Storm over Mont Blanc (Germany, 1930) Trient Gletscher, Arosa, Bernina Pass, St. Moritz, Lausanne Rights Reserved

Third Man on the Mountain (US/UK, 1959) Zermatt, Matterhorn Rights Reserved

Swiss Miss (US, 1939) Set-recreated Switzerland Rights Reserved

The Black Pierrot (Germany, 1926) Wengen Rights Reserved

Alpine Climbers (US, 1936) Walt Disney Studios Rights Reserved

Heidi (Austria, 1965) Maloja - Hotel Kulm, Orden, Pila, Lake Cavloccio, Soglio Rights Reserved

The Man Who Knew Too Much (UK, 1934) St. Moritz, Griesalp Rights Reserved

Downhill Racer (US, 1969) Geneva Airport, Lauberhorn, Wengen Rights Reserved

A Very Private Affair (France/Italy, 1962) Geneva Rights Reserved

The Great Escape (US, 1963) Füssen, Germany as the Swiss border; The Eiger Sanction (US, 1975) Zurich, Lucerne, Mürren, Kleine Scheidegg, Eiger Rights Reserved

Goldfinger (UK, 1964) Furka Pass, Ursental, Realp, Stans, Andermatt Rights Reserved

The Return of the Pink Panther (UK, 1975) Gstaad, Palace Hotel Rights Reserved

Steppenwolf (US/Switzerland/UK/Italy, 1974) Basel Rights Reserved

Silver Bears (UK, 1977) Lugano, Ticino Rights Reserved

Love and Bullets (UK/US, 1979) Geneva, Montreux, Kandersteg, Zermatt Rights Reserved

Espion, lève-toi (France, 1982) Zurich Rights Reserved

All Fired Up (France, 1982) Gland, Golf impérial as France, Pays d'Enhaut Rights Reserved

Mujhse Dosti Karoge (India, 2002) Lake Lauenen Rights Reserved

The Golden Compass (US/UK, 2007) Computer-generated images, Grindelwald mountains Rights Reserved

Night Train to Lisbon (Germany/Switzerland/Portugal, 2013) Bern Rights Reserved

Youth (Italy/France/UK/Switzerland, 2015) Waldhaus Hotel, Davos, Wiesen, Graubünden, Kandersteg Rights Reserved

It's not surprising that many foreign directors have chosen to film in Switzerland, with its chalets, mountains and banks. It's a land of spies and lawyers, of Heidi and Chaplin, of Dr Frankenstein and St Bernards. Switzerland, in the movies, is a land of adventure where James Bond drives through an alpine setting and jumps off a dam while Clint Eastwood climbs to the top of the Eiger.

This content was published on September 23, 2017 - 11:00

The images were recently published in the book Backdrop Switzerland. Mostly taken from the vast collection of the Cinémathèque Suisse and arranged by Cornelius Schregle, they form a curious journey into the soul of Switzerland – and its clichés.

Countless stars have come to Switzerland to shoot, for example Sophia Loren, Kirk Douglas, Vittorio Gassman, Sean Connery, Paul Newman and Peter Sellers. Others, such as Elizabeth Taylor, James Mason and Audrey Hepburn, chose to call the Alpine nation home. But the pictures also reflect an imaginary Switzerland, a fantasy world built in Hollywood and studios all around the globe.

Laurel and Hardy are lost in the Alps, which are made of cardboard; Matt Damon as Jason Bourne merely steps onto a sound stage of Zurich built in Prague; Leonardo di Caprio as the Wolf of Wall Street is superimposed on a green-screen’s virtual Geneva.

A Switzerland idolised by foreign films will make you laugh or cry, depending on your point of view. But that is part of a fascinating concept: what if this country were basically just a huge movie set?

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