The never-ending story, Switzerland-style
The upcoming Cannes Film Festival is just two months away — and the thought of it hit me hard one morning.
I’ve been playing the waiting game to jot down my first recce — a term used in production in certain parts of the world that is basically a visit to a potential shooting location — in Europe that happened during the festival time last year. Why have I been procrastinating? Voices in my head had their debates as I reminisced into the mood of those splendid travel days in Switzerland.
My mode of travel was the best the country had to offer in terms of convenience — the Swiss Travel Pass. It gave me the flexibility of endless travel, my need of the hour. I had buckled up early in the morning to find a rather easy metaphor of picturesque Switzerland for my next film venture — a few hundreds of cows with the classic Swiss bells on their necks.
As the morning breeze swayed, I was elated by the thought that I was breathing the same cold air in Zurich as my master, the legend who carries the history of cinema in his body and soul: the 87-year-old Jean-Lic Godard, the reclusive French-Swiss filmmaker, and I, were in the same city.
A sudden gush of adrenaline hit me. The previous evening, I had seen Godard addressing a Press conference at the Cannes Film Festival using FaceTime, sitting at his Zurich home. This man was definitely ahead of technology compared to his peers, not to mention the newbies in cinema. No wonder that filmmakers the likes of Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese are enthralled by him.
How I wished to see Godard! But truth remains he is very typically Swiss and guards his privacy aggressively. He is famed for being difficult to get in touch with — even for friends as he keeps changing numbers. Well, that can be expected of the man who even refused to attend the Oscars.
Apart from the recce, on my bucket list during this trip were two mountaintops embellished with cinematic endowment — one adorned with James Bond legacy and the other of the Hindi film Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge.
Piz Gloria, where the Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was shot in 1969, is located on top of Schilthorn, a 2,970-metre-high summit.
The myth is that the restaurant owner panicked when the Bond team approached him. He was sceptical about the film having shots where they bomb the structure — a notorious research lab. He was scared his half-constructed sports bar would have no future at all.
In an almost cinematic surreal experience, the Bond production team financed the completion of the unique revolving restaurant and also the helicopter landing platform in exchange for exclusive filming rights.
I was lucky the skies were clear on the day I dwelled in the mountain and could relish the postcard perfect sights as Piz Gloria, the world’s first revolving mountaintop restaurant. Most times, the spectacular views are covered with grey shades of snow and clouds.
That said, Mount Schilthorn is worth a visit even for non-cinema buffs as it has the longest aerial tramway in the Alps with a length of 6,931 metres and over 2,103 metres in elevation.
Far different from Mount Schilthorn, atop Mount Titlis, I could sense desi air in the atmosphere. As I was ascending on the world’s first revolving cable car to reach the summit, an Indian team leader shouted ‘Ganapathi Bappa’ and was awed by their spirits. Yash Chopra has done a good job on making Indians dream of Switzerland’s yellow flowers in a background of lush green, I smiled.
Honeymooners clad in sarees posed for shots of their lifetime at every turn in Engelberg where the peak is located. At the top were giant cutouts of actors Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol, swarmed by Bollywood lovers waiting for their turn to photograph themselves with the paper stars.
No trip to the Alps should end without a story of snow. Tapping on the snow-skiing skills gained at Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates, I tried making a snowman and throw snowballs with the locals. A regular skier there told me on the effects the global warming had on the Alps.
“We have a lot of less snow nowadays. Melting glaciers are posing a big threat to future availability of drinking water,” he said. “Earth is on the way to becoming a hot oven.” The melancholy in his voice left me with an unknown grief for humanity.
Tired with thoughts on Mother Earth, I passed through a number of cheese factories on the mountains — another location I was searching for my film — and promised myself that I would come back to check on them. These home-factories would close and inhabitants had moved to alternate homes, a traditional practice when it snows in the mountains, I noted.
Looking to spot a half-burnt bridge in the background of building with murals, I reached Lucerne. I wandered through the churches, towers and took a cruise on the river. Days had gone by and a more important appointment needed my attendance — my son’s birthday, where he was turning a teenager. A recce half-done, I returned home to blow away 13 candles on a light green pistachio-mango cake.
I had to miss some of the places I yearned to visit in Switzerland. In Lucerne, a museum that had 37 Picasso paintings — the Rosengart Collection.
The 120-metre high Reichenbach falls at Meiringen was free to visit with my Swiss Travel Pass and missing it really brought guilt pangs. It housed the Sherlock Holmes Museum and was the locale that inspired author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to lock the death of his hero in the battle against Professor Moriarty.
I had also expected to stop at Geneva and take a sneak peek at the United Nations headquarters to meet a friend. Well, there is always a next time. Godard, I will see you soon and with my film.
My mode of travel was the best the country had to offer in terms of convenience — the Swiss Travel Pass. It gave me the flexibility of endless travel, my need of the hour