Presto – Perfect Sound

IMAGE
Large
film still
Courtesy Jan Mot, Brussels

In Presto–Perfect Sound, Manon de Boer interrogates the relations between image and sound on the structural level of film. The composer and violinist George van Dam performs the Presto from Béla Bartók’s Sonata for Solo Violin Sz 117. The film is structured by continuity and disruption: the soundtrack is put together from six best parts which van Dam takes from different recordings. Manon de Boer transfers these inaudible cuts, which are common in professional sound post-production, to the image track. The piecemeal nature of the soundtrack, which normally remains imperceptible, is thus exposed, and the dominance of the image track over sound is destabilized. The seemingly live documentation of the concert is clearly shown to be an artificial construct, in which the closing credits of the 35-mm film read like a register of the special effects of sound editing.



 

Workdetails
  • original Title: Presto – Perfect Sound
  • Date: 2006
  • Genre: Video

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