The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

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zedz
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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#126 Post by zedz » Sun Nov 08, 2020 5:04 pm

I had the Cine Tamaris box already, and my motivations for getting this were, in rough order of importance:

- Faces Places and Agnes by Varda (both of which I'd held off on getting individually in expectation of this set).
- Subtitled versions of Nausicaa and Quelques Veuves de Noirmoutier.
- Various new extras (not extensive, but of pretty good quality).
- BluRay upgrades of plenty of films.

If you don't already have the Cine Tamaris box, the bountiful extras from that (intros, short films etc.) are generally wonderful and are a compelling reason to get this edition.

Very nice packaging and presentation here, even it doesn't have a whimsical box of surprises hidden within.

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Noiretirc
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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#127 Post by Noiretirc » Sun Nov 08, 2020 6:03 pm

I'll annoy everyone who seems to be enjoying this (yellow tint and all) and ask again: What about the book?

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furbicide
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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#128 Post by furbicide » Sun Nov 08, 2020 11:05 pm

zedz wrote:
Sun Nov 08, 2020 3:29 pm
I worked through this set watching the stuff I hadn't already seen (which didn't actually amount to much given the size of the set). Of the "new" extras, the best were Jane Birkin's and Martin Scorsese's vivid and eccentric personal memories of Varda. And it was great to finally see a subtitled Nausicaa, though it was bizarre that this suppressed feature was hidden away on the sub-menu of an unrelated film. It's a significant work, with a significant story behind it, yet it's treated as being more marginal than something like Les 3 boutons.
Very much agree – even as an unfinished work (and I wouldn't have known that was the case watching it), it still seems a major entry in her filmography for a number of reasons.

Is it possible that it could indicate a reluctance by Criterion to place an unremastered, not visually ideal work on the same pedestal as the other films in the set? If so, I hope they understand that comprehensiveness is much more valued by the sort of person who would buy this set than absence of imperfection (and yes, I'm still sore about the lack of inclusion of "minor" works such as this in the Bergman set).

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#129 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Nov 09, 2020 12:09 am

Thanks for pointing this out zedz, I went through that disc without even knowing Nausicaa was included, since I had no desire to revisit One Sings, the Other Doesn't and wouldn't have thought to go into that film specifically to access this supplement! Bizarre to hide it, to hide it there, and not even list it as a separate film on the program (plus it's a better film than all three 'featured' works combined, by a mile)

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Noiretirc
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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#130 Post by Noiretirc » Sun Nov 15, 2020 7:36 pm

I'll try a different angle, because I'm stubborn:

Does the lavishly illustrated 200-page book, featuring notes on the films and essays on Varda’s life and work by writers Amy Taubin, Michael Koresky, Ginette Vincendeau, So Mayer, Alexandra Hidalgo, and Rebecca Bengal, as well as a selection of Varda’s photography and images of her installation art, shed new light on Varda's work and/or stand-up as a definitive book on her life and work?

(This could be the tipping point on buying this set for me.)

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#131 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Nov 15, 2020 9:24 pm

Noiretirc wrote:
Sun Nov 15, 2020 7:36 pm
Does the lavishly illustrated 200-page book, featuring notes on the films and essays on Varda’s life and work by writers Amy Taubin, Michael Koresky, Ginette Vincendeau, So Mayer, Alexandra Hidalgo, and Rebecca Bengal, as well as a selection of Varda’s photography and images of her installation art, shed new light on Varda's work and/or stand-up as a definitive book on her life and work?
Sorry Noiretirc, I haven't read the book yet. I just finished the set today (outside of some supplements) but I just skimmed the book, which seems to have essays organized around each disc's 'program' and then a few more sections on Varda's place as a feminist filmmaker, documentarian, and artistic inspiration, respectively. Pages 143-200 are photographs/liner notes. I can't speak to the specifics of the content, but from what I glanced at, it seems comprehensive. The later sections at least started with the writers speaking about screening her later films for students, so I assume new light is shed on her work since that context is used.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#132 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Nov 15, 2020 10:07 pm

One Hundred and One Nights may be Varda’s most inventive non-documentary work (though a case can be made for Jane B being much more that that, which is the film this probably shares the most DNA with), embracing the ethos of keeping cinema alive through spirited social interaction; a combination of reworking and cementing the sensations via oral lore, recollecting memory, and also in physical embodiments. The film is interested in how concretely objective works are strained through personalized subjectivity to formulate meaning.

