Biographies can be as varied as human lives. And yet, _magnificent obsessions saved my life his experiences of sexual liberation of generation 68 and his too personal experience of two mortal pandemics: AIDS and COVID-19 . But these biographical and historical elements of the author's life go to the forefront in a continuous dialogue with the Hollywood classics, author films, contemporary art and literature. Because a cinematic or visual work of art means nothing if it doesn't tell you anything about your own life: cinema and art always deal with what it was and what could have been. Magnificent Obesssions Addresses these existential issues in texts and images, including selections from the impressive collection of Brunner movies and reproductions of their favorite works of art. As in the films, people are the center, the protagonists, of Brunner's writings, sometimes scathing but affectionate, sometimes almost tender. When he loses the love of his life, the Swiss art march Thomas Ammann, because of AIDS, writes about his shared happiness so as not to be consumed by pain. Remember the glamorous Elisabeth Bossard, her lover for many years, and recounts anecdotes of a flirting in Venice with Edmund White, the American writer from whom she became friends. He recounts his love and hate relationship with the Swiss filmmaker Daniel Schmid, full of intimate looks to the deceased German filmmakers Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner Schroeter, their works and the entire scene that surrounded them. It was Brunner's cup curator who brought the films of his friends John Waters and Andy Warhol to Switzerland, overlooking the censors. Brunner knew the clear and dark sides of Dream Factory, but he was always willing to succumb to his imitation of life, as Douglas Sirk titled one of his great melodramas.

With preface by Stefan Zweifel and epilogue of John Waters.

426 pgs, 30 × 24 cm, soft cover, text in English.