7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Interweaving clips from Jacques Demy's films with insightful interviews with his collaborators and fans, Agnès Varda offers an illuminating overview of her partner's life and career.
Director: Agnès VardaForeign | 100% |
Documentary | 26% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.67:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
French: LPCM Mono
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
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.
The World of Jacques Demy is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer (often) in 1.67:1 (as can be seen in some of the screenshots accompanying this review, the ubiquity of archival video and clips from various films means aspect ratios can widen or narrow at times). Some prefatory text discloses that this was shot on 16mm silver color stock in 1.66:1 panoramic format, and restored in 2013 by DIG Image, with a 2K restoration from a 2K scan of the 35mm internegative. Agnès Varda supervised the color grading. This features rather nicely and tightly resolved grain for a 16mm source and good, accurate colors and densities throughout the presentation. There is some probably some unavoidable heterogeneity due to film clips, with clarity and grain structure fairly widely variable as a result. Some of this looks sourced from old video, and there's some minor ghosting in an interview with Demy. Some of the clips from the color films pop unbelievably well, but the color interview sequences can't quite achieve the same level of luster.
The World of Jacques Demy features an LPCM Mono mix in the original French. Prefatory text states that the original mono sound was restored from the 35mm magnetic mix. This is largely a talking head enterprise, and while there are certain ambient differences on display due to different environments and eras of the various interview segments, everything comes through clearly and cleanly without any damage. All of the musical moments sound full bodied. Optional English subtitles are available.
This is a bit more of a "business savvy" take on Demy's life and work than either Jacquot de Nantes or The Young Girls Turn 25, with an emphasis on the actual making part of the term filmmaking. Filled with great interviews and a loving assortment of clips from Demy's films, this should be enjoyed by fans of Demy in particular but maybe any fan of film in general. Technical merits are generally solid, and The World of Jacques Demy comes Highly recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
Les glaneurs et la glaneuse... deux ans après
2002
Agnès Varda: From Here to There
2011
1976
Ydessa, the Bears and etc.
2004
1964
Réponse de femmes: Notre corps, notre sexe / Women Reply: Our Bodies, Our Sex
1975
1958
Les demoiselles ont eu 25 ans
1993
The So-Called Caryatids
1984
1982
1966
Along the Coast
1958
Varda par Agnès
2019
2015
You've Got Beautiful Stairs, You Know
1986
1984
Mural Murals
1981
2003
Oncle Yanco
1967
1968