Agnès Varda.

"In 1985's Vagabond, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and is still probably her masterpiece, [Agnès] Varda's affinity for the conceptual manifests itself both stylistically and thematically," writes Andrew Chan at the House Next Door. "But her career-long suspicion of any conclusive vérité that might be extracted from cinema makes for a film that revolves around ambiguities and questions rather than big statements."

Dennis Lim talks with Varda for the Los Angeles Times: "You're often called the mother of the French New Wave. Do you think that's an accurate label?" Varda: "Or even grandmother sometimes. It's fine with me."

Updated through 1/26.

"It is Ms Varda's eye that gives [La Pointe Courte] unity," writes Dave Kehr in the New York Times. "Each of the carefully massed, densely textured black-and-white images (spectacularly reproduced by the Criterion DVD) seems to constitute an individual moment of grace, like Cartier-Bresson photographs with an added element of artful, dancelike movement. These are not self-effacing visuals designed to be subsumed by a narrative, but rather images meant to stand alone, generating stories of their own. With her enduring passion for puns, Ms Varda described this style as 'cinécriture' - implying a sort of writing with, rather than for, the filmed image. It is a style without parallel among her New Wave 'children' - or, effectively, anywhere else."

"[I]t's thrilling to confirm how many similarities Agnès Varda's celebrated Cléo from 5 to 7 shares with May Spils's overlooked classic Zur Sache, Schätzchen." Jürgen Fauth explains.

Update: "For audiences used to experiencing female martyrdom, either real or imagined, in this era of Lars Von Trier, Cléo from 5 to 7 is almost distractingly refreshing at every turn," writes Eric Henderson in Slant. "Varda's experimental impulse is more assured than Truffaut's, her fractures in time less abrasive than Resnais's. Just as Cléo's apartment is replete with bounding kittens, Varda's film itself is capricious and fully alive. All throughout, Varda deploys hints of artifice - starting with the fact that this supposed bit of real time cinema tells two hours in 90 minutes - that playfully dispel any hint of academicism that colors Godard's work. Varda is the supreme sensualist of the New Wave."

Update, 1/24: More from Andrew Chan at the House Next Door: Cléo from 5 to 7 and La Pointe Courte.

Update, 1/26: Jared Rapfogel on Criterion's set in Stop Smiling: "Even the usual making-of featurettes are of special interest since, thanks to her Godard-like dedication to the concept of film-criticism-through-filmmaking."

Posted by dwhudson at January 22, 2008 12:57 AM