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"This is a programme on reality", an impeccable television presenter says. "I saw it" he adds not convincingly. What this reality consists of is shown at the beginning of 'Déjà-Vu' at a dizzying rate of changing images, in which the shocking events of late twentieth century compete with each other. Peace and harmony are only found by man in the wholly artificial world of stage sets of an amusement park. 'Déjà-Vu' is the fifth and latest video production made by the Belgian televisionmaker Stefaan Decostere in the series Travelogues: 'The dream of Leopold Two' (1990), 'The metamorphoses of Tintin' (1990), 'Alchemy Bruxelloise' (1990) and 'Coming from the wrong side' (1992). This series shows parallells between the cultural representations Western man deceives himself with. In 'Déjà-Vu' these are the complete worlds of amusement parks in present-day Japan, which substitute everyday reality in which they are backed by the entertainment media and big investors in real estate. The ideal Holland, reconstructed in Japan, get married underwater, walls of television screens showing the ideal view, everything is possible at any given moment and quickly, too. Like the Japanese who no longer have an image of themselves which is uncontaminated by the exoticism with which Westerners branded the Japanese culture, Europeans too will have to get used to a similar colonial 'after effect' even if it will be in reverse. Exoticism in boomerang. The world changes into a theatre of memories in which millions of televisions around the world wink at each other. "We spent years and years watching the world go by" a perfect voice sings at the credits consisting of magnificently useless objects of our consumer industry and a deflated globe. Treat the world like a ruin with a future for a 'beautiful human life'.
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Johan Pijnappel
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Text: Henri-Pierre Jeudy, Mark van Tongele, Paul Pourveur, Camera: Willy Cornette, Sound: Yvan de Beer, Music: George de Decker, Sound mixing: Ugo Magnus, Voice: Johan Leysen, Presentation: Thérèse Focant, Regine Clauwaert, David D'Heilly, Fumie Ishida, Actors: Sunja Lee & Susumu Yuki Aono, Nobue Kanemoto, supreme warrior Yoshida, Yuko Mori, Noritoshi Akui, Keiko Yamamoto, Aika Hirano, Takaya Nityta ,Kousuke Hida, Hands: Gili, Production: BRT/INA/VPRO
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