Charles Reinert (1899–1963) made his debut as a film critic at the Basler Volksblatt newspaper in 1938. Under his leadership, the film department of the Association populaire catholique suisse (Popular Swiss Catholic Association) was established in Lucerne in 1938. Founder of the Filmberater magazine in 1941, he began compiling a film archive. Advisor to the papal commission for film and member of the International Catholic Organisation for Cinema, Reinert supported the new medium, both culturally and ethically, and endeavoured to associate it with the Catholic ideology of his day. During the Nazi rise to power and the Second World War, his moral influence over Swiss cinema was evident.
Charles Reinert’s autograph book is a special kind of archive document. From 1946 to 1960, Reinert, the ecclesiastical and discerning film buff, collected signatures from representatives of the Catholic Church as well as filmmakers and actors of his time, including Hollywood stars like Orson Welles and Liz Taylor; pioneers of avant-garde cinema like Hans Richter and Alberto Cavalcanti; the long-standing director of the Cinémathèque française, Henri Langlois; leading figures in European auteur cinema such as Federico Fellini and Giulietta Masina; and Swiss filmmakers Leopold Lindtberg and Heinrich Gretler. Reinert travelled with his book and attended Swiss film previews, film conventions and festivals. For example, he was a regular visitor to Venice Film Festival.
His autograph book is a record of his many encounters and reveals a rich network of people and places. The history of the Catholic Church combines extraordinarily with the history of European and American cinema. It is also a document of the post-war period and highlights the complex interplay between art and politics with signatures from emigrated and exiled individuals, such as Peter Lorre and Thérèse Giehse who worked in Switzerland during the Second World War, as well as Kristina Söderbaum and Alfred Bauer who pursued their careers within the National Socialist regime.
[source: Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, DHS, (Historical Dictionary of Switzerland)]