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Many excellent Swiss films are available from Europe most with English subtitles. I ordered two recently and one arrived this week called THE ASSISTANT directed by Thomas Koerfer (1975). The transfer is very good [16:9] with clear white subs that don't intrude [typical of Euro DVDs]. This film is the only one by Koerfer available separately from the box set of his complete works. I bought it blind based upon seeing his first film THE DEATH OF THE FLEA CIRCUS DIRECTOR (1973) which is a Kluge-influenced piece based upon Brechtian principles. THE ASSISTANT is a very subtle film filmed in exquisite surroundings based upon a book by a famous Swiss writer I am not familiar with called Robert Walser.

I'm still waiting for the Alain Tanner double THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD (1974) / JONAH WHO WILL BE 25 IN THE YEAR 2000 (1975) which is coming back in stock by this month's end.

For a list of films go to artfilm.ch and look on the left to see if English subs are available. I might try the Michel Soutter triple feature next featuring the classic LES ARPENTEURS.

How sad that the only Claude Goretta DVD with English subs is his Simenon/Maigret adaptation. (Amazingly, his masterpiece The Lacemaker only has an English dub.)

Thanks for telling us about The Assistant. Walser is an incredible writer (The Assitant was just published in an English translation) whose novel Jakob von Gunten is the basis of the Bros. Quay's Institute Benjamenta.

solent wrote:THE ASSISTANT is a very subtle film filmed in exquisit surroundings based upon a book by a famour Swiss writer I am not familiar with called Robert Walser.

Thanks for pointing this out tavernier. It would be interesting to see some of these Swiss films.

Regarding Robert Walser -- he was a very strange author in the vein of Kafka and Bruno Schulz, who lived out the last several decades of his life in an asylum for mentally challenged people (there was a nice little piece on him in the New Yorker some time in August or September this year). His best known work today may be the short novel Jacob Van Gunthen, which served as the literary basis for The Quay Brothers' first feature film Institute Benjamenta. The Quays adaptation is (possibly surprisingly) faithful to Walser's book, which will give an idea of the general quality of Walser's writing. There are several books published in English collecting a small selection of the some 1000 very short stories that constitute his main output. He called these stories/vignettes "Walserien." Another eccentricity of his was his practice of writing in near microscopic longhand -- a lot of it apparently all but impossible to decipher. In Addition to the short works, he wrote at least 8 novels, but apparently destroyed most of them. As far as I know three survive -- Gunthen was the only one I was able to find in English translation, when I was looking up his work in the mid-'90s. A fun and interesting writer, well worth reading.

Jakob von Gunten is also the inspiration behind Guy Maddin's somewhat looser (and much funnier) Careful! - an obvious double feature with Instituta Benjamenta that I've never attempted.

Off-topic, but...

Four novels survive:
Geschwister Tanner (The Tanner Siblings)
Der Gehülfe (The Assistant)
Jakob von Gunten (sans 'h')

and a "novel" found among the so-called micrograms known as the "Räuber-Roman" (translated as "The Robber").

Susan Bernofsky's translation of Geschwister Tanner will appear in 2008, making all four of these available in English.

There are three volumes of short prose that have also been translated. All excellent.

Walser did not call his works "Walserien" (or "Walserian" for that matter), but referred to most of them as simply "prose pieces" (Prosastückli). He is well worth reading.

Very informative replies. The opening shot of the film is a freeze-frame of a page of elegant writing in process with the scratching sounds of the quill playing over it. Throughout the film we see the assistant writing: office work, his diary, poetry to Mrs Tobler. Koerfer based Walser's character a little on Walser himself so all of these postings make sense to me in the light of the film.

It's a pity the other Koerfer films are not available separately. THE ASSISTANT received this honour to commemorate the anniversary of the Author's death I believe.

By the way, does anyone know of any obscure Scandinavian films with English subs from the 1960s-1970s period? E.g. films by Donner, Cornell, Kulle or Sjoman. One film I have heard about called THE BOOKSELLER GOES BATHING sounds particularly interesting.

denti alligator wrote:Jakob von Gunten (sans 'h')

Walser did not call his works "Walserien" (or "Walserian" for that matter), but referred to most of them as simply "prose pieces" (Prosastückli). He is well worth reading.

Sorry Denti, I was writing/quoting from memory. It was not Walserien, but "Walsereien," and you may very well be right that Walser did not coin the term himself. I remembered it from Susan Bernofsky's intro to her translation of Masquerade and Other Stories: "Walser's prose - his Walsereien [Bernofsky's italics] or "little Walserings" - was eclipsed by that of the more prominent figures of the time, the Hesses and Manns."

That makes more sense.

solent wrote:For a list of films go to artfilm.ch and look on the left to see if English subs are available.

How are Chaplin's The Immigrant, Renoir's Boudou sauvé des eaux, Christian-Jaque's Les Disparus de Saint-Agil and Carné's Quai des brumes Swiss films?

Thanks for posting that link - I've just found out that Andrea Staka's Das Fräulein, one of the best films I saw last year, is out on DVD with English subtitles.

(I can hardly pretend that I didn't like it, given that I'm quoted on the relevant page...)

The actor Michel Simon is of Swiss origin so for some reason I assume that makes BOUDU a Swiss film to the Swiss. Is this an example of Swiss logic? (They also list Godard's films despite the fact that he is an expatriot.)

solent wrote:The actor Michel Simon is of Swiss origin so for some reason I assume that makes BOUDU a Swiss film to the Swiss.

