A film by Frank Garbely
Switzerland 2008

The rise and fall of a peasant boy from the Swiss mountains who revolutionizes the world’s hotel business: Cesar Ritz is the notorious dishwasher who becomes emperor of the most famous hotel of the world - with amazing speed and grace, only to collapse when his most ambitious goal, the coronation buffet for King Edward VI, cannot take place.

This is the first and only filmed biography about Cesar Ritz, inventor of modern hotel business.

It is the story of a peasant boy in a remote mountain area and thus starts there, in the place he grew up in, Niederwald. The film follows Ritz’ way to Paris, Cannes, Rome and London. Finally, the film ends in the clinic where Ritz spent his last days, back in Switzerland. The film features interviews with family, friends and experts: the directors of the Ritz in Paris and Rome, a follower of the chef Escoffier, and Jacques Tardi, an artist specializing in the “Commune de Paris” and thus knowing the Paris of the Ritz period particularly well.

Cesar Ritz’ story is one of personal drama: a man who has it all and finally collapses. He loses everything in the end, his family, the hotels, and his mind. Only his brilliant opus survives.





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