Manon de Boer
Presto — Perfect Sound
2006
35mm film still
Courtesy Jan Mot
Manon de Boer
Presto – Perfect Sound
‘I find it fascinating to watch the face of someone who is reading, playing music or thinking, because these are often moments when people seem to forget their ‘social face’, being so concentrated on an interior activity; moments in which a mental space is reflected on the face — this surface between inside and outside.’
Manon de Boer, May 2006
Manon de Boer’s 35mm film Presto — Perfect Sound depicts composer and violinist George Van Dam performing the fourth movement of a Bartók violin sonata. Editing together five different takes of the performance, de Boer structured the film so that it has a seamless soundtrack whilst leaving the image track disjointed. In allowing the audio sequence to dictate the image on screen, de Boer inverts the traditional dominance of image over sound in film. Presto — Perfect Sound is a development of de Boer’s acutely Structuralist approach to filmmaking, evident in earlier films such as Sylvia Kristel — Paris (2003) and Resonating Surfaces (2005).
Manon de Boer (b. 1966) is a Dutch artist based in Brussels. Recent group exhibitions include ‘Don Quijote’, Witte de With, Rotterdam, (2006), ‘Documentary Creations’, Kunstmuseum, Lucerne (2005) and ‘Nederland niet Nederland’, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2004). De Boer’s film Sylvia Kristel — Paris (2003) won the Prix Marseille Espérance at the International Competition FID, Marseille (2006) and the prize for best experimental film at the festival Curtas Metragens Vila do Conde, Portugal. Her film Resonating Surfaces (2005) has been included in the International Film Festival, Rotterdam, and was awarded the Prix Georges de Beauregard at Marseille in 2004.
Manon de Boer’s Presto — Perfect Sound was co-commissioned by Frieze Projects/LUX and shown daily during the fair in The Artists Cinema. The film toured UK cinemas, shown before main features, through the Independent Cinema Office.
