Jane Birkin, the iconic British-born actress, singer and model who became a chart-topping artist in France with her collaborations with then-partner Serge Gainsbourg, has died at the age of 76.
Birkin’s death was announced Sunday by the French culture ministry, which said Birkin was found dead at her Paris home. No cause of death was provided. Birkin recently canceled concerts due to unspecified health reasons; in recent years, she also suffered a stroke and battled leukemia.
French president Emmanuel Macron tweeted Sunday, “Because she embodied freedom, because she sang the...
Birkin’s death was announced Sunday by the French culture ministry, which said Birkin was found dead at her Paris home. No cause of death was provided. Birkin recently canceled concerts due to unspecified health reasons; in recent years, she also suffered a stroke and battled leukemia.
French president Emmanuel Macron tweeted Sunday, “Because she embodied freedom, because she sang the...
- 7/16/2023
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
The Criterion Channel’s September 2020 Lineup Includes Sátántangó, Agnès Varda, Albert Brooks & More
As the coronavirus pandemic still rages on, precious few remain skeptical about going to the movies. But while your AMCs and others claim some godlike safety from Covid, there remains a chunk of people still uncomfortable hitting up theaters. To them, we bring you the September 2020 Criterion Channel lineup.
It starts off with quite the swath of content too. Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó hits the service on September 1, and its seven-plus hours should take up a large chunk of your day. Coming soon after is a collection of more than a dozen Joan Blondell starrers from the pre-Code era, including Howard Hawks’ The Crowd Roars, three collaborations with Mervyn LeRoy, and Ray Enright & Busby Berkeley’s Dames.
For some stuff released almost a century later, the service also sees the addition of documentary bender Robert Greene. His Actress, Kate Plays Christine, and Bisbee ’17 join soon after. Janicza Bravo, director of Lemon,...
It starts off with quite the swath of content too. Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó hits the service on September 1, and its seven-plus hours should take up a large chunk of your day. Coming soon after is a collection of more than a dozen Joan Blondell starrers from the pre-Code era, including Howard Hawks’ The Crowd Roars, three collaborations with Mervyn LeRoy, and Ray Enright & Busby Berkeley’s Dames.
For some stuff released almost a century later, the service also sees the addition of documentary bender Robert Greene. His Actress, Kate Plays Christine, and Bisbee ’17 join soon after. Janicza Bravo, director of Lemon,...
- 8/25/2020
- by Matt Cipolla
- The Film Stage
The Criterion Collection has announced a new treat for cinephiles coming this summer. The Complete Films of Agnès Varda, a 15-disc collector’s set, will feature all 39 of the late French icon’s features, shorts, and documentaries. The set hits shelves on August 11 this year.
Each of the 15 discs presents a curation of films organized by themes that marked Varda’s work, including explorations of Paris in “Cléo From 5 to 7,” studies of married life with “Le Bonheur,” her collaborations with Jane Birkin in “Jane B. par Agnès V.” and “Kung-Fu Master!,” and Jacques Demy with “Jacquot d Nantes,” “The Young Girls Turn 25,” and “The World of Jacques Demy,” and much more. She was married to Demy up until his death in 1990.
The full list of included titles is below. The set also features a 200-page book surveying Varda’s career, which launched in 1955 with “La Pointe Courte,” followed...
Each of the 15 discs presents a curation of films organized by themes that marked Varda’s work, including explorations of Paris in “Cléo From 5 to 7,” studies of married life with “Le Bonheur,” her collaborations with Jane Birkin in “Jane B. par Agnès V.” and “Kung-Fu Master!,” and Jacques Demy with “Jacquot d Nantes,” “The Young Girls Turn 25,” and “The World of Jacques Demy,” and much more. She was married to Demy up until his death in 1990.
The full list of included titles is below. The set also features a 200-page book surveying Varda’s career, which launched in 1955 with “La Pointe Courte,” followed...
- 5/11/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
After getting a tease and the announcement of a theatrical touring retrospective, The Criterion Collection have now announced their Agnès Varda boxset, aptly titled The Complete Films of Agnès Varda. A gorgeous, epic undertaking, this treasure trove of cinematic beauty is split into different aspects of the Belgian-born French director’s life and career.
