Memoirs of a child of the past century - 17. Chapter 17: How to get up after having fallen down

Rereading the story of my life, I realize that I got to the end of the previous chapter at a crucial timeBefore continuing the story of my adventures, it seems important to take here, as I certainly did in 1978, a moment to reflect on my state of mind after having lost almost lost everything, my fortune and most of my friends.

I had a particularly strong desire for revenge . Although I knew I was primarily responsible for my failures, I also felt I had been deceived by all those who took advantage of my naivety and my good feelings, starting with Mr. Muller, my father’s assistant, to whom I had entrusted the leadership of Ideal Film after acquired the company from Michel Simon. He introduced me to Francis Lannurien, this French producer who was the cause of the collapse of Ideal Film (see previous chapter).

Rereading the story of my life, I realize that I got to the end of the previous chapter at a crucial timeBefore continuing the story of my adventures, it seems important to take here, as I certainly did in 1978, a moment to reflect on my state of mind after having lost almost lost everything, my fortune and most of my friends.

I blamed also the members of the Community Technical Studies (CET), in particular Aldo Réalini, one of its influential members. He led me to develop my company GREPAL, suggesting me to hire two of his friends, engineers who were not qualified enough for his own company but whom he considered to be good enough for me!

I blamed also Hartmann and Leclerc, the two Frenchmen who led me to create LEHART, a company from which they drew draw all the financial benefits while leaving me responsible for their actions. They had arranged for me, a small apartment in Paris that allowed me to enjoy many pleasant stay in Paris, either alone or with my family. I was also flattered to be the president of a consulting firm with over 50 employees and I was naive enough to accept they were acting in my best interests.

But my desire for revenge was applied equally to all people of the high society of Lausanne who had declared themselves "my friends" and were "eating at my table" before my insolvency, but had turned their backs immediately after my crash and for whom I "no longer existed" since I no longer had money. I was no longer part of their "class" and I became for them an outcast.

Having my revenge then became one of the goals of my professional existence. For me, the value of a human person is not dependent of the amount of income and wealth. Few people around me shared the same opinion. My revenge was to learn to recognize true friends and from the first moment to distinguish them from the "clique" of those who only sought to approach me to serve their own interests.

As I said in the previous chapter, I had 'two strings to my bow' to ensure our survival . I had at my disposal two different companies. The first, IDEAL FILM ltd, was still active but entirely under control of its creditors. Its situation was comparable to that of a U.S. company, protected by Article 11. The other, PLANORGA Ltd., was dormant but had no debts and I was the only shareholder.

IDEAL FILM could at least make sure I had a salary. With PLANORGA, I was going to reactivate my contacts and make new business. But I first had to choose between these two different companies. The most important thing was to devote myself 100% to the enhancement of Ideal Film. I had to first make sure of the benevolence of the creditors who controlled the company. 'Domination by submission' became my 'motto'. The company was in the same position as the a U.S. company that filed for protection in Chapter 11, the debtor remaining in control of its business operations but subject to the oversight and jurisdiction of the court.

Later, when I had regained control of the company, I could set goals and define a long-term strategy to achieve them. But the most urgent, was to get rid of my creditors by a 'judicial probate agreement' , approved by the court.

I now had to 'roll up my sleeves' , a French expression meaning I had to devote all my strength not only to bailing out the company , but especially to rebuilding myself. I had several goals :

First : to reduce costs, accepting the offer of Hellstern, the main creditor, to move Ideal Film to Zurich in his offices under rental and to get to work with my wife and only one employee.

Second : to get a Bankruptcy Office moratorium of six months to negotiate with creditors.

Third : to find funding for the concordat and to be assisted by a lawyer for all legal negotiations.

Today, when I recall my state of mind 34 years ago, I'm not sure I made the right choice. I was influenced by my failures and my personal feelings of responsibility for our position. I felt obliged to accept my situation as a punishment and to abandon all my pride by submitting to the will of my creditors. I blamed myself for having imposed on my family the loss of all financial and social advantages, which my wife and children had previously enjoyed. I admired the attitude of my wife, ready to support me professionally and to safeguard the interests of my children.

Initially, we moved into a small apartment near Lausanne, (in a building built by GREPAL) belonging to a creditor, who nevertheless remained a friend. We wanted especially for our children to stay in touch with Lausanne.

The transfer of Ideal Film to Zurich forced us, my wife and me, to work during the week in Zurich and to abandon our children, leaving the younger under the responsibility of the eldest, Philip, then aged 26 years and a teacher at a school near Lausanne. We resolved, my wife and I , to share our time between the week in Zurich and weekends in a place near Lausanne. It was necessary to find an apartment close to nature and located near the motorway between Lausanne and Zurich. After some research, we found an apartment in Bossonens, a small village 6 km from the highway, large enough for the whole family and quite close to Lausanne. Gilles, who operated an arthouse cinema in Lausanne, was able to come home every night.

As for us, we had also found a small apartment in Zurich, a pied-à-terre for the week. We were lucky enough to find it on the top floor of an old building in the middle of the 'Niederdorf'. This is the name of the oldest part of the city, with its squares with plane trees, old houses, some built in the 15th century, narrow streets and small bars, and its antique shops.

