It is an open secret that Swiss German movies are almost unknown outside of Europe and that they seldom or never win Oscars. Well understood, I speak here about movies in Swiss German language. Swiss German is by most Americans not even recognized as German; for Americans who have traveled to Europe, it sounds like Austrian, which is does not at all, in reality. Therefore, it does not astonish either, that most Americans do not know that there was a time when Swiss German movies were en vogue, this was in the 50ies and in the early 60ies. Even before, in the 30ies and 40ies, there was a time when it looked like Swiss German movies would reach international standards in the near future.
But unfortunately, except some highlights like "Bäckerei Zürrer", "Hinter den sieben Gleisen" or "Dällebach Kari" by Kurt Früh, "Ueli der Knecht" and "Ueli der Pächter" by Franz Schnyder (which are available in Japan, but not in the US), "Die plötzliche Einsamkeit des Konrad Steiner" by Kurt Gloor (all available in region-bound, non-subtitled dvds for horribly high prices in Switzerland), Swiss movies are not reaching the standards of other European states. And now comes Vitus which has been nominated for Oscar, from a film director who has made not much more than a handful of feature-length movies. How does this movie fit into the Swiss film tradition? For everybody who knows the movies that I have mentioned above, the structure of "Vitus" is not unknown: it is a movie that belongs to the fairytale-genre introduced by Kurt Früh fifty and more years ago. Vitus, the "wunderkind" who plays most difficult sonatas before he is 10 years old, is ready to graduate from high school with 12 and earns with his own company millions and millions of Swiss Franks by stock-exchange - this is not so different from the miraculous fate of the poor and miserably living family Caduff to whom the wizard comes in the person of the realty-owner Mr. Frehner who gives them for free a luxury-apartment on the Nob Hill of Zurich and turns them from gypsies to winners of the post-war-time in "Es Dach überem Chopf". However, there is a huge difference between "Vitus" and the old Kurt Früh-movies: the ladder are social-critique, the Vitus is not, but stays on the surface. Instead, we learn about the desolate status of today's Swiss German which is mixed up with American lumps. Above all, "Vitus" simply lacks its anchoring in today's Swiss society - as Kurt Früh's movies were strongly anchored in the Zurich society of the 50ies and 60ies. Although we see Vitus' father and, shortly, his mother, at work, the family stays isolated from the rest of Zurich's society. For example, we do not even see any neighbors in or around the house in Wipkingen, where the family von Holzen lives. All the encounters of Vitus and his family stand under the appearances of wonders that will happen, not under actual social interplay. The movie, therefore, is a nice and entertaining story about a fictive little boy, but not more and settles, compared to Kurt Früh's movies, on a much deeper level than it had been reached in Swiss film culture already at the end of the fifties.
But unfortunately, except some highlights like "Bäckerei Zürrer", "Hinter den sieben Gleisen" or "Dällebach Kari" by Kurt Früh, "Ueli der Knecht" and "Ueli der Pächter" by Franz Schnyder (which are available in Japan, but not in the US), "Die plötzliche Einsamkeit des Konrad Steiner" by Kurt Gloor (all available in region-bound, non-subtitled dvds for horribly high prices in Switzerland), Swiss movies are not reaching the standards of other European states. And now comes Vitus which has been nominated for Oscar, from a film director who has made not much more than a handful of feature-length movies. How does this movie fit into the Swiss film tradition? For everybody who knows the movies that I have mentioned above, the structure of "Vitus" is not unknown: it is a movie that belongs to the fairytale-genre introduced by Kurt Früh fifty and more years ago. Vitus, the "wunderkind" who plays most difficult sonatas before he is 10 years old, is ready to graduate from high school with 12 and earns with his own company millions and millions of Swiss Franks by stock-exchange - this is not so different from the miraculous fate of the poor and miserably living family Caduff to whom the wizard comes in the person of the realty-owner Mr. Frehner who gives them for free a luxury-apartment on the Nob Hill of Zurich and turns them from gypsies to winners of the post-war-time in "Es Dach überem Chopf". However, there is a huge difference between "Vitus" and the old Kurt Früh-movies: the ladder are social-critique, the Vitus is not, but stays on the surface. Instead, we learn about the desolate status of today's Swiss German which is mixed up with American lumps. Above all, "Vitus" simply lacks its anchoring in today's Swiss society - as Kurt Früh's movies were strongly anchored in the Zurich society of the 50ies and 60ies. Although we see Vitus' father and, shortly, his mother, at work, the family stays isolated from the rest of Zurich's society. For example, we do not even see any neighbors in or around the house in Wipkingen, where the family von Holzen lives. All the encounters of Vitus and his family stand under the appearances of wonders that will happen, not under actual social interplay. The movie, therefore, is a nice and entertaining story about a fictive little boy, but not more and settles, compared to Kurt Früh's movies, on a much deeper level than it had been reached in Swiss film culture already at the end of the fifties.