Faces Places **** /
*****
Directed by: Agnès Varda & JR.
The
great Agnes Varda is now 89 years old – and she is going as strong as ever in
her new films, Faces Places, which she co-directed with JR – an artist more
than 50 years her junior. Varda has been making films since 1955 – and is often
associated with the French New Wave, and indeed, she was friendly with those in
that movement – most notably (for this film anyway) – Jean-Luc Godard. In the
film, the unlikely duo travel The across France in JR’s supped up van – which
allows him to take pictures like a photo booth, and print large photographs
out. He then takes those large photographs – or many of them, making up even
larger pictures, and pastes them on walls, barns, water towers, whatever for
larger than life projects. He knows his images will eventually fade away – they
are meant to be temporary. Varda accompanies him on his journey because she
admires his work, and he admires hers – and because her eyes are fading, and
she wants to capture these moments before they slip away forever.
The
result is a playful documentary, where we watch as their friendship deepens and
widens – the bicker like old friend, in part because – like her old friend
Godard – JR insists on keeping his dark sunglasses ad fedora on at all times –
a way to hide from the world. Varda, with her trademark two toned hair, is done
with that sort of nonsense, and is frustrated with him at times. But the work
they do – wasting old photos of miners on their now abandoned homes – and the
one woman who is left there – a farmer on his barn, a beautiful waitress on the
side of a restaurant, who suddenly becomes the most famous woman in her small
town, the wives of dock workers on the stacks of crates, etc. is unexpectedly
moving, and quietly profound.
The
people they meet along the way are also interesting. If Varda and JR ever met
anyone who thought their idea was stupid and said no, we never meet them in the
doc (they certainly would if they tried this America). Everyone in the film
seems to think it’s a good idea – and they love the results. In part, this
could because of the people Varda and JR choose – they are mainly older, or at
least well into middle age, and remember a time before, when things were
different. This isn’t simple nostalgia however – but just a remembrance of a
time gone by.
I
wonder what I can say to make you realize just how fun this film is. Basically,
this is a film about Varda and JR playing together – they embrace each new
challenge as an opportunity to have fun. Godard hangs over much of the film –
as Varda shows, on more than one occasion, footage she shoot of him and Anna
Karina in the early 1950s – him also in his trademark glasses, although he
removes them for Varda’s camera – and seems to be clowning for her. In one
sequence, Varda has JR push her through the Louvre in a wheelchair, in a
sequence having fun with the infamous one in Godard’s Band of Outsiders. Late
in the film, Varda surprises JR with what she promises will be a trip to meet
the infamous man himself – although things don’t quite turn out the way she planned.
The film is, at least in part, a rebuke of Godard – and the idea that you have
to be a self-involved asshole to be a great artist. Varda is proof that that is
not true – and it’s a message she wants to send.
Right
before I saw this film at TIFF, it was announced that Varda was going to be one
of the lifetime achievement winners at this year’s Oscars (and thank god that they give those out at a
separate ceremony, because who would ever want to see a legend like Varda
celebrated at the Oscars, when we need to squeeze in all those very memorable
song performances and 18 self-congratulatory tributes to Hollywood for being so
great). There are few film artists more deserving of such recognition. But
Faces Places proves she perhaps she isn’t done yet (if it is her final film,
it’s a fitting one – but we can always hope for more). This is a wonderful,
life affirming doc – and a film that will, simply put, just make you happy.
