Tag Archives: Agnès Varda

Jane B. Par Agnès V.

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JANE B. PAR AGNÈS V.

1987 | dir: Agnès Varda | 97 min

NEW 2K RESTORATION!

First-ever U.S. Theatrical Release

“I’ll look at you, but not at the camera. It could be a trap,” whispers Jane Birkin shyly into Agnès Varda’s ear at the start of JANE B. PAR AGNES V. The director of CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 and VAGABOND once again paints a portrait of a woman, this time in a marvelously Expressionistic way. “It’s like an imaginary bio-pic,” says Varda. Jane, of course, is the famed singer (“Je t’aime … Moi non plus”), actress (BLOW UP), fashion icon (the Hermes Birkin bag) and longtime muse to Serge Gainsbourg. As Varda implies, JANE B. PAR AGNÈS V. abandons the traditional bio-pic format, favoring instead a freewheeling mix of gorgeous and unexpected fantasy sequences.

In each, Jane inhabits a new character, playing a cat & mouse game with Varda as they explore the role of the Muse and the Artist, all the while showcasing the multifaceted nature of Birkin’s talent. “I’d like to be filmed as if I were transparent, anonymous, like everyone else,” says Birkin. But her wish to be a “famous nobody” is impossible to achieve; Birkin is simply too magnificent, too mesmerizing. Here, Varda’s signature mix of aesthetic innovation and generosity of emotion results in a surreal and captivating essay on Art, Fame, Love, Children and Staircases. For its first-ever U.S. theatrical release the film has been newly-restored from the original 35mm camera negative, overseen by director Varda herself.

IN THEATERS
Sept 14, 2015 Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar Austin, TX get ’em
Sept 25, 26, & 28, 2015 Northwest Film Center Portland, OR get ’em
Oct 16-22, 2015 Lincoln Plaza Cinemas New York, NY get ’em
Oct 10, 2015 Wexner Center for the Arts Columbus, OH get ’em
Oct 11, 2015 Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago Chicago, IL get ’em
Oct 17-18, 2015 Texas Theater Dallas, TX get ’em
Nov 2-6, 2015 Northwest Film Forum Seattle, WA get ’em
Nov 13-19, 2015 Royal Movie Theater Los Angeles, CA get ’em
Nov 13, 2015 PhilaMOCA Philadelphia, PA get ’em
Nov 14, 2015 Cinematheque, University of Wisconsin Madison, WI get ’em
Nov 21, 2015 National Gallery of Art Washington, DC get ’em
Dec 19, 2015 Videology Bar & Cinema Brooklyn, NY get ’em
Jan 31 & Feb 6, 2016 Film Society Lincoln Center New York, NY get ’em
Mar 27, 2016 3S Artspace Portsmouth, NH get ’em


OFFICIAL THEATRICAL TRAILER

Kung-Fu Master!

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KUNG-FU MASTER!

1987 | dir: Agnès Varda | 80 min

NEW 2K RESTORATION!

A lovely, bittersweet companion to JANE B. PAR AGNÈS V. from director Agnes Varda and star/muse Jane Birkin, KUNG-FU MASTER has nothing to do with martial arts – the film’s title comes from an arcade video game played obsessively in the film by a teenaged boy, Julien. Birkin delivers one of her finest performances as a lonely 40-year old woman who finds herself shattering taboos by falling in love with the 14-year old Julien – but is it romance, or a desperate attempt to turn back time in the face of middle age?

KUNG-FU MASTER is truly a family affair: Varda’s son with the late director Jacques Demy, Mathieu Demy, plays Julien – and Birkin appears here with her two real-life daughters: Charlotte Gainsbourg (from Lars von Trier’s MELANCHOLIA) and Lou Doillon, her child with well-known filmmaker Jacques Doillon. Briefly released in the late 1980s in the U.S. and long unavailable here, KUNG-FU MASTER has been beautifully restored from the original 35mm camera negative. “It’s a film in which all the younger actors are the children of the director and lead actress” says Varda. “It was like a picnic, you know?”

