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A30 PEOPLE/ARTS
Saturday 7 OctOber 2017
Agnes Varda, 89, on her life

in cinema and ‘Faces Places’

By JAKE COYLE movies, immediately identi- fresh as a daisy,” says Kent
AP Film Writer fiable as her own. Jones, director of the New
NEW YORK (AP) — Agnes “Beaches of Agnes,” Varda York Film Festival, which
Varda, the 89-year-old thought, would be her final also screened the film.
Belgian-born filmmaking feature film. But then she A melancholy colors “Fac-
legend, emerges from her met the now 34-year-old es Places,” too, in its blend
hotel room having dressed street artist JR, who’s world of playfulness and gravity.
up for an evening event at renown for pasting grand In one scene, Varda visits
Lincoln Center. She holds portraits of photographs the rural cemetery where
out the large silver heart- on huge, real-world tab- the photographer Henri
In this Sept. 24, 2017 file photo, film director Agnes Varda holds shaped medallion strung leaus — a boy gazing over Cartier-Bresson is buried. JR
the Donostia Award for her contribution to the cinema at the 65th around her neck. a border wall in Mexico; gi- asks if she fears death and
San Sebastian Film Festival, in San Sebastian, northern Spain. “I have a big heart,” she ant eyes on a sailing cargo Varda says she’s looking
says with a smile. ship. A couple years ago, forward to it.
A truer thing has never Varda, a fan of JR’s work, “It’s not in the film but she
been said. Since her 1962 met him on a Monday in said because she would
New Wave breakthrough, Paris. They started shooting be afraid to do ‘the film de
the real-time masterwork that Wednesday. trop,’ which means the one
“Cléo From 5 to 7,” and “He does very spectacular too much,” says JR. “For
running up until her latest, things,” says Varda. “I’m her, she already had her
the richly ennobling road more modest than he is. goodbye to cinema do-
trip documentary “Faces But we got along. I think our ing ‘Beaches of Agnes.’ But
Places,” Varda’s much-dis- working couple works, no?” we kind of got taken and
tinguished career has been They’re perhaps the odd- at some point we thought:
defined by a soul-search- est couple of the year but maybe we have something
ing warmth, an abiding, also the most charming. worth sharing.”
compassionate curiosity, In “Faces Places,” which “We tried to lighten. The
and a deep desire, above opens in New York on Fri- world is such a mess, such
all, to see. day and elsewhere in the a chaos. We decided we
“Life comes through the coming weeks, she and JR should not tell more about
frame and through the traverse the French coun- the chaos,” says Varda.
stock. It’s like a filter,” says tryside in a van, meeting “Maybe we are light. May-
Varda. “We filter life to people along the way, be we like to smile. Maybe
make it accessible to us. hearing their stories and we love people so much
We want to learn and then pasting their portraits. The that we want you to love
give to other people imag- images leave their subjects them also.”
es, song and emotion and — a solitary farmer, wives of In November, the Acad-
discovery. We are artisans. dockworkers — breathless. emy Awards will honor Var-
I feel I am an artist but I am An intuitive, improvised da with a honorary Oscar,
a movie maker. I make a project became a long- the latest in a parade of
film with my hands. I love running one. To pace Var- lifetime awards.
the editing, I love the mix- da, whose eyesight has di- “It’s ridiculous. I’m well
ing. It’s a tool to make oth- minished, they worked one known but still remain poor,
er people exist. It’s giving week every month for five with poor audiences and
understanding between months. poor box office. It’s like a
people. “We thought it would just consolation,” says Varda.
“Understanding, empathy, be a summer,” says JR, “My daughter says I should
sharing. I think they are who dons sunglasses and a go. But it’s the side Oscar.
beautiful words. They are hat throughout the film, but It’s not even in February. It’s
not ridiculous.” who spoke without either in November. I think it’s the
While perhaps not as while Varda was spiffing up Oscar of the poor. I’m flat-
widely known outside cine- in the next room. “It’s like a tered but not that much.”
phile circles as some of her summer love that got ex- Varda has long been an
French New Wave con- tended.” inspirational, pioneering
temporaries — Godard, “What we had in common figure for women directors.
Truffaut — Varda has been is that you can approach When she began making
a humble but titanic pres- everybody — anybody — if movies, she estimates, there
ence across 20th century you have empathy and a were three women film-
cinema. Originally a pho- desire to listen, to be hon- makers in France.“When I
tographer, her films have, est, to be open,” says Var- started, my point was not
from the fierce feminist da of her co-director. “We to be a woman. I wanted
1985 landmark “Vaga- worked with four eyes.” to do radical cinema,” says
bond” to her tender 2009 Since its debut at the Varda. “Now, France is a
memory sketch “Beaches Cannes Film Festival, “Fac- country where 25 percent
of Agnes,” charted a more es Places” has left critics of the filmmakers are wom-
eccentric and often whim- floored by Varda’s undi- en. We have an incredible
sical path. She’s small in minished talent and spirit. amount of women film di-
stature but her dual-toned “Unlike a lot of movies by rectors and DPs. More than
bowl-cut hairstyle is, like her older filmmakers, it’s as here, I have to say. q