Tournees Francophone Film Festival: “Visages, villages”:(Faces, Places)

With Faces, Places, 89-year-old powerhouse Agnès Varda teams with
the world-famous young street artist JR to make a film as wide-rang-
ing as it is personal, as fanciful as it is pointed. Setting off on French
country roads to find subjects for JR’s trademark mural-size portrait
photographs, the two artists focus on people generally outside of the
spotlight: retired miners, factors workers, the wives of dockers, and
farmers. Each encounter fills in another piece of an idiosyncratic
portrait of modern-day France, as well as the evolving relationship
between open-hearted Agnès Varda and mysterious JR. The give-and-
take between Varda and JR plays out in a fascinating through-line
devoted to Jean-Luc Godard, Varda’s old friend and sole surviving
colleague of the French New Wave. But make no mistake: while the
film is credited to both artists, Varda is definitely calling the shots. As
ever, her montage is allusive, playful, rapid-fire, occasionally jarring—
in short, totally in keeping with her singular way of thinking. Her
generosity in sharing her life and thought with us deep into old age is a
cause to rejoice. Faces, Places was nominated for an Academy Award
for the Best Documentary of 2017.

French with English subtitles