Swiss Cinema

By: Kolar

Swiss Cinema

Languages and Culture

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 French speaking regions in Switzerland follow more of French culture and the German speaking areas are more oriented towards German culture. Italian culture is prominently visible in the Italian speaking regions of Switzerland. The Rhaeto-Romanic culture in the eastern mountains of Switzerland maintains its very rare linguistic culture.

The German region (Deutschschweiz) is in the north and center, the French part (Romandie) in the west and the Italian area (Svizzera italiana) in the south. There remains a small Romansh-speaking native population in Graubünden in the east. The cantons of Fribourg, Bern and Valais are officially bilingual; Graubünden is officially trilingual.

The traditional ethnic composition of the territories of modern Switzerland includes the following components:

The German-speaking Swiss (Deutschschweizer), i.e. Alemannic German, historically amalgamated from the Gallo-Roman population and the Alemanni and Burgundii, including subgroups such as the Walser. “Swiss” from the 16th to 18th centuries referred to this group exclusively, and only with the expansion of the Swiss confederacy following the Congress of Vienna was the term applied to non-Alemannic territories. Closely related German-speaking peoples are the Alsatians, the Swabians and the Vorarlbergians.

The French-speaking Swiss (Romands), traditionally speaking Franco-Provençal dialects, today largely assimilated to the standard French language (Swiss French), amalgamated from the Gallo-Roman population and Burgundians (the historical Upper Burgundy). They are closely related to the French (especially those of Franche-Comté).

The Italian-speaking Swiss (Svizzeri italiani), traditionally speakers of Lombard language (Ticinese variety) today mostly assimilated to the standard Italian language, amalgamated from Raetians and Lombards. They are closely related to the Italians (especially Lombards and Piedmontese).

The Romansh, speakers of the Romansh language, settling in parts of the Grisons, historically of Raetic stock. (wikipedia)

Resident foreigners and temporary foreign workers make up about 22% of the population.

For the Cinema: Each region (german / french or italian speaking region) has a different release date, sometimes over a year (or no release date in a region).

History of the Cinema (short)

Maurice Andreossi bought a number of short documentary subjects by the Lumière brothers, in the broad 75 mm format with round sprocket holes, which he showed to enormous public interest and acclaim. In spring 1898 he changed over to a new projector, although continuing to use the Lumière brothers’ technique. Sadly, by 20 September 1898 the owner of the Areal which housed the Alpineum was in such dire financial straits that Maurice Andreossi could only look on powerless at the demolition of the building which has gone down in history as Switzerland’s first cinema venue.

Wachtmeister Studer (1939)

The cinema appeared in Switzerland for the first time a few months after the first public screenings by the Lumière brothers in Paris and the Skladanowsky brothers in Berlin. It was in 1896 that Maurice Andreossi installed at the Alpineum in Geneva’s Rue du Vieux Billiard a projector similar to the model used by the Lumières in Paris. In the same year Casimir Sivan of Geneva built a 38 mm projector to his own design, and a camera which he used for shooting short films shown to friends. Maurice Andreossi bought a number of short documentary subjects by the Lumière brothers, in the broad 75 mm format with round sprocket holes, which he showed to enormous public interest and acclaim. In spring 1898 he changed over to a new projector, although continuing to use the Lumière brothers’ technique. Sadly, by 20 September 1898 the owner of the Areal which housed the Alpineum was in such dire financial straits that Maurice Andreossi could only look on powerless at the demolition of the building which has gone down in history as Switzerland’s first cinema venue.

World War two plunged Switzerland into isolation which proved to be a time of creative development. During the Second World War over 40 feature films were produced in Switzerland, with subject matter that was geared at promoting national political and cultural awareness. Films such as Lindtberg’s refugee film received international recognition. Several “classics” were created in the late 30’s early 40’s such as “Fusilier Wipf” 1939, “Gilberte de Courgenay” 1941 and “Die Missbrauchten Liebesbriefe” 1940 are those which make Swiss Film History. The end of the war also ended the first boom of Swiss film. During the 50’s and 60’s many successful productions were created which dealt with patriotic ideals and nineteenth-century farming life. The casts of films were filled with popular actors at the time, creating many Swiss film stars such as Ursula Andress. Social documentaries about everyday life came became popular during this period. The pioneers of this movement include Henry Brandt, Reni Martens, Walter Marti,Alain Tanner and Alexander J.Sailer. In the 1970’s it was Alain Tanner and Jean-Luc Godard who helped bring Swiss cinema to the international arena. More recently many film-makers have concentrated mainly on documentaries of Swiss life they include Richard Dindo, Bernhard Giger, Kurt Gloor, Marlies Graf, Peter von Gunten,Villi Hermann, Markus Imhoof, Thomas Koerfer, Remo Legnazzi, Rolf Lyssy, Fredi M. Murer, Francis Reusser, Daniel Schmid and Yves Yersin. (source: mediasalles.it)

