Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Lions Love (...and Lies) 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.

Agnès Varda's kind of bifurcated moviemaking career which had one foot in documentaries and one foot in more ostensibly "fictional" narrative films finds a kind of uneasy marriage of sorts in Lions Love (. . .and Lies), a weird "slice of life" outing that may be of interest if for no other fact than that it stars Andy Warhol regular Viva along with Gerome Ragni and James Rado, the co-creators of what was at the time of the filming arguably the single hottest thing to hit musical theater in years, Hair. There's really no plot per se, other than a fitful sidebar featuring real life documentarian Shirley Clarke as, well, Shirley Clarke, who has come to Hollywood to do a piece on the trio, who for all intents and purposes are portrayed as being in a ménage à trois.

In a way, Lions Love (...and Lies) may work better as a documentary, even if one gets the feeling the events depicted are more "planned" than spontaneous, though that can be part and parcel of Varda's approach at times, as evidenced by such "rehearsed documentaries" as Uncle Yanco. When left to what I assume was more or less their own devices, the focal trio is often quite amusing and maybe even occasionally hilarious. When the film attempts to traffic in what seem like more intentionally scripted moments, it has much less joie de vivre, and seems almost instantly more pretentious.

If Viva, Rado and Ragni are the ostensible marquee stars here, Lions Love (. . .and Lies) is notable for giving at least a bit of a spotlight to Clarke, certainly one of the more underappreciated filmmaking talents of her generation. Though very few remember it today, Clarke was actually an Academy Award nominee for her live action short Skyscraper, which documented the erection of New York City's iconic Tishman Building. She's a little nutty here, but adds to the overall anarchic flavor of the piece. Cutaways to a group of supposed Hollywood executives (male, of course) debating the wisdom of letting a female direct a film are none too subtle reminders of how pointed Varda's sense of humor (and justice) could be.

Lions Love (...and Lies) Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Lions Love (. . .and Lies) is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.66:1. Some prefatory text discloses that this was restored in 2013 by L'Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory, in association with The Film Foundation, the Annenberg Foundation, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Ciné Tamaris, with a 4K restoration from the the 35mm original negative. Agnès Varda supervised the color grading. This is one of the standout offerings in this set from an organic, natural looking presentation standpoint. The palette is very nicely suffused, but it is perhaps surprisingly not quite as psychedelic as some might expect. That said, greens and purples in particular are utilized throughout the film and pop extremely well. While not an "exciting" color range, tans and beiges also predominate and are relatively vivid. There is a wacky seen in a pool with the focal trio where the pool water is a really luscious teal color. Detail is typically excellent throughout, and patterns like the leopard print coat that Shirley Clarke wears resolve without issue. Some of the traveling outdoor material can look just slightly rougher and softer than the bulk of the presentation, and there are a couple of late moments with Clarke in her room where the grain is noticeably grittier than in the bulk of the presentation.

Lions Love (...and Lies) Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Lions Love (. . .and Lies) features an LPCM Mono track in English. Prefatory text states that the original English soundtrack was restored from the 35mm optical sound negative. The track has some rather unexpected dynamic range, as evidenced from the very first scene, where some voiceover turns to dialogue which then gives way to a piercing scream. Later sometimes cheeky musical elements like the stars singing Cole Porter's "True Love" (of all things) sound fine as well.

Lions Love (...and Lies) Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Introduction from 2014 (1080i; 2:20) offers Varda's thoughts. In French with English subtitles.


• Viva Varda (1080i; 9:16) is described as "long lost" television interview Varda conducted with star Viva for French television in 1970. In French with English subtitles.

Lions Love (...and Lies) Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As a film, I'm not sure Lions Love (. . .and Lies) is completely successful, but as a time capsule, it's virtually indispensable, and it certainly has one of the most unusual star trios of its era. Technical merits are solid, and with caveats noted, Lions Love (. . .and Lies) comes Recommended.