Visual and audio gags nodding or replicating past films or figures. The early Lumiere brothers visual pun, Godardian interruption of the little girl (during a discussion on Godard no less!), and random droppings of Varda’s references to her past films are all very creative inclusions in the first half hour alone- a playful ode to recycling ideas that addresses the divide between creation and imitation before throwing such a rigidly faux-distinction out the window and doing both in synchrony.

Truth is bended in exciting ways, like in Depardieu’s tales of his own experiences on set and Piccoli’s mistitling of these films, bringing forth their own self-reflexive gags, just as the various actors dropping titular linguistic puns into sentences do too (i.e. Schygulla’s Fassbinder nudge). I haven't watched other copies in existence, but the subtitles on the Criterion disc tend to highlight the gags in italics, which is helpful in catching them all, but also becomes another layer of utilizing the medium’s possibilities to signify information- especially the dialogue imitation-dubbing in the cafe, which is one of the more clever executions of sound-subtitle synthesis I can think of offhand. I also have to mention my love for the first Georges Delerue tribute, which functions in a scene most reminiscent (including of his score) for Day for Night, edited into the film seemingly superfluously, but this entire film is basically a collage of non sequiturs that serve to connote old and new ideas together at once.

Julie Gayet is wonderful as Camille, and the side-plot scenes with her and her boyfriend are welcome, serving as a modern contrast to the continuation of passion for the art form, and life form, in the next generation. Varda clearly appreciates the past, and is optimistic in looking ahead to the future, even if these young people can’t always fully appreciate the possibilities to recreate with equal value. In an early scene, they define post-new wave as the “breezy wave” with cheeky condescension; though still aware that the new wave was borrowing and reconfiguring cinema itself. Of course Varda is able to show them having fun by imitating art in their daily lives, which itself becomes an authentic experience in this film as both literally contributing to new cinema and in the examining of the existential buoyancy of youth. Varda hasn’t exactly been a stranger to inserting hip-hop music into her later works, and a scene of the new generation dancing to the music is an apperception, especially honing in on the one girl who was critical of “imitation” earlier, now unapologetically enjoying an art form that more explicitly engineers novel media from old materials. The young couple's ethereal star-eyed approach to life is very sensual, Gayet in particular summoning a kittenish familiarity found in the nouvelle vague films, skyrocketed into present-day and fueling the enthusiasm as the viewer's surrogate, who views cinema as the zenith of attractiveness incarnated.

The film is jam-packed with references, some glaringly obvious and some less consciously-addressed without fourth-wall winking. It’s a lot of fun, and instilled a nostalgic rapture in me for the capabilities of the magic of movies, in both its narrative and meta-layered delivery of content. Along with Jane B. par Agnes V. and Faces Places, this is Varda at her most exuberant, imaginative, and intelligent. There is one (of many) Godard analyses that takes a speech he made about Sauve Qui Peut (la vie)’s elicitation of audience response to “rise up against emptiness and repetition” that seems to be reframed in a glass-half-full thesis for this film. Varda trusts that the audience and modern artists can rise up against these practices in isolation, and then formulate their own ideas with unconditional passion and gratitude for the past: filling in empty space by repeating in a new way. For both her and Godard's outlooks, repetition itself doesn’t beget an absence of meaning, but for Varda instead of abstract thought being the key, she has more faith in life's course alone supporting the desired result. The ending imbues the second Delerue borrowing, this time in Contempt's score, to evoke the beauty of expression spawned from amour fou.
SpoilerShow
Even if the film ends with a breakup involving unhealthy communication, the final images remain optimistic that we will engage in a lifelong process of repetition and find new experiences through their continual recontextualization. The last montage is from Mauvais Sang's famous scene of Lavant dancing through the streets, and here with a kiss Varda celebrates the emotions that can sometimes only be born to, and from, art. Not all of them are serene but all of them are positive when reframed in the light of being ripe with opportunities for enhanced communication. The breakup may show a deficit, but the juxtaposition with the three reiterations of scenes from past films suggest a bright future to grow from that moment, learn to pronounce our thoughts and emotions over time, and achieve glimpses of grace. Thankfully we can get this sensation from watching movies in the interim, and these viewings will in turn give us tools to express what we may not be able to without them. What a lovely pronouncement, ironically tacked onto what should be the most depressing, anti-climactic scene in the film.. only in the movies!