Heidi (1952)

History (long)

Switzerland’s Alpine scenery has featured in countless movies, but the indigenous film culture remains to this day dominated by imports; internationally it is one of the lesser-known cinemas, and there is very little published in English on the country’s film history.

The absence of a unified and economically sustainable national film industry is partly due to small population size, but is also the result of linguistic diversity – Switzerland boasts four official languages (German, French, Italian and Romansh), with their own distinct regions and cultural identities. Developments in Switzerland have often mirrored those in neighbouring countries with the same language – thus, while there are links between Swiss-German, Austrian, and German cinema, Francophone Swiss cinema has affinities with French film.

Cinema arrived in Switzerland courtesy of the Lumières who introduced their Cinématographe in Geneva in 1896. The films presented Swiss locations, including the Schaffhausen waterfalls, and vistas of Basel, Interlaken and Lausanne. Subsequently, travelling showmen exhibited at fairgrounds before sedentary cinemas emerged by 1907. International companies Pathé, Gaumont, and Charles Urban regularly shot footage in Switzerland during these years. In the 1910s one of the most significant filmmakers was the Montreux-based American mountaineer-cinematographer Frederick Burlingham (1877-1924), whose travelogues promoted Switzerland’s tourist attractions, from snowy peaks to the picturesque appeal of Berne and Zurich.

Jonas qui aura 25 ans en l’an 2000 (aka Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000, 1976)

By the end of the decade, fictional representa-tions became more common, blending mountain scenery and melodramatic narratives in the Bergfilm, which became popular in Germany. One of the genre’s best-known directors, Arnold Fanck, used Swiss locations and subject matter from 1921. Mountaineering subjects also characterised the productions of Swiss filmmakers, such as Eduard Bienz( 1895-1960).In 1924 the Jewish-Galician immigrant Lazar Wechsler (1896-1981) founded what became the most significant company for the next three decades, Praesens-Film. Co-productions with German or French partners remained prominent throughout the 1920s, helmed by directors including Jacques Feyder, Dimitri Kirsanoff, Hanns Schwarz, and Carl Lamac.

The introduction of sound in the late 1920s provided an opportunity for greater national differentiation through the use of the Swiss-German dialect, employed in locally popular comedies that made stars out of actors such as Heinrich Gretler. Between 1933 and 1935, the Swiss-German Terra-Film-AG released a number of lavishly produced dramas with a distinctly Nazi flavour, directed by filmmakers including Heinz Paul and Herbert Selpin. At the same time, Swiss or Swiss-Austrian films provided opportunities for directors and producers who had fallen out of favour in the Third Reich’, such as Carl Lamac, Werner Hochbaum, or Günter Stapenhorst, and for per-manent exiles from Germany such as Julius Pinschewer. The most influential émigré was the Austrian-born Leopold Lindtberg, who made his directing debut for Praesens-Film in 1935.

Under the banner of a new cultural policy of ‘spiritual national defence’ (geistige Landesverteidigung) from 1937, which promoted national unity and international neutrality, cinema benefited from governmental subsidies and witnessed what many retrospectively regard as its ‘golden age’. Drawing on domestic social matters, and discussing issues of patriotism and national traditions as well as more universal humanist values, films were marked by a greater realism than previously. Apart from Lindtberg’s contributions, other important films of this period were directed by Siegfrit Steiner, Max Haufler, Franz Schnyder (1910-1993), and Hans Trommer (1904-1989).

Die Schweizermacher (aka The Swissmakers, 1978)

The period from 1898 to 1943 was the golden age of what was then called the travelling cinema. Four celebrated showmen covered the length and breadth of Switzerland, setting up a marquee housing a projector and a few benches in the heart of every small town and village. G. Hipleh-Walt’s show was called “Le biographe suisse”, while Weber Clément invited customers to roll up to the “Ciné national suisse”. Conrad Leilich ran five shows, plus a tiny museum of natural science. Willy Leuzinger from Rapperswil was a travelling exhibitor for nearly 27 years, from 1916 to 1943. These pioneers were often photographers as well. Some, like Hipleh-Walt, even attempted to produce their own short subjects, usually focusing on fêtes or local events. Such films had to be developed and printed abroad at great expense. Soon G. Hipleh-Walt decided to import productions from Germany and France, thus becoming Switzerland’s first real distributor. He set up a repository of films which he either exhibited himself or rented out at moderate rates to other travelling projectionists.

