The Salamander (film, 1971)

The second feature film of Tanner, the first major international success of Swiss cinema and one of the most famous roles of Bulle Augier .

The end of October is somewhere in the west of Switzerland, near the French border. The journalist Pierre, who is in need of money, agrees to write a television script based on a recent criminal story about a certain Rosemond accused of trying to shoot his uncle with an army rifle (which every military-laden Swiss has). Since there were no witnesses, and during the trial she spoke against her uncle, the girl was acquitted for lack of evidence. Since Pierre simultaneously needs to prepare for publication three articles about Brazil, he invites the co-author of the writer Paul, who also sits without money and earns money as a painter.

The friends agree that Paul will compose the plot, and Pierre will investigate the journalist to get the necessary information. At the same time, Paul categorically objects to acquaintance with the girl herself, and does not want to know anything about her, so that contact with reality does not destroy the image he invented. At the same time, when creating a fictional heroine, he sometimes shows amazing insight, quite accurately reproducing the real details of Rosemond's biography.

Acquaintance with Rosemond nullifies all plans. The girl is an elusive nature who wants to live free and always remain herself, passes through life, not becoming attached to anything and not leaving anything behind herself, changes jobs one by one, because she cannot stand the monotony of manual labor in the factory and the routine of customer service in a shoe store, the lack of education does not allow to claim a more decent place (for example, a stewardess). The seventh child in a family of 11 children, she was sent to the city to her uncle, where she lived as a servant. At 17, she gave birth to an illegitimate child, whom her mother had adopted.

Pierre and Paul, who achieved slightly more success than Rosemond, but who remain marginalized and outsiders, openly despising bourgeois society and capitalism (“who works honestly, earns little”), are sympathetic to her life position.

Tired of working in the sausage shop, Rosemond instead of the gut defiantly releases the sausage mass into the condom, quits the job and claims to Pierre, sitting in his bed. At the same time, a remarkable dialogue takes place between the girl and the journalist sitting above the article ^{[1] [K 1]} .

After meeting Rosemond, Paul is unsettled and can no longer write. From time to time, he informs his wife that he met Pierre with a girl named Zoe, and slept with her, probably because her name is Zoe (“Life”), and also because of Rosemond ^{[K 2]} . This is not very interesting for his wife; she explains to Paul that he is simply aging, and that his life is becoming less and less simple, and he reads a long quote from Heine to him ^{[K 3]} .

To find out the details of Rosemond's life, all three go to the village where the girl's family lives. Winter has already begun in the mountain valley, the money from friends has come to an end, the advance has been spent, and nothing has been written. Pierre and Paul roam the snowy forest, cursing capitalism ^{[K 4]} .

Pondering the nature of Rosemond, Paul writes in a notebook:

The salamander is a small beautiful animal from the family of lizards. It is black in color, with yellow-orange spots. The salamander is poisonous, it is not afraid of fire, and can pass through the flame without being burned.

Rosemond takes a job at a shoe store. Soon, her friend Roger at night steals a key from her pocket and cleans the cash desk, and suspicion again falls on a girl who is often at odds with the law. Pierre and Paul seek out the truth, and Rosemond admits that she shot at her uncle because she could no longer bear the tyranny of the old man. She asks Paul if he considers her guilty, and the writer replies that it was not her fault that the carbine was in her hands at the moment of rage (the weapon should be useful, if it hangs on the wall), but it’s good that the bullet hit shoulder, not chest. At the same time, he explains to the girl, wondering why the whole world hates her desire for independence, and tries to subdue her, that she must learn to recognize her enemies.

Pierre and Paul decide to quit the television project, as they can’t create a believable image of the heroine. Pierre takes over the costs (he doesn’t have a penny, so it doesn’t matter if he owes more or less to one debt) and plans to move to Paris, and Paul returns to the team of painters five days before Christmas.

The work drives Rosemond crazy, it behaves provocatively, starting to stroke the feet of customers while trying on shoes, and leaves the store with a scandal on the same day, December 20. Leaving the street with a happy smile, she passes through the gloomy crowd of passers-by. Holidays are “looming menacingly on the horizon” ( menaçantes à l'horizon ), and masses of people in a schizophrenic impulse are preparing to storm discount stores. The last scene is effectively solved in a style close to the aesthetics of the video clip, to the sounds of the ending of the symphonic rock composition by Patrick Moras La Salamandre .

• Bul Ogier - Rosemond
• Jean-Luc Bideau - Pierre
• Jacques Denis - Paul
• Veronik Alain - Suzanne
• Daniel Stuffel - cartridge shoe store
• Marblen Jekier - Fields Wife
• Marcel Vidal - Uncle Rosemond
• Dominic Cutton - Roger
• Violette Fleury - mother of the patron of the shoe store
• Mista Preschak - mother of Rosemond
• Pierre Walker - Civil Defense Inspector
• Jeanine Christoph - Catherine, friend of Pierre
• Guillaume Chaeneuvier - Police Inspector
• Claudine Bertier - Zoe, typist
• Michel Viala - foreman of the painters
• Jean-Christophe Malan - factory foreman

French critics usually see the film as the Swiss echo of Paris in May 1968 , and a continuation of the New Wave tradition, which had faded to France by the beginning of the 70s, but dispersed abroad. This opinion has a share of snobbery and arrogant condescension of the cultural capital to a backward province, despite the fact that Tanner does not deny his connection with the New Wave. One of the episodes in the shoe store is a direct reference to Truffaut 's “Stolen Kisses” ^[2] , and American distributors used a frame from this scene for an advertising poster.