The owner of the building, Ms. Malatesta, was a former employee of my aunt Rachel, the older sister of my father. She had opened in the 50s a clothing store for men, located in a square in the center of the old town. At the beginning of my studies, I often went to see my aunt. In the 70s, the building in which the store was located was demolished. Mrs. Malatesta had kept good memories of time spent in the store with my aunt. We quickly reacquainted with her and she immediately agreed to rent us this little apartment on the 'Hirschenplatz' area in the middle of the 'hot district' of the old Zurich, with access to the roof terrace, a good place for sun bathing.

The city of Zurich was an old acquaintance for us! Coming back to Zurich after leaving this city about 25 years before had nice sides. We remembered our first meetings, the passion that united us, the struggles that we conducted together .Our memories helped us bear the separation from our children.

In the evening, after work, we met again the scenes of our youth. Zurich had certainly changed but the 'Niederdorf' remained almost the same. We did not have much time to hang out, but we still found time to go to some restaurants we visited once with our friends, boys and girls. Other young people had replaced us, but the way they dressed and topics of their conversation reminded us of ours.

Ideal Film's offices were located in a residential area on the 'golden shore, the lake - 'golden' because this area was the home of people rich enough to afford beautiful properties with lots of greenery -. Our offices were not far from the lake. A large park occupied the land at the lake, with picnic places under the trees and small restaurants along the water. During the lunch break, we went, Yvette and I, to sit in the park or to eat on the terrace of the restaurants, enjoying the sun.

It is not given to everyone to have the chance to rebuild his career at the age of 50 ! And I had to take this chance. Despite the tutelage of my creditors and the control of officials from the Office of Bankruptcy, I had some freedom to expand the activities of Ideal Film. I became a travelling salesman, going to see all cinema exhibitors I knew, to offer them the few films yet available to me. Meanwhile, my wife stayed at the office and was responsible for the daily management. We formed a good team and we were able to show that we could recover. However, the films I disposed could not bring me the money I needed.

Among the films shown in Switzerland, the most interesting financially are big American productions. But all these films were much too expensive for us. I knew that our only chance of success lay in a kind of films of which I did not have a great deal of experience: the pornographic films. These films were highly prized by movie theatres specializing in this genre, but few distributors dared to be interested, for fear of losing their reputation.

At that time, a quota system limited the import of foreign films in Switzerland. Ideal Film had the right to import annually 20 films. These import rights were actually our only wealth. When a cinema owner wanted to buy himself a specific movie, he had to get in touch with a distributor to advance him the money and import the film by using the rights of the distributor.

Desiring to quickly gain enough money to pay my creditors, I decided to enter this speciality market and I contacted the owner of the main chain of "porn" cinemas, with cinemas in all major cities in Switzerland. His story was close to mine. A few years earlier, he’ d started producing arthouse films, supporting young unknown filmmakers. This type of production brought him very quickly to bankruptcy. To recover, he switched to "soft" pornography, the only one authorized at the time. Edy Stoekli is still today the "King of Porn" in Switzerland. We became great friends and we have made many much business together.

During this period, officials of the Office of bankruptcies regularly came to Zurich to control the accounts of Ideal Film. During one of their first visits, I suggested I show them, in the small projection room of the office, an example of the films we broadcast. I choose the best of our porn. They were delighted, and at each visit, they were content to watch another movie, no longer careing about the control of our accounts; a nice way to get rid of controllers!

From 1978 to 1980, our work Iwith Ideal Film began to bear fruit and the creditors began to have more and more confidence in us.

Having demonstrated my ability to keep Ideal Film afloat, I now had to regularize the legal status of the company and get the creditors to agree to give up the greater part of their claims. I had just one argument –if a majority of creditors would not accept my proposal, the final bankruptcy of Ideal Film would result in all creditors losing all their claims. I had therefore first to persuade the largest creditors, in order to obtain the agreement of at least two thirds of the total claims, then to persuade enough small creditors in order to obtain the agreement of at least 51 % ( half plus one) of them. Specialists refer to these conditions by the term 'double majority'.

When the big creditors are few (this was the case with Ideal Film), it is relatively easy to obtain their agreement. For the approval of 51% of the total number of creditors, the easiest way is to agree with small creditors, by offering them the redemption of their claims by paying them if necessary the full amount due.

The main problem for the Court agreement was to propose an acceptable amount to the judge, that is to say an amount sufficient to appease a majority of the creditors while ensuring the long-term survival of the company. After numerous discussions with major creditors, and with the assistance of a lawyer specializing in bankruptcy proceedings, we succeeded in establishing a satisfactory proposal for the two majorities of creditors paying in one time 25 % of all claims, an amount of nearly 500,000 Swiss Francs (about 550 '000 USD today). I had now to find the money!

My efforts to get the company afloat had impressed two of my main creditors, Hans Hellstern, in whose Zurich's offices I had to move the company, and Philippe Georges, the owner of the Clinique de Chamblandes (see previous chapter).

