The Cinémathèque suisse’s collaboration with UNIL
Since the creation of a chair in the History and Aesthetics of Cinema within the Faculty of Arts in 1990, the University of Lausanne (UNIL) and the Cinémathèque suisse have continued to work together. Firstly for courses, colloquia and publishing projects (such as 2007’s two volume Histoire du cinéma suisse, 1966–2000), and then to set up an official collaboration aimed in particular at facilitating the research
work carried out by members of the History and Aesthetics of Cinema section using the Cinémathèque suisse’s collections. In fact, since 2006 there has been an increase in the number of SNSF projects directed by professors and lecturers, covering a wide range of fields of research, most often related to the history of Swiss cinema. Among the topics covered are the work of important figures in Swiss cinema (e.g. Alain Tanner, the Ansorge family) and that of Swiss companies that have played a decisive role in certain technical areas of the industry (e.g. Bolex light cameras, Nagra and direct sound). We have also worked on institutions such as the Waldau Institute and its utilitarian films (psychiatry), and on the Cinémathèque suisse itself, whose history has been the subject of two research projects. Last but not least, this fruitful collaboration also involves the students, who are regularly invited to make use of the institution’s collections to support their coursework.
Laurent Le Forestier
Professor at the University of Lausanne (UNIL)