Since seeing The Beaches of Agnes (2008-also reviewed) on the big screen,I've been meaning to view the final work by the director. Getting set for my birthday,I felt it was time to see the final film by Agnes Varda.
View on the film:
Joining the pristine transfer of the film, the BFI have loaded the Blu-Ray with an 80 minute talk the film maker did for the organisation in 2018, and an in-depth, detailed booklet.
Stating at a Q&A featured in the film that she makes "Organised documentaries, real reality with a twist",co-writer / co- director ( regular collaborator of this era Didier Rouget) Agnes Varda makes a final, poetic statement in how interwoven film has been in her life.
Walking along the beaches from The Beaches of Agnes, Varda continues to delicately drop surreal flourishes into mundane surroundings/ regular objects, from fluid French New Wave panning shots moving along potatoes which have sprouted and now look like like connected hearts, and a hut made from recycled reels of film and canisters that otherwise would have been gathering dust, to transforming a street in her town into a beach for two days, with wide-shots revealing Varda and her staff working like they are in an office, whilst children build sand castles around them.
Holding a large photo of Jacques Demy next to her heart, Varda criss-crosses the striking surreal sequences with footage from her at various film festivals, and filmed reunions of cast members she had made self-portrait movies on, which Varda cleverly spins here into a self-portrait tapestry of her life on film, as Agnes Varda disappears in a blur.
View on the film:
Joining the pristine transfer of the film, the BFI have loaded the Blu-Ray with an 80 minute talk the film maker did for the organisation in 2018, and an in-depth, detailed booklet.
Stating at a Q&A featured in the film that she makes "Organised documentaries, real reality with a twist",co-writer / co- director ( regular collaborator of this era Didier Rouget) Agnes Varda makes a final, poetic statement in how interwoven film has been in her life.
Walking along the beaches from The Beaches of Agnes, Varda continues to delicately drop surreal flourishes into mundane surroundings/ regular objects, from fluid French New Wave panning shots moving along potatoes which have sprouted and now look like like connected hearts, and a hut made from recycled reels of film and canisters that otherwise would have been gathering dust, to transforming a street in her town into a beach for two days, with wide-shots revealing Varda and her staff working like they are in an office, whilst children build sand castles around them.
Holding a large photo of Jacques Demy next to her heart, Varda criss-crosses the striking surreal sequences with footage from her at various film festivals, and filmed reunions of cast members she had made self-portrait movies on, which Varda cleverly spins here into a self-portrait tapestry of her life on film, as Agnes Varda disappears in a blur.