Arriving on a fifteen-disc Blu-ray release on August 11, the set features digital restorations of thirty-nine films, including the first home-video presentations of Les créatures, Jacquot de Nantes, and the television series Agnès de ci de là Varda. There’s also over seven hours of archival programs from Varda, a 200-page book, video introductions by the late filmmaker herself, and much, much more. Check out the details below.
The Films
Agnès Forever – Varda by Agnès (2019), Les 3 boutons (2015)
Early Varda – La Pointe Courte (1955), Ô saisons, ô châteaux (1958), Du côté de la côte (1958)
Around Paris – Cléo from 5 to 7...
Arriving on a fifteen-disc Blu-ray release on August 11, the set features digital restorations of thirty-nine films, including the first home-video presentations of Les créatures, Jacquot de Nantes, and the television series Agnès de ci de là Varda. There’s also over seven hours of archival programs from Varda, a 200-page book, video introductions by the late filmmaker herself, and much, much more. Check out the details below.
The Films
Agnès Forever – Varda by Agnès (2019), Les 3 boutons (2015)
Early Varda – La Pointe Courte (1955), Ô saisons, ô châteaux (1958), Du côté de la côte (1958)
Around Paris – Cléo from 5 to 7...
- 5/11/2020
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
On March 29, 2019, the world lost one of its greatest filmmakers as Agnès Varda passed away at the age of 90. Just a short time before her death, the Belgium-born director premiered her final film, Varda by Agnès, at Berlinale, which follows her reflecting on her career and singular approach to filmmaking. Now, Janus Films has announced they’ll release the swan song this November, followed by a nationwide retrospective, featuring the most comprehensive survey to date of her filmography.
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Life can seldom offer us neat endings. Cinema sometimes can, and there is something nicely fitting to the notion that Agnès Varda, the seventh art’s great celebrator of all things gleaned, would leave audiences–newcomers and devotees alike–with so much to take from her final film, as Varda by Agnès has ultimately proved to be. It is a swan song but not a melancholy tune,...
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Life can seldom offer us neat endings. Cinema sometimes can, and there is something nicely fitting to the notion that Agnès Varda, the seventh art’s great celebrator of all things gleaned, would leave audiences–newcomers and devotees alike–with so much to take from her final film, as Varda by Agnès has ultimately proved to be. It is a swan song but not a melancholy tune,...
- 8/29/2019
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Agnès Varda, the pioneering French film director who emerged in the New Wave movement of the 1960s and continued to direct influential work including 2017’s Oscar-nominated documentary “Faces Places,” has died. She was 90.
“The director and artist Agnès Varda died at her home overnight on Thursday of complications from cancer,” her family said in a statement to Agence France-Presse. “She was surrounded by her family and friends.”
In 2017, Varda became the first female director to receive an honorary Academy Award — and one year later became the oldest nominee for a competitive Oscar for co-directing the documentary feature “Faces Places” with French street artist Jr.
Also Read: 'Faces Places' Directors Agnès Varda and Jr Look for Fun in a 'Disgusting' World
An acclaimed photographer, screenwriter, actress and visual artist, Varda first rose to attention with her 1962 movie “Cleo from 5 to 7.”
She followed with other films such as 1985’s “Vagabond,...
“The director and artist Agnès Varda died at her home overnight on Thursday of complications from cancer,” her family said in a statement to Agence France-Presse. “She was surrounded by her family and friends.”
In 2017, Varda became the first female director to receive an honorary Academy Award — and one year later became the oldest nominee for a competitive Oscar for co-directing the documentary feature “Faces Places” with French street artist Jr.
Also Read: 'Faces Places' Directors Agnès Varda and Jr Look for Fun in a 'Disgusting' World
An acclaimed photographer, screenwriter, actress and visual artist, Varda first rose to attention with her 1962 movie “Cleo from 5 to 7.”
She followed with other films such as 1985’s “Vagabond,...
