By Jeremy Carr
“Do you like being filmed and talking about yourself,” director Agnès Varda asks star and subject Jane Birkin in the 1987 film Jane B. for Agnès V. “Yes and no,” comes the fittingly ambiguous answer. This fascinating film, recently released on a Cinelicious Pics Blu-ray alongside Kung-Fu Master! (1987), the purely fictional feature born from the quasidocumentary’s unique study of Birkin as an actress and the art of performance in general, is a movie made of memories, fantasies, and the hazy area where the two coalesce. Essentially derived from Birkin’s stated fear of turning 40, Jane B. for Agnès V. is a ruminative examination of Birkin’s life and work, but it is just as much a revealing look at Varda as an inventive filmmaker. “I'm filming your self-portrait,” Varda says to Birkin, setting up the blurring of authorial lines and not for the first time calling attention...
“Do you like being filmed and talking about yourself,” director Agnès Varda asks star and subject Jane Birkin in the 1987 film Jane B. for Agnès V. “Yes and no,” comes the fittingly ambiguous answer. This fascinating film, recently released on a Cinelicious Pics Blu-ray alongside Kung-Fu Master! (1987), the purely fictional feature born from the quasidocumentary’s unique study of Birkin as an actress and the art of performance in general, is a movie made of memories, fantasies, and the hazy area where the two coalesce. Essentially derived from Birkin’s stated fear of turning 40, Jane B. for Agnès V. is a ruminative examination of Birkin’s life and work, but it is just as much a revealing look at Varda as an inventive filmmaker. “I'm filming your self-portrait,” Varda says to Birkin, setting up the blurring of authorial lines and not for the first time calling attention...
- 7/9/2016
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
One of the best double features you could treat yourself to this year would be a back-to-back viewing of two Agnes Varda films starring Jane Birkin, rescued from obscurity in 2015 thanks to Cinelicious Pics. Both released originally in 1988, the imaginary bio-pic Jane B. Par Agnes V. and the provocative fictional narrative Kung-Fu Master! are available on a lovingly restored disc set (as the playful Venn diagram cover art implies, the titles are more inextricably connected than initially seems apparent). Both titles received a theatrical release at New York’s Lincoln Center, followed by a VOD release.
Jane B. Par Agnes V.
A playful exploration of the multi-faceted actress, singer, and icon Jane Birkin as she balances career choices and motherhood long after the initial scandals that brought her international attention. Filmed in tandem with their other collaboration, the fictional narrative Kung Fu Master!, both titles were released theatrically in 1988 when...
Jane B. Par Agnes V.
A playful exploration of the multi-faceted actress, singer, and icon Jane Birkin as she balances career choices and motherhood long after the initial scandals that brought her international attention. Filmed in tandem with their other collaboration, the fictional narrative Kung Fu Master!, both titles were released theatrically in 1988 when...
- 3/8/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Oedipus at the Arcade: Varda’s Empathetic Exploration of Taboo
Invariably, most conversations concerning Agnes Varda, the sole female auteur amongst the prized clutch of men whose names project like immortal pillars from the fog of the Nouvelle Vague, reference her two most renowned titles, Cleo From 5 to 7 (1962) and Vagabond (1985). But in-between and after these two iconic moments from her filmography lies a sea of titles waiting to be re-discovered (a recent disc-set from Criterion’s Eclipse series several weeks ago was a first step in exploring her more obscure works).
Boutique distributor Cinelicious Pics continues in this vein with two digital restorations of Varda’s from 1988, both inextricably linked via star Jane Birkin (after a theatrical bow in New York, both titles will move on to Los Angeles). The more textually subversive of these is Kung Fu Master!, a sympathetic tale of doomed love between a 40-year-old...
Invariably, most conversations concerning Agnes Varda, the sole female auteur amongst the prized clutch of men whose names project like immortal pillars from the fog of the Nouvelle Vague, reference her two most renowned titles, Cleo From 5 to 7 (1962) and Vagabond (1985). But in-between and after these two iconic moments from her filmography lies a sea of titles waiting to be re-discovered (a recent disc-set from Criterion’s Eclipse series several weeks ago was a first step in exploring her more obscure works).
Boutique distributor Cinelicious Pics continues in this vein with two digital restorations of Varda’s from 1988, both inextricably linked via star Jane Birkin (after a theatrical bow in New York, both titles will move on to Los Angeles). The more textually subversive of these is Kung Fu Master!, a sympathetic tale of doomed love between a 40-year-old...
- 10/15/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Lou Doillon may be the daughter of French filmmaker Jaques Doillon and actress Jane Birkin, but Lou is rapidly developing a following of her own. The model/actress-turned-musician spent much of her childhood writing songs in English, and a listen to the content she’s producing makes it clear that she’s inherited a talent all her own. Doillon is set to release her first full length album Places on June 18, but you can listen to a track from the album in the player below. ...
- 6/7/2013
- Pastemagazine.com
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