Poll

What's your favorite film by Agnes Varda?

La Pointe-Courte
0 (0%)
Du côté de la côte
0 (0%)
L'opéra-mouffe (Diary of a Pregnant Woman)
0 (0%)
Les fiancés du pont Mac Donald
0 (0%)
Cleo from 5 to 7
11 (28.2%)
La bonheur (Happiness)
6 (15.4%)
L'une chante, l'autre pas (One Sings, the Other Doesn't)
1 (2.6%)
Vagabond
3 (7.7%)
Kung-fu master!
0 (0%)
Jacquot de Nantes
1 (2.6%)
A Hundred and One Nights of Simon Cinema
0 (0%)
The Gleaners & I
4 (10.3%)
The Gleaners & I... Two Years Later
0 (0%)
The Beaches of Agnes
1 (2.6%)
other (please specify)
1 (2.6%)
haven't seen any
11 (28.2%)
don't like any
0 (0%)
Faces Places
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 38

Author Topic: Varda, Agnes  (Read 9134 times)

jbissell

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Re: Varda, Agnes - Directors Best Poll
« Reply #20 on: August 24, 2011, 06:23:22 PM »
Agnes Varda's Daguerrotypes is being released on DVD next Tuesday.  I'd appreciate it if some of you can add it to your Netflix queues now so that Netflix stocks it.  Thanks!
Already there!

Likewise

FifthCityMuse

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Re: Varda, Agnes - Directors Best Poll
« Reply #21 on: August 24, 2011, 08:43:52 PM »
Yay! Her best film!

Bondo

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Re: Varda, Agnes - Directors Best Poll
« Reply #22 on: November 19, 2011, 04:37:46 PM »
Gleaners & I
Cleo
Beaches

Verite

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Re: Varda, Agnes - Directors Best Poll
« Reply #23 on: December 02, 2011, 01:56:18 PM »
Daguerrotypes on Netflix Instant!  One of her best.
"When in doubt, seduce."
                   -Elaine May

Verite

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Re: Varda, Agnes - Directors Best Poll
« Reply #24 on: December 02, 2011, 02:37:50 PM »
It's been years since I've seen Le Bonheur, but I really liked it.  I saw it as a takedown of men and that kind of idea of happiness like the husband has in the film.
"When in doubt, seduce."
                   -Elaine May

worm@work

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Re: Varda, Agnes - Directors Best Poll
« Reply #25 on: February 06, 2013, 07:11:13 PM »
A bunch of Varda's documentary films are available to watch online for free till Feb 17th here.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Varda, Agnes - Directors Best Poll
« Reply #26 on: February 06, 2013, 07:33:52 PM »
Well, guess I know what I'm watching for the next week. Silent films on Netflix will have to wait.

oldkid

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Re: Varda, Agnes - Directors Best Poll
« Reply #27 on: February 07, 2013, 11:47:17 AM »
I've only seen Gleaners and I.  I should do a mini-marathon to catch up with her work.  I love her "voice" in that doc.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

chesterfilms

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Re: Varda, Agnes - Directors Best Poll
« Reply #28 on: February 07, 2013, 06:39:52 PM »
Cleo from 5 to 7
What? What are you talking about? It's girls and spaghetti. We love girls and spaghetti.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Varda, Agnes - Directors Best Poll
« Reply #29 on: February 27, 2013, 02:19:51 PM »
Diary of a Pregnant Woman (1958)

This is a film of two halves. One half is this fascinating, sensory expression of the various feelings of pregnancy through a number of images that are rife with all sorts of interesting, and sometimes disturbing, connotations. The other half of the film is this rather dull reminiscence on village life. I like the section about pregnancy a lot more. If the film was just ten minutes of that, it would be great.

Huey (1968)

The first half of the film is a look at the Black Panther protests of Huey Newton and a general examination of what the Black Panthers are, what they want, and how they intend to go about getting it. It’s informative, and an interesting subject, but it’s a springboard for a much more interesting second half where Varda and crew examine the role of women within the Black Panther party.

The party claims equality between women and men, showing some women training alongside the men in marches, but the film usurps this claim by teasing out some of the ways that things aren’t quite as equal. The voice of a woman on the stage is placed in relation to traditional women’s work: the tailoring of emblems for the Black Panthers. There’s also a sequence about the return to the natural beauty of black women that, while positioning itself as a response to White conceptions of beauty, shows how women still think of their image, at least in part, as something to curate in response to the desires of men.

Women Reply (1975)

What does it mean to be a woman? The film explores this question through a breadth of answers. It starts with the biological, the physical attributes that accompany a woman, but quickly evolves into the question in terms of the societal and sociopolitical context. It’s here that the film simultaneously finds a way to unify and pluralize its view of women.

The unity is developed through a collective and inherent unification in the problems that face women: the issue of objectification and social perceptions of what a woman is and should provide to society. However, it recognizes that the responses among women are different. Some desire to bear children, others do not. Both are still just as much a woman. Some of the film’s observations might seem obvious, but it’s a good, brief and encompassing answer to the question.