He was one of the pioneers of the New Wave in Switzerland and several of his films have become cinema staples. Director Alain Tanner died yesterday in Lausanne at the age of 92.
“Swiss cinema is a bit like the Swiss navy: we don’t believe it. But both exist”, liked to say Alain Tanner, locomotive of what has been called the New Wave of Swiss cinema.
He studied at the University of Geneva where he founded a film club with Claude Goretta. The two Genevans then escape to London where they make their first film together, Nice Time (1957), an acclaimed short film about nightlife in London’s Picadilly Circus. Back in the country, in 1968, Alain Tanner met with four directors – Michel Soutter, Jean-Louis Roy, Jean-Jacques Lagrange (replaced by Yves Yersin in 1971) and Claude Goretta – to found the “Group of 5”.
The five are at the origin of this Swiss cinematographic revival, promoters of an offbeat, non-conformist and committed cinema, going against the current of the family dramas of the usual production. His first feature film Charles dead or alive (1969), marked the beginning of auteur cinema in Switzerland. It tells the story of a businessman who decides to change his life to lead an existence on the fringes of society, against a backdrop of student revolts, and wins first prize at the Locarno festival. This committed film will be followed in 1971 by The Salamanderan impertinent film with libertarian overtones that has become cult, notably starring the actress Bulle Ogier, in the role of Rosemonde, “a free girl”.
A prolific director
Alain Tanner is the author of an important work. He toured tirelessly from the end of the 1960s until 2004. Among his most famous films, in addition to The Salamander, Jonas who will be 25 in the year 2000 (on 1968’s Lost Dreams), The Light Yearswhich won the Special Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1981, or even In the White City with Bruno Gantz (awarded a César in 1984). Another cult film about the desire/need to escape.
Alain Tanner died on Sunday September 11 at the age of 93. The director of Charles mort ou vivant, La Salamandre or Jonas who will be 25 years old in the year 2000 here at the Cinémathèque suisse in October 2011 ? Carine Roth pic.twitter.com/dgBuao1WsV
— Swiss Cinematheque (@cinemathequech) September 11, 2022
A work crowned by numerous prizes in Locarno, Venice, Cannes and in the United States and to which the Douarnenez Film Festival paid tribute as part of its “Underground Helvètes” program dedicated to Switzerland off the beaten track.
Alain Tanner, who has always considered that making cinema was a political act, extended his commitment beyond cinema by getting involved in particular in favor of the Palestinian population of Gaza. His archives entered the Swiss Cinematheque in 2014.
(with agencies)