people exactly what you’re after and what you’re able to do. Call the TV redactors.

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  • 9 months later...

You asked for "Filmer", like Jack Benny said 'you ask a question and I answer'. ;)

I've been active as independent writer-producer-director lately, which is like a fancy way of saying that I'm producing my own stuff because noone else will. Just finished my second short film (shot on 16mm btw). I just hope that and my film studies will make for a reasonably interesting CV...

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I don’t think climate is the main culprit for having a weak production base. As already said, the mindset is petty and we’re not the greatest citizens. Remember Popescu? “You’ll never teach these Austrians to be good citizens.” Quite wrong, Austria has had a court for centuries, emperors and kings, a central forming force. Not so this country where one is proud of being narrow-minded. I mean, you cannot tell a bigot that he is bigoted. In Vienna you still have courtesy.

 

The Swiss are not very interested in fantasy. Certainly, children love fairy tales and stories but adult life comes sooner or later with all hardness. If you don’t comply with the conditions here, you’re out.

 

Filmmaker and producer Rolf Lyssy: Es ist das Mittelmässige in diesem Land, das einem bisweilen zermürbt. Das können Sie auf vieles übertragen, im Speziellen aber auf den Film. Es gibt schlicht zu viele mittelmässige Filme, die keine Voraussetzungen mitbringen, auf der Leinwand zu bestehen. Für die Erfahrung, wer wir sind, was wir unter Umständen auch nicht sind, ist der Kinofilm absolut essenziell, ein wichtiger Spiegel unserer Gesellschaft. Also gibt’s nur eins: Man muss sich an den Besten des Fachs orientieren. Auf den Film übertragen, wage ich den Vergleich zu Dänemark, Schweden, Holland, Belgien; da ist die Mentalität anders. Die kulturelle Saturiertheit hierzulande beruht auf Wohlstand, historisch darauf, dass wir nie einen Hochadel kannten. Geografisch ist er ausserdem dem Mangel geschuldet, nicht ans Meer zu stossen. Wir haben hohe Berge . . .

https://www.aargauerzeitung.ch/kultur/film/rolf-lyssy-es-ist-die-schweizer-mittelmaessigkeit-die-einen-bisweilen-zermuerbt-130064598

 

Translation: It’s the mediocrity with this land that demoralizes. You may transfer it to many things, especially to film. There are simply too many mediocre movies that don’t have the prerequisites for holding out on screen. The theatre movie is essential to our experience of who we are, what we’re not, also, under circumstances. So we have to measure ourselves with the best of the trade. In the film realm, I dare comparing us to Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, there are different mentalities. Here one is culturally saturated, based on affluence, historically never on high nobility. Geografically there’s the lack of access to a sea. We live between high mountains . . .

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I dislike Rolf Lyssy's self-hating rhetoric, which he expressed quite well in Die Schweizermacher. Ironically, in the conclusion of said film he sort of advocates for emigration and travel, for getting to know other cultures. When, however, you get to actually know other cultures you learn that all cultures that have some ambition to them tend to be critical with themselves, and that they all share that very idea that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Lyssy has that 1960's-counterculture idea of cinema as an art form defined by elitist arthouse production (which I'm familiar with from having had an established long-time film critic as a teacher during my studies), hence why he mentions Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands and Belgium, yet not Germany which is one of the main producers of cinema in Europe. Cinema is by definition a massive medium, it's the popular productions which won't garner praise from snobby film critics which create the industrial basis from which arthouse cinema emerges, and small countries have a difficult time keeping up with an industrial production since they simply lack the spectators. Cinema as a cultural phenomenon is largely a game of numbers, the more films are produced, the more likely it is that excellent films will be produced. Inversely, the more excellent films a country produces, the even more mediocre and bad films it will produce. Cinema is a very complex craft that matured very quickly, there's still a lot of practice and trial and error involved. Collectively, advancement of cinematic culture requires the production of many inconspicuous or even infamous films as the "mistake" from which to learn. If there isn't a continuous industrial production, cinematic talent won't be promoted, because it can hardly find a chance to express itself. Translating that into saying that a society is mediocre is laughable, as if the cinematic output of a society or culture were a defining element to its supposed mediocrity. Switzerland excels at many disciplines, just not cinema. It may yet master this craft eventually. Many countries with renowned cinematic production started out relatively late, such as Japan, India, China, Spain. On the other hand, the great cinematic pioneer that was France is nowadays generally said to be falling short of what it once was.

 

I think what bugs me most about Rolf Lyssy's statements it's that you could take like 90% of it and put it in the mouth of some spaniard cultural snob and it would fit perfectly. The same pretentious discourse about mediocrity, the same jealousy of foreign culture. One thing that largely holds back cinema culturally is the obsession with other countries and cultures, and the resulting incapability of evolving by itself, instead plagued by envy and inferiority complexes. Of course cinema, unlike previous art form, was a relatively globalist art form from the start, so those cultures that had the strength repressed the weaker once, hence the US's global hegemony, and in Europe relating to Switzerland there were three relatively important cinematic powers surrounding it: Germany, France, Italy. A similar situation arose as with the US and Great Britain, that a related culture is taken over by its more massive cousin. British films have always had a hard time competing with american films, as unlike in other countries the cultural barrier was much weaker. Same goes for Switzerland and its neighbours. I think that just with Britain and the US, Switzerland needs to accept that it must be a cultural satellite of its neighbours, but there's nothing wrong with that and it doesn't negate an own cultural identity. I think people who think like Rolf Lyssy are one of the great obstacles that hold back cultural advancement and maturity.

Edited by Alessandro Malfatti
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  • 7 months later...

I'm currently looking to get a short film off the ground here in Switzerland (Zurich area), it's a humorous satire on the world of finance. If anyone is interested in collaborating somehow (for starters by helping out in finding financing or a production company that can help with that), just drop me a line, here or at alessandro_malfatti@hotmail.com. Natürlich auch auf deutsch. Cheers!

Edited by Alessandro Malfatti
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  • 2 years later...

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