By the end of World War II, Praesens produc-tions had attracted international acclaim, resulting in the immediate post-war period in a number of co-productions with American and British partners. In the 1950s, Swiss cinema functioned largely as an annex to the West German/Austrian boom in Heimatfilme, or else targeted diminishing local audiences with well-observed and deeply parochial dramas about middle-class lives. By the early 1960s, the annual number of indigenous productions had dropped to single figures. While the dominant Swiss cinema since the 1930s had been German-speaking, new waves in the early 1960s originated in Switzerland’s Francophone region and modelled themselves on the ‘Nouvelle Vague’. Jean-Luc Godard made his first films in Switzerland in the mid-1950s before relocating to Paris. Other Francophone directors to make a mark in the 1960s and 1970s as part of a ‘Swiss New Wave’ were Alain Tanner, Michel Soutter, and Claude Goretta.

Les petites fugues (aka Little Escapes, 1979)

In the Swiss-German regions, new directions emerged more gradually, in the first instance in the field of experimental cinema and documentary, and from the 1970s onwards in feature films. In the case of the Francophone Swiss New Wave’s relationship with France, the new generation of German-speaking filmmakers entered into a creative dialogue with colleagues from the New German Cinema, and pursued similar themes and political aims. These included a critique of certain aspects of the national self-image, a challenge of the country’s conservative political outlook, and a revisionist look at notions of Heimat and rural traditions, especially in the films by Fredi M. Murer (b. 1940) and Rolf Lyssy (b. 1936).

The New Swiss Cinema reached its zenith by the mid-1980s following a number of international art house successes, but despite the emergence of more commercially oriented directors since the 1990s, such as Urs Egger (b. 1955) and Sabine Boss (b. 1966), national production slipped into relative obscurity once more. Apart from the occasional cinema release, usually co-produced with German, French, or Austrian partners, Switzerland is one of the least prolific European film nations in the new millennium. (source: The concise Cinegraph: Encyclopaedia of German Cinema by Hans-Michael Bock,Tim Bergfelder)

Swiss New Wave and the New Generation

Four decades have passed since the Swiss New Wave positioned itself against the generation of its fathers. But how does it relate to younger generations today?

Das Boot ist voll (aka The Boat is Full, 1981)

In January 1996 an interview in the French newspaper Libération with the filmmakers Alain Tanner, Fredi M. Murer and Daniel Schmid caused quite a stir within the Swiss film scene. On the occasion of a retrospective of 100 Swiss films at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the paper had asked the three Swiss feature filmmakers “best known abroad” to comment on the current state of Swiss filmmaking, including the question: “Are there young Swiss filmmakers today?” All three responded with a resounding “no”.

For these veterans of the edgy Swiss New Wave of the 60s and 70s, the film scene had become tame and bureaucratic. Schmid (b. 1941) declared: “There are film schools all over Switzerland, and thousands of students who graduate every year… but they don’t make any films.” Murer (b. 1940) added: “There are about twenty young people whose films aren’t bad, technically adequate, but they are perfectly interchangeable. There is less courage than before: everyone attends workshops, consults script doctors, and learns to use all kinds of professional jargon. And then they try to imitate American films, but with Third-World film budgets. As a result, there are no authors, and the films they make have no roots.” And Tanner concluded: “Don’t take this as overly pessimistic, but I think it will all be over after the year 2000!”

Reise der Hoffnung (aka Journey of Hope, 1990)

New Filmmakers, New Approaches

Looking back today, the turn of the millenium does seem like a turning point in Swiss film. For Tanner it may have been the end – he himself declared the 2004 PAUL S’EN VA to be his last film – but for a new generation of filmmakers, it was the beginning. The transition began partly with the establishment of film schools in Zurich and Lausanne in the 1990s. Before this relatively late date, there were few opportunities for formal film training within Switzerland. In 1995 and 1996, the first students were graduating; not in the thousands, as Schmid polemicized, but a dozen or so at a time. Some of the most important new names in Swiss film emerged from the schools between 1995 and 2000: such as Sabine Boss, Anna Luif, Andrea Staka, and Bettina Oberli in Zurich, or Jean-Stéphane Bron and Fulvio Bernasconi in Lausanne. Other significant filmmakers to appear during this period trained abroad: such as Ursula Meier in Belgium, or Stina Werenfels and Vincent Pluss in New York. Lionel Baier followed the old model and trained on-the-job as an assistant director, after university studies in cinema and literature.

