This is one of those still photo shorts — but it’s pretty long as these things go. The voiceover (both Varda and at least a couple of male voices) says that Varda went to Cuba and took pictures, so we’re presumably watching these pictures here?
So we’re getting all the usual tricks — zooming on the photos, rapid edits, lots of music, and narration that just doesn’t let up.
It’s not my favourite genre. I mean, the still-into-movie thing has been done brilliantly, like with La Jetée, but this isn’t that.
That’s what I always say.
I didn’t think this worked well as a film, but it’s kinda interesting.
So — this is a movie jointly directed by Varda and an artist called JR. Is this the only co-director credit in her career?
It’s a lot less exacting than Varda’s earlier movies — things go in and out of focus, and the blocking is pretty random (instead of meticulous).
Heh — the concept is that they drive around in this photo booth car (that has a huge printer built in, apparently)…
… and they take pics of people like this? Well, that’s fun.
Yes, that’s Varda’s toes.
This movie is très aimable, as the say. I mean, it’s less digressive than Varda’s movies usually are — there are fewer locations, people and encounters than you’d expect from something that’s structured kind of like a road movie. It’s more… efficient? So it’s not a masterpiece or anything, but there are glimpses of brilliance, and then the rest is very amiable.
Oh, right! There was a section in the documentary Varda made about herself (I think) about his — Varda got a whole lot of money to do this movie (after the success of Jaquot de Nantes), and it features Marcello Mastroianni, Alain Delon, Anouk Aimée, Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu… and everybody else. And if I remember correctly, it absolutely bombed at the box office, and Varda never got financing to do a “real” movie ever again. I guess The Gleaners and I is the closest, and that’s a documentary of sorts…
I may be confabulating, though; my intelligence is very artificial. Let’s see…
Wow. Just a single review? And what did it say?
And it’s from a blog! How useless! Nobody reads blogs!
Variety’s Lisa Nesselson gave a mixed review: “Agnes Varda, who has been making movies for 40 of the 100 years that motion pictures have existed, has put everything she knows about filmmaking and much of what she loves about the cinema into A Hundred and One Nights [sic]. But despite a star-decked cast and manifest good intentions, Varda’s self-described ‘divertimento’ soars in only a few spots.”
OK, let’s watch this thing…
That’s Mastroianni…
I’m quite enjoying this so far — it’s very whimsical, but it’s centred: It’s all about movies.
So I’m wondering whether that’s how it was sold to the investors — as a cross between 8½ and Cinema Paradiso: Broadly sentimental and amusing about being really into movies.
All of a sudden everything turned really boring… Dunno why.
Oh my god! Varda brought Sandrine Bonnaire’s character from Sans toit ni loi back from the dead! *sniff* I’m kinda tearing up…
Le bonheur…
Heh. She’s doing a nuit americaine with an American actor… how appropriate…
It’s brimming with Easter eggs — tiny references to other movies. But sometimes it seems like Varda doesn’t trust the nerdy audience to get the references. Like, in one ten second scene, a guy in 50s clothes and his boy shows up and steals a bike. That’s a fun reference to the de Sica movie, right? But then it’s spoilt a few scenes later when the guy goes “Italian neorealism strikes again”.
And, yes, it bombed.
I really enjoyed this movie. It’s so playful and amusing, but is also affecting. It’s almost, almost a masterpiece — but some of the scenes (especially some of the scenes with the most famous people (de Niro, Delon, Depardieu)) fell flat. (OK, the Delon scene was amusing.)
