Studio GDS

‘La course à l’abîme’ is a depiction of the final ride into hell from ‘La Damnation de Faust’ (1846) by Hector Berlioz.

A man exchanges his shadow for wealth, then, disappointed with the result, he has to be content with the seven-league boots, which will help him to find his way.

A young girl, cutting her bread, cuts herself. She runs to the chemist but he has just been murdered.

The slow construction of an image, to the rhythm of steps, ends when the monster meets his Bride.

While on an airplane, a traveller's spirit plunges into a dream world. Here, under the influence of the unknown, the logic of his desires prevails, and a romantic saga takes shape.

A father is riding with his son through the forest. The sick child thinks he sees the Erlking, who both charms and frightens him. Based on Goethe's poem "Erlkönig" and the music of Franz Schubert and Franz Liszt.

Movement within a painting, which begins with the savagery of a battle and comes to a halt in a rendition of a masterpiece of the 15th century – The Battle of San Romano by Paolo Uccello.

Through paintings that interact on the principle of Russian dolls, we are drawn along the swirling path of the thoughts of a pilgrim, a solitary walker.

A cat and mouse chase through five different animation techniques.

In his 40-year career since his first "author's film", "Le vol d'Icare" (1974), Schwizgebel has made hardly more than 15 short and medium-length films, mostly using the technique of animated acrylic painting. The brushstrokes and color effects give his works an incredible poetry. Virtually wordless and often accompanied by a piece of music, they are characterized by the stillness of painting and the constant movement of a camera: an eye that wanders and moves around the image itself, which is therefore constantly changing. Schwizgebel plays with repetitions, circles and references (especially to the areas of film and painting). He has created an exciting work that is worth discovering in the form of this collection - all at once and in chronological order.

The film begins with a part of the title disappearing through a cut in its center, cutting through the middle and producing a movement from right to left, revealing a room occupied by a child and her black maid. This is followed by an uninterrupted series of animated images, a kind of fleeting moment or painting that continually transforms, until it becomes a copy of Edouard Manet’s Olympia (1863). The second part begins with the title’s next part, which disappears just like the first one, setting in motion a reverse movement, from left to right, where images related to the first part, out of focus or from other points of view, arrive, ending with the reproduction of Félix Vallotton’s La Blanche et la Noire (1913).

The story of a young deer deceived by appearances, or how a good deed in haste can be the cause of a tragedy.

The return of three Anglicizied natives people to their county or the beginning of a meeting with the modern world that will destroy them.

In Kyoto, it is in the middle of summer and the O-Bon festival is approaching. Everyone eagerly awaits this annual event, because it is well known that wishes come true. Most of them want wealth, beauty and health. Except Nashi, a homeless man who pollutes the air with his body odour to the point of becoming more and more of a public hazard. His only real wish is to bathe in a public bath.

A nostalgic serviceman battling against the recruits of today.

A man brushes his teeth and goes to bed, but again and again his sleep is disturbed...

A man plays and wins. He's euphoric, but... A different game, a different winning player. Nature shows its presence. In the end, the praise of slowness.

The “king” secretly dreams of showing his ass to his subjects, and they do just that. Dominant and dominated share the same fantasy of social rites. A carnivalesque temptation whose hallmark is not to touch the reality of social relations, but only to play on their reversal.

The day begins. Characters live their lives, animals theirs, a gentleman takes off his hat, a lady smokes a cigarette and the sun sets.