The trailer for La Belle Visite which will make its Toronto Premiere at the 2010 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.
In a culture obsessed with youth, aging becomes hidden, ignored, and delayed at all costs. We rarely confront the inevitable—that old age will be a reality for most of us. La Belle Visite presents this reality with authenticity and without prejudice. The remote setting of an abandoned motel, now converted to a retirement home, overlooking a seemingly endless sea, grounds this quiet observational documentary. As the seasons pass and time slows, the open sea invites contemplative reflection, both for the residents of the retirement home and for us. Films on the elderly often focus on the past and neglect the immediate. However, director Jean-François Caissy pursues something less tangible but more rewarding. His distance from his subjects is intentional, giving the viewer an opportunity to absorb the space and time constructed for people to finish their lives. We witness the universality of mortality and a community built from similar circumstances.