Philippe had already advanced to me important funds to purchase major films for Ideal Film. As for Hellstern, he was interested in acquiring some shares in Ideal Film, and to collaborate with me in the development of his own activities. So I came to them with this problem, as they were (besides myself!) the major stakeholders to obtain the Court Agreement.

The annual turnover of Ideal Film at this time (1979-1981) exceeded one million francs. Through my contacts in England and France, I could buy cheaply, the rights for films that were going to bring large sums. I was able to easily persuade Philippe and Hellstern to advance the sum of 500,000. -.

However, I made a mistake. I’d forgotten that he also had to pay to the Court the costs of the procedure, including the costs of the officials responsible for overseeing the management of the company. So I needed an additional amount of 30,000 francs. It is small amount compared to the 500,000 already advanced by Philippe and Hellstern. But when I asked for this supplement, they refused flatly. The whole operation was going to collapse at the last minute for a ridiculous amount compared to the amount already advanced!

The court hearing was set for the next morning at 11 am. I spent a horrible night, with my hand on the phone beside the bed, waiting for a call from Philippe whom I’d begged that evening to advance the missing 30,000 francs . The next morning, at around 7 o'clock, as he had not responded to my call, I pulled myself together and began looking for other ways to raise the money. I had only 4 hours before me.

I managed to call a few friends and clients, theater owners with whom I used to work and who were also interested in the survival of Ideal Film. Finally at 10 ½ hours, I got their support at the last minute and found the funds. I was able to measure the value of real friendship and I will never forget the friends who trusted me.

Every weekend, we returned to Bossonens to be together with our children. During the week, the apartment was occupied by Gilles. Each day, he left late in the morning to open his cinema on the outskirts of Lausanne and took the road late at night after the end of the last session around midnight.

Philippe lived in Lausanne at the lakeside in an apartment with his wife and his two daughters, in a building the owner of the clinic had bought to install the extension of Chamblandes. Our youngest son, Nicolas, lived with him and enjoyed the freedom allowed him by his brother, to spend his days wandering instead of going to school.

Our concern about Nicolas was justified. One day, we received a phone call from a panicked Philippe. Nicolas had run away with a girlfriend who had quarreled with his parents. They had both taken their rucksacks and gone on the road. I immediately returned from Zurich, and after interviewing all Nicolas's friends, I started looking for them, trying to trace them on the roads of France. It was an amazing trip, going to the different places where I thought they would stop, hostels, shelters for the homeless and others.

According to their friends, the two runaways should have headed south. After 3 days on the road going south, I arrived at Toulouse 800 km away, unfortunately without success. But I still remember my fascinating encounters and my discussions with the leaders of the homeless centers, people devoting themselves to help troubled youth.

In fact, Nicolas and his girlfriend had headed north, intending to go to Holland, a country known for the freedom given to young people on the run. The girl’s parents had alerted the police and the two runaways were arrested at the Dutch border and put on a plane to Geneva. The runaway had dramatic consequences for the girl. She attempted suicide, but Nicolas intervened early enough to save her.

As for us, we quickly found our son, tired but healthy and we received him with open arms without too much blames. We felt ourselves responsible for not having been concerned enough about him. As a result, he came to live with us in Zurich in our little apartment and he quickly adapted himself to our life in the Niederdorf. He spent most of his free time out of school sun bathing on the roof of our building and chatting with the neighbors from his window. The building in front was occupied by studios rented to prostitutes. The girls would often sit at their window between two "passes" and little Nicolas quickly became the mascot of these girls.

Our daughter Catherine had long since become independent. We had found her a studio in the old town of Lausanne. She’ d stopped her studies and worked as a secretary for a temp agency. She spent her free time (and nights) with her boyfriends (I say 'boyfriends' because it often changed!). We all met at the weekend at Bossonens and we had fun listening to her, telling about her adventures.

The recovery of my economic situation between 1978 and 1981 is due in large part to my relationship with the porn film industry. The people of this community, film producers or theater owners, all led double lives. On the one hand, they were people like anyone, with a regular family life, good citizens, and on the other hand, they belonged to the world of sex and used it to make a lot of money. A characteristic attitude of these people was to not mix work and private life. Their customers were ordinary people who did not dare to admit their sexual fantasies or to act them out. They contented themselves with satisfying their needs through imagination, looking at the actors on the screen in specialized cinemas, always situated in discrete locations.

At that time, homosexuality was still taboo in Switzerland. The films "porno" presented in these theaters were all of a heterosexual nature, but the cinemas were only visited by men. Very quickly, changing tastes and a greater awareness of the plight of homosexuals brought some film producers and cinema owners to take account of the growing number of customers interested in gay movies.

Subsequently, my contacts led me to manage on behalf of my friend Edy Stöckli cinemas in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. However, I stayed away from the gay community, carefully avoiding mixing my professional life with my personal life. But this is another story and I will write about it in a later chapter.

Once the Agreement was obtained , I had no reason to stay in Hellstern's Zurich offices . I concluded a collaboration agreement with him. We were staying together to buy movies but each working in his own region. So I decided to come back to settle down with Ideal Film in Lausanne.

End Chapter 17