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  • Christmas Eve 24.12.2024 10:00 - 14:00

  • Christmas 25.12.2024 10:00 - 17:00

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  • 27.12.2024 10:00 - 17:00

  • 28.12.2024 10:00 - 17:00

  • 29.12.2024 10:00 - 17:00

  • 30.12.2024 10:00 - 17:00

  • New Year´s Eve 31.12.2024 10:00 - 17:00

  • New Year´s Day 01.01.2025 10:00 - 17:00

  • Saint Berchtold 02.01.2025 10:00 - 19:00

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Close-up. Making Swiss Film history

National Museum Zurich | 12.1.2024 - 21.4.2024
published on 10.1.2024

Praesens-Film AG is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2024. Switzerland’s oldest surviving film company has an eventful past that has taken it all the way to Hollywood. The exhibition at the National Museum Zurich shows the extent to which the silver screen has always reflected the zeitgeist.

The company Praesens-Film, which was founded in 1924 by Jewish immigrant Lazar Wechsler and Swiss aviation pioneer Walter Mittelholzer, specialised from the outset in advertising films, a format which was little known in Switzerland at the time. Its clients included brands such as Lux, Grieder and Bally. It soon expanded into commissioned films, which in the 1930s addressed controversial topics such as alcoholism and abortion.

Before the outbreak of the Second World War, Lazar Wechsler and his team devoted themselves to the defence of the common spiritual values of Switzerland. This was the age of Praesens-Film’s most successful motion pictures, such as Gilberte de Courgenay, which paints a romanticised picture of military life for the Swiss soldiers stationed at the border during the First World War. In the film, comedic interludes involving a horse bring a light-hearted touch and raise morale while the eponymous Gilberte provides comfort and solace to the lonely and homesick soldiers. The film made its lead actress Anne-Marie Blanc Switzerland’s first female film star.

When it started to become apparent in 1943 that the Allies would win the war, Praesens-Film turned to Humanism. Marie-Louise tells the story of a French girl who, thanks to the children’s aid programme run by the Swiss Red Cross, is taken in by a Swiss family for three months during the Second World War. The film picked up on Switzerland’s humanitarian tradition and reinforced the audiences’ sense of national identity. Marie-Louise was not only a hit in Switzerland, but also internationally. In 1946, the film was the first non-English language production to win the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

In the post-war period, audiences appreciated light-hearted films without any political undertones. Two Heidi films that were released in quick succession offered the perfect chance for escapism into an idyllic mountain world. Heidi was a global success and became a wholesome advert for Switzerland’s tourism and policies. The sequel Heidi and Peter was the first Swiss colour film. Like its predecessor, it presents the mountains as a healthy travel destination, contrasting them with menacing urban settings.

By the late 1950s, Swiss commercial cinema could barely cover its growing production costs any longer. In addition, Praesens-Film started to experience one financial flop after another. In 1972, after the death of his wife Amalie, the despondent Lazar Wechsler had some of the company’s archives destroyed. The company was subsequently taken over by brothers Martin and Peter Hellstern, who then ran it merely as a film distributor. Since 2009, Praesens-Film has shifted its focus back to co-productions.

The exhibition at the National Museum Zurich shines a spotlight on the people who wrote Swiss film history, in front of and behind the camera. Covering the entire film production process, from screenplay and directing, to acting, camera work, editing and music, it not only recounts a piece of Swiss cultural history through objects and anecdotes, but also provides an exemplary insight into topics that shaped the 20th century socially, politically and economically.

The exhibition is being held in partnership with Cinémathèque suisse.

Images

Lazar Wechsler

Lazar Wechsler as a student, Zurich before 1919.

© Cinémathèque suisse

Film crew on the road

Eduard Tissé, Sergej M. Eisenstein, Lazar Wechsler at the lido in Wollishofen, 1929.

© Cinémathèque suisse

Young director

Gilberte Schneider-Montavon wished for her story to be filmed under the patronage of the Swiss National Donation. In order to receive the go-ahead from this military foundation, the director had to be Swiss. The choice fell on the young theater director Franz Schnyder.

© Cinémathèque suisse

Mothering the soldiers

Gilberte de Courgenay paints a romantic image of frontier service during the war. On New Year’s Eve, funny sketches in horse costumes make despair and homesickness go away, not least with the help of Gilberte who comforts the soldiers and nurses wounded hearts.

© Cinémathèque suisse

Swiss film stars

Anne-Marie Blanc was Switzerland's first female film star and also enjoyed international renown. She made her debut in the crime film Constable Studer (1939). Heinrich Gretler played the lead role as inspector, a man intent on upholding Swiss democracy wherever he could.

© Cinémathèque suisse

Behind the camera

Hermann Haller, Leopold Lindtberg, Emil Berna, Franz Vlasak (v.l.n.r.)

Egon Priesnitz. © Cinémathèque suisse

At the editing desk

The German-British editor Käthe Mey worked at Praesens-Film from 1933. Being a foreigner, she was no longer issued a work permit during WWII. Her position was taken over by Hermann Haller, the only permanent employee at Praesens-Film who had attended a film school. Käthe Mey around 1935.

© DLA Marbach

Worldwide success

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer distributed The Last Chance in the U.S., South America, and the UK. The New York Times listed the refugee drama as one of the ten best films of 1946. As a result, Lazar Wechsler began casting an eye on Hollywood. Transporting film reels, 1945.

© Cinémathèque suisse

View of the exhibition

© Swiss National Museum

View of the exhibition

© Swiss National Museum

View of the exhibition

© Swiss National Museum

National Museum Zurich press contact

+41 44 218 65 64 medien@nationalmuseum.ch