Engeberg_Magazin_No_17

Wintersportplakate von Willy Amhrein.

Josef Hurschler (links) ver- körpert Eugen Hess-Waser, Josef «Bixi» Häcki die Haupt- figur Willy Amrhein. Josef Hurschler (left) plays Eugen Hess-Waser, while Josef “Bixi” Häcki plays main character Willy Amrhein.

Willy Amrhein mit seiner Frau, gespielt von Theres Hurschler. The artist with his wife, played by Theres Hurschler.

Winter sports advertising posters of Willy Amrhein.

Willy Amrhein, gespielt vom Engelberger Josef «Bixi» Häcki. The role of Willy Amrhein is filled by Engelberg na- tive Josef “Bixi” Häcki.

Engelberg painter Willy Amrhein (1873-1926) only lived to be 53, but everything he accom- plished in his relatively short life can still be felt in the valley today. A film crew set out in search of the traces left behind by this great local artist, and made some astonishing discoveries along the way. Engelberg around the year 1900. The sleepy va lley is beginning to wake up. Hotels are opening their doors to the f irst winter guests, and the young people of the v illage are hooked on the new spor t of skiing. Among them is a man who helped iser, book illustrator, f ilmmaker, photogra- pher, scu lptor, collec tor, caver, ath lete, and the founder of both Engelberg Ski Club (1903) and the Engelberg sec tion of the SAC (1910). Willy studied ar t in Munich and star ted his ar tistic career as a por trait painter. A lthough gif ted in this genre, he progressively turned his at ten- tion to landscape painting, and was the ar tist behind Engelberg’s f irst winter spor ts adver- tising posters. His love of snowy landscapes increasingly found expression in his work. There can’ t be many painters who are able to por tray the various types of snow as impres- sively and as natura lly as Willy Amrhein cou ld. Willy’s illustrations, paintings and graphics are as captivating today as they were when they were f irst produced, but he lef t much more than that to posterity. For exam- ple, in the years before the First World War, Willy shot f ilms documenting a ll the dif fer- ent winter spor ts enjoyed in Engelberg at that time. Until ten years ago, that footage lay inspire the craze. His name is Willy Amrhein. Throughout his life, Willy pursued many dif ferent ac tiv ities that seem ut terly unrelated. He was a painter, hunter, event organ-

dormant in the archives of Engelberg Ski Club. But thanks to restoration work commissioned by Engelberg Cu ltura l Commission, the 35 mm nitrate f ilms were rescued f rom decay, and we were f ina lly able to discover the f u ll scope of Willy Amrhein’s cinematic legacy. The pains- taking manua l restoration process produced such impressive resu lts that loca l f ilmmak- ers decided to shoot a documentar y about the life and work of this pioneering Engelberger. The f ilm traces Willy’s life, put ting his work in the contex t of present-day Engelberg.

It includes historica l foot- age shot by the man himself and discussions with various inter v iewees, a longside re- enac tments of scenes as they may have happened a hun- dred years ago. These scenes

Willy Amrhein was a painter, film- maker, athlete and much more.

feature loca l amateur ac tors and were shot in various locations in and around Engelberg over a period of about a year. Claudia Steiner devel- oped the screenplay in collaboration with Beat Christen, who had the initia l idea for the pro- jec t. Beat was in charge of produc tion, while Claudia was the direc tor and editor. One spe- cia l achievement of the two f ilmmakers is that this documentar y is entirely “Made in Centra l Switzerland ”. The f ilm premieres at Engelberg Cinema on 5 December 2015. Fur ther screen- ings are planned before Das Erbe von Willy Amrhein – Auf Spurensuche in Engelberg und anderswo is released on DVD in spring 2016.

www.f ilm-willy-amrhein.ch

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blick zurück | looking back

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