A copy of the feature film "The Last Chance" is transported from Zurich to the USA in 1945, where it brings international fame to the Swiss company Praesens-Film. — **A copy of the feature film *"The Last Chance*" is transported from Zurich to the USA in 1945, where it brings international fame to the Swiss company Praesens-Film.** © Cinémathèque suisse

Between avant-garde and Hollywood

Praesens-Film, founded in Zurich in 1924, is the oldest film company still in existence in Switzerland. Since the late 1920s, it has been producing films that tell a piece of Swiss cultural history and reflect the times, politics and society.

Denise Tonella

Denise Tonella is Director of the Swiss National Museum.

When the young Lazar Wechsler, originally from Russian Poland, was travelling through Switzerland with his mother and brother when the First World War broke out, he did not yet know that he would become a central figure in Swiss cinema in the decades that followed. For the time being, however, the Jewish family decided to stay in Zurich and Lazar Wechsler studied engineering at the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. In 1924, he founded the company Praesens-Film together with media entrepreneur, aviation pioneer and later Swissair co-founder Walter Mittelholzer. Lazar's wife, Amalie Wechsler, was also part of the team and an indispensable partner in a wide variety of roles. All three were constantly on the road and travelling the world. Their expedition films took them to Ethiopia, Iran and China in the 1920s and 1930s.

**Lazar Wechsler as a student, Zurich before 1919.** © Cinémathèque suisse

Of avant-garde films and taboo subjects

Controversial social issues such as alcoholism and abortion were addressed by Praesens-Film in its documentary films, some of which are commissioned. The silent film "Frauennot – Frauenglück" dates from 1929. The educational film about pregnancy and abortion was made with the support of the Zurich Health Department and the University Women's Clinic. The Soviet film crew led by Eduard Tissé contrasts the harrowing images of the suffering and death of women who secretly have an illegal abortion with the professional treatment options offered by the modern and hygienic women's clinic. The film is courageous, stirs up controversy, is banned by the cantons – and becomes a success.

The film drama "The Shadows Grow Longer" (1961) by Hungarian director Ladislao Vajda, set in a girls' home in Switzerland, deals with prostitution and blackmail of young women – at a time when prostitution still had a shadowy existence in the public eye.

Modern trailer for the film "Frauennot - Frauenglück" from 1929. YouTube / filmo

Hollywood-Flair

After Adolf Hitler seized power in Germany in 1933, the Jewish director Leopold Lindtberg, originally from Vienna, came to Zurich. He became one of the most important directors at the Schauspielhaus Zurich and in Swiss film. Lazar Wechsler first hired him in 1935, and Lindtberg directed the central films of the defence of the common spiritual values of Switzerland.

"Füsilier Wipf" (1938), "Landammann Stauffacher" (1941) and "Marie-Louise" (1944) stand for Switzerland's readiness for military service on the one hand and its humanitarian tradition on the other. "Marie-Louise" even brought Swiss film to Hollywood. The film received an Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1946 for Richard Schweizer's screenplay. It is the first non-English-language film to receive this award.

Director Leopold Lindtberg (right) and Heinrich Gretler as Werner Stauffacher during the shooting of the film "Landammann Stauffacher" (1941) in the film village on Lake Lauerz. — **Director Leopold Lindtberg (right) and Heinrich Gretler as Werner Stauffacher during the shooting of the film *"Landammann Stauffacher"* (1941) in the film village on Lake Lauerz.** Swiss National Museum / ASL

But back to Leopold Lindtberg: after the war, he realised "Swiss Tour" (1949). The winter sports romance with Hollywood star Cornel Wilde was shot under catastrophic conditions. Critics sometimes found the film banal, but it was not a flop – in Zurich alone, the film was shown in cinemas for nine weeks. In "The Village" (1953), Lindtberg looks at orphans of the Second World War who find a temporary home in Switzerland. The film, shot in Switzerland and England, is widely distributed on the international market and wins the Bronze Bear at the Berlinale.

The two films "Heidi" (1952) by Italian director Luigi Comencini and "Heidi and Peter" (1955) directed by Franz Schnyder, released in quick succession, offer the perfect escape to an idyllic mountain world in the post-war period and are also a great success beyond the Swiss border.

Cinema poster for the 1955 film "Heidi and Peter", shown in the USA. — **inema poster for the 1955 film *"Heidi and Peter"*, shown in the USA.** Swiss National Museum

The story of Praesens-Film goes on, and there would be much more to tell. What is certain is that Praesens-Film produced films between the 1920s and the 1960s which, taken together, tell a piece of Swiss cultural history and are a reflection of the respective times, politics and society. The gaze of a Russian-Polish producer, Austrian and Italian directors or Soviet film crews create formative Swiss images in the cinemas. These are the beautiful and the dark sides of a world between upheaval, war, identity formation and Hollywood fever.

This text, slightly adapted for the blog, originally appeared in the programme of the 59th Solothurn Film Festival: www.solothurnerfilmtage.ch

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