Daguerréotypes Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Daguerréotypes Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 31, 2020

Note: This film is available as part of The Complete Films of Agnès Varda.

In the wake (figurative or otherwise) of Agnès Varda’s death last year at the age of 90, quite a bit has rightfully been written about this iconic force in both French and global cinema. Varda’s output includes well over fifty credits as a director (including some television entries as detailed by the IMDb), and aside from listing some of her better known triumphs, many obituaries and/or eulogies about Varda mentioned any number of other biographical data points, including her rather unique position as a woman in France’s nouvelle vague movement, her own feminism which was featured none too subtly in some of her films, and her frequently provocative experimental style. But you know what one of the things that kind of fascinates me personally most about Varda? That she was married for 28 years to Jacques Demy, from 1962 until Demy’s death in 1990. That Varda, often a purveyor of verité infused “realism”, whether that be in outright documentaries or at least ostensibly more “fictional” outings, and Demy, a director whose candy colored, dreamlike and at least relatively "Hollywoodized" musicals with Michel Legrand brought a new luster and gloss to French cinema, managed to make a marital go of it for so long is certainly testament to the maxim that “opposites attract”, even if those oppositional forces in this instance played out at least in part in terms of what kinds of films the two were often best remembered for. If Varda's long marriage to Demy is more than enough reason to celebrate her personal life, her professional life is beautifully feted in this rather astounding new set from Criterion, which aggregates an amazing 39 films (albeit some running as short as a few minutes) to provide what is arguably one of the most insightful overviews of Varda's cinematic oeuvre. Perhaps unavoidably, but also undeniably movingly, these personal and professional sides of Varda merge in at least some of the films in this set, including The Young Girls Turn 25, The World of Jacques Demy, Jacquot de Nantes, and The Beaches of Agnès.

A number of Varda's films feature cloistered communities of some sort, but Daguerréotypes is rather interesting in that it features the "village" of a block or so on Paris' bustling Rue Daguerre, where Varda lived for most of her life. She was still taking care of her young son with Jacques Demy during this period, and so wanted to "hang close to home", meaning she only strayed a few hundred feet from her flat in order to make this appealing slice of French urban life. There's really not a ton of "plot" here, as Varda simply travels from shop to shop, letting various people speak directly to the camera, or at other times conduct business with various passers by.

There's almost a presaging of the conceit seen in When Harry Met Sally..., where various shopkeepers are asked to divulge how they met their spouses. It's all very low key and charming, but it gives a real feeling of what it's like to live in a close knit Parisian community. Varda perhaps exploits her occasional tendencies toward magical realism by featuring a real magician here named Mystag (evidently the stage name for one Robert François, according to the IMDb), who provides some kind of odd vignettes.

The film's very title kind of hints at Varda's sometimes cheeky sense of humor, since of course "daguerreotypes" (or "daguerrotypes", as it's sometimes spelled) are old style photographs, and Varda's style here seems to evoke that kind of nostalgia. But the fact that this is all taking place on Rue Daguerre means that the people featured are themselves "daguerre types", and in some cases at least, even they seem to be from some long ago, half forgotten time and place.

Daguerréotypes Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Daguerréotypes is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. Some prefatory text states that this was filmed on "35mm argentic stock restored by Ciné Tamaris in 2014", with a 2K restoration based off of a 2K scan of the original negative. Laboratory work was done at Eclair. The IMDb kind of oddly actually lists a Super 16 source format for this film, which I'm assuming is incorrect based on the quoted prefatory text card, but this is a very heavily grainy looking presentation at times, so I frankly wouldn't be surprised if this was a blow up (as always with my reviews, if anyone can point me toward authoritative information in this regard, private message me and I'll post an update here). The palette is just slightly skewed toward blue and almost looks at times like old style two strip Technicolor, with kind of peachy reds and oranges. Detail levels are generally good, especially in close-ups, and fine detail on things like clothing can be very good (see the nicely precise look of the woman's purple sweater in screenshot 2 for one example).

Daguerréotypes Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Daguerréotypes features an LPCM Mono track in the original French, which offers some ambient environmental sounds even before even the prefatory text discussing the restoration, production mastheads or actual imagery appears (which kind of make me wonder if the film originally screened with blackness for the first few seconds). The prefatory text also states that the wonderfully (and appropriately) named L.E. Diapason restored the soundtrack from the original 35mm magnetic mix, and the result is fine, with an understanding that a lot of this was caught "on the fly" in shops as people came and went. There is therefore some ambient differentiation between narration and the "live" recording, though everything is presented with clarity. Optional English subtitles are available.

Daguerréotypes Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Rue Daguerre in 2005 (1080i; 21:31) is a rather fascinating piece where Varda explores her neighborhood thirty years after she made the main feature there. In French with English subtitles.


• Bread, Painting, Accordion (1080i; 8:02) looks at Varda's longtime bakery and accordion shop in this 2005 short. In French with English subtitles.


• Daguerrotypes, Photographic Objects (1080i; 6:00) is a short Varda made featuring an exhibition of daguerrotypes in 2005. In French with English subtitles.


• The Music Festival (1080i; 3:29) is more 2005 footage, this time caught at an outdoor concert in Paris' 14th arrondissement. In French with English subtitles.

Daguerréotypes Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you've ever wondered what it may be like to live in an urban section of Paris, Daguerréotypes may at least hint at how things are, or at least were. This is another completely unique and charming piece from Varda, one which quietly emphasizes the importance of community and human connection. Technical merits are generally solid, and the supplements are very enjoyable. Highly recommended.