“Everything moves – there is no standstill!” Jean Tinguely’s words weren’t just true for his crazy machines but for his whole life. Twenty years after his death the so-called “bande à Jean“ – a circle of friends and acquaintances – remembers the exceptional artist, who didn’t just break all boundaries in his work but also in his private life.

Born in Fribourg, Switzerland in 1925, he grew up in Basle. As a grinding poor artist at the beginning of his career, he became part of the artistic avant-garde in Paris, and soon brought some movement into the art scene – in the true sense of the word. At the beginning of the 1960s he shot to fame and eventually became Switzerland’s most famous international artist of the 20^th century. From one exploit to another, the film follows Tinguely’s exceptional career: from enfant terrible at the beginning to national hero towards the end of his life; or, as his partner Niki de Saint Phalle put it sarcastically, «le roi des Suisses». First of all though, the fascinating material from various archives and the memories of the «bande à Jean» allow us to see the human being behind Tinguely. The film offers a sometimes cheerful and sometimes melancholic view, looking back on an exceptional life, but it is also an invitation to face the challenge of each new day again – because: there is no such thing as standstill.

Documentary film
2011 / 88 min.
Director Thomas Thümena