Delphine Seyrig, portrait d'une comète

A collection of woodworkers' portraits, among them carvers and coopers, roof tilers and toymakers.

The Bapst Brothers: Romain, Maurice and Jacques – whom we will also meet in The Gruyere Chronicle (produced in 1990) – are peasants and carriers and work with their father. In autumn and winter, they bid for the community’s wood, cut down the pine trees and bring down the logs through the snowy woods by horse-drawn sleigh.

A tale, told by his five daughters, of the life and death of a man very representative of a Protestant Switzerland in the early 20th century where life was conditioned by the work ethic. He was first a farmer, then a factory worker, then the head of a small family affair where his daughters became his workers. The business grew into an large factory that would be eventually taken over by the only son. The five stories show us the family and professional context of the first half of the 20th century. They are also five different versions of the serene death of a man who felt he had done his duty. The film illustrates the ideas of Max Weber, known for their importance in understanding the Western civilization that emerged from the Reformation.

A young Swiss drug addict (Jacques Zanetti) has been imprisoned for robbery, and must wait and wait for his upcoming trial, all the while isolated and without hope of parole - the police are convinced he is a dealer and not just a user. He hears from his son that his girlfriend has a new man, and begins to despair of ever coming to trial, or of having another relationship like the one he lost. This fiction film is said to be based on a true story.

The shooting of this peasant chronicle in the Gruyère region of Switzerland lasted a whole year, from July 1989 to July 1990. A year of work and festivities in the family of Conrad and Louise Bapst, their children and grandchildren who live in La Roche (canton of Fribourg). In summer, part of the family goes with the herd to the upper pastures, and will move six times in the next three months, as the grass for the cows grows in higher and higher places. At the farm below, the rest of the family mows the hay and the after crop, and tends the vegetable garden. Fall and winter bring new chores, along with feast-days, and the sale of cheeses to pay for rented pastures. We see the family participate in a vote for or against the Swiss Army, and at a meeting where mountain farmers discuss whether or not to join the European Union. The film displays the patient and human approach of an almost silent minority of Switzerland.

Cannes Festival 1991

An animated cartoon about the Creation myth reviewed and corrected by two women. God the magician has decided to create a paradise: Switzerland. He covers it with trees and cows, until Adam is born. After exploring his paradise, Adam creates Eve from one of his ribs. Man is shown as an erect penis, woman by a limbless trunk.