For Michael Steiner, it all began with great emotions in the jungle
Published: Tuesday, Jul 16th 2024, 10:30
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The initial spark for Swiss director Michael Steiner's passion for film was "The Jungle Book". After a movie that turned his head and an evening in Paris, he was hooked: He became a filmmaker.
Michael Steiner says as if shot from a gun: "It was the seat on the far right in the third row - on a Sunday morning at the end of the 1970s at the cinema in Rapperswil." In an interview with Keystone-SDA, the 55-year-old Swiss director also tells us which movie was being shown: "'The Jungle Book'." That was his first cinema memory.
He was ten years old when he saw the movie at a matinee for children in a packed auditorium. It was the Disney film from the 1960s that became one of the most successful movies ever.
"This movie experience was a revelation for me", says Steiner, "simply great". It shaped him, also for his work: think big, do big. Strong emotions, strong images. That suits Steiner, who later made a name for himself with films such as "Wolkenbruch" (2018) and "Sennentuntschi" (2010).
The power of cinema
But a second movie must also be mentioned, says Steiner: "Brazil" by Terry Gilliam. He saw it when he was 16. The dark dystopia, Kafkaesque and grotesque, "turned his head". "I sat in the cinema in amazement and realized how fictional worlds can be created. With 'Brazil', I discovered the creative power of cinema."
When he began to explore the art of film as a teenager, he was also impressed by elegiac works such as those made by Soviet film artist Andrei Tarkovsky ("Nostalghia", 1983).
Born at the end of the 1960s, television, a clunky device with few channels at the time, played a central role in his cinematic socialization alongside cinema. Steiner particularly remembers the "Star Trek" series. Science fiction still interests him today: fantastic worlds, equipment, tricks and special effects, but also the social consequences of technology.
He experienced a fourth initial event on his path to his current profession in Paris. He had traveled there at the age of 18. A Rolls-Roye stopped in front of a disco. Models got out and then a man in a light blue suit. Steiner learned the man's name and profession: Roman Polanski, a film director. "I thought: that must be an interesting profession," laughs Steiner.
Enthusiastic to this day
Most recently, Steiner was responsible for "Early Birds", the first Swiss film for Netflix. The director also caused a stir at the beginning of the year when he resigned from the Swiss Film Academy, accusing the organization of being riddled with a Rösti divide. Because you have to pay 200 francs as a member of the Academy in order to be allowed to vote, only the nominees and their entourage pay in, and the Romands are proportionally better represented and obviously more willing to pay. Steiner demanded that the Academy should make membership free of charge.
In his mid-50s, Steiner can still get excited about the movies without reservation. Currently, "Dune 2" and "Avatar: The Way of Water" are among his personal top ten. He dreams of making a holographic film, the logical continuation of 3D technology. The characters would move in space and no aids such as 3D glasses would be required to perceive and view the holograms.
This brings us full circle to that Sunday morning at the Leuzinger cinema in Rapperswil, when the young Michael Steiner felt how powerful images can be used to tell emotional stories.
About the person
Michael Steiner was born in 1969. He studied ethnology, art history and film studies at the University of Zurich. He later worked as a journalist, host and director. He became famous with "Nacht der Gaukler" (1996). With "Mein Name ist Eugen" (2005), "Grounding" (2006), "Sennentuntschi" (2010) and "Wolkenbruch" (2018), Steiner is one of the most commercially successful Swiss directors.*
*This text by Raphael Amstutz, Keystone-SDA, was realized with the help of the Gottlieb and Hans Vogt Foundation.
©Keystone/SDA
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