During this period of course other, older, directors were active as well, many of whom had grown out of the 1980s protest film and video scenes which had been youth movements at the time. But the filmmakers who emerged around 2000 definitely represent a new phase in Swiss cinema history – however diverse their individual styles and themes.

F. est un salaud (Fogi is a Bastard, 1998)

Unlike the New Wave directors, or the political filmmakers of the 1980s, who tended to position themselves against the mainstream, many young directors today claim the right to be popular and widely accessible – while maintaining their aesthetic ambitions. And some do indeed take Hollywood entertainment genres as a model, but combine them with local settings and – in the case of German speakers – with Swiss-German dialect. This was the path followed by the self-taught Michael Steiner, whose adaptation of the children’s classic MEIN NAME IST EUGEN (2006) was the third highest-grossing film in Swiss history. And by Zurich grad Bettina Oberli, whose 2006 dramatic comedy DIE HERBSTZEITLOSEN (LATE BLOOMERS) achieved the second-highest box office figures of all time (Rolf Lyssy’s 1978 satire DIE SCHWEIZERMACHER (THE SWISSMAKERS) remains in first place).

Does Swiss Cinema (Still) Exist?

Things were definitely not “over” in the year 2000. But the Swiss film scene has clearly gone through some major shifts since the heyday of the auteurs who achieved their fame in the 1960s and 70s. As in the rest of the world, there have been vast changes in the way films are made, marketed, and consumed. In the globalized media world, national cinema movements with a shared aesthetic are becoming a thing of the past. Younger generations raised on television and video games cultivate a different visual style and different cultural references than their predecessors, and are likely to have more in common with their peers around the globe than their older colleagues at home.

Is it still meaningful, then, to speak of “Swiss cinema”? I would argue that it is. For one thing, filmmakers of all generations in Switzerland work within the same fragile ecosystem: sharing the same financial constraints, semi-professional infrastructures, and audiences split by linguistic and regional differences. In the face of these difficulties, they would do well to stand together to advance their common interests – which would ultimately be a more effective means of maintaining individual creative freedom.

Vitus (2006)

For another thing, filmmakers working in Switzerland share the same cultural context and the same history, and still return to the motifs of previous decades. Then and now they have been inspired – and also irritated – by subjects such as: the Swiss landscape, the gap between urban and rural areas, the education system, the often controversial worlds of finance and, the challenges of immigration. It is the tone of their responses, however, that has changed. While the filmmakers of the 1960s, 70s and 80s often took an explicitly oppositional, socially critical position, today’s young filmmakers tend to be more subtle, more subjective, and less overtly dogmatic. Perhaps one reason for this is that younger filmmakers represent new voices and identities. While previous generations made films on behalf of immigrants and other minorities, some of the younger filmmakers belong to these groups themselves.

Still, the generation gap within Swiss cinema has shrunk since the late 1990s. Daniel Schmid died of cancer in 2006, but for his last (unrealized) feature PORTOVERO had been preparing to work with young collaborators. A documentary on his life and work is currently being prepared by two Zurich film students, Pascal Hofmann and Benny Jaberg. Fredi Murer joined forces with younger filmmakers for the collective documentary DOWNTOWN SWITZERLAND (2004), and for his last – and very successful – fiction film VITUS (2006) (2006) collaborated with young filmmaker Peter Luisi on the screenplay. As for Alain Tanner: no other Swiss filmmaker has been as influential on young filmmakers, or as widely imitated. Some, like Ursula Meier, have paid homage to his influence in interviews and statements. Others have provided deliberate nods to him in their work: like Lionel Baier’s 2004 GARÇON STUPIDE, which plays on references to Tanner’s 1971 LA SALAMANDRE. All of which shows that if the generations have clashed, they still belong to the same family. (Marcy Goldberg, is a film historian and media consultant.)

