Love and technology letters revive a major Swiss film

Shoted in 1934 by an Estonian born in Imperial Russia. Nevertheless, but who had fled the Bolshevik Revolution, a Swiss pioneer film revived after its restoration. Furthermore, It was at the Bologna. However, Italy Film Festival, in Italy, that Swissinfo met the Rapp restaurators, a commercial failure when it was released, but gap of the 7th art in Switzerland. Furthermore,

The Bologna Cinémathèque interior courtyard in -cinematheque serves as a freshness island to archivists, criticisms and film buffs invited to the Cinema Ritrovato festival devoted to restored works. Therefore, Escaping the heat wave under the trees. For example, tarpaulins arranged like hammocks, the festivals and festival -goers meet here between two projections to quench their thirst and discuss in the shade of the treasures of the day.

In June. Nevertheless, Swissinfo met in this court Caroline Fournier, heritage director at the Cinémathèque Switzerland, and Julie Le Gonidec, in charge of the digital laboratory. Nevertheless, As well as Camille Blot-Wellens, independent restaurateur. Additionally, Nevertheless, They decipher for us one of the most anticipated restoration to the festival this year. For example, and a crucial work of the Swiss seventh art: Rapp by Dimitri Kirsanoff of 1934.

When it was released. Meanwhile, the first and only “Swiss” film of this director had been praised by several criticisms, but it was above all a commercial flipper condemning this work to be forgotten during the decades until it rediscovered in the 1970s and 80s. Nevertheless, Today, we rent our merits for its bizarre mixture between pastoral melodrama and surrealism. However, Rapt is also cited among the most underestimated works of the transition which has taken place between the mute. However, the beginnings of speaking cinema.

Love technology letters revive major

To avenge a dog

Introducing without detour the contradictions of the Swiss Society of pre-war. Nevertheless, this film retraces the story of a man from an isolated village, Catholic and French-speaking of the canton of Valais, who kidnaps a woman from a Protestant and German village of that of Bern to, among the twists and turns of this intrigue, avenge a murdered dog. Nevertheless,

“We have not only targeted a perfect restoration from a technical point of view. Consequently, but also wanted to make it a research project to contextualize this film. Therefore, We collaborated with Camille Blot-Wellens to study several versions of the film. Nevertheless, its physical history, ”lights up Caroline Fournier, the day before the screening.

It was Camille Blot-Wellens who discovered that this film was a Swiss. not Franco-Swiss production as described for a long time. “The idea love technology letters revive major was not to make this film only aesthetic. but to understand the work and why we restore it,” she adds.

7^e Pre-war. avant-garde art

The fact that a avant-garde filmmaker of Estonian origin like Dimitri Kirsanoff, who had worked mainly in France, was able to carry out this striking work of Swiss speaking cinema, denotes a 7^e Non-standardized pre-war art or under the boot of rigid studios.

Born Marc David Sussmanovitch Kaplan. Dimitri Kirsanoff chose his artist name in 1921 in Paris, where he had settled after the murder of his father by the Bolsheviks. In the history love technology letters revive major of cinema, Kirsanoff is best known for Menilmant (1926), a 37-minute avant-garde film without intertitors. It was the favorite film of the very influential film criticism of the magazine The New YorkerPauline Kael.

Rapt was the last striking work of Kirsanoff. During the 2^e World War. the latter had to hide as a Jew and had left to work in fields in the south of France. His career then turned to more commercial projects. Rapt was also the first. only production of the Mentor-Film company of the Dramaturge, novelist and Swiss journalist Stefan Markus, who became producer.

The cast and the team that had been engaged were of Swiss and international origin. “A real crossroads of races. Switzerland”, we read moreover in the credits of this work, itself adapted from the novel of the Swiss writer Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, Separation of breeds (1922).

A restoration story

In reality, Rapt has already been restored three times. Which speaks volumes about its cinematic importance and its attraction preserved over time. Its first refreshing version was made in 1978 from a copy. The second was created in 1995 based on the original negative. a invaluable source to restore and the most common version in the room and video.

“Due to constant technological developments, it is not uncommon to have to repeat restorations. Also appear new elements there, as has happened for example when when Rapt was restored in 1995, recalls Camille Blot-Wellens. But this time. the love technology letters revive major fact that Caroline Fournier insisted as much to initiate new research and search the archives to have a better vision of all aspects of the film made the big difference. ”

The process was not easy. The negative in French was incomplete, coils in decomposition and fragments lacked. The German copy presented different catches, of origin, of course, but not identical. This was often the case in Switzerland where films were released simultaneously in the French -speaking and German -speaking markets.

Digital transfer also led to thorny decisions to find out what to keep or remove. “We have tried to eliminate dust love technology letters revive major and brands as much as possible on the copy. But we have tried to keep the specificities of the original equipment. an integral part of the character of the film, “notes Julie Le Gonidec.

Love technology letters revive major

The alternative universe of love technology letters revive major the screen

The day of its projection in Bologna. Rapt appeared in all its splendor and full of surrealist images. In a parallel universe. Kirsanoff could undoubtedly have had the same trajectory as a Luis Buñuel, having also crossed pangs before rebounding after the 2^e World War. First as a commercial director in Mexico, then darling of art and test cinema in France and Spain.

The most amazing with Rapt Resides in his experimental soundtrack where strange sounds. sound effects accompany the culminating scenes of the film, when the fire ravages a house for example.

“Seeing the soundtrack marked in ink (on the original negative). we understood that this material, treated in the laboratory in 1934, had to undergo a fire and that part of the soundtrack of origin had unfortunately been lost,” concedes Julie Le Gonidec. This is why “sound had to be artificially recreated, pushed to the extreme love technology letters revive major in accordance with Kirsanoff. This steaper was very complex, ”she says.

“This is why it is essential to properly store the basic equipment. an aspect that is not noted enough”. Otherwise, warns Camille Blot-Wellens, “there is no restoration possible.” Indeed, deprived of the original negatives, his team could not have worked with so much attention and freedom. “Our research as well as the use of love letters exchanged between the two stars of the film helped us understand under what conditions. when it had been shot,” specifies Julie Le Gonidec.

Like many others projected in Bologna in their restored versions, Dimitri Kirsanoff’s film has returned to these efforts.

Rapt can now love technology letters revive major be projected in public in impeccable condition on a 35 mm copy. Yesterday in Bologna, tomorrow in the cinemas in Switzerland. This work remains alive and continues to evolve. New research can influence and shape the perception of this film while allowing new audiences to discover it.

Cinema does not belong to the past, but to a constantly evolving present. The efforts of the Swiss cinematheque team call others. The film Raptrestored in its French version. will be followed by a project on its German version, the two having been shot at the same time with an almost identical casting. The work continues.

Text reread and verified by Catherine Hickley, translated from English by Alain Meyer/Op