IN THEATERS
Sept 3-4, 9-20, & 26-27, 2015 Time & Space Limited Hudson, NY get ’em
Sept 21, 2015 Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar Austin, TX get ’em
Sept 25, 26, & 28, 2015 Northwest Film Center Portland, OR get ’em
Oct 9, 2015 Avon Theatre Film Center Stamford, CT get ’em
Oct 10, 2015 Wexner Center for the Arts Columbus, OH get ’em
Oct 16-22, 2015 Lincoln Plaza Cinemas New York, NY get ’em
Oct 17-18, 2015 Texas Theater Dallas, TX get ’em
Oct 19, 2015 The Nickelodeon Columbia, SC get ’em
Nov 2-6, 2015 Northwest Film Forum Seattle, WA get ’em
Nov 13-19, 2015 Royal Movie Theater Los Angeles, CA get ’em
Nov 13, 2015 PhilaMOCA Philadelphia, PA get ’em
Nov 14, 2015 Cinematheque, University of Wisconsin Madison, WI get ’em
Jan 31 & Feb 5, 2016 Film Society Lincoln Center New York, NY get ’em
Feb 20 & 23, 2016 Chicago Filmmakers Chicago, IL get ’em


OFFICIAL THEATRICAL TRAILER

INDIEWIRE: Cinelicious Pics is bringing two rarely seen Agnès Varda gems to a new generation of audiences.

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Agnès Varda and Jane Birkin in JANE B. PAR ANGES V.

indiewire_toh_logo_286x50by Ryan Lattanzio | TOH!

APRIL 13, 2015 | LOS ANGELES


LA cinephiles had the pleasures of seeing two Agnès Varda discoveries from the middle of her career, and of seeing the legendary French filmmaker speak, at an American Cinematheque retrospective this past weekend.

Cinelicious Pics has just acquired the double bill “Jane B. by Agnès V.” and “Kung-Fu Master,” both starring Euro icon Jane Birkin, for US theatrical, VOD and Home Video distribution. Supervised by Varda, the new restorations made their West Coast debut over the weekend, and looked gorgeous in digital 2K.

Less a biopic than a quasi-fiction, poetic-realist documentary, “Jane B. By Agnes V” looks at the actress’ many faces. Really, it’s Varda’s “Orlando,” a time-hopping stitching together of Birkin’s best and least-favorite roles, and the parts she dreams of playing (including Joan of Arc). The film features Birkin’s longtime collaborator and erstwhile lover Serge Gainsbourg, New Wave actor Jean-Pierre Léaud (a.k.a. Antoine Doinel), Birkin’s daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg (who went on to star in the films of Lars von Trier) and Varda’s son Mathieu Demy, whom she had with her filmmaker-husband Jacques Demy.

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Mathieu Demy and Charlotte Gainsbourg in KUNG FU MASTER

A young Mathieu Demy and 14-year-old Charlotte Gainsbourg also appear in Varda’s challenging romance “Kung Fu Master,” which stretches the “May-December” definition to its extremes. Aside from a video game that Demy’s early-teens Julien obsessively plays, the film has nothing to do with kung fu. Instead, the 40-year-old Birkin plays the single mother of two who falls in love with him. Their relationship is treated very matter-of-factly by Varda, who imbues it with a tenderness that is well-played, and earnestly acted, by Demy and Birkin.

At the Aero Theatre on Saturday, Varda said she wrote the film in “two minutes” after Birkin pitched the story to her during the making of “Jane B.” They took a break on that production and shot “Kung-Fu” quickly in the summer. Varda, who most famously directed “Cleo From 5 to 7” and “The Gleaners and I,” didn’t feel weird about directing her young son as the object of a much older woman’s affections. “From the minute we started to film, he was Julien.”

According to Varda, “Kung-Fu Master” hasn’t played much on French TV due to its controversial subject matter. The film also deals head-on with the rise of AIDS in the ’80s, interjecting its whimsical broken-fairytale romance with PSAs about sexual awareness and the disease’s ever-growing reach.

When asked if “Jane B.” (never released in the US) and “Kung-Fu” (released briefly in the 80s) belong together as a double bill, Varda said, “I don’t think so. They’re two separate films.” She may be right, but it’s a treat we get to see them at all, and newly resurrected from their original 35mm negatives.

Release dates forthcoming.