Agnès Varda, photographer, installation artist and pioneer of the Nouvelle Vague, is an institution of French cinema. Taking a seat on a theatre stage, she uses photos and film excerpts to provide an insight into her unorthodox oeuvre.
Agnès Varda explores her memories, mostly chronologically, with photographs, film clips, interviews, reenactments, and droll, playful contemporary scenes of her narrating her story.
Director:
Agnès Varda
Stars:
Agnès Varda,
André Lubrano,
Blaise Fournier
Jacquot Demy is a little boy at the end of the thirties. His father owns a garage and his mother is a hairdresser. The whole family lives happily and likes to sing and to go to the movies. ... See full summary »
Director:
Agnès Varda
Stars:
Philippe Maron,
Edouard Joubeaud,
Laurent Monnier
There are two parts to this film: sequences of life in the fishing village of La Pointe Courte (a government inspector's visit, the death of a child) alternate with others following a ... See full summary »
Director:
Agnès Varda
Stars:
Philippe Noiret,
Silvia Monfort,
Marcel Jouet
"I'll look at you, but not at the camera. It could be a trap," whispers Jane Birkin shyly into Agnès Varda's ear at the start of JANE B. PAR AGNES V. The director of CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 and ... See full summary »
Director:
Agnès Varda
Stars:
Jane Birkin,
Jean-Pierre Léaud,
Philippe Léotard
François, a young carpenter, lives a happy, uncomplicated life with his wife Thérèse and their two small children. One day he meets Emilie, a clerk in the local post office.
An unpredictable documentary from a fascinating storyteller, Agnès Varda's next film sheds light on her experience as a director, bringing a personal insight to what she calls "cine-writing," traveling from Rue Daguerre in Paris to Los Angeles and Beijing.Written by
MK2 Films
Unfamiliar with Agnes Varda's cinematography, this autobiographical and auto-critical work was a very welcoming entry into this charming artist's filmography. She uses footage from different events she attended and various clips that look back at her remarkable life and career. If she wouldn't have passed away recently, this wouldn't have been the director's final film. Seeing her driven by everything that touches her and inspired by even the most plain objects, makes me believe she had so much more to show us.
She tells us about her fear of turning 80, and her visualising that number as a train heading towards her, not able to stop it. After turning 90 years old, she can't stop laughing at that panic. When her eyesight problems got resolved, she decided to make Academy Award nominated documentary Faces Places with photographer JR. But not all of her films where a success and she mentions earlier box office flop One Hundred and One Nights starring Robert De Niro, for which he filmed his scenes in one day while he recites his phonetically learned French lines. It never really bothered her and she always kept moving forward and doing her own thing.
Looking back at older works of Varda, we also get some former cast members sitting down and discussing their collaborations with the iconic director and how they felt on set. Her in 1985 released film Vagabond, starred the then 17-year-old Sandrine Bonnaire, who remembers how rude Agnes was on location, when she showed the director the blisters on her hand because of her method-acting while playing a homeless traveler. To which Varda admits "I should have licked them!". They have nothing but praise for each other, while sitting cosy under a blanket on a camera dolly.
Watching this history piece on Varda's filmography and earlier career as a photographer, I can't feel anything but respect. When she tries to explain her love for doco-realism - supported by clips of her Cleo from 5 to 7, where we see pedestrians reacting to her imaginary character walking through the streets of Paris - I can't believe I've never seen any of her previous work. It just shows, there's still so much to be discovered and there's talent out there that have a personal eye on the world that could add an extra layer on mixing everyday life with dreams.
Her energy is laid back yet dynamic, while there's a certain calmness to her perception on life. She's not this old lady, she's that old lady that doesn't seem to age - as if she's lived multiple lives before and just knows how to deal with an ever-changing world. Normal situations seem to change into magical fantasy worlds in her hands and I for sure can't wait to check out the rest of her oeuvre.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this
Unfamiliar with Agnes Varda's cinematography, this autobiographical and auto-critical work was a very welcoming entry into this charming artist's filmography. She uses footage from different events she attended and various clips that look back at her remarkable life and career. If she wouldn't have passed away recently, this wouldn't have been the director's final film. Seeing her driven by everything that touches her and inspired by even the most plain objects, makes me believe she had so much more to show us.
She tells us about her fear of turning 80, and her visualising that number as a train heading towards her, not able to stop it. After turning 90 years old, she can't stop laughing at that panic. When her eyesight problems got resolved, she decided to make Academy Award nominated documentary Faces Places with photographer JR. But not all of her films where a success and she mentions earlier box office flop One Hundred and One Nights starring Robert De Niro, for which he filmed his scenes in one day while he recites his phonetically learned French lines. It never really bothered her and she always kept moving forward and doing her own thing.
Looking back at older works of Varda, we also get some former cast members sitting down and discussing their collaborations with the iconic director and how they felt on set. Her in 1985 released film Vagabond, starred the then 17-year-old Sandrine Bonnaire, who remembers how rude Agnes was on location, when she showed the director the blisters on her hand because of her method-acting while playing a homeless traveler. To which Varda admits "I should have licked them!". They have nothing but praise for each other, while sitting cosy under a blanket on a camera dolly.
Watching this history piece on Varda's filmography and earlier career as a photographer, I can't feel anything but respect. When she tries to explain her love for doco-realism - supported by clips of her Cleo from 5 to 7, where we see pedestrians reacting to her imaginary character walking through the streets of Paris - I can't believe I've never seen any of her previous work. It just shows, there's still so much to be discovered and there's talent out there that have a personal eye on the world that could add an extra layer on mixing everyday life with dreams.
Her energy is laid back yet dynamic, while there's a certain calmness to her perception on life. She's not this old lady, she's that old lady that doesn't seem to age - as if she's lived multiple lives before and just knows how to deal with an ever-changing world. Normal situations seem to change into magical fantasy worlds in her hands and I for sure can't wait to check out the rest of her oeuvre.