The Blocher Experience
Jean-Stéphane Bron
Switzerland, France | 2013 | 99 min
Languages : Swiss German, French
Subtitles : French, English
“To tell your story is to tell ours, to explore our shadow.” In this voice-over, Jean-Stéphane Bron is addressing Christoph Blocher, whom he is filming during the latter’s election campaign in autumn 2011. L'Expérience Blocher is the portrait of a poor pastor’s son turned billionaire, who has radically transformed the Swiss political landscape in his wake.
Minimum legal age 10 years, recommended 14 years and over
“How do you portray a man whose ideas, methods and convictions you do not share?” This is the question that Jean-Stéphane Bron asks himself as he begins filming Christoph Blocher, during the latter’s campaign for the 2011 federal elections. By accepting the Faustian pact of regarding the man who was still, at the time, the uncontested leader of the SVP, “as a man” - and not as the devil incarnate. Through a complex and anti-caricatural mise-en-scène, the filmmaker engages in a form of experimental clinical analysis - in the psychoanalytical sense - by using the camera as an introspective instrument. The aim is, firstly, to keep the “enemy” at bay, through the use of a carefully scripted voice-over, made up of comments made by Blocher off-screen, which reflect his inner life. Secondly, to understand why the figure of this “political juggernaut” crystallises the collective unconscious of his country. Finally, to identify how the party he embodies corrodes Swiss democracy. L’Expérience Blocher is one of Bron’s most ambitious projects, in which the filmmaker holds up a striking mirror to his fellow citizens, reflecting their dark side.
Emmanuel Chicon
