Storm over Mont Blanc (Germany, 1930) Trient Gletscher, Arosa, Bernina Pass, St. Moritz, Lausanne
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Third Man on the Mountain (US/UK, 1959) Zermatt, Matterhorn
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Swiss Miss (US, 1939) Set-recreated Switzerland
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The Black Pierrot (Germany, 1926) Wengen
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Alpine Climbers (US, 1936) Walt Disney Studios
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Heidi (Austria, 1965) Maloja - Hotel Kulm, Orden, Pila, Lake Cavloccio, Soglio
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The Man Who Knew Too Much (UK, 1934) St. Moritz, Griesalp
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Downhill Racer (US, 1969) Geneva Airport, Lauberhorn, Wengen
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A Very Private Affair (France/Italy, 1962) Geneva
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The Great Escape (US, 1963) Füssen, Germany as the Swiss border; The Eiger Sanction (US, 1975) Zurich, Lucerne, Mürren, Kleine Scheidegg, Eiger
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It's not surprising that many foreign directors have chosen to film in Switzerland, with its chalets, mountains and banks. It's a land of spies and lawyers, of Heidi and Chaplin, of Dr Frankenstein and St Bernards. Switzerland, in the movies, is a land of adventure where James Bond drives through an alpine setting and jumps off a dam while Clint Eastwood climbs to the top of the Eiger.
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Thomas Kern was born in Switzerland in 1965. Trained as a photographer in Zürich, he started working as a photojournalist in 1989. He was a founder of the Swiss photographers agency Lookat Photos in 1990. Thomas Kern has won twice a World Press Award and has been awarded several Swiss national scholarships. His work has been widely exhibited and it is represented in various collections.
The images were recently published in the book Backdrop SwitzerlandExternal link. Mostly taken from the vast collection of the Cinémathèque Suisse and arranged by Cornelius Schregle, they form a curious journey into the soul of Switzerland – and its clichés.
Countless stars have come to Switzerland to shoot, for example Sophia Loren, Kirk Douglas, Vittorio Gassman, Sean Connery, Paul Newman and Peter Sellers. Others, such as Elizabeth Taylor, James Mason and Audrey Hepburn, chose to call the Alpine nation home. But the pictures also reflect an imaginary Switzerland, a fantasy world built in Hollywood and studios all around the globe.
Laurel and Hardy are lost in the Alps, which are made of cardboard; Matt Damon as Jason Bourne merely steps onto a sound stage of Zurich built in Prague; Leonardo di Caprio as the Wolf of Wall Street is superimposed on a green-screen’s virtual Geneva.
A Switzerland idolised by foreign films will make you laugh or cry, depending on your point of view. But that is part of a fascinating concept: what if this country were basically just a huge movie set?
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Oliver Paulus tells swissinfo how he came up with the idea for his culture-clash comedy, which had its world premiere in Zurich on Saturday, and why he thinks it will be a hit with Swiss audiences. “I was in an Indian village 17 years ago watching a Bollywood movie and suddenly Switzerland appeared on screen!”…
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.