The California Films now out on CC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VLArLHK4yc
https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/1124-eclipse-series-43-agnes-varda-in-california
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 12 August 2015 20:02 (nine years ago) link
Ooh, good news! I've always wanted to see Lions.
― Cherish, Wednesday, 12 August 2015 20:31 (nine years ago) link
mur murs is great, & uncle yanco's one of the most perfectly formed things she did, i think - it's so vibrant & formally inventive & beautiful.
i watched le bonheur last night, i'm kinda patchy with the earlier films, they're nice but i come to them expecting the wrong things on account of the richness of her later/essayistic work
― tender is the late-night daypart (schlump), Wednesday, 12 August 2015 20:41 (nine years ago) link
i saw her discuss La Pointe Courte after this screening a few months ago. She is in fact tiny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfC0UBiTG4g
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 12 August 2015 20:48 (nine years ago) link
At least you didn't call her the 'grandmother' of the nouvelle vague
Le Bonheur's ending is like the beginning of Haneke. Cleo is as good as any French film classic from the time.
The docs and in-between experiments are def overlooked. Lions is proto-reality tv.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 12 August 2015 21:49 (nine years ago) link
Came across this today: http://cleojournal.com/category/vol-3-issue-2-camp/
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 12 August 2015 21:51 (nine years ago) link
i watched le bonheur recently also & dug it v much
also watched the jane birkin one kung fu master/le petit amour - considering the premise its surprisingly watchable but id not really recommend it, best part is prob charlotte gainsbourg who you can already tell is a natural actress
― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 12 August 2015 22:37 (nine years ago) link
Embarrassed to say that I've never seen anything by her. Where should I start?
― The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 12 August 2015 22:53 (nine years ago) link
Cléo
― rack of lamb of god (WilliamC), Wednesday, 12 August 2015 23:11 (nine years ago) link
Cleo, La Bonheur, Le Pointe Courte.
Docs are as important. Mur Murs is great, she is probably the only French filmmaker who did anything of note with her time in America (not that others from that generation made any serious attempts)
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 13 August 2015 09:27 (nine years ago) link
gorin! on a not dissimilar wavelength.
― tender is the late-night daypart (schlump), Thursday, 13 August 2015 09:40 (nine years ago) link
good shout actually.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 13 August 2015 10:11 (nine years ago) link
interesting (to me at least) abt le Bonheur -- its wiki entry had previously described the guy as proposing a threesome to his wife after she confronts him abt his affair. I thought this was bizarre but maybe like lost in translation or something. That ref has since been removed & the wiki cleaned up & edited w/ some historical perspective also in connection w/ some class project, v cool
― johnny crunch, Thursday, 13 August 2015 15:26 (nine years ago) link
Docs are as important.
The Gleaners and I
Jacquot de Nantes (after you've seen a few Demy films)
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 13 August 2015 15:28 (nine years ago) link
the scene where he's explaining his affair in beautiful bucolic return-to-nature fantasy apple orchard terms is so unbearable, seinfeldian menage hints would've been preferable
― tender is the late-night daypart (schlump), Thursday, 13 August 2015 15:36 (nine years ago) link
One day I'll see it..
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 13 August 2015 16:25 (nine years ago) link
so good. need to watch more.
― e-bouquet (mattresslessness), Thursday, 13 August 2015 16:27 (nine years ago) link
prob too obv to mention, but vagabond <3
― drash, Thursday, 13 August 2015 16:30 (nine years ago) link
She's awesome yeah
Her films show up from time to time on mubi, though not as often as marker. Also docalliance put a load if her films up for free a while ago.
Surprised nobody has mentioned the beaches of Agnes yet, so good
― killfile with that .exe, you goon (wins), Thursday, 13 August 2015 16:34 (nine years ago) link
yep
Sandrine Bonnaire is amazing in Vagabond
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 13 August 2015 16:38 (nine years ago) link
I'm not big on Cleo but Le Bonheur, Vagabond, The Gleaners and I are impressive.