- 3/29/2019
- by Thom Geier
- The Wrap
Something curious happened to Agnès Varda with her last film, the freewheeling, personality-driven road doc “Faces Places”: At the age of 88, 60-odd years and 20-odd films into her career, she suddenly and quite unexpectedly became a meme. A wave of critics that had never previously demonstrated much interest in Varda’s work took to the new film at Cannes, the Academy suddenly lavished her with a nomination and an honorary Oscar after decades of looking the other way, and the director’s wry, twinkly presence and two-tone Miyazaki-witch bob became ubiquitous on the festival and publicity circuits — inspiring a surfeit of adoring tributes, T-shirts and Twitter threads in their wake. Varda acquired a rare celebrity status for an auteur. Heading into her tenth decade, it seemed the woman was better known than her own work.
How exactly do you follow that up, given that “Faces Places” was never meant to be a watershed work?...
How exactly do you follow that up, given that “Faces Places” was never meant to be a watershed work?...
- 2/13/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Robert De Niro has been working as a leading actor since Brian De Palma’s “Greetings” in 1968, but over his five decades in Hollywood De Niro has worked with few women directors Why the lack of films directed by women? It’s a question French actress-turned-director Maiwenn asked De Niro during a recent masterclass at the Marrakech Film Festival (via Variety).
“I don’t know,” De Niro answered when pressed by Maiwenn on the discrepancy. Some of De Niro’s best known collaborators are Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, David O. Russell, de Palma, and Sergio Leone.
De Niro added only one more thought on the matter, saying, “I don’t have a problem working with a woman. If it’s a good script I’d do it.”
De Niro has a trio of films set for release in 2019, all of which are directed by men: Tim Hill’s “The War With Grandpa,...
“I don’t know,” De Niro answered when pressed by Maiwenn on the discrepancy. Some of De Niro’s best known collaborators are Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, David O. Russell, de Palma, and Sergio Leone.
De Niro added only one more thought on the matter, saying, “I don’t have a problem working with a woman. If it’s a good script I’d do it.”
De Niro has a trio of films set for release in 2019, all of which are directed by men: Tim Hill’s “The War With Grandpa,...
- 12/3/2018
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
It was just under a year ago that French New Wave icon Agnès Varda debuted her latest documentary, Faces Places, at Cannes. Co-directed by Jr, it proved to be one of her most warm-hearted films, as well as a poignant look back at her life’s journey. Considering the many years it took to complete, one thought it might be the last film we see from her in some time. Thankfully, that won’t be the case.
She’s set to soon start production on a new documentary, titled Let’s Talk About Cinema, co-directed by longtime collaborator Didier Rouget. As reported by Film Comment, the film will find Varda—inspired by the masterclasses she’s given this past decade—looking back on her own career, spanning four decades, from 1954’s La Pointe Courte to 1994’s One Hundred and One Nights. Set to be completed as soon as this fall,...
She’s set to soon start production on a new documentary, titled Let’s Talk About Cinema, co-directed by longtime collaborator Didier Rouget. As reported by Film Comment, the film will find Varda—inspired by the masterclasses she’s given this past decade—looking back on her own career, spanning four decades, from 1954’s La Pointe Courte to 1994’s One Hundred and One Nights. Set to be completed as soon as this fall,...
- 4/11/2018
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
On Wednesday, Leonardo DiCaprio arrived at the annual amfAR Gala in New York looking handsome as ever. At the event, which honored producer Harvey Weinstein, and also brought out Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, Leo reunited with his former costar, Robert De Niro. The actors starred together in not one but three films, including 1993's This Boy's Life, 1995's One Hundred and One Nights, and 1996's Marvin's Room. Talk about going back in time! Leo's latest appearance comes towards the end of an exciting award season for the actor, who may just take home his first Oscar this year. After winning the Golden Globe for best actor in a drama, he received a trophy at the Critics' Choice Awards and also won big at the SAG Awards. Keep reading for more of Leo and Robert's sweet reunion, and then check out how much Leo has changed since his first red carpet.
- 2/11/2016
- by Monica Sisavat
- Popsugar.com
Just steps from the outdoor screen and the 8,000 seats that have been set up on the Piazza Grande where the 67th Locarno International Film Festival will open on 6 August, I sat down with Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian to talk about films of the past and present, the American independent film line-up, Roman Polanski and Agnès Varda.
The Festival
Kouguell: This is your second year as Artistic Director. What changes will we see at the Festival this year?