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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#133 Post by manisconcia » Mon Nov 30, 2020 8:04 pm

Is the Agnes Varda collection region free? I see sales on eBay claiming region A but according to criterion website FAQs and blu ray. Com it is region free....

Calvin
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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#134 Post by Calvin » Mon Nov 30, 2020 8:45 pm

manisconcia wrote:Is the Agnes Varda collection region free? I see sales on eBay claiming region A but according to criterion website FAQs and blu ray. Com it is region free....
Yes, it is.

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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#135 Post by lastrade » Sun Jan 10, 2021 8:09 am

Is anyone apart from Amazon selling this in the UK yet? I don't want to get stung with customs charges again!

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EddieLarkin
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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#136 Post by EddieLarkin » Sun Jan 10, 2021 9:14 am

Getting "stung with customs charges" is now a thing of the past in the UK, owing to VAT rule changes implented on Jan 1st. All non-UK online shops selling to the UK are now required to charge UK VAT at checkout, at any price level (i.e. no more £15 threshold). Any commercial orders shipped into the UK that have not had the VAT collected by the seller, will be sent back (wheras before, this action would prompt the dreaded grey slip from RM).

So anywhere selling this set for UK delivery should be charging 20% at checkout, and you won't get any further charges. If you find it somewhere that isn't applying this charge though, I would not recommend ordering, as you may never see it.

A number of shops (JB Hifi in Aus) have refused to ship anything to the UK now due to this change.

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dustybooks
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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#137 Post by dustybooks » Sun Feb 21, 2021 4:30 pm

I'm having a genuine blast working my way through this box, which was largely a blind buy for me. I'm watching the Criterion-sanctioned program order apart from the first disc which I will come back to last. I find Varda as a personality extremely engaging and insightful -- and the shorts, documentaries and the bonus materials that she made herself are a joy to watch. However, a pattern is emerging whereby I like Varda's documentaries (and shorter pieces in general) considerably more than her narrative features, maybe partially because her pure curiosity about other people, which seems to be the guiding influence over all of her work, manifests as a deeper expression of her true self than her attempts to extrapolate fiction from that curiosity.

Reading over old threads about her work I sense that there is a sharp divide among the forum's stalwarts about her body of work -- the debates over Le Bonheur were particularly interesting -- but I'm wondering if there's a broad consensus that she was a much better director than writer. La Pointe Courte, Le Bonheur and Les Creatures were all films I found visually sumptuous and enjoyably unpredictable but don't really gel for me in a narrative sense, though Creatures was so completely bizarre I have to say that on balance I liked it a bit more than the other two; Cleo from 5 to 7 is the exception so far, and I think it deserves its high reputation, but even in that case I felt the last ten minutes or so were a bit misguided. But Daguerreotypes, Black Panthers, L'Opera Mouffe, Uncle Yanco, the two early color travelogues, etc. I find unerringly compelling with no such caveats.

I'm excited to continue pressing forward -- haven't seen Vagabond or One Sings, the Other Doesn't yet, among others -- but I'll be curious to see if this impression holds.

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soundchaser
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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#138 Post by soundchaser » Sun Feb 21, 2021 4:35 pm

You're not alone in that feeing, dustybooks. I haven't finished the set, but I find Varda's documentaries and especially her docu-fiction more compelling than her narratives. Jane B feels like a brilliant combination of the two, and its documentary trappings help make the fiction sections a little more engaging (minus the Laurel & Hardy parody). This may be a failing of mine, but I think Varda's fiction is awfully stingy with approaches/context, and her documentaries strike the balance a little better.

