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Background information
"Anyone who wanted to watch naked people on film from the mid-1950s onward preferably attended a screening of a naturist film by Werner KUNZ (1926-2018). The pioneering works of the Swiss self-made filmmaker were largely devoted to showing nudists (less so those of nudists) in their ancestral habitats - mainly during summer sports and games on land and in the water. In their day, the productions were the (legal) ultimate in cinematic depictions of nudity. Banned by some film censors for being indecent, the films were shown elsewhere as instructive documentaries about an alternative way of life. The show value of the unclothed bodies remained untouched by the documentary framing, of course, and so his nudist films pushed the boundaries of what was permitted by the censors over time.
For a decade, Werner KUNZ had a monopoly on cinematographic nudity with his films, for which he was responsible for the screenplay, production, direction and exploitation. In the context of restlessly organized special screenings, he showed his works in larger and smaller multi-purpose halls in Swiss cities and towns. From the beginning of the 1960s, they were also regularly shown in cinemas. Last but not least, his productions enjoyed great success abroad.
Content
In the volume 'Sonne, Meer und nackte Menschen. Die Nudistenfilme des Schweizers Werner Kunz' (Sun, Sea and Naked People The Nudist Films of Swiss Werner Kunz), the first detailed account of the forgotten Swiss film pioneer, the Zurich film scholar Matthias Uhlmann presents all surviving films with regard to their production, exploitation and reception. Content summaries and numerous stills illustrate the two dozen nudist works (including four feature-length films); in addition, rich visual material from the director's private archive illustrates the extensively researched book. In interviews conducted by the author with the filmmaker, the pioneer of sexual permissiveness in international cinema himself has his say: as the 'father of it all'. With a conversation between Edouard (Edi) Stöckli and Patrick Frey in German and English. The book design is by Manu BEFFA." (© Edition Patrick Frey, 2022)