Product Description
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Agnès Varda used the skills she honed early in her career as a
photographer to create some of the most nuanced,
thought-provoking films of the past fifty years. She is widely
believed to have presaged the French new wave with her first
film, La Pointe Courte, long before creating one of the movement
s benchmarks, Cléo from 5 to 7. Later, with Le bonheur and
Vagabond, Varda further shook up art-house audiences, challenging
bourgeois codes with her inscrutable characters and effortlessly
beautiful compositions and editing. Now working largely as a
documentarian, Varda remains one of the essential cinematic poets
of our time and a true visionary. DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL
EDITION FOUR-DISC SET FEATURES:
New restored digital transfers, supervised and approved by
director Agnès Varda
Three short films by Varda: L Opéra Mouffe (1958), Du côté de la
côte (1958), and Les fiancés du Pont Macdonald (1961)
On La Pointe Courte: new video interview with Varda
On Cléo from 5 to 7: a 2005 documentary on the making of the
film; a short film from 2005 in which Varda retraces Cléo s steps
through Paris; Varda speaking with Madonna about the film in 1993
On Le bonheur: new interviews with the three actors from the
film; a 2006 discussion with four scholars about the film;
footage of Varda on-set; 1998 interview with Varda; 2003
interviews on the concept of happiness
On Vagabond: a 2003 documentary on the making of the film; a
2003 interview with composer Joanna Bruzdowicz; a 1986 radio
interview with writer Nathalie Sarraute; a 2003 interview with
actress Marthe Jarnias
Theatrical trailers
New and improved English subtitle translations
PLUS: New essays by Chris Darke, Adrian Martin, Amy Taubin, and
Ginette Vincendeau; plus, a foreword on each film by Varda
herself
.com
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4 by Agnes Varda is one of Criterion Collection's finest
releases, so packed is it with supplementary material. Each of
the four films included in the set have illuminating critical
essay accompaniments and at least three additional bits on their
prospective DVDs ranging from the "remembrances" of cast and crew
to amazing interviews with Varda from various decades. Of course,
the films are in themselves quite extraordinary, but this package
collects together so much enlightening footage and reading that
to comb through it is like taking a Varda history class. It is
difficult to choose favorites amongst the four films included: La
Pointe Courte (1956), Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Le Bonheur (1965),
and Vagabond (1985). Each illustrates rigorous experimental
challenges, and each film succeeds according to its own set of
criteria. Perhaps the most exciting two films in the set, simply
because fewer viewers may have seen them, are La Pointe Courte
and Le Bonheur. La Pointe Courte, Varda's first film and the film
attributed to launching the French New Wave, stars Silvia Monfort
and Philippe Noiret who bring a stark formalism to the story of
their conflicted love in a scenic seaside village. in high
contrast black and white, La Pointe Courte is filled with odd
visual and sonic edits that lend this film an otherworldly, Carl
Dreyer-esque quality though it points to Varda's future directing
tact, namely making films that scrutinize tragic personal
relationships with deep compassion and zeal. Le Bonheur, filmed
in a vivid primary color palette, similarly features a married
couple, François (Jean-Claude Drouot) and Therese (Claire
Drouot), who experience both bliss and utter sadness within the
film's timeframe. In this case, the sense of isolation is
replaced by an overload of happiness, namely when François cheats
on his wife with a young postal worker (Marie-France Boyer) and
finds himself so happy that the viewer suspects it cannot last.
The two abovementioned films contextualize Cléo from 5 to 7 and
Vagabond, both films starring strong females who face life with
bravery and finesse. Filmed in "real-time," Cléo from 5 to 7
stars a young pop singer (Corinne Marchand) whose wit and sex
appeal carry her through a fearful day, while Vagabond recounts
the end of ravishing Mona's (Sandrine Bonnaire), life as a
vagrant in search of freedom. Seeing La Pointe Courte, for
example, foreshadows Varda's breakthrough casting of non-actors
in Vagabond. Filmic experiments and acting experiments abound in
each film. On the whole, it becomes clear that each crew member
on a Varda film enters a new artistic world forged by this
auteur, ed at exploring daily life to uncover those moments
encompassing sadness, hope, and beauty with grace, character, and
exquisite technique. --Trinie Dalton