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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#139 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Feb 21, 2021 5:36 pm

Yes, Jane B. par Agnes V is her masterpiece for the reasons soundchaser says- the recognition and acceptance of these limitations of the medium and inherent connotations of self-indulgence open up pathways of infinite exploration of a person's account of personal record and meaning. I like her narrative features more than the docs overall actually, even if they're less consistent. I've already written about most if not all of these, but Les Créatures is an interesting failure that provoked some jarring terrain in its final moments, and I think Cléo de 5 à 7's ending elevates its narrative into greatness. Kung-fu Master! and One Hundred and One Nights are also near-perfect films, the latter operating perhaps a bit more like Jane B. but told in a more straightforward narrative that still retains that film's cheeky transparent awareness of the constraints of a documentary ethos in exploring self-reflexive history.

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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#140 Post by Noiretirc » Sun Feb 21, 2021 6:27 pm

Alright, you good folks finally convinced me to get this, yellow piss and all. The book looks great! $243CDN on Amazon.

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dustybooks
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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#141 Post by dustybooks » Fri Apr 23, 2021 1:48 pm

I've now seen all of Varda's narrative features, having only seen her shorts and documentaries before I bought this set. I wish I could share twbb's enthusiasm for Jane B. par Agnes V. and One Hundred and One Nights but neither worked for me, I think largely because they rely on Varda's sense of humor which I don't seem to share. I thought they were both interesting conceptually but quickly wore thin. I also thought Le Bonheur was a film that would probably make better sense on paper than it did in execution. That said, Varda's obvious enthusiasm is infectious in even her weakest films, and there are nearly always moments of real visual ingenuity.

Vagabond and Cleo from 5 to 7 were of course both brilliant, the former particularly stunning to me though it seems wildly uncharacteristic of Varda, with the harshness and the reluctance to explain or soften its lead character not really something I see elsewhere in her work. I notice also that these are the two films in which Varda seems to insert herself the least, which I don't necessarily mean as a criticism of her other work, not least because I generally quite enjoy her presence (one reason I often have enjoyed the supplements on this set more than the films themselves).

I liked Kung-Fu Master, Lions Love, La Pointe Courte and Les Creatures as interesting experimental exercises without really thinking they entirely worked -- they all had elements I really admired in their sheer audacity. Jacquot de Nantes struck me as one of Varda's most engaging and accessible films, but it seems clear she was working to approximate the inner life of another artist, however lovingly. To me it's one of the most successful examples of her tendency toward blending narrative with documentary, which shows up to varying degrees in every one of these movies.

Nausicaa didn't really stand out but I feel I may have simply not been in the right mindset for it.

The big surprise was Documenteur, which I found emotionally clear and devastating, and wholly resonant in its evocation of loss and loneliness; in fact I think it may be the film of hers that directly affected me the most on a personal level.

For all my uneven responses to the films in the box, I'm absolutely thrilled with it overall, more than anything as a motivator for rediscovering the sheer joy of creativity. That sounds corny but I really mean it -- the full depth and expanse and the eclecticism of Varda's output is more inspiring to me than any individual work of hers.

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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#142 Post by filmyfan » Sun Apr 25, 2021 7:14 am

Anyone in the know on whether this set will get a UK release?

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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#143 Post by yoloswegmaster » Sun Apr 25, 2021 7:18 am

I doubt it since there is already an 8-film boxset that was put out by Artifical Eye.

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furbicide
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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#144 Post by furbicide » Mon Apr 26, 2021 11:10 pm

dustybooks wrote:
Fri Apr 23, 2021 1:48 pm
The big surprise was Documenteur, which I found emotionally clear and devastating, and wholly resonant in its evocation of loss and loneliness; in fact I think it may be the film of hers that directly affected me the most on a personal level.
Glad to hear it – while I had some different reactions to you regarding some of the films (I adored Jane B. and felt much more unreservedly enthusiastic about Lions Love), Documenteur to me stands out as Varda's unsung masterpiece. It's one of the most sublime films I've ever seen, both in terms of its mastery of framing, editing and merging of documentary and fiction elements, as well as its emotional impact, which hit me pretty hard too. If we lost 99.99% of cinema in some apocalypse and could only rescue a few works from the wreckage, it's one of the films I'd want to take with me for sure.

