The story is quite simply magnificent. In 1979, to thank the owner of the
island of Logoden for authorising the filming of scenes for Mon Oncle
d’Amérique, Alain Resnais offered this gentleman, Jean Fraysse, a highquality
super 8 camera. From then on, Jean Fraysse became passionate
about it and roamed the island with camera in hand, recording images
of nature and his few loved ones. What is more, he recorded sounds: work
noises, sounds of nature, family conversations. He later gave it all to the
Cinémathèque of Brittany. It was there that a young intern named Aurélie
Bonamy discovered this discrete, forgotten treasure. Of her own accord she
decided to organise the few shots, to number the sounds and edit and
mix them separately in a series of vignettes. Although she had Fraysse’s
permission, the two accomplices never met and have only ever spoken by
telephone. So here is a unique piece, re-emerging from afar, about an
amateur practice and its so obviously gracious modesty, now co-signed by
authors separated by more than a generation and by space.
The pertinent gentleness of the editing and mixing responds to the delicacy
of the shots, allowing a sharp sense of observation, a deep love of the
isolated terrain and its daily life to bloom without sensationalism – not
forgetting a taste and a real mastery of cinema. (JPR)