I remember now that Michel Simon financed Boudu, so I guess that could justify its inclusion as Swiss.

Four more Thomas Koerfer films are now available separately from the box set he put out. I assume all 8 films will be out eventually. Unfortunately FLEA CIRCUS is not one of the current releases but the interesting film he on theatre called ALZIRE (released after THE ASSISTANT) is out. All of Koerfer's films are published by himself his logo being "TK."

I finally got my copy of the Tanner double LE MILIEU DU MONDE (1974) & JONAS (1975) from this site

The set has 2 discs and it is published by Doriane films. The films come on 2 separate discs with an unsubtitled interview with Tanner on each. The feature subs are yellow [yuck] and on MILIEU they go out of sync for about 5 minutes halfway through but then fix up quickly. JONAS's subs have many typing errors throughout but not enough to worry about. [I know enough French to get a laugh at the mistranslations and the non translations and I believe that anyone who watches enough films in a particular language picks things up about that language.]

MILIEU is 1.33:1 and it is a good transfer. JONAS is 1.66:1 non anamorphic 4:3 letterboxed; it is a fair copy of a theatrical print (replete with reel markers).

I have never seen these films and I found JONAS to be the better film by a long shot. MILIEU seems rather conventional - a chronicle of an illicit love affair - but it is well worth a look. The winter photography is beautifully done. JONAH WHO WILL BE 25 IN THE YEAR 2000 is a masterpiece and its theme is the disillusion-cum-hopefullness of the generation who lived through 1968 'revolution.'

I'd love to see more of Tanner's films. For more info check this out.

CHARLES DEAD OR ALIVE & SALAMANDER were once out in the US on VHS by New Yorker I believe. I suppose they still hold the rights.

Good news for you fans of Brechtian cinema out there. Thomas Koerfer's Kluge-influenced first feature THE DEATH OF THE FLEA CIRCUS DIRECTOR (1972) is now available separately from the box set of his films put out recently. I have a VHS copy of the film taped off of TV and it remains one of my favourite Swiss films. All DVDs from the box are now available on their own. I also ordered ALZIRE (1978) as a blind buy: it sounds intriguing.

I've recently seen Höhenfeuer (1985) by Fredi M. Murer, and it was very good. The English title is Alpine Fire. It's available on German DVD with English subs at Amazon.de, even though amazon.de doesn't write anything about English subs. It should be possible to find it cheaper (at approx 10 EUR).

I also saw Alain Tanner's La Salamandre recently, but without English subs (French disc, Ed. Montparnasse). I liked it a lot. Tanner's Les Années Lumière is available in France with English original sound I think (I havn't seen the film)?

martin wrote:I also saw Alain Tanner's La Salamandre recently, but without English subs (French disc, Ed. Montparnasse). I liked it a lot. Tanner's Les Années Lumière is available in France with English original sound I think (I havn't seen the film)?

I was disappointed that Salmandre lacked English subs -- the old US video isn't all that great. Not sure that German subs (which the DVD supposedly has) would help much.

Les Annees lumieres is one _very_ strange film.. ;~}

solent wrote:I might try the Michel Soutter triple feature next featuring the classic LES ARPENTEURS.

I can very much recommend to check out Soutter's work and this double-DVD Les Arpenteurs/Signé Renart (containing two additional shorts, Mick et Arthur and L'éolienne) is a great place to start imo. It's also available at amazon.com.

david_f wrote:

solent wrote:I might try the Michel Soutter triple feature next featuring the classic LES ARPENTEURS.

I can very much recommend to check out Soutter's work and this double-DVD Les Arpenteurs/Signé Renart (containing two additional shorts, Mick et Arthur and L'éolienne) is a great place to start imo. It's also available at amazon.com.

Sorry to bump this thread...could you comment on the quality of these discs?

Thank you.

Pro-B

Both the features - which come in separate digipaks (enclosed in a cardboard sleeve) - are in 4:3, letterboxed at 1.66:1. The transfers are clean and quite clear. Not top anamorphic quality but certainly watchable. The subtitles are better than on the Tanner set. They are white and have no errors. The extras include Soutter's first short, a later semi-doco short from 1975 and a long documentary on Soutter with interviews including Tanner, etc. The documentary is particularly interesting since it features clips from all of his films.

I'm actually re-watching RENART now and find it to be a strange but fascinating film.

LES ARPENTEURS is easily the best Swiss film I've seen to date. Pure poetry and certainly deserving of a new audience. It was worth buying this set just for this alone. JONAS is the other masterpiece for me.

It is a great news. Daniel Schmid's film "Jenasch" (newly restored) is finally available in DVD, and his other works will be available next year as well. Here is a message I received from T C Edition AG:

We are pleased to announce that the film by Daniel Schmid Jenatsch from 1987 newly restored version is available on DVD.

The DVD can now be ordered in our online store () and should be ready from 20.12.2011. In Swiss trading, they will be available in January 2012.

For 2012, more older works by Daniel Schmid in a restored version on DVD are planned: TONIGHT OR NEVER (1972), LA PALOMA (1974), SHADOW OF ANGELS (1976) and Violanta (1977). On our website we will inform you about the latest stand

With best regards, pre-Christmas

T & C Ltd Edition

Thanks for the information. Does it have English subs?

bergelson wrote:Thanks for the information. Does it have English subs?

Yes it does. Here is their answer:

The DVD Jenatsch has got the original version (french), a dub-version, German, English and Spanish subtitles

And the rest of his films that will be scheduled to be release as DVD next year on will have English subtitle as well (it was confirmed):)