7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Agnès Varda celebrates the Cinémathèque Française's 50th anniversary with a themed tribute to all that cinema can offer.
Director: Agnès VardaForeign | 100% |
Short | 18% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.68:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
French: Dolby Digital Mono
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
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.
T'as de beaux escaliers, tu sais is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.68:1, though a number of the film clips seen in passing are in variant aspect ratios presented within the 1.68:1 frame. The "contemporary" footage looks great here, with good black levels and well modulated gray scale, but a number of the film clips utilized are in pretty ragged condition at times. As a result, detail levels and grain structure tends to ebb and flow, depending on the source.
As with many of the other shorts included in this collection, T'as de beaux escaliers, tu sais features only a lossy Dolby Digital Mono track in the original French. Isabelle Adjani's narration is always clear, and some of the contemporary scenes features equally vibrant sound as people gather around the Cinematheque stairs. A number of the film clips have pretty badly compromised sound, with music sounding especially muffled. Optional English subtitles are available.
Probably only someone of Agnès Varda's general comportment would even attempt to sum up 50 years of cinematic history in under four minutes, but she does it here with incredible style and ingenuity. Video encounters a few issues with regard to some of the film clips utilized, and this is another short with only lossy audio.
(Still not reliable for this title)
1984
2015
2003
Ydessa, the Bears and etc.
2004
1964
Réponse de femmes: Notre corps, notre sexe / Women Reply: Our Bodies, Our Sex
1975
1958
The So-Called Caryatids
1984
1982
1966
Along the Coast
1958
Les fiancés du pont Mac Donald ou (Méfiez-vous des lunettes noires) / The Fiancés of the Bridge Mac Donald
1961
L'univers de Jacques Demy
1995
Les glaneurs et la glaneuse... deux ans après
2002
Agnès Varda: From Here to There
2011
1976
The Pleasure of Love in Iran
1976
Diary of a Pregnant Woman
1958
Les demoiselles ont eu 25 ans
1993
Oncle Yanco
1967