IRENE SCHWEIZER: A FILM PORTRAIT BY GITTA GSELL
Music is and always has been Irene Schweizer's whole life. In her film, Gsell gets some rare one-to-one time with the internationally renowned Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer, whose music has roots in Jazz and improvisational music. The film gives a fascinating insight into the life of a great artist. Irène Schweizer • a Film Portrait There it stands • the grand piano • waiting for her. For a woman who has referred to the piano as her companion for over 40 years, has shared happiness and sadness with it, was inspired by it and who has lived this inspiration to the fullest with it. Seldom has she had an affair with another • and if so, then with the drums. Friendships and relationships 'played second fiddle' to music, were cultivated between appointments abroad, rehearsals, somewhere between inspiration and creation. It was always music that inspired her to soar to the heights, sometimes followed by the deepest sense of loneliness. Music was and is her life. I'm not exactly sure when I heard Irène play for the first time. I only remember how delighted and enthusiastic I was. In the Swiss Jazz scene, she is an exception • as an instrumentalist. In the Fifties women were mainly singers, but even as a young woman, Irène had already been awarded first prize as a pianist at the Amateur Jazz Festival in Zurich. The atmosphere in the smoky Jazz locales of the Fifties and Sixties, the political change in the air in '68 and the Women's Lib Movement in the Eighties fascinated me. Irène improvised on the piano: elbows hammering and dragging along the keys, fingers pecking and darting over them. Pulling and plucking the strings inside the piano. With a biography and an alternative lifestyle like hers, Irene is an exception in Switzerland. As a woman working in a creative area myself, she both interested me and inspired me to make this film. A good ten years older than I am, she is for me a forerunner of the Women's Liberation Movement and one of the very few female figures in the Swiss creative scene • 63 years old, with her musical roots in Jazz and, in the meantime, avidly involved in and internationally renowned for her Instant Composing and her improvised music. Featuring: Subtitles: German, English, French, Spanish Specials:
Retail Price: $29.98 Online Sale Price: $28.48 Publisher/Record Label Info:: INTAKT 1214 Product Details: DVD (PAL) 75 Min. Product Code: 7640120191214 This item usually ships within 5 to 7 business days. Recently Visited ProductsRecently Visited Pages |
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