Swiss filmmaker Georges Schwizgebel has played a pivotal role in contemporary animated filmmaking over the last thirty years having seen his work pick up prizes at Cannes, Annecy, Zagreb, Hiroshima, Stuttgart and Ottawa. Schwizgebel is famed for his freestyle approach to animation marked by the gestural application of colour and frequent use of geometric shapes.
The range of colours developed in his films is very personal, and notable for being almost entirely made up of vivid colours, creating both conflicting and complimentary moods. A highly painterly animator, Schwizgebel himself has stated that I enjoy expressing myself without dialogue, it is a means of communication accessible to all.
Schwizgebel’s films are even more remarkable for their unique and wonderful fusion of music and art in a highly surreal and witty manner creating a mesmerising effect of visual acrobatics. Energetic and playful on one hand, meticulous and rigorous on the other, Schwizgebel is a wildly talented artist, his films are undoubted masterpieces of virtuosity, each piece defying attempts to describe them in words.
We are delighted to welcome Georges Schwizgebel to present a selection of his animated films – a unique opportunity to meet the filmmaker and see his beautiful work on the big screen.
With thanks to Marcel Muller, Swiss Films
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Le Vol d'Icare
Georges Schwizgebel
Switzerland | 1974 | 3mins
A pointillist musical illustration.
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Perspectives
Georges Schwizgebel
Switzerland | 1975 | 1min | Colour
People and perspectives in movement.
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Hors Jeu
Georges Schwizgebel
Switzerland | 1977 | 6mins
A description of a game between two teams where one of the teams change the rules.
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Le Ravissement De Franck N. Stein
Georges Schwizgebel
Switzerland | 1982 | 9mins | Colour
The slow construction of an image, to the rhythm of steps, ends when the monster meets his bride.
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78 Tours
Georges Schwizgebel
Switzerland | 1985 | 4mins
R.P.M.: pictures suggested by music, alternating with pictures of a person listening to it; from a waltz on the accordion generates a short story illustrating that time passes.
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Le Sujet Du Tableau
Georges Schwizgebel
Switzerland | 1989 | 6mins | Colour
With the complicity of a painter, an elderly man recovers youth and manages to wander through paintings.
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La Course À l'Abîme
Georges Schwizgebel
| 1992 | 4mins | colour and b&w
Colour and Black & White Using a six second cycle an animated painting illustrates an extract of an opera.
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L'Année Du Daim
Georges Schwizgebel
Switzerland | 1995 | 5mins | Colour
The story of a young deer deceived by appearances.
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Zig Zag
Georges Schwizgebel
Switzerland | 1996 | 1mins | Colour
A brief homage to Rodolphe Töppfer in a zigzag traveling.
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Fugue
Georges Schwizgebel
Switzerland | 1998 | 7mins | Colour
A man races down a flight of stairs. He takes refuge in a hotel room and begins to dream.
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La Jeune Fille Et Les Nuages
Georges Schwizgebel
Switzerland | 2000 | 5mins | Colour
The adventures of Cinderella told in several scenes and cloud images.
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L'Homme Sans Ombre
Georges Schwizgebel
| 2004 | 10mins | Colour
A man exchanges his shadow for wealth, and then, disappointed with the result, he has to be content with the seven league boots, which will help him to find his way.
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Jeu
Georges Schwizgebel
Switzerland | 2006 | 4mins | Colour
A visual and musical game which builds and destroys itself on the speedy rhythm of Serge Prokofiev’s Scherzo to Piano Concerto No. 2.
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Retouches
Georges Schwizgebel
Switzerland | 2008 | 6mins | Colour
Between a wave s rhythm and the breath of a young woman in her sleep, some animated paintings go on modifying each other.