Roger Ebert , who did not see anything interesting in this picture, except for the variation of the plot of “Jules and Jim” , suggested renaming the film to “Snail” ( L'Escargo ) and season with “butter and garlic” ^[3] . In France, the tape, although it is considered a classic, also has a reputation for being intellectually boring ( intelli-chiant ; the social reasoning of the characters is very reminiscent of the communist grumbling of Godard ’s films during the period of fascination with Maoism ), which Xavier Jame from the DVD-Classik actively objects to ^[4] . In his opinion:

A mocking and playful political leaflet, the Salamander is a work of art of a tightrope walker, sadly funny, joyfully sad, about three charming Swiss freaks, “who are trying to maintain their independence, the moral integrity within the society that they criticize and which is hostile to them” ( Jacques Lursel ). Continuously balancing between burlesque anarchy (a hilarious scene with a sausage apparatus, inappropriate interventions of authorities ...) and city spleen (a wonderful voiceover in the finale), the film makes a strong impression until the very end. At one time, it was a success, unimaginable today, gathering a quarter of the population of Lausanne in the halls, and another million spectators around the world.

- Xavier Jamet ^[4]

Humorous scenes in the film, emphasizing the marginality of Pierre and Paul ^{[K 5]} , Ebert considers not relevant ^[3] .

Vincent Kenby about the picture of a higher opinion. Recognizing the stylistic similarities with Jules and Jim, as well as with early Godard ( Live Your Life , Outsider ), a New York critic believes that Tanner, making his tough and funny film, had in mind the work of the masters, not imitating them, and created a completely original work ^[5] .

He also takes the myth of the salamander without consequences through the fire ^[5] , because it is the key to understanding the nature of the main character ^{[K 6]} .

Jacques Lursel , to which Xavier Jame refers, summarizes the contents of the picture as follows:

Rosemond and her emotional turmoil are like a mirror of the schizophrenic tendencies of the society in which she lives. With her, not everything is in order - but not all is well in the world. Friends (especially Paul) are trying to convey this idea to her, but at the same time they themselves are trying to better understand it. Alternately drawing funds from the arsenal of comedy, avant-garde sketch, psychological and social analysis, lyrical and philosophical reflections, “cinéma verité”, this investigation film constantly balances on the brink of an abyss. His poetry eventually acquires a political orientation, as it nostalgic for a harmonious society whose appearance is so far away that someday the world may die without waiting for it.

- Lursell J. Authors Encyclopedia of films. T. II, p. 503. - SPb.-M .: Rosebud Publishing, 2009. - ISBN 978-5-904175-02-3

The film was a great success with the public: 50,000 viewers in Geneva and Lausanne alone, 200,000 in Paris, and more than a million in the world, which was facilitated by the screening of the film at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival . The film received a special mention at the festival in Berlin (Prize of the International Catholic Film Organization (OCIC) ^[6] .

For Tanner, this success was unexpected, since the director did not consider the picture a success, and again looked at it only thirty years later ^[6] .

The script and dialogues were published in No. 125 of L'Avant-Scène in 1972. The tape was restored in 1996-1999 by Memoriav using the Schwartz-Film laboratory. The remastered soundtrack, recorded by Patrick Moraz and the rock group Mainhorse , was released in 2013 ^[7] .

In 2015, the tape was shown at the Locarno Film Festival , where Bulle Augier received the Golden Leopard for her career ^[8] .

• La Salamandre (1971) de Alain Tanner (Fr.) (05.24.2015). Date of treatment May 6, 2016.
• Jamet X. La Salamandre (Fr.) . DVD-Classik (04.16.2006). Date of treatment May 6, 2016.
• La Salamandre (Fr.) . Critikat (04/15/2008). Date of treatment May 6, 2016.
• Massart G. Salamandre (La) (French) . Filme de culte. Date of treatment May 6, 2016.
• Ebert R. La Salamandre (English) (11.28.1972). Date of treatment May 6, 2016.
• Canby V. Screen: 'La Salamandre': A Swiss Import Evokes an Age of Discovery . The New York Times (08/04/1972). Date of treatment May 6, 2016.
• La Salamandre (Fr.) . Cinema francais. Date of treatment May 6, 2016.
• La Salamandre (Fr.) . Telema (04/04/2015). Date of treatment May 6, 2016.
• La Salamandre de Alain Tanner (1971) (French) . Universciné. Date of treatment May 6, 2016.
• La Salamandre (Fr.) . Unifrance Date of treatment May 6, 2016.
• La Salamandre: Dossier visuel (Fr.) . Site officiel. Date of treatment May 6, 2016.
• La Salamandre (Fr.) . Swissfilms. Date of treatment May 6, 2016.
• La Salamandre (The Salamander). Pardo alla carriera Bulle Ogier (Fr.) . Festival del film Locarno . Date of treatment May 6, 2016.
• La Salamandre: Extraits vidéo (French) . Site officiel. Date of treatment May 6, 2016.
• La salamandre, Alain Tanner 1971 (vidéo) (French) . Vimeo. Date of treatment May 6, 2016.

• Schaub M. L'usage de la liberté: le nouveau cinéma suisse, 1964-1984, p. 167. - Zürich; Lausanne: Pro Helvetia; L'Âge d'Homme, 1985. books.google.com