03-10-09: Varda runs towards Varick Street, leaving journalists and photographers in her wake.
Agnes Varda is not a shy violet, but she was dressed in purple from head-to-toe when I interviewed her during the “Rendez-Vous with French Cinema” series in March. She was self-posessed, recalcitrant, and somewhat belligerent. When a few of us went outside Film Forum to get photos of her, she dashed through traffic across Houston Street and then ran towards Varick, leaving us behind as she searched for the perfect backdrop (which didn’t exist).
03-10-09: Varda close up
I interviewed the director on her new film, The Beaches of Agnes, for a magazine and also for a newspaper feature. Did I mention that I think she’s the greatest? I wrote in my feature:
As a rare female filmmaker working since the 1950s, Varda has no counterpart in the United States. She says, “There were other women working in film in France when I began, but I was the first to fight for a new kind of cinema. I pushed other women to join. Now we have more. There are many directors and editors. Not only that, but mixing and sound ladies. I pushed them. I said, ‘Learn! Don’t say it’s difficult for women!’”
Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast (1946)
...is that after watching the Dardennes’ regular young star, Jérémie Renier struggle, maneuver, and suffer in The Promise*, The Child, and Lorna’s Silence, we can see the excellent actor enjoy some measure of comfort as one of three bourgeois siblings in this new Olivier Assayas film about the division of an artist’s estate after death.
Star Jérémie Renier on the set of Summer Hours with director Olivier Assayas
*The Promise (La Promesse) is one of my Top 10 all-time favorite films
...and that’s why we love him. His new film, Adoration, follows a boy whose parents died together in an accident, his fictional memory of their involvement in a terrorist act, and the Machiavellian teacher (played by Egoyan’s regular star, his wife, Arsinée Khanjian) who pulls his puppet strings. Included are webcam video chat rooms of people spouting unscripted opinions within the fictional tale.
It’s a “talkaway” and you’ll be compelled to discuss the film after you see it, though it’s emotionally driven, not a purely intellectual exercise.
Egoyan loves to use video as character, and these are other must-see examples of that:
Family Viewing (1987)
Speaking Parts (1989)
Calendar (1993)
But my favorite Egoyan film, The Adjuster (1991), revolves around an insurance adjuster who gets intimately involved with the disaster victims he audits… and his wife, a film censor, who videotapes the excised naughty scenes, for enjoyment at home.
What’s not to love about that storyline?
Not an important film, but a fun one for foodies. A Touch of Spice by Tassos Boulmetis was a hit in Greece and is now playing at New York’s Cinema Village. After seeing it, I rushed out to Kalustyan’s in Curry Hill to refresh my spice collection.
Plot summary from IMDb:
“A Touch of Spice” is a story about a young Greek boy (Fanis) growing up in Istanbul, whose grandfather, a culinary philosopher and mentor, teaches him that both food and life require a little salt to give them flavor; they both require… A Touch of Spice. Fanis grows up to become an excellent cook and uses his cooking skills to spice up the lives of those around him. 35 years later he leaves Athens and travels back to his birthplace of Istanbul to reunite with his grandfather and his first love; he travels back only to realize that he forgot to put a little bit of spice in his own life.
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