Keystone-SDA
“Winter Palace”, the first SSR and Netflix co-production, is broadcast from December 26 on Play RTS and RTS 1. The film team, led by Friborg director Pierre Monnard, notably worked at Château Mercier in Sierre.
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December 25, 2024 – 10:20
(Keystone-ATS) “In Château Mercier, each room has been designed for a character from the series,” set manager Marion Schramm explained to Keystone-ATS a few days before the end of filming last February. In one of them there is a bed cover made of fox skins – “you can only afford that on a movie set” – and a painting on the wall generated by AI.
Same thing for the palace that we will see on the screen. A digital creation, according to producer Xavier Derigo, with real elements from the Caux-Palace above Montreux, the Righi Vaudois in Glion and the Château Mercier.
The majority of the exteriors were filmed at Simplon, in the snow at an altitude of over 2000 meters. And in the Binntal, “in landscapes that we are not used to seeing on television”, noted Pierre Monnard on the 55th day of filming.
The beginnings of luxury hotels
This series tells the story of the beginnings of luxury hotels in the Swiss Alps at the end of the 19th century. We follow André Morel, a “slightly crazy” hotelier and entrepreneur, who will open this first “Winter Palace”, thanks to funding from an English lord. The opening of palaces in winter was made possible thanks to the arrival of electricity.
“The history of the hotel industry is one of the most interesting epics that can be told about Switzerland at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century,” continues Pierre Monnard. For the character of André Morel, the series was inspired by César Ritz, “a pioneer, who went against the received ideas of his time. »
A Tintin-style universe
Far from series with a more dramatic tone, this one aims to be light and funny. “We are in a universe quite close to that of Tintin, in an atmosphere that we have not yet seen much in Swiss series,” believes the director.
The character of André Morel is played by the Franco-Swiss actor Cyril Metzger, aged 29. He has already filmed with Pierre Monnard in the series “Hors saison” and played in “La Voie Royale” by Valais director Frédéric Mermoud.
The actor, who lives between Geneva and Paris, is happy to play in Switzerland. “We filmed above Montreux, where my father lives. Then in Valais where I spent a lot of time. »
He is accompanied by around twenty French-speaking actors as well as several French actors such as Manon Clavel, who plays Rose, the wife of André Morel.
A hero from the “Viking” series
Among the English actors, we can cite Simon Ludders who plays Lord Fairfax, Henry Pettigrew in the role of Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes, a regular in Swiss palaces of the time, or even Clive Standen, a hero of the series “Viking”, in the shoes of Lance Raney.
For the moment, Pierre Monnard does not see any difference in working with the large streaming platform. “Except for the resources made available,” adds Cyril Metzger: “more than 70 days of filming in Switzerland for a series is rare.”
“We work with Netflix in the same way as with RTS and SRF,” continues the director.
Before being supported by Netflix, the idea for this series was born in the minds of screenwriter Lindsay Shepiro and producer Jean-Marc Fröhle, at the head of Point Prod in Geneva, another partner in the project with Oble (France).
On the screens
Viewers of RTS and Play Suisse can watch this eight-episode mini-series from December 26 at 8:55 p.m. for seven weeks before an international broadcast on Netflix in February.
This first SSR and Netflix co-production required 18 weeks of filming, nearly 60 actors and 950 extras, around 80 technicians hired in Switzerland, 6,000 pieces of costumes and around ten carriages and sleighs.