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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#145 Post by Zepfanman » Sat Dec 25, 2021 7:48 am

Saturnome wrote:
Sat Aug 01, 2020 1:50 am
Still no signs of La cocotte d'Azur, Les enfants du musée or La petite histoire de Gwen la bretonne in this "complete" set.
La cocotte d'Azur is Varda being mean, which is quite unusual. Les enfants du musée is a cute short, only essential in order to see early Varda do late Varda.
[EDIT] I've posted my "complete" version of her filmography here: https://zepfanman.com/2021/12/more-comp ... lmography/ but would still love to know more details about the below.[/EDIT]
I've been working on a "more complete" filmography and noticed those were missing from the Criterion box set. The American Cinematheque "premiered" Gwen on April 7, 2020 even though it is labeled as a 2008 film. What are the origins of Gwen, Cocotte, and Les enfants (earliest DVD releases, television dates)? Are Cocotte and Les enfants available anywhere online?

I've also noticed that the 9-minute "Dans l'atelier de Chris Marker" (2012?) is slightly longer than the segment on episode 1 of "Agnès de ci de là Varda" (2011). Again, is there a more clear origin of that work?

I feel like the 2004 Viennale trailer should be a part of her complete works, as well: https://youtu.be/1tbv9wTQsTE

The last question I have is in regards to the "Short 4: Seduction" DVD (2000) on IMDb. Is Varda incorrectly-attributed as a director?https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371217/

Thanks!

- J. J. http://zepfanman.com
Last edited by Zepfanman on Mon Dec 27, 2021 10:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Saturnome
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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#146 Post by Saturnome » Sat Dec 25, 2021 1:53 pm

As far as I know, La cocotte d'Azur and Les enfants du musée are nowhere on the internet. I saw them at the Cinémathèque Québécoise. The first film was made with rushes from Du côté de la côte (and maybe was something done just for fun?), the second is a short Pathé newsreel of some sort, with Varda interviewing and musing about her observations, much like she would do in her last films. No idea why they're missing, they're interesting for Varda completionists.

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Zepfanman
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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#147 Post by Zepfanman » Tue Jul 11, 2023 2:13 pm

Keeping an eye on this thread in case anyone notices a streaming release of the "Agnès Varda - Pier Paolo Pasolini - New York - 1967" short from 2022 https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/e ... york-1967/

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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#148 Post by tasa » Tue Jul 11, 2023 2:21 pm

Zepfanman wrote:
Tue Jul 11, 2023 2:13 pm
Keeping an eye on this thread in case anyone notices a streaming release of the "Agnès Varda - Pier Paolo Pasolini - New York - 1967" short from 2022 https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/e ... york-1967/
I'm fairly certain this on the Love Meetings disc in the Pasolini 101 set.

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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#149 Post by Zepfanman » Tue Jul 11, 2023 2:59 pm

tasa wrote:
Tue Jul 11, 2023 2:21 pm
I'm fairly certain this on the Love Meetings disc in the Pasolini 101 set.
Oh, indeed! " 'Varda Meets Pasolini' runs 4-minutes as the two icons of cinema link up on the streets of New York City in this portrait of Pasolini, shot by filmmaker Agnes Varda in 1967. These images were shot by Varda in 1966, with editing and commentary completed in 1967. All the elements were discovered in 2021. This film was restored in 2022 by Cine-Tamaris, with the kind collaboration Llmmagine Ritrovata, as part of the project Memories in images. Lastly is a trailer for Love Meetings." http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film11/blu-ray ... lu-ray.htm

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Re: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

#150 Post by swo17 » Tue Jul 11, 2023 3:08 pm

Here's Chris's description of that special feature:
There’s a 4-minute short by Agnès Varda entitled Varda Meets Pasolini, assembled from footage she filmed of Pasolini during a visit to New York. Over the top of the footage, Varda recounts a discussion with him, where the director shared his thoughts about poverty in the city and how cinema works off of “layers of reality.”

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