The dystopic story of a fascist Switzerland, hunting the lactose intolerants in sight to establish the hegemony of the cheese company of its very leader, does that sound to you? In any case, it is the promise of Mad Heidi, the Swiss genre film by Johannes Hartmann and Sandro Klopfstein, funded by an international crowdfunding. Exit the friendly blondette girls, it is the heads that explode and the bursts of automatic rifles that shake the Swiss Alps.
A long-term project
First self-proclaimed film by Swissploitation, Mad Heidi took his time to germinate. In early 2017, we only had a thin teaser and a poster to give water to potential investors. And there were many! Finally, more than 530 people participated in the crowdfunding of this feature. A beautiful international co-production since they come from no less than 19 different countries! More than 2 million Swiss francs that were able to be gathered for a project that finally starts on the tracks of shooting in 2021...
Trash Heidi
The night seems to have been short for Peter the Chevrier, waking up to look after his cattle alongside a Heidi buttocks. The tone is decidedly set: irreverent, trash and gore. Heidi no longer had anything to do with Johanna Spyr's novels in the open air. As a young adult, she now gives the perfect love with her chevrier. But unfortunately, not for long.
His lover is in fact being shot down by the police of the dictator in place, because of his blasphemers goat cheeses without lactose... A bullet in the head and it's set. Definitely, it is far from the time of the endless debates under the federal dome: Commander Knorr seems very quick to use his trigger, and we understand it! It must be said that inefficient police officers find themselves quickly eating dandelions from the root...
This is the frame of this strange Revenge movie, oscillating between dictatorial poles, training camps to struggle (naturally) and beautiful mountain landscapes. And of course, it pays attention to the practical effects and splashes of hemoglobin, not to mention its classics.
Heidi ultra-referenced
There is no need to say, the new Heidi thus created integrates particularly well into the Foolless Universe of the two Swiss-German directors, surrounded by a floppy of references of which the most obvious are the two Kill Bill, head-to-head explosions Scanners of Cronenberg, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! or some Verhoeven as RoboCop or Starship Troopers Of course. Moreover, there is also the role of the horrific lactose-allergic slaughtering tyrant. Casper Van Dien (playing precisely in Starship Troopers Johnny Rico), which the directors admit to having cast easy.
And winks at the bis cinema of the time, God knows if there are any. They also slip into the aesthetics of the film. It is true that the budget has indeed forced to roar from all sides, including the special effects... But a good part (e.g. car scenes in rear projection) are voluntary references to a time of cinema so much appreciated by the two directors.
Related poings
So, of course, we don't lie: if the special effects that are sometimes broken can be attributed to a reference will more than a lack of resources, there are still areas where the building hurts... Writing, sometimes quite blond, infuses the story with a bubbling rhythm that struggles to take up to a second half that runs like lightning. But in addition to this, French dubbings sometimes leave something to be desired and break the badass image of Heidi, embodied by Alice Lucy.
Moreover, the desire to punctuate all the Swiss clichés without forgetting a single one (the half-tone welcome of foreigners, the military theme, culinary traditions...) inevitably brings a simple overview of these themes. It is conceivable, then, that it is difficult to make the negation of Helvetic stereotypes in barely an hour and with such a budget, but a refocusing on a limited choice of theme might have allowed to go deeper and ultimately render a Heidi completely Mad. And a film that could have scratched to the blood...
In conclusion
Mad Heidi is a film to be discovered in VO and keeping in mind the crazy bet that was to make a feature film of such a scale in Swiss cinema ultra-marked (and rather wise). A final result certainly in half-tone, but resolutely enjoyable as it opens a breach that is hoped to be practical for new heads of the 7th Swiss art... The beginning of the Swissploitation? Case to follow.
A film visible in cinema, in festival and online, directly on the website of Mad Heidi. Physical support (DVD and Blu-ray), French publisher Factoris Films will distribute it as of February 08, 2023.
Sounds amazing. I'll take it for the new year, it'll be pretty good with friends. 🤣
[...] this basic idea – we were recently talking about horrific short films, the bleak Mad Heidi or different documentaries – 99 Moons also seemed to want to give a good shot [...]