Would love to have heard the breakfast chatter between her and Jacques Demy.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 14 August 2015 01:22 (nine years ago) link
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-agnes-vardas-new-short-film-les-3-boutons-20150903
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 4 September 2015 09:30 (nine years ago) link
chats with Miranda July about generational shifts, Jane Birkin, work and family—and the time capsule that is KUNG-FU MASTER.
When a woman works, you say, ‘who’s caring for the kids,’ when a man works, nobody asks. I remember people, they would ask me and I would say, ‘Do you ask Truffaut?’
https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/the-lens-miranda-july-and-agnes-varda
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 12 November 2015 18:21 (nine years ago) link
she's so great.
― wizzz! (amateurist), Thursday, 12 November 2015 18:24 (nine years ago) link
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/dec/10/agnes-varda-photographs-cuba-salut-les-cubains
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 10 December 2015 14:35 (nine years ago) link
so much varda on mubi a few months ago, i got overwhelmed and watched none of it
― carly rae jetson (thomp), Thursday, 10 December 2015 14:38 (nine years ago) link
She met Castro, after several attempts – it was a last-minute affair at his favourite seaside restaurant. “He was good-looking, nice, calm,” Varda remembers. She made him stand before two huge boulders, so he appeared to have wings of stone. In her film, she noted: “He incarnates Cuba the way Gary Cooper incarnates the wild west.”
gag
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 December 2015 14:42 (nine years ago) link
The Moré photo is beautiful. Would watch a Varda doc on post-coup Cuba.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 December 2015 14:43 (nine years ago) link
Really hope they restore Marker's Cuba Si someday (if someone hasn't done that already?) The Varda doc is so good.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 10 December 2015 14:47 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb6EFdB1x1E
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 8 August 2016 07:09 (eight years ago) link
Lions Love is fantastic.
― aaaaaaaauuuuuuuuu (melting robot) (WilliamC), Tuesday, 24 January 2017 03:06 (seven years ago) link
an Oscar
http://www.oscars.org/news/academy-honor-charles-burnett-owen-roizman-donald-sutherland-and-agnes-varda-oscars-2017
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Friday, 8 September 2017 18:22 (seven years ago) link
A.V. was on hand to introduce One Sings, the Other Doesn’t at NYFF yesterday. I liked the first hour fine, but the next 45 mins were a little heavy on mid-'70s feminist acoustic-guitar ballads extolling Engels and pregnancy.
It was a new DCP, apparently forthcoming on Criterion?
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Monday, 2 October 2017 15:14 (seven years ago) link
he next 45 mins were a little heavy on mid-'70s feminist acoustic-guitar ballads extolling Engels and pregnancy.
I initially read this as "mid-'70s feminist acoustic-guitar ballads extolling EAGLES and pregnancy.
― the general theme of STUFF (cryptosicko), Monday, 2 October 2017 16:53 (seven years ago) link
only if she had stayed in L.A.
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Monday, 2 October 2017 17:11 (seven years ago) link
Don & Glenn From 5-7
― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 2 October 2017 18:18 (seven years ago) link
What did they think of her work?
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 2 October 2017 18:19 (seven years ago) link
Loved One Sings, the Other Doesn't when i saw it last year - really liked the journey from of the two friends (in the context of so much talk of female friendship in fiction this slots right in), the Iranian journey (although Varda's Iranian work in the context of the Shah could be a troublesome aspect), as all r/ships, was v well done - one of her best films. The songs and their filming on unsuspecting punters was kinda funny and not cruel. Playful.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 2 October 2017 18:48 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, I liked the punter reactions. The Iranian trip didn't make me think of Varda re the Shah but about Teheran on the eve of revolution.
