Beaches of Agnès Les plages d'Agnès

Title:

Author:

Varda, Agnès, 1928-2019, film director, screenwriter, interviewee.

ISBN:

9780781513128

Uniform Title:

Plages d'Agnès (Motion picture)

Publication Information:

[New York, N.Y.] : Cinema Guild, [2010]

Physical Description:

1 videodisc (112 min.) : sound, color with black and white sequence ; 4 3/4 in.

General Note:

"Letterboxed."--Container.

Aspect ratio varies greatly throughout film; 16/9, compatible 4/3.

Originally produced as a motion picture in 2008.

Contents:

Special features: two short documentaries by Agnès Varda on the making of the film: Trapézistes et voltigeurs [English subtitle: On trapeze artists and acrobatics; menu title: Around trapeze artists] (9 min.) -- Daguerre-Plage [English subtitle and menu title: Daguerre-Beach] (9 min.) ; Le lion volatil (12 min. ; 2003 ; Ciné-tamaris présente ; un film d'Agnès Varda ; avec Julie Depardieu, Frédérick E. Grasser-Hermé, Silvia Urrutia, David Deciron ; images, Mathieu Vadepied et Xavier Tauveron ; montage, Agnès Varda et Sophie Mandonnet ; écret et réalisé per Agnès Varda ; biography and select filmography [text feature] ; theatrical trailer; booklet featuring production notes and an essay by film critic Amy Taubin.

Abstract:

"A reflection on art, life, and the movies. ... [A] richly cinematic self portrait that touches on everything from the feminist movement and the Black Panthers to the films of husband Jacques Demy and the birth of the French New Wave."--Container.

Audience:

Not rated.

Language Note:

In French; optional subtitles in English.

Personal Subject:

Varda, Agnès, 1928-2019.

Varda, Agnès, 1928- (OCoLC)fst00275550

Subject Term:

Motion picture producers and directors -- France -- Biography.

Beaches.

Beaches. (OCoLC)fst00829107

Motion picture producers and directors. (OCoLC)fst01027225

Geographic Term:

France. (OCoLC)fst01204289

Genre:

Video recordings for the hearing impaired.

Added Author:

Varda, Agnès, 1928-2019,

Depardieu, Julie, 1973-

Morin, Jean-Baptiste,

Bruzdowicz, Joanna, 1943-2021-

Cornet, Paule, 1964-

Vilar, Stéphane,

Added Corporate Author:

Ciné Tamaris (Firm),

Arte France cinéma (Firm),

Cinema Guild,

Added Title:

Trapézistes et voltigeurs.

Around trapeze artists.

On trapeze artists and acrobatics.

Daguerre-Plage.

Daguerre-Beach.

Lion volatil.

Performer/Artist:

Images [= Cinematography], Hélène Louvart, Alain Sakot, Julia Fabry, Jean-Baptiste Morin, Agnès Varda ; montage [= editing], Agnès Varda, Jean-Baptiste Morin, Baptiste Filloux ; musique originales, Joanna Bruzdowicz, Stéphane Vilar, Paule Cornet.

Agnès Varda, interviewee, actor Julie Depardieu.

Document ID:

SD_ILS:2320844

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Library	Collection	Collection	Call Number	Status
Searching... Kettleman City Branch (Kings Co.)	Searching... Unknown	DVD Area	BEA KINGS DVD	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Lemoore Branch Library (Kings Co.)	Searching... Unknown	System Video	BEA KINGS DVD	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Orange Cove Branch (Fresno Co.)	Searching... Unknown	French DVD Area	BEA	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Produced and directed by French Left Bank giant Agnès Varda as a summation of her long and enduring career, Agnès' Beaches constitutes a free-floating essay film. It is comprised of various elements that collectively pay homage to Varda's past -- including clips from the director's features, dramatically reconstructed moments from Varda's life, and elaborate, almost baroque monuments created onscreen to symbolize specific ideas and concepts -- such as an opening scene with a number of individuals setting up mirrors of various shapes and sizes on a great beach, and an enclosure lined, from wall to wall and floor to ceiling, with film strips from Varda's only cinematic flop, the 1969 feature Les Creatures. Varda uses beaches throughout the narrative as a recurring structural motif to convey her progress from one stage of life to another, while the freedom of form on display here recalls a similar approach on display in earlier Varda works such as the 1991 Jacquot de Nantes. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Reviews (1)

Library Journal Review

Acclaimed French photographer and filmmaker Varda (The Gleaners) turns her camera on herself in this self-indulgent, overlong, and mostly inscrutable autobiographical documentary. The film jumps nonchronologically from archival footage of films throughout the filmmaker's long and eclectic career to heavily stylized reenactments of key moments in her life to current shots of her visiting people and places from her past and wandering aimlessly on various beaches, where she makes obtuse statements about life, love, and art. The film is at times visually interesting, but it rarely ever makes sense. The few shining moments, such as a touching tribute to Varda's late husband, fellow filmmaker Jacques Demy (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg), and an emotional trip to an exhibition of her early photographs, are, unfortunately, not enough to save this overall silly and incoherent mess. It includes lots of gratuitous full-frontal nudity and numerous bonus features as well. Reservedly recommended only for ardent and undiscriminating Varda fans and movie buffs who can tolerate extreme cuteness, abstraction, and narcissism.-Douglas King, Univ. of South Carolina Lib., Columbia (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.