Les héritiers
de la Comtesse
Directed and written by: Donatella Bernardi
Production: Box Productions (Elena Tatti, Thierry Spicher)
Cinematography: Bettina Herzner
Editing: Orsola Valenti
Location sound mix and editing: Rudy Decelière
1st assistant: Jeanne Rektorik
Credits editing: Laurent Kempf
Credits graphics: Niels Wehrspann
Production assistant: Elodie Brunner
Accountant: Walter Rugo
Studio sound mix: Artefax, Lausanne
Calibration: Andromeda film, Zürich
Duration: 55’
A sumptuous villa overlooking Rome. Behind its protective walls, a stylish and perfectly stylized staff, all under the watchful eye of the Director.
Every year since 1948, the Swiss Institute in Rome has invited twelve carefully selected artists and scholars every year to an ideal environment for them to further educate themselves and enhance their careers with the federal government’s support. A privileged place of ongoing cultural education for the elite, or a holiday camp at the taxpayers’ expense? This is the question Donatella Bernardi looked into. For the 60th anniversary of the Institute, she invited different protagonists who have visited and lived at this place to recount their experience: researchers and artists, but also politicians and intellectuals (including Cardinal Georges Cottier, the movie director Clemens Klopfenstein, Jean-Frédéric Jauslin, director of the Federal Office of Culture, or the composer Adriano Giardina), who all spoke about their relationship to the Institute, an equally prestigious and decadent place, between outmoded elitism and the unfulfilled desire of meritocracy. The heirs of the Countess are opening their doors for us.
Stills by Jeanne Rektorik
