Idiosyncratic and Poetic Film Worlds: Sirenen-Eiland Opens the New Cinema at MoMA

Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch (1917–2003) had already established herself as an illustrator and photographer before embarking on her film career in the late 1960s. Her short and feature-length films are known for their strong sense of stylistic experimentation. As one of Switzerland’s first female directors, she quickly gained international recognition and engaged in extensive echanges with feminist filmmakers both in Switzerland and abroad.

Sirenen-Eiland (1981) was Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch's first full-length film. Inspired by the mythological figure of the siren, the film —shot in New York, Paris and Switzerland — associatively connects locations, dances, songs, and poems performed by various artists. The film was a great success and was shown at numerous festivals worldwide. In the book Das grosse Spiel Film (1998), Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch recalls the film screening at the MoMA cinema.

«New York, 21 November 1982: I read the front page of the New York Times: ‹Sold out: screening of Sirenen Eiland›. I havestage fright. My film will open the new cinema at the Museum of Modern Art.»

Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch, Das grosse Spiel Film, 1998

Sirenen-Eiland forgoes narration and a linear plot, captivating the viewer with its idiosyncratic, poetic, and expressive aesthetics.

"Random encounters with women and places that impressed me at the time I had the idea for the film. These women shape the content of the film through their presence and their songs. Through their singing, they weave the film into a cinematic opera."

Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch, archived document, undated

Artists including Rosita Rayas, Manon, Penny Safranek, Lutze, Valoise Mickens, Bruce Mill Holland, Antoinette Novak, and Irène Speichinger appear in Sirenen-Eiland, dancing, singing and reciting poems about love and death. The film provides a stage for these diverse artistic expressions.

The poster for Sirenen-Eiland features one of the protagonists, snake dancer Rosita Rayas, who passed away during filming. Isa Hesse Rabinovitch's later film, Schlangenzauber (1984), explores the dancer's death.

“Isa, I give you my poems because you are not a judge like the others who have not yet understood – and because you are my little Fellini!”

Corinne St. Laurent, Das grosse Spiel Film, 1998

This statement was made by the queer poet Corinne St. Laurent, who appears in Sirenen-Eiland. She can be seen in the top right of the first image below, wearing a red flower behind her ear.

Unlike other feminist films of the time, Sirenen-Eiland does not explicitly address sexism or patriarchal structures. However, in Sirenen-Eiland and her other works, Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch uncompromisingly breaks with traditional categories, showcasing a radical openness to different ways of life and forms of expression. The film was created by a predominantly female team.

In a 1980 article for the magazine Frauen und Film, Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch discussed with Su Meili, who also worked on Sirenen-Eiland, on how important it was for her to collaborate with other women.

“From the very beginning, it was somehow natural for me to work with women [...] I am a woman myself. And in the field of technology: a consistent attitude that I demand of myself. I find that only all too normal. The only thing I can contribute is to involve women in my work, to support them in this sense and to enable them to gain as much experience as possible together; otherwise it's all just theory.”

Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch, Frauen und Film, 1980

Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch's debut film, Spieglei, was screened at the first Women's Film Festival in New York in 1972. She returned to Switzerland inspired by the international exchange and ideas she encountered abroad. In 1975, she organised Switzerland's first women's film festival, which brought together Swiss female directors of the time, including Jacqueline Veuve, Marlies Graf, June Kovach, Yvonne Escher, Lucienne Lanaz, Regine Bebié, and Nina Stürm. Hesse-Rabinovitch founded the CH-Filmfrauen network with some of these directors, many of whom were her friends. Her significant contribution to Swiss film history was acknowledged by filmmaker Anka Schmid in the documentary Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch - Das grosse Spiel Film (2009), which takes its title from Hesse-Rabinovitch's own book.

The artist, photographer, and cinematographer Deidi von Schaewen (b. 1941) was responsible for the cinematography in Sirenen-Eiland, alongside Babette Mangold, Steff Gruber, and André Bucher. Deidi von Schaewen began her career as a cinematographer in New York with Robert Cordier's film Injun Fender (1974). She later became known for her work as an architectural photographer. In Sirenen-Eiland, her trained eye is evident in the beautifully composed shots capturing the exteriors and interiors of New York and Paris, from rooftops to catacombs.

In an interview, Deidi von Schaewen reflects on her collaboration with Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch and the latter's spontaneous, intuitive approach to filmmaking.

The cover of Das grosse Spiel Film features an image of Deidi von Schaewen and Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch filming on the beach. Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch embraced Deidi von Schaewen's spontaneous idea to film seagulls.

For the catacomb scenes in Paris, which Deidi von Schaewen recalls, Hesse-Rabinovitch made sketches that are preserved in her estate, archived at the Zentralbibliothek Zürich. Rather than traditional screenplays, she often developed her films using plans, diagrams, storyboards, or collages.

“ NEW YORK
I fly with the arms that are my wings.
I am so young in the glitter of Broadway
and have the thousand-year-old wrinkles of the drinkers
and put the aged fat of my thighs on the bicycle that
is my Mercedes“

Lutze, Das grosse Spiel Film, 1998