Der Fall (1972)

Walo Lüönd as Alfons Grendelmann

There is something that I really love in films, something my wife calls 'badger-poo'. This amusing (or not) term came about when I once tried to describe the ineffable texture of a movie and used a kind of motion of my fingertips, as if I were examining the texture of a substance like flour, or sawdust, or perhaps, badger poo. I suppose this is something that you might see on a nature programme, where Chris Packham or someone may take some dried scat and attempt to tell something about the animal, its health or age or whatever, by close tactile examination of its droppings. Anyway, basically, there are some films which are full of 'badger-poo', not a term I find inspiring, but I can't get away from it now.

Some films are so loaded with a sense of place, a sense of time, a complete world of somewhere that is real, but no longer reachable. A window into a recent past, usually a foreign past, (some places are loaded with 'badger poo'. Berlin, Paris, and Finland are particular examples for me) which I can never see in reality, and only exists in films. Imagine Edward Hopper's Nighthawks (1942) as a movie, for example.

Most of these films are black and white, and most are European. The ones that I have in the front of my mind writing this, are Bob le Flambeur (1956), Coplan prend des risques (1964), M (1931) and Pidä huivista kiinni, Tatjana (1994). There are others, but it's a tough company to join. These are films which all have brilliant stories, but more importantly, they have an atmosphere which I could inhabit. You could cut out all the dialogue and close-ups, and leave me with the scenes, the buildings, the rooms, the lights in the dusk, and I would still be happy to watch. Laitakaupungin valot (2006), that's another one.

A recent addition to this select group of mine is Der Fall (1972), the last film directed by Kurt Früh (1915-1979), probably Switzerland's most successful film director. That brings us to an important point. I think it might be the only Swiss film I've ever seen, although I could be wrong. It's definitely the only movie I've seen that is in Schweizerdeutsch, which adds another element of atmosphere for me. It's German, but not German. Maybe it's even more precise than German, constructed with Swiss cultural precision engineering.

Atmosphere, or 'badger poo', if you prefer

Der Fall is the story of Alfons Grendelmann, an ex-policeman turned private detective, played by Walo Lüönd (1927-2012), apparently one of Switzerland's best-loved actors. Alfons, like many real private detectives, seems to spend most of his time exposing marital infidelity and looking for missing teenagers. He is also lonely, and emotionally reserved; an unhappy man who has reluctantly accepted his lot.

After Alfons leaves the hospital where he has been visiting his sick father, the title sequence sees him take the train back to Zurich. Sitting across from him is an attractive young woman, who he occasionally glances at; with longing or just because she's there, it's hard to tell as his hang-dog expression gives nothing away. The woman plainly feels he is staring at her, so she pulls her skirt to cover her exposed knee. [PS After another look, I'm pretty sure that this woman is Marsha, who we shall hear of again, very soon. A clever bit of foreshadowing by the director]

Then he follows a woman from the train station to a block of flats. As we have no information yet about this character, we don't know what to make of it. As he tails the woman, he is distracted by a policeman who greets him as a workmate, so perhaps he is not just following women for fun.

Before long, we have determined that he is a private detective, and that he shares office space with Fraulein Gretz (Annemarie Düringer, 1925-2014) a woman who runs a freelance secretarial services business. The underlying romantic possibilities between them are a major part of the movie, as they move around each other unable to fully explore their attractions. She tries to take their relationship past the platonic, but he is so distracted and consumed by his work, clearly unhappy to have been driven from the police force for exposing a colleague's criminal behavior.

Annemarie Düringer as Fraulein Gretz

Eventually. he becomes involved with a much younger woman, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. What really makes this film special for me is the minutiae of Swiss life in the 1970s. This period is notable for me as it was still a time where young and old had hugely differing attitudes to life. These days most people in their 60s dress as if they were 25, and have many of the same interests as people much younger than them. In the 1970s, even people in their 40s dressed in conservative colours with sensible and quite drab fashions. The teenagers and twenty-somethings set new trends with long hair, short skirts, flares, bright colours, liberal attitudes to sex and politics. A real generation gap. Swiss society seems quite conservative, so the actions of the young are a real contrast. At one point the detective goes to a bar filled with young people, and seems so vulnerable in his car coat and moustache, next to their blasé, hedonistic attitudes. Alfons is reminiscent of Columbo; dishevelled, smarter than he looks and doggedly determined. The contrast is that Columbo has a wife, although we never see her, while Alfons is deeply lonely and alienated from women. Perhaps he's seen too many infidelities.

Walo Lüönd with Katrin Buschor as Marsha

A businessman comes to Alfons asking for his help in discouraging the demands a young woman he is having an affair with. In the course of the case, Alfons meets the woman, and their relationship has major repercussions. Marsha is a carefree, gold-digging teenager, played by Katrin Buschor, who only seems to have made two films, a shame considering she's so striking, and such a natural actress. 

Apart from the main plot, there are dozens of smaller incidents that make the movie memorable. From the strange clients Alfons has to decline, to the architecture and sights of Zurich, and the indoor cycle race that forms the backdrop to the finale. For me, this is a feast of Swiss noir, and a whole pocketful of 'badger poo'.

There is a version of it on YouTube, but that sadly only comes with Hochdeutsch Untertitel. The first six minutes are available though, with English subs. This includes the hospital visit and the credit sequence on the train.