Ile de beauté

Like Gold, Ile de beauté is a cooperative venture between Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and multimedia artist Ange Leccia (1952, Minervié, Corsica). Together, they made a selection from several hundred hours of images that Leccia had filmed between 1985 and 1996. The result is an abstract series of subjective observations. Images of Leccia's birthplace Corsica, the ferry sailing there and images from Japan predominate in Ile de beauté. The eclectic soundtrack - much French synthesizerpop, but for instance also Stina Nordenstam - is very striking, both in the foreground and functioning as background sound. The images of Corsica (that is also known as the 'Ile de beauté') are often shot from a moving car. The lines on the road, the winding mountain passes and the blinding headlamps coming towards you ensure a mood that is often hypnotic. The observations of Japan - a bullet train, an open-air performance - are juxtaposed with (adapted) film fragments of Kitano Takeshi, Wong Kar-wai and of Cherchez l'idole by Michel Boisrond from 1963 (with Sylvie Vartan), then a great success in Japan.