Home (2008)

Important or Unusual Movies

1923/25 Visages d’enfants
1925 Vocation André Carel, La
1934 Rapt
1939 Farinet
1939 Wachtmeister Studer
1940 Missbrauchten Liebesbriefe, Die
1941 Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe
1942 Steibruch
1945 Letzte Chance, Die
1957 10. Mai, Der
1957 Bäckerei Zürrer
1961 Quand nous étions petits enfants
1964 Siamo italiani
1966 Chicorée
1968 Angèle
1969 Charles mort ou vif
1971 Dällebach Kari
1971 Salamandre, La
1973 Invitation, L’
1974 Letzten Heimposamenter, Die
1974 Milieu du monde, Le
1974 Müde kehrt ein Wanderer zurück
1974 Schweizer im spanischen Bürgerkrieg
1975 Pas si méchant que ça
1975 Streik ist keine Sonntagsschule, Ein
1975 Wir Bergler in den Bergen sind eigentlich nicht schuld, dass wir da sind
1976 Cinéma mort ou vif
1976 E noialtri apprendisti
1976 Erschiessung des Landesverräters Ernst S., Die
1976 Jonas qui aura 25 ans en l’an 2000
1977 Dentellière, La
1978 Chronik von Prugiasco
1978 Schweizermacher, Die
1978 Südseereise – Das gleichzeitig am gleichen Ort stattfindende Glück
1979 Petites fugues, Les
1980 Provinciale, La
1981 Boot ist voll, Das
1981 Reisender Krieger
1982 O wie Oblomov
1983 Max Haufler: "Der Stumme!
1984 Bacio di Tosca, Il
1985 78 tours
1985 Gossliwil (i – iii)
1985 Höhenfeuer
1986 Junge Eskimo, Der
1986 Morlove – eine Ode für Heisenberg
1986 Ruderer, Der
1987 Andreas
1987 Dani, Michi, Renato und Max
1987 Sandra, unstillbarer Hunger
1987 Umbruch
1987 Unterwegs – Werner Bischof Photograph 51/52
1988 Reisen ins Landesinnere
1988 Wilde Mann, Der
1990 Jemand – Passion zum Widerstand
1990 Reise der Hoffnung
1991 Jean-Claude des Alpes
1991 Pickelporno
1991 Seriat
1992 Petit prince a dit, Le
1993 Bösen Buben, Die
1993 Tanz der blauen Vögel
1993 Ur-Musig
1994 Picture of Light
1994 Well Done
1995 Adultère (mode d’emploi)
1995 Gerhard Meier – Die Ballade vom Schreiben
1995 Grüezi
1995 Motor nasch
1995 Signers Koffer
1996 Tickle in the Heart, A
1997 Journal de Rivesaltes, 1941-42
1997 Salzmänner von Tibet, Die
1998 F. est un salaud / De Fögi isch en Souhund
1998 Spuren verschwinden
1999 Beresina
1999 ID Swiss
2001 War Photographer
2004 Tout un hiver sans feu
2005 Herr Goldstein
2006 Fräulein, Das
2006 Vitus
2007 Chrigu
2008 Forteresse, La

Swiss Box-Office Hits

(by cinema-goers)

1. Die Schweizermacher (1978, Rolf Lyssy) 940’465
2. Achtung, fertig, Charlie (2003, Mike Eschmann) 560’514
3. Die Herbstzeitlosen (2006, Bettina Oberli) 558’875
4. Mein Name ist Eugen (2005, Michael Steiner) 542’053
5. Les petites fugues (1979, Yves Yersin) 424’543
6. Grounding 2005, Michael Steiner, Tobias Fueter) 370’976
7. Ein Schweizer Namens Nötzli (1988, Gustav Ehmck (DE) 350’681
8. Ernstfall in Havanna (2002, Sabine Boss) 313’604
9. Höhenfeuer (1985, Fredy-Melchior Murer) 253’925
10. Vitus (2006, Fredy-Melchior Murer) 243’137
11. La Dentellière (1977, Claude Goretta) 239’525 (Swiss Co-Production)
12. Ashanti (1978, Richard Fleischer) 220’559
13. Handyman, 2006, Jürg Ebe) 196’037
14. Kassettenliebe (1981, Rolf Lyssy) 186’075
15. Giulias Verschwinden (2009, Christoph Schaub) 183’370
16. Das gefrorene Herz (1980, Xavier Koller) 180’922
17. Brot und Steine (1979, Mark M. Rissi) 160’779
18. Das Boot ist voll (1981, Markus Imhoof) 159’429
19. Komiker (2000, Markus Imboden) 157’838
20. Der schwarze Tanner (1986, Xavier Koller) 149’114

