Réponse de femmes Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Réponse de femmes 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.

Réponse de femmes is yet another Varda short that is both completely up front (in more ways than one, as is discussed below) and almost subversively multilayered at the same time. The basic premise here is simply women responding to the question of what it means to be a woman, but in Varda's typically cheeky (in more ways than one, as is discussed below) fashion, she opts for both presentational provocations along with an overall critique of what might be termed traditional gender roles, at least those assigned to women.

In terms of my obvious jokes above about things being discussed below, Varda "puts it all out there" visually speaking, from an early shot of a spread eagled little baby girl, to copious footage of adult women "full frontal" (and full whatever the backside version is) either posing or actually talking to the camera. It's obviously meant to be eye opening, and Varda contrasts these looks at real women with some supposedly idealized but obviously highly sexualized depictions of women in advertising.

Réponse de femmes Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Réponse de femmes is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. Some prefatory text discloses that this was shot on 35mm argentic color stock in a 1.33:1 format, which was restored by Ciné Tamaris in 2015 at Laboratory Eclair, with a 2K digital restoration from a 2K scan of the original 35mm internegative. Agnès Varda supervised the color grading. While never overly problematic, this presentation doesn't quite match the luster of some of the others in this set, perhaps due to the internegative having been used. There's slight flicker, which is perhaps most noticeable against brighter backgrounds like the yellowish whites some of the women stand in front of. The colors also look slightly skewed toward blues and yellows at times. Grain is quite heavy throughout this presentation, and there is some very brief but noticeable crush in frames that have competing dark tones.

Réponse de femmes Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Réponse de femmes features an LPCM Mono track in the original French that was restored from the 35mm magnetic mix by E.L. Diapason. There's really not a whale of a lot to the sound design here, which basically features the women speaking. Everything is delivered clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Réponse de femmes Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Introduction from 2007 (1080i; 1:17) offers Varda's thoughts. In French with English subtitles.

Réponse de femmes Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Réponse de femmes is a typically subversive Varda short, and it's probably not for those bothered by lots of nudity, whatever the undeniable merits of some of its content might be. In that regard, Varda might have been better served to have made this "short" a little longer and to have explored some of these undeniably important issues a bit more fully. Video is just a little less pleasing on this release, but the audio is fine.