Swiss cinema

By Maher Asaad Baker

Switzerland has developed a distinctive yet evident culture over these years, this has been influenced by the neighboring countries and the international sentiment prevailing in Switzerland.

The cinema made its debut in Switzerland a few months after the Lumière and Skladanowsky brothers' initial public presentations in Paris and Berlin.

Switzerland's Alpine beauty has appeared in innumerable films, but the local film industry is still mostly dominated by foreign productions. The country's cinemas are also among the less well-known in the world, and there isn't much information available in English on its film history.

Over the years, many Swiss long or short films and documentaries were shot outside of Switzerland in other nations, and vice versa. These other nations included, without limitation, both Australia and the United States of America, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, France, Japan, Finland, Norway, etc. Switzerland also served as the location for the filming and production of many foreign films.

• Language: English
• Publisher: tredition
• Release date: Mar 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9783347881952

Maher Asaad Baker

Maher Asaad Baker (In Arabic: ماهر أسعد بكر) is a Syrian Musician, Author, Journalist, VFX & Graphic artist, and Director, he was born in Damascus in 1977. Since his teens, he has been building up his career, starting by developing applications and websites while exploring various types of media-creating paths. He started his career in 1997 with a dream of being one of the most well-known artists in the world. Reading was always a part of his life as he was always surrounded by his father's books, but his writing ability didn't develop until a later age as his most time was occupied with other things such as developing, writing songs and music, or in media projects production, he is most known for his book "How I wrote a million Wikipedia articles" and a novel entitled "Becoming the man".

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Introduction

Switzerland has developed a distinctive yet evident culture over these years, this has been influenced by the neighboring countries and the international sentiment prevailing in Switzerland.

The cinema made its debut in Switzerland a few months after the Lumière and Skladanowsky brothers' initial public presentations in Paris and Berlin.

A projector comparable to the one used by the Lumières in Paris was placed at the Alpineum in Geneva's Rue du Vieux Billiard by Maurice Andreossi in 1896.

Switzerland was forced into isolation during World War II, which led to a period of creative development.

Almost 40 feature films with themes intended to advance national political and cultural consciousness were made in Switzerland during the Second World War.

Switzerland's Alpine beauty has appeared in innumerable films, but the local film industry is still mostly dominated by foreign productions. The country's cinemas are also among the less well-known in the world, and there isn't much information available in English on its film history.

Over the years, many Swiss long or short films and documentaries were shot outside of Switzerland in other nations, and vice versa. These other nations included, without limitation, both Australia and the United States of America, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, France, Japan, Finland, Norway, etc. Switzerland also served as the location for the filming and production of many foreign films.

History

Since the 1930s, Switzerland has had a thriving film industry, it was influenced by the close-by countries of France, Germany, and Italy, with whom it shares linguistic affinities.

With the power of those nearby nations, where film productions have played a significant role in influencing and transforming populations and societies, Swiss cinema develops its own aesthetic and path.

Yet, Switzerland's film industry was not well-established by the time the talkie era started in 1930.

One of the reasons for this is the peculiar cultural divide of Switzerland into its three main language regions.

The three language-speaking areas of Switzerland, French, Italian, and German, look significantly more at their neighboring countries than they do at one another.

Early on, all movies shown in Switzerland were foreign works, frequently Lumière brother's documentaries.

Nonetheless, Zurcher Sechselauten-Umzagwas began producing films in the nation in 1901, and Edward Bienz created Der Bergfuhrer, the Swiss first full-length motion picture, in 1917.

Switzerland did not produce any notable silent films.

Only a small number of early productions are known or noteworthy.

Although the Lumière brothers presented the first cinema screening in Switzerland, along with the rest of Europe, as early as 1896, not much else transpired at the Geneva national exhibition exposition national that year.

The Swiss film industry expanded steadily during World War II, with several notable moments including the 1930 release of Robert Wohlmut's Bunzli Grossstadtabenteur, the country's first spoken-word film.

Almost 40 full-length movies were made in Switzerland during that time frame, with a focus on raising people's awareness of local politics and culture.

However, due to the lack of a film production company in the Germanspeaking part of Switzerland and the fact that each film production was an independent venture, the few Swiss filmmakers who were active up until the early 1930s were primarily engaged in the neighboring country of Germany, which had a thriving film industry.

There were no seasoned film employees because there were no film production companies.

This deficiency was mostly caused by the population's small size and geographic split into three zones with distinct