Film Location: Switzerland

Geneva:
Agents secrets (2004)
F/X (1986)
Il mio miglior nemico (2006)
‘Je vous salue, Marie’ (1985)
L’intrus (2004)
Le petit soldat (1963)
Love and Bullets (1979)
Sauve qui peut (la vie) (1980)
Syriana (2005)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)
Trois couleurs: Rouge (1994)
The Cassandra Crossing (1976)
Vaghe stelle dell’Orsa… (1965)
Vie privée (1962)

Zurich:
Le petit soldat (1963)
Lili Marleen (1981)
Phenomena (1985)
The Assassination Bureau (1969)
The Informant! (2009)
The Eiger Sanction (1975)

Swiss Alps:
A View to a Kill (1985)
Frankenstein (1994)
GoldenEye (1995)
Goldfinger (1964)
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

Lausanne
Agents secrets (2004)
Cet obscur objet du désir (1977) (Hotel)
Merci pour le chocolat (2000)
Sauve qui peut (la vie) (1980)

Other Switzerland:
Le conseguenze dell’amore (2004)
Nouvelle vague (1990)
Opera (1987)
Secret Agent (1936)
Rien ne va plus (1997)
The Razor’s Edge (1984)
The Return of the Pink Panther (1975)
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Women in Love (1969)

Jean-Luc Godard, Swiss film director?

Jean-Luc Godard was born into a wealthy Swiss family in France in 1930. His parents sent him to live in Switzerland when the war broke out, but grew up in Switzerland (He attended school in Nyon, Switzerland as a young man), but in the late 1940s he returned to Paris to study ethnology at the Sorbonne. He became acquainted with Claude Chabrol, Francois Truffaut, Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette, forming part of a group of passionate young film-makers devoted to exploring new possibilities in cinema. He left Paris for Switzerland, which has been his home for the last 30 years. (BFI)

Two films are nominated for Swiss Film Prize: Notre musique & Éloge de l’amour.

Filming in Switzerland (probably complete):‘Je vous salue, Marie’ (1985), King Lear (1987), Sauve qui peut (la vie) (1980), Nouvelle vague (1990), Hélas pour moi (1993), For Ever Mozart (1996)

Godard said: (2010)
I’m Franco-Swiss. I pass for Swiss, but I declare residence in France; I pay my taxes in France. In Switzerland, there are certain landscapes I like that I couldn’t do without. And further to that, I have my roots here.

Film Directors / Filmmaker

(selection, G = German-speaking Swiss, F= French-speaking Swiss, I= Italian-speaking Swiss)

Alain Tanner (1929-) (F)

Jean-Luc Godard (1930-) (F)

Daniel Schmid (1941-2006) (G)

Pipilotti Rist (1962-) (G)

Kurt Früh (1915–1979) (G)

Thomas Imbach (1962-) (G)

Claude Goretta (1929-) (F)

Fredi M. Murer (1940-) (G)

Thomas Koerfer (1944-) (G)

Leopold Lindtberg (1902-1984) (Austrian emigrant)

Lionel Baier (1975-) (F)

Michel Soutter (1932-1991) (F)

Richard Dindo (1944-) (F/G/I)

Peter Liechti (1951-) (G)

Franz Schnyder (1910-1993) (G)

Andrea Štaka (1973-) (G)

- Fulvio Bernasconi (1969-) (I)
- Jean Choux (1887-1946) (F), filming for France
- Rolando Colla (1951-) (I)
- Erwin C. Dietrich (1930-) (G)
- Donatello Dubini (1955-) (G) & Fosco Dubini (1954-) (G)
- Christian Frei (1959) (G)
- Marcel Gisler (1960) (G/F)
- Kurt Gloor (1942-1997) (G)
- Elena Hazanov (F)
- Villi Hermann (1941-) (I)
- Markus Imhoof (1941) (G)
- August Kern (1902-1996)
- Xavier Koller (1944-) (G)
- Dani Levy (1957-) (G) , filmed for Germany
- Rolf Lyssy (1936-) (G)
- Ursula Meier (1971-) (F)
- Anne-Marie Miéville (1945) (F)
- Patricia Plattner (1953-) (F)
- Léa Pool (1950) (F), Swiss-Canadian, filmed for Canada
- Denis Rabaglia (1966-) (I)
- Francis Reusser (1942-) (F)
- Georges Schwizgebel (1944-) (F)
- Jacqueline Veuve (1930-) (F)
- Yves Yersin (1942-) (F)