A pine romance
There are some aspects of Alpine living that are just too good to leave above the tree line
The Alps is a masterfully constructed micro-tour of Switzerland – from filmmakers Cory Jacobs and Jason Schmidt of Cottage Eight Films – full of knowingly painterly frames of the country’s foothills and picture-postcard mountaintops: a pitch-perfect homage to the country’s classic touristic ephemera.
The concise work is a three parter, of sorts. After a train ride through a series of impossibly verdant valleys and dense pine forests (via 196 bridges and 55 tunnels, we’re told over the carriage tannoy) we segue to the Kulm Hotel in St Moritz – specifically, to its modernist pavilion, designed by Norman Foster and housing a slickly-conceived restaurant festooned with archaic photographs of skiers and ice skaters. Cue more resplendent shots of the chilly-looking lake of St Moritz below.
Then it’s up 3,451m, via cablecar, to the snowcapped, glacier-strewn peak of Corvatsch and its craggily austere vistas; and down, finally, to the Grand Hotel Kronenhof, a classical pile captured with more than a hint of hyper-stylised Grand Budapest Hotel retro-kitsch. Through the lens of Jacobs and Schmidt, it’s a place rendered utterly out of time, and all the more beguiling for it – a sentiment that carries across the rest of this mini opus of a travelogue.
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Melina Keays is the entertaining director of Wallpaper*. She has been part of the brand since the magazine’s launch in 1996, and is responsible for entertaining content across the print and digital platforms, and for Wallpaper’s creative agency Bespoke. A native Londoner, Melina takes inspiration from the whole spectrum of art and design – including film, literature, and fashion. Her work for the brand involves curating content, writing, and creative direction – conceiving luxury interior landscapes with a focus on food, drinks, and entertaining in all its forms
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