Peter Liechti – Dedications
Peter Liechti (1951–2014) was a Swiss filmmaker, director, and cinematographer. When he died after a long illness in 2014, he left behind a body of work comprising more than twenty movies, many of which have been shown at film festivals worldwide. Dedications was his last project, started when he was already suffering from terminal illness and never finished.
Although Liechti’s original idea with Dedications was a trilogy dedicated to Vincent van Gogh, the Swiss writer Robert Walser, and the unknown “Sudanese Chief,” the rapid progress of his illness caused him to revise this idea. Instead, Dedications became a dense personal project rooted in the filmmaker’s current state.
Although Liechti died in 2014 before he could complete Dedications, his companion and working partner Jolanda Gsponer has assembled the work here in three parts in keeping with his wishes. Part one is a recorded reading by the filmmaker from the diary he kept during his hospital stays. In part two, Gsponer and Liechti’s former collaborators present the raw materials for Dedications in an audiovisual installation. Part three is this German language book, offering the full text of Liechti’s diary and illustrated with one hundred film stills and a DVD featuring the film’s unedited opening. Together, the book and DVD pay tribute to this filmmaker whose contribution to European film culture is of immense value.
«Wir entdecken nun wieder Liechti den Literaten, der er eben auch war. Einen Wortmächtigen angesichts seiner Krankheit, selbst in der Hilflosigkeit.» Christoph Schneider, Tages-Anzeiger
«Im Buch können wir nun bei Peter Liechtis letzten Ausführungen verweilen, sie mehrmals lesen und in Bezug setzen zu den von Yolanda Gsponer sorgfältig ausgewählten Filmstills.» Flavia Giorgetta, NZZ am Sonntag
«Ist das Buch eine Muschel, die sorgsam diese letzten Texte – ‹Schreibhäufchen› nennt Liechti sie –umschliesst, so ist die beigelegte DVD die kostbarste Perle. Das 15-minütige Rohschnitt-Fragment dessen, was Liechtis letzter Film, sein Vermächtnis hätte werden sollen. […] Das wunderschöne Buch ist komponiert aus dem Spital-Tagebuch Liechtis und aus Filmbildern, aus seinem Drehbuchentwurf und einem Essay seines Freundes, des Filmkritikers Christoph Egger.» Brigitte Häring, Radio DRS 2
«Dedications ist letzte Hingabe an die Arbeit, an das Leben, aber auch die Einweihung von Aussenstehenden in das, was man fast immer bis zum bitteren Ende verdrängt: die Gedanken ans Sterben.» Tereza Fischer, Filmbulletin