Monday, April 1, 5:30 pm, McKnight Hall in the Cone Center
(Building 5 on this map; closest parking is Cone Union Deck 1)
Agnès Varda and JR, France 2017/94 min.
French with English subtitles
Presented as part of The Tournées Festival, made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the U.S., the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée (CNC), the French American Cultural Fund, Florence Gould Foundation and Highbrow Entertainment.
Additional sponsors are the Alliance Française de Charlotte and the UNC Charlotte French Club.
Introduction to the films of Agnès Varda at 5:30 by guest speaker Dr. Kelley Conway, Chair of the Film Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Film at 6:00 pm, followed by discussion.
With Faces, Places, 89-year-old powerhouse Agnès Varda teams with
the world-famous young street artist JR to make a film as wide-rang-
ing as it is personal, as fanciful as it is pointed. Setting off on French
country roads to find subjects for JR’s trademark mural-size portrait
photographs, the two artists focus on people generally outside of the
spotlight: retired miners, factory workers, the wives of dockers, and
farmers. Each encounter fills in another piece of an idiosyncratic
portrait of modern-day France, as well as the evolving relationship
between open-hearted Agnès Varda and mysterious JR. The give-and-
take between Varda and JR plays out in a fascinating through-line
devoted to Jean-Luc Godard, Varda’s old friend and sole surviving
colleague of the French New Wave. But make no mistake: while the
film is credited to both artists, Varda is definitely calling the shots. As
ever, her montage is allusive, playful, rapid-fire, occasionally jarring—
in short, totally in keeping with her singular way of thinking. Her
generosity in sharing her life and thought with us deep into old age is a
cause to rejoice. Faces, Places was nominated for an Academy Award
for the Best Documentary of 2017.
