☆ ☆ ☆ ½
Faces Places (2017) – A. Varda & JR
I’d never heard of JR, the young French photographer/muralist, until he
teamed up with venerable director Agnes Varda (originally of the French New
Wave and more recently a champion essay filmmaker) to make this documentary. Together
they travel the countryside, meeting the locals and taking giant photos of them
and pasting them on barns, buildings, and water towers. The effect is admittedly pretty cool and
Varda crafts the cinematic result for maximum charm, highlighting the rapport
between the 33 year old and the 88 year old (although they didn’t meet on the
dance floor). Things do become personal,
as Varda navigates their search to a memorial for one of her favourite authors
(Nathalie
Sarraute) and to the graves of photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson
and his wife. Finally, she arranges to
meet up with Jean-Luc Godard himself (because JR’s penchant for always wearing shades
reminds her of him) and the film suddenly careens toward a peak, with the heightened
expectation that these two Nouvelle Vague veterans will meet on camera! And then, what? We’re left wondering what
happened. And now Varda has passed
(early in 2019), leaving a huge legacy and some very wistful films – like this
one.
No comments:
Post a Comment