It gives me a small pleasure to recall that the French New Wave, one of the most important artistic movements in world cinema, began in a critical journal years before any of its alums would film their first features. Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, Jacques Rivette and Claude Chabrol launched their careers as critics for Cahiers du Cinema, a film magazine launched in 1951. … [Read more...]
‘Faces Places’: Varda’s road picture is life-affirming, joyous
Agnès Varda’s first film in nine years is, like 2008’s The Beaches of Agnès, rooted in her past, while also addressing her finite future. Faces Places is a stylized road movie co-directed with JR, a pseudonymous Parisian street artist, but the echoes of Varda’s French New Wave origins ripple across the journey. The 33-year-old JR, as the 88-year-old Varda’s voice-over … [Read more...]