I haven't watched this, is it just excerpts from OStOD?
http://bbook.com/film/watch-agnes-vardas-1976-short-film-plaisir-damour-en-iran/
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Monday, 2 October 2017 18:57 (seven years ago) link
I have seen that short a few years before OStOD and can't remember. In fact its what I was thinking of - lots of ppl got money off the Shah during that period, so...troublesome.
As a piece of cinema - divorcing the politics for now - it works.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 2 October 2017 19:05 (seven years ago) link
well, when Orson Welles and tons of Hollywood productions shot in Spain in the '50s and '60s, they said you could get all the resources you wanted as long as Franco's minions got their money.
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Monday, 2 October 2017 19:38 (seven years ago) link
into the CC closet
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/5000-agnes-varda-s-closet-picks
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 4 October 2017 16:30 (seven years ago) link
I still haven't seen An Angel at My Table but I'm inclined to wag my finger at her for championing Sweetie.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 4 October 2017 16:33 (seven years ago) link
Criterion needs to do a sweepstakes surrounding this closet.
― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Wednesday, 4 October 2017 16:42 (seven years ago) link
They'd have to cap the number of movies you could take. I'd have far less shame than the people they typically feature.
― jmm, Wednesday, 4 October 2017 16:55 (seven years ago) link
You'd have a tough time outdoing these clowns:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSdxbBsShak
― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Wednesday, 4 October 2017 16:57 (seven years ago) link
ugh i was just thinking about that, it looked like they took like 50 movies
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 4 October 2017 17:49 (seven years ago) link
I mean, I'd grab exactly 53 myself ... and then a few more DVD-to-BR upgrades to boot.)
― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Wednesday, 4 October 2017 17:56 (seven years ago) link
Amoeba has a similar video series and I feel conflicted about watching them since I know that they're just trying to ease me into an acquisitive mindset.
― jmm, Wednesday, 4 October 2017 18:01 (seven years ago) link
Certainly putting the word "collection" in their brand didn't already serve the same purpose.
― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Wednesday, 4 October 2017 18:02 (seven years ago) link
the songs, oy
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 14 September 2019 05:16 (five years ago) link
lol
― Dan S, Saturday, 14 September 2019 06:37 (five years ago) link
Calling this film didactic is just lazy. I mean how many people knew or cared to know what this film talks about at the time it was made.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 14 September 2019 06:52 (five years ago) link
watching it again Vagabond still seems really moving
― Dan S, Thursday, 26 September 2019 03:38 (five years ago) link
Need to watch that again. Saw it when it first came up and was worried about how it was going to work but seems like many obvious pitfalls were avoided.
― The Hillbilly Chespirito (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 26 September 2019 03:40 (five years ago) link
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, September 14, 2019 2:52 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink
I like it a lot, but it's exactly what you said, a movie of its time
― flappy bird, Thursday, 26 September 2019 03:49 (five years ago) link
don't think xyzzzz___ was saying it was a movie of its time though
― Dan S, Thursday, 26 September 2019 04:02 (five years ago) link
what was revelatory in 1977 comes off as stiff, but OSATOD more than makes up for it
― flappy bird, Thursday, 26 September 2019 04:42 (five years ago) link
The issues in that film are all around us so no it's not a film of its time.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 27 September 2019 07:00 (five years ago) link
I appreciate “The Gleaners and I” more seeing it again. I don’t find interviews and voice-over exposition in general all that interesting, but in this film they seem perfect
― Dan S, Tuesday, 1 October 2019 01:34 (five years ago) link
a natural subject matter for her, as a 'gleaner of gleaners'
“…and then there is my hand up close. I mean, this is my project: to film with one hand my other hand. To enter into the horror of it. I find it extraordinary. I feel as if I am an animal, worse, I am an animal I don’t know.
And here’s Rembrandt’s self-portrait, but it’s just the same in fact. Always a self-portrait.”