Chatrian: “Last year, I didn’t want to change the Festival that much because I felt, and still feel, that the structure is good and fits the goals -- to continue on the same path with (both) the history of cinema and new films. This year’s selection of new films will have more surprises than last year. The main competition last year was composed of mainly quite well-known directors; this year there is a good balance of first-time, lesser known and established directors.”
Kouguell: Are there any current trends in filmmaking that you have found in this year’s films?
Chatrian: “Cinema as an art form has more than one direction. Luckily there are filmmakers willing to take different directions and we see this here at this year’s Festival. I’m always a little bit concerned when some critics say, ‘the new cinema will be this or that’ -- what I can say is that cinema -- especially through young filmmakers -- seems quite vibrant and not a dead art form.”
On American Indie Films at the Festival
Chatrian: “We try to provide a complete panorama of American indie cinema but we are not concerned about being exhaustive. Locarno is a good festival to help the career of a director. One of the purposes of the Locarno Film Festival is to discover new talent. I’m happy to have back -- they were discovered by Locarno -- American indie directors Alex Ross Perry ( "Listen Up Philip"), Joel Potrykus ("Buzzard") and J.P. Sniadecki with his documentary "The Iron Ministry".”
The other American films include "Single Stream" directed by Ernst Karel, Toby Kim Lee and Pawel Wojtasik, "Songs from the North" by Soon-Mi Yoo, the "Tony Longo Trilogy" directed by indie cinema veteran Thom Anderson, "Creep" (Patrick Brice’s first feature- length genre film), "Thirst" a short narrative film directed by Rachel McDonald, and the fiction feature "Christmas Again" directed by Charles Poekel.
On Roman Polanski
Kouguell: Some might feel that inviting Roman Polanski to the Festival is a controversial choice. What are your thoughts on this?
Chatrian: “I’m aware of this. I don’t want to hurt anyone. When I had the chance to invite him to do a master class for the young filmmakers at the Locarno Summer Academy, it was a chance to gain an inside angle of this director. That’s the purpose of the festival -- we exchange ideas; Polanksi can give his film knowledge to other people. One side is justice and one is the filmmaker. He is a great creator of moving images and for me, not controversial, simple as that. He is willing to share his ideas with young directors. If anyone else wants to take him and bring him to justice this is not the right place to do it because we are a film festival.”
On Honoring Agnès Varda with The Pardo d’onore Swisscom Award
Chatrian: “It is important to pay tribute to her as a woman director, and as a major figure in modern and independent cinema. Varda and I discussed the titles to choose to screen at the Festival. As you see there are well known films -- and others not as known [like] the 2011 documentary television series Agnès de ci de là Varda.
“What is interesting in her work is that she is absolutely free to choose topics, format, length, and style. She is free to switch from documentaries to fiction -- to work with big stars or not, to reflect on her own experience. Through her work we can see and experience a number of important movements in the 20th Century -- the American Blank Panthers (Huey), the women’s movement, "The Gleaners and I," " Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma," and more. Varda allows me and the Festival to watch cinema as language; she allows the festival to retell important stories of the past years. At age 86 she is full of energy and willing to exchange her experience with the audience.”
The Locarno International Film Festival offers a vast range of work from the past and present, a diverse selection of shorts, feature-length, narrative and documentary films, and a window onto the future of cinema around the globe.
The Locarno International Film Festival runs from August 6-16, 2014. For more information visit: www.pardo.ch
Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, Susan Kouguell presents international workshops and seminars on screenwriting and film. Author of Savvy Characters Sell Screenplays! and The Savvy Screenwriter, she is chairperson of Su-City Pictures East, LLC, a consulting company founded in 1990 where she works with over 1,000 writers, filmmakers, and executives worldwide.www.su-city-pictures.com , http://su-city-pictures.com/wpblog...
The Festival
Kouguell: This is your second year as Artistic Director. What changes will we see at the Festival this year?
Chatrian: “Last year, I didn’t want to change the Festival that much because I felt, and still feel, that the structure is good and fits the goals -- to continue on the same path with (both) the history of cinema and new films. This year’s selection of new films will have more surprises than last year. The main competition last year was composed of mainly quite well-known directors; this year there is a good balance of first-time, lesser known and established directors.”
