Episode 208: Agnes Varda's House of Cinema

==Show Notes==
: We discuss the career of writer/director Agnes Varda and focus on her films Cleo from 5 to 7, One Sings the Other Doesn't and The Beaches of Agnes.
==Films Discussed==
* Directed by Agnes Varda
** La Pointe Courte (1955)
** Cléo de 5 à 7 (aka Cléo from 5 to 7) (1962)
** L'Une chante, l'autre pas (aka One Sings, the Other Doesn’t) (1977)
** Sans toit ni loi (aka Vagabond) (1985)
** Le petit amour (aka Kung Fu Master) (1987)
** Jacquot de Nantes (aka Jacquot) (1991)
** Les Cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma (aka A Hundred and One Nights) (1994)
** Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (aka The Gleaners and I) (2000)
** Les plages d'Agnès (aka The Beaches of Agnes) (2008)
** Visages Villages (aka Faces Places) (2017)
* People on a Sunday (1930) Dir. Robert Soidmak & Edgar G. Ulmer
* Breathless (1960) Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
* Masculin Féminin (1966) Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
* Murmur of the Heart (1971) Dir. Louis Malle
* Manhattan (1979) Dir. Woody Allen
* Into the Wild (2007) Dir. Sean Penn
* That's My Boy (2012) Dir. Sean Anders
== Discussion Notes ==
* Agnes Varda - everyone’s favorite adorkable directorial figure
** A charming and delightful woman who tried to spread joy and happiness, followed her own passions, and never aimed to be commercial
** The anti-Godard – never interested in making conventionally narrative films, interested in 
*** Experimentation and pushing the medium as far as it would go, and expressing her creative interests, accessible
** Part of the Left Bank, not technically part of the French New Wave
** Has amazing film titles in French, not so great in English
* Cléo de 5 à 7 (aka Cléo from 5 to 7) (1962)
** Has the sense of a young filmmaker excited at the possibilities of the medium
** A film in love with cinema, a ‘city symphony’
** Devoid of erotic undercurrent that filled much of the French New Wave
* L'Une chante, l'autre pas (aka One Sings, the Other Doesn’t) (1977)
** Follows a friendship between two women over a decade
** Made after Varda followed her husband around in the US
** Surprisingly warm for being ‘the abortion film’
* Sans toit ni loi (aka Vagabond) (1985)
** Broken mirror image to L'Une chante, l'autre pas
** Varda believed feminism only works if women collaborate together, alone their goals cannot be achieved
** Documentary-style fourth wall breaks to tell the story
*** Shows Varda’s love of balance of fiction and realism
* Le petit amour (aka Kung Fu Master) (1987)
** A story of love between an older women and an adolescent boy - not a lot of kung fu!
** Strange and uncomfortable, but enjoyable - works thanks to the acting and ambiguity
* Les Cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma (aka A Hundred and One Nights) (1994)
** Little loved and a financial failure
** A bunch of movie jokes and stars playing themselves
*** Likely impenetrable to non-cinemaniacs
* Les plages d'Agnès (aka The Beaches of Agnes) (2008)
** Part of her shift to essay films and cinematic self-portraits
** Traces her life and career structured around beaches and waterfronts
** Contains the through-line that was prevalent in her later films - preserving the memory of her husband
==Listener Letters==
* Steven
** Interrogating our hosts feelings on Bob Hope
*** They should check out The Cat and the Canary, The Ghost Breakers, Road to Morocco, and The Princess and the Pirate
*** Will has seen Casanova’s Big Night and Son of Paleface
** Are there other comedians our hosts have turned around on?
*** Justin - Steve Odenkirk & Kung Pow! Enter the Fist
**** A perfect audience of two folks busting a gut and one looking on stone-faced
*** Will - W.C. Fields
**** Turned around when he associated Fields with his grandfather
** Any film fan must eventually face the speedbump of contextualizing the past
** Is Freddie Got Fingered one of the best films ever made?
== Post-Outro Discussion ==
* What have our hosts been watching in quarantine?
** Born to Fight (2004) Dir. Panna Rittikrai
*** Some of the most dangerous stunts ever committed to film
** Come Live With Me (1941 Dir. Clarence Brown
*** Fluffy but very good - solid entertainment that no one knows about
** Nicky Larson and Cupid's Perfume (2019) Dir. Philippe Lacheau
*** A boob-and-butt-obsessed detective goes on wacky adventures
*** French adaptaion of the manga/anime series City Hunter
** First Name Carmen (1983) Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
*** Favorite film of Robert Pattinson
*** Funny and accessible for 80s Godard
** The Circus (1928) Dir. Charlie Chaplin
*** A pure delight
** Passion (2012) Dir. Brian De Palma
*** Justin, not a true De Palma auteurist - “PU!”
** Have our hosts been having streaming parties?
*** Will had an Austin Powers screening
*** The issues with virtual viewings
**** Use earphones and crack down on the MST3K’ing
Category:Episodes
Category:Agnes Varda