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Faces Places, 2017
This documentary follows filmmaker Agnes Varda and French artist JR as they travel the French countryside creating art installations, interviewing locals, and bonding over their shared passion for capturing the stories and faces of everyday people.
Full of stunning imagery and one of the most endearing odd-couple friendships I’ve ever seen on screen, this documentary is moving and brimming with heart.
I did a mini-dive into Varda’s filmography a few years back, and I decided that I really liked her energy as both a person and a filmmaker. In this film her personality absolutely sings on screen. She is one part grandma, one part rebel, one part artist-to-the-core. She is matched very well by the calm energy of JR, an artist I was not familiar with before this film. At first the ever-present hat and sunglasses were a bit off-putting to me, but his lovely friendship with Varda and some moments of genuine tenderness between the two of them soon endeared me to him.
The two of them travel the country, staging various art installations that range from longer-lasting to some that last only a half a day. In several sequences, they show up to different locations with a truck that functions as a giant polaroid camera, taking a photo-booth type picture but printing it out feet long and complete with adhesive. Other times they place portraits of different people on the sides of buildings. In a shipping container yard they post enormous photos of the wives of the workers there. In a small French town, a waitress is selected to adorn the side of a building. Finding an old German cement building that has tumbled from a coastal cliff onto the beach below, they create an image to paste on the side, knowing that it will shortly be reclaimed by the rising tide. For me, these art installations were interesting, joyous, and I really enjoyed seeing the process behind them. There is something very empathetic in the approach to their subjects. JR and Varda seem able to find beauty and interest in all sorts of people. When JR teases Varda that she likes images of nude men, she retorts that male bodies and female bodies are beautiful, and you can tell she genuinely means it.
A frequent refrain in the film is that Varda is losing her sight. I couldn’t help but think of the harrowing account of encroaching blindness in Derek Jarman’s Blue. While for the most parts the tone in this film is lighter, it is hard to see someone whose career is defined by images begin to lose that connection to the world. Creating these large murals feels like a nod to someone losing their sight, and the specter of that lost sight makes the road trip carry some extra weight.
Next to the art itself, the real star of the film is the friendship and banter between Varda and JR. While some of the dialogue is scripted (and doesn’t seem interested in hiding that fact), the genuine tenderness between the two of them doesn’t feel at all faked. Varda notes partway through the film that JR is very good with older people, something that he attributes to the close relationship he has with his own grandmother. They pay a visit to JR’s nana, where Varda jokingly asks if he ever takes off his sunglasses when he’s with her. Later in the film, Varda and JR take a road trip to visit Jean-Luc Godard in Switzerland, but when they arrive he refuses to see them, something he communicates in a letter that also references the death of a mutual friend of theirs and which clearly offends and hurts Varda’s feelings. JR puts his arm around her, and the feeling of solidarity is palpable.
I really love it when you see collaboration across generations of artists. I think that there’s something fantastic about a combination of an older artist willing to share their wisdom and a younger artist who is willing to learn and share their own way of thinking. There is an ease between Varda and JR that is very appealing and makes this film a breeze to watch. Heck, even when they sat silently together I was captivated.
The only negative I can think of is that some of the dialogue does sound contrived, but that’s such a minor quibble. I thought that this was such a sweet film, and if you’re having a down day and need something uplifting, I’d point you this way.
Faces Places, 2017
This documentary follows filmmaker Agnes Varda and French artist JR as they travel the French countryside creating art installations, interviewing locals, and bonding over their shared passion for capturing the stories and faces of everyday people.
Full of stunning imagery and one of the most endearing odd-couple friendships I’ve ever seen on screen, this documentary is moving and brimming with heart.
I did a mini-dive into Varda’s filmography a few years back, and I decided that I really liked her energy as both a person and a filmmaker. In this film her personality absolutely sings on screen. She is one part grandma, one part rebel, one part artist-to-the-core. She is matched very well by the calm energy of JR, an artist I was not familiar with before this film. At first the ever-present hat and sunglasses were a bit off-putting to me, but his lovely friendship with Varda and some moments of genuine tenderness between the two of them soon endeared me to him.
The two of them travel the country, staging various art installations that range from longer-lasting to some that last only a half a day. In several sequences, they show up to different locations with a truck that functions as a giant polaroid camera, taking a photo-booth type picture but printing it out feet long and complete with adhesive. Other times they place portraits of different people on the sides of buildings. In a shipping container yard they post enormous photos of the wives of the workers there. In a small French town, a waitress is selected to adorn the side of a building. Finding an old German cement building that has tumbled from a coastal cliff onto the beach below, they create an image to paste on the side, knowing that it will shortly be reclaimed by the rising tide. For me, these art installations were interesting, joyous, and I really enjoyed seeing the process behind them. There is something very empathetic in the approach to their subjects. JR and Varda seem able to find beauty and interest in all sorts of people. When JR teases Varda that she likes images of nude men, she retorts that male bodies and female bodies are beautiful, and you can tell she genuinely means it.
A frequent refrain in the film is that Varda is losing her sight. I couldn’t help but think of the harrowing account of encroaching blindness in Derek Jarman’s Blue. While for the most parts the tone in this film is lighter, it is hard to see someone whose career is defined by images begin to lose that connection to the world. Creating these large murals feels like a nod to someone losing their sight, and the specter of that lost sight makes the road trip carry some extra weight.
Next to the art itself, the real star of the film is the friendship and banter between Varda and JR. While some of the dialogue is scripted (and doesn’t seem interested in hiding that fact), the genuine tenderness between the two of them doesn’t feel at all faked. Varda notes partway through the film that JR is very good with older people, something that he attributes to the close relationship he has with his own grandmother. They pay a visit to JR’s nana, where Varda jokingly asks if he ever takes off his sunglasses when he’s with her. Later in the film, Varda and JR take a road trip to visit Jean-Luc Godard in Switzerland, but when they arrive he refuses to see them, something he communicates in a letter that also references the death of a mutual friend of theirs and which clearly offends and hurts Varda’s feelings. JR puts his arm around her, and the feeling of solidarity is palpable.
I really love it when you see collaboration across generations of artists. I think that there’s something fantastic about a combination of an older artist willing to share their wisdom and a younger artist who is willing to learn and share their own way of thinking. There is an ease between Varda and JR that is very appealing and makes this film a breeze to watch. Heck, even when they sat silently together I was captivated.
The only negative I can think of is that some of the dialogue does sound contrived, but that’s such a minor quibble. I thought that this was such a sweet film, and if you’re having a down day and need something uplifting, I’d point you this way.