Kouguell: Are there any current trends in filmmaking that you have found in this year’s films?
Chatrian: “Cinema as an art form has more than one direction. Luckily there are filmmakers willing to take different directions and we see this here at this year’s Festival. I’m always a little bit concerned when some critics say, ‘the new cinema will be this or that’ -- what I can say is that cinema -- especially through young filmmakers -- seems quite vibrant and not a dead art form.”
On American Indie Films at the Festival
Chatrian: “We try to provide a complete panorama of American indie cinema but we are not concerned about being exhaustive. Locarno is a good festival to help the career of a director. One of the purposes of the Locarno Film Festival is to discover new talent. I’m happy to have back -- they were discovered by Locarno -- American indie directors Alex Ross Perry ( "Listen Up Philip"), Joel Potrykus ("Buzzard") and J.P. Sniadecki with his documentary "The Iron Ministry".”
The other American films include "Single Stream" directed by Ernst Karel, Toby Kim Lee and Pawel Wojtasik, "Songs from the North" by Soon-Mi Yoo, the "Tony Longo Trilogy" directed by indie cinema veteran Thom Anderson, "Creep" (Patrick Brice’s first feature- length genre film), "Thirst" a short narrative film directed by Rachel McDonald, and the fiction feature "Christmas Again" directed by Charles Poekel.
On Roman Polanski
Kouguell: Some might feel that inviting Roman Polanski to the Festival is a controversial choice. What are your thoughts on this?
Chatrian: “I’m aware of this. I don’t want to hurt anyone. When I had the chance to invite him to do a master class for the young filmmakers at the Locarno Summer Academy, it was a chance to gain an inside angle of this director. That’s the purpose of the festival -- we exchange ideas; Polanksi can give his film knowledge to other people. One side is justice and one is the filmmaker. He is a great creator of moving images and for me, not controversial, simple as that. He is willing to share his ideas with young directors. If anyone else wants to take him and bring him to justice this is not the right place to do it because we are a film festival.”
On Honoring Agnès Varda with The Pardo d’onore Swisscom Award
Chatrian: “It is important to pay tribute to her as a woman director, and as a major figure in modern and independent cinema. Varda and I discussed the titles to choose to screen at the Festival. As you see there are well known films -- and others not as known [like] the 2011 documentary television series Agnès de ci de là Varda.
“What is interesting in her work is that she is absolutely free to choose topics, format, length, and style. She is free to switch from documentaries to fiction -- to work with big stars or not, to reflect on her own experience. Through her work we can see and experience a number of important movements in the 20th Century -- the American Blank Panthers (Huey), the women’s movement, "The Gleaners and I," " Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma," and more. Varda allows me and the Festival to watch cinema as language; she allows the festival to retell important stories of the past years. At age 86 she is full of energy and willing to exchange her experience with the audience.”
The Locarno International Film Festival offers a vast range of work from the past and present, a diverse selection of shorts, feature-length, narrative and documentary films, and a window onto the future of cinema around the globe.
The Locarno International Film Festival runs from August 6-16, 2014. For more information visit: www.pardo.ch
Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, Susan Kouguell presents international workshops and seminars on screenwriting and film. Author of Savvy Characters Sell Screenplays! and The Savvy Screenwriter, she is chairperson of Su-City Pictures East, LLC, a consulting company founded in 1990 where she works with over 1,000 writers, filmmakers, and executives worldwide.www.su-city-pictures.com , http://su-city-pictures.com/wpblog...
- 8/6/2014
- by Susan Kouguell
- Sydney's Buzz
When I opened my mail in January of 2011 and found the galley of One Hundred and One Nights and accompanying blurb request from Benjamin Buchholz’s editor at Little, Brown, I was almost comically surprised. I’d gotten maybe a dozen such appeals since publishing my first novel, Mudbound, every last one of them for books about farming and/or race relations in the Jim Crow South. This book was about the war in Iraq, and there wasn’t a dead mule in sight. The author, according to the jacket copy, was an American soldier who’d served in the war. That was...
- 3/20/2012
- Pastemagazine.com
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