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Page 8-8 — Shelton-Mason County Journal — Thursday, Feb. 6,.2020
‘Vardaby Agnes’ allows pioneering '
film diector to speak for herself
French New Wave film di-
rector Agnes Varda’s work
in my Dec. 6, 2017, review of
the Academy Award—nominate
ed “Faces Places” for The Port
Townsend Leader, so it feels
bittersweet
to finally
have the op—
portunity to
do so again
with “Varda
by Agnes,”
her final
film, since
Ilast sampled Belgian-born
By KIRK
BOXLEITNER Year at the
__....__...__. age of 90.
Perhaps
one of the most impressive
aspects of a film career that
spanned no fewer than six de-
cades, and saw her shaping the
development of the profoundly
influential New Wave move-
ment in film, is that Varda
never stopped working, right
up to the last, and even more,
her most recent years were
'argfiably among her most
avant-garde, as she sought to
redefine the entire nature of
what a “film” could be.
This film basically consists
of Varda regaling an audi-
ence of raptly attentive film
aficionados with a series of
endlessly fascinating anecdotes
about her career, delivered
with a dry and self-deprecating
wit, and accompanied by cor-
responding clips, that I could
have watched go on forever,
even as they made my inner
film reviewer cringe, because
there’s no way I’ll be able to
HARSTINE NEWS .
she died last ‘
even briefly summarize those
stories without feeling like I’ve
left out something essential.
Varda started out as a still
photographer of dramatic artists
and theatrical types, including
her future peers in filmmaking,
and the dichotomy in her per—
spective was evident early on,
because even as she admitted an
affinity for staged shots, she also
made it her mission to capture
people on camera in their most
unrehearsed moments.
We see this in 1967’s “Uncle
Yanco,” a spur-of-the—moment
short film that came about
when Varda discovered a rela-
tive she didn’t even know she
had in San Francisco, when
we see her film multiple takes
of her “first” meeting with her
uncle Yanco Varda.
One of Varda’s early cin-
’ ematographers recalls how the .
'The artist captures a glimpse of herself in “Var
, Courtesy photo '
direCtor Sought to sneak in foot-
age of Village bakers and other
ordinary people into her films,
without making them aware
they were on camera, and
Sandrine Bonnaire, the lead
actress of Varda’s 1985 “Vaga-
bond,” recalls how she had to
learn how to live as a nomadic
backpacker for her role, at one
point incurring blisters from
repairing her own well-worn
hiking shoes by hand.
Although Varda has di-
rected celebrity actors such
as Catherine Deneuve, and
Robert De Niro, her empathy
for the dispossessed remains a
constant throughout her films
and later multimedia art ex-‘
hibits, whether by highlighting
feminist issues and shooting a
documentary about the Black
Panthers during the 1960s and
‘70s, or by giving voice to the
da by Agnes,” Which is now playing.
homeless and the hungry in
the 21st Century.
Varda’s 2000 documentary,
“The Gleaners and I,” not only
took advantage of more dis-
creetly compact filmmaking
technology to film urban and
rural gleaners, without making
them feel like they were under
a spotlight, but it was also a
forerunner of Varda’s multi-
screen exhibits, such as rooms
in which she combined her
video with still photographs
and even tangible examples of
what she was shooting, wheth-
er it was a floor full of- gleaners’,
potatoes, or a coating of sand
to simulate the beach whose
waves could be seen washing
ashore on the screens.
With Varda’s 2004 “The Wid-
ows of Noirmoutier,” she strove
to ensure every Viewer would
have an entirely unique experi—
ence, by allowing a set number
of seats in the screening rooms,
and having each widow speak
on a separate screen — each
screen with its own set of head-
phones — so that no two view-
ers heard the same widow share
her recollections.
With this background, it’s
little surprise that Varda’s
experimentalism led her to
collaborate with the pseudony-
mously named photographer
“JR” on 2017’s “Faces Places,”
which not only made the in-
habitants of country towns and
industrial workplaces into the
subjects of the duo’s literally
larger-than-life work, but also
turned those people’s home-
towns and workplaces into the
canvases for that same over-
sized artwork.
In spite of_the failing eye-
sight that afflicted her in
her final years, Varda never
turned a blind eye to the in-
justices of the world, but she
retained her humanistic belief
in people, and she stubbornly
held onto her optimism for a
better world to the point that,
when she wanted to bask
in the beach settings she so
enjoyed, she had the beach
brought to her, by flooding city
streets with Sand as part of one
of her art exhibits, as seen in
2008’s “The Beaches of Agnes.”
I Kirk Boxleitner is arts edi-
tor for the Port Townsend &
Jefferson County Leader,
the Shelton-Mason County
Journal’s sister paper. He can
be reached at kboxleitner@
ptleader.com.
Now’s a g00d time get out, talk with one another
he pineapple express
I continues to roll across
our island. We
had some wet days
in the 505. I have to
think all our plant
life is just enjoying
the heck out of all of
this. And I think most
of the younger folks
also enjoy this type of
weather as I see them
wearing shorts and
T-shirts. I know that
when I was a kid this
type of weather kept .
me outdoors all the time —— so
mueh so that my feet were
continually wet. And that is
one of my most memorable
memories as I always got
athlete’s foot and at night,
my mom would put this white
By MIKE
CALLAGHAN
/, «More; )Mwflu ,,
nasty cream on my toes and
put my socks on. When I woke
up the next morning
and took those socks
off a, layer of skin
would come off at the
same time. But that
didn’t keep me from
going out and getting
soaked again. Ah,
the good old days
The next LaJune
senior lunch will be
Feb. 19. The menu
a. will include spa-
ghetti, pickled beets,
crudités, garlic bread and for
dessert there‘will be sherbet.
Lunch is served at noon. The
last couple of times I was
there about 50 people showed
up for lunch, and most im-
portantly, friendly conversa-
s
tion. During the long winter .
months, we tend to become a
little more isolated because of
'the rain, wind and cold keep-
ing us indoors. The LaJune
lunches were started as a
way to draw us out and get us
talking with each‘ other. And‘
it has worked exceedingly
r well. For this chance to get
together, all they ask for is a
small donation of $4 to cover
the cost of the food. All the
work to prepare the lunch is
done at the hands of volun-
teers.
Its time to start thinking
about the Pioneer Kiwanis
crab and clam dinner and
auction. It will be March 21.
All proceeds from this event.
benefit the youth of the Pio-
neer School'District and Ma—
son‘County. It will be held in
the new portion of the school,
.where it was last year. At this
early juncture, the Pioneer
Kiwanis Club is reaching out
to the community and ask-
ing for donations that it can '
auction off during the auction
period of the event. If you
have anything to donate, you
can call me at 360-259-9027.
All donors receive recognition
in the auction materials and
are named in a thank you let-
ter advertisement placed in
the local media. The Pioneer
Kiwanis Club is a 501(c)3. Of
course, attending is a great
way to contribute. This year,
tickets are $35 for adults
and $15 for children 12 and
younger. Those 2 and younger
' attend for free. Doorsropen at
. 4
I know there are a great
number of waterfront homes
on the island, and that a lot of
those folks like raising their
own oysters and clams. Taylor
Shellfish has just announced
dates to sell seeds for oysters
and clams. They will be April
25 and June 6. These sales
are held at the Taylor facility
off Southeast Lynch Road. It
also has online sales now, but
to me the fun of buying the
seed is standing in line early
in the morning with a hot cup
of coffee and talking with all
C the people there. You get a
great education along with a
lot of fun and laughter.
I Mike Callaghan can be
reached at sobadog@m3n.com.