Wednesday, July 22, 2009





Agnes Varda: THE BEACHES OF AGNES

This movie was of interest to me because she, Agnes, is a she, because she is Belgian (my favorite filmmaker is Chantal Ackerman - also Belgian), because she is part of the New Wave Movement, aka: Exclusive Male French Film Club, was born a Gemini (just like ME!), has a haircut like my 7th grade science teacher (unfortunately kids called her penis names)…. and other purely objective reasons.

Then I saw it:
It moved in that New Wavey way, burps and bleeps, jerky. Not a smooth ride and it keeps you on your toes, especially with the added distraction of subtitle reading. It climbs to stimulation overload because she throws heavily loaded sand bags of her past 80 years at you with the speed and agility of launched spit wads.

The film is a visual scrapbook. She has the lightness of a child and the world-weary wisdom of age and the combination of the two is profound. This is what we all strive for; to keep the playful and creative spirit intact without shying away from the treachery of life. She displays genuine sadness for all her many friends dying, she pokes fun at herself, she offers some painful personal sips and she doesn’t sum it all up with a happy ending but instead reveals herself though the best and worst of it all as a true life-liver/lover.

Friday, July 17, 2009