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looking back
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
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-
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
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
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.chJosef 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, gespielt vom
Engelberger Josef «Bixi» Häcki.
The role of Willy Amrhein
is filled by Engelberg na-
tive Josef “Bixi” Häcki.
Willy Amrhein mit seiner Frau,
gespielt von Theres Hurschler.
The artist with his wife,
played by Theres Hurschler.
Wintersportplakate
von Willy Amhrein.
Winter sports advertising
posters of Willy Amrhein.
blick zurück
|
looking back
Willy Amrhein was a painter, film-
maker, athlete and much more.