― Dan S, Tuesday, 1 October 2019 01:50 (five years ago) link
Cinévardaphoto is a nice trio of short films
― Dan S, Saturday, 12 October 2019 01:25 (five years ago) link
Beaches of Agnes is really great, it is both nostalgic and forward thinking and is so beautiful, it's one of my favorite films of hers
― Dan S, Wednesday, 23 October 2019 03:59 (five years ago) link
I remembered a moment from beaches of agnes the other day, when she's on the boardwalk at the card sale, she finds a flyer for Documenteur and says "Oh! my favorite"
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 23 October 2019 04:49 (five years ago) link
she had such a generosity of spirit
― Dan S, Wednesday, 23 October 2019 05:14 (five years ago) link
the reminiscences of her many lives in Beaches of Agnes reminds me of all of the Varda films I still haven't seen
― Dan S, Wednesday, 23 October 2019 22:29 (five years ago) link
saw JR’s The Chronicles of San Francisco and revisited some of Agnes Varda’s documentaries recently, then this week rewatched Faces Places and was even more taken with it than I was the first time. I like the quote above about her films forming a bond with the viewer that feels like friendship
― Dan S, Wednesday, 6 November 2019 01:00 (five years ago) link
Varda tries to unmask JR’s identity, or at least get him to take off his sunglasses, even pressing his grandmother
― Dan S, Wednesday, 6 November 2019 01:30 (five years ago) link
“prepared to sit right inside their own hearts”. I liked the whole exploration about how much of ourselves we are willing to give to another
― Dan S, Wednesday, 6 November 2019 01:34 (five years ago) link
Did she do any lesser feature than Lions Love? Ragni, Rado and Viva seem like the 3 most annoying bohos in '68 LA.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 10 February 2020 21:31 (four years ago) link
― aaaaaaaauuuuuuuuu (melting robot) (WilliamC), Monday, January 23, 2017
'splain!
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 10 February 2020 21:33 (four years ago) link
lol, I have no memory of the film now. Obviously it make a strong impression at the time though!
― Miami weisse (WmC), Monday, 10 February 2020 22:54 (four years ago) link
Don’t think I made it to the end of that one
― TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Hitchcock/Truffaut (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 10 February 2020 23:03 (four years ago) link
Did she do any lesser feature than /Lions Love/? Ragni, Rado and Viva seem like the 3 most annoying bohos in '68 LA.
― flappy bird, Monday, 10 February 2020 23:54 (four years ago) link
It's SET then, over a mere week, but I'm sure they cheated some. There was a billboard for The Odd Couple visible in one car scene that read "2 Academy Award Nominations," which had to be shot in early '69.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 11 February 2020 01:16 (four years ago) link
Ohhh gotcha
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 11 February 2020 01:26 (four years ago) link
Shirley Clarke otoh is magnetic, but she doesn't have enough scenes.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 11 February 2020 02:01 (four years ago) link
yeah iirc we're stuck with those fucking hippies for most of it
Uniquely irritating in a way that ruins the movie for me, just like Stranger Than Paradise
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 11 February 2020 02:48 (four years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dySwfrzAEeI&feature=youtu.be
― a slobbering sombrero moment (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 9 April 2020 13:36 (four years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dySwfrzAEeI
― a slobbering sombrero moment (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 9 April 2020 13:37 (four years ago) link
This August, we're celebrating the boundless creative vision of Agnès Varda with a comprehensive collection of her genre-blurring, culture-shaping films, bringing together all thirty-nine of her features, shorts, and documentaries for the first time! 🧡💜💗https://t.co/qYMbWfwmus pic.twitter.com/7nMiXmPdqs— Criterion Collection (@Criterion) May 11, 2020
― flappy bird, Monday, 11 May 2020 17:09 (four years ago) link
omg
― herds of unmasked cletuses (WmC), Monday, 11 May 2020 17:18 (four years ago) link
And indeed, I now have that set, just arrived today. I look forward to exploring it in full steadily over time.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 12 August 2020 20:19 (four years ago) link
I'm seeing some reviews that some (but not all?) of the older color films have been piss filtered.
― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 12 August 2020 20:25 (four years ago) link
did she ever do another movie as dark and angry and formally cutting as Le Bonheur? not Vagabond, that's presented in a much less oblique way.
― flappy bird, Thursday, 29 October 2020 07:31 (four years ago) link
No, I don't think so.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 29 October 2020 08:06 (four years ago) link
So, "Les Creatures". Michel Piccoli goes berserk and attacks some children and an old man with a dead cat; has a conversation with a rabbit about his wife's pregnancy (the rabbit answers him btw); plays a weird chess game, using holograms of the other characters in the film, with an evil scientist. Catherine Deneuve is in it but is mute for almost the entire film. Varda considered it a failure and I'm inclined to agree with her. Definitely worth watching though!
― Waterloo Subset (Tom D.), Wednesday, 20 January 2021 00:27 (three years ago) link
Agreed. Nice showcase for FrancoScope, like watching a movie through a goddamn fishbowl.
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 20 January 2021 01:57 (three years ago) link
Piccoli later compared the character he played in Les Creatures to the character he played in Dillinger is Dead, only one of Marco Ferreri's multiple masterpieces.
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 20 January 2021 01:58 (three years ago) link
The two guys are terrible but Viva is great, though I wish there'd been less of her doing her patented Warhol wack job routine and more bits like the straight-to-camera monologue she does at the end.
― Waterloo Subset (Tom D.), Friday, 22 January 2021 00:41 (three years ago) link
Never made it through that one
― Next Time Might Be Hammer Time (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 22 January 2021 00:48 (three years ago) link
I barely made it through the first 10 minutes tbh.
― Waterloo Subset (Tom D.), Friday, 22 January 2021 00:53 (three years ago) link
Viva is good, I like her more in Cisco Pike though (where she has some direct addresses as well, iirc)
― flappy bird, Friday, 22 January 2021 01:44 (three years ago) link
And they're all so old! Viva was 30 and the two Hair guys were even older, Jim Rado was born in 1932! I couldn't see past the wig he had on too.
― Waterloo Subset (Tom D.), Sunday, 24 January 2021 16:27 (three years ago) link
I must have said this elsewhere but I'm slowly filling (the vast) holes in my film knowledge and am largely being led by what I read on here. I've watched a couple of Vardas in the last week (Gleaners and Cléo From 5 To 7) and it has been like discovering a new author in some ways. This may just be coming to understand film grammar, but there's something very literary about her use of symbolism and the authorial frame.
Varda makes things seem so simple, almost as if there were barely an editing process at all; both films in their way, particularly Gleaners, feel like dérives. I know the answer is 'wherever the rapid passage through varied ambiences takes you,' but where does one go next?
― I would prefer not to. (Chinaski), Monday, 6 November 2023 20:54 (one year ago) link
I searched for this image because *eyes on stalks*. Didn't even notice the angel wings at the time.
https://www.classicartfilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Cleo-2.bmp
This image:
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/578e9611b3db2b81e152317e/1524608062137-B68ZLJLHM3V9791TGAH8/Film+-+Varda++cleo-de-5-a-7+D*.jpg?content-type=image%2Fjpeg
― I would prefer not to. (Chinaski), Monday, 6 November 2023 20:56 (one year ago) link
I watched Le Bonheur last year, and I thought it was devastating... so pretty to look at, but such a dark outcome
Also: Vagabond holds up really well, such a good film
― Andy the Grasshopper, Tuesday, 7 November 2023 18:05 (one year ago) link
https://www.filmlinc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Le-bonheur-1600x900-c-default.jpeg
― Andy the Grasshopper, Tuesday, 7 November 2023 18:07 (one year ago) link
New bio coming out by Carrie Rickey looks promising!
― Thrapple from the Apple (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 24 July 2024 05:51 (five months ago) link