Berlin Film Festival

Varda par Agnès finally appeared at the Berlin Film Festival, and its beginning was an end: contrary to the usual practice, the film began with closing subtitles. How to explain it? Valda idea or joke? Unwilling to face the "fin" at the beginning? Tell the audience frankly that the beginning of this time is actually the beginning of a "farewell"? Maybe both. Anyway, it's sad to see this rolling subtitle list at first: next year, three years later, five years later, we may never wait for the next Valda movie. This is a farewell movie, some are scribbled because of aging, and some are hurried because of death. Although there is no lack of consistent dexterity in scribbling, many of them are still moving.

Agnès Varda. Agnes stills on Valda Street.

Agnes on Valda is actually the name of a book: 1994 published director's autobiography/film memoir (the Chinese version is still being translated). At that time, Valda didn't know that Les Cent et Une Nuits de Simon Cinéma, his biggest film since he made a film, was also the most painful commercial waterloo, so that he couldn't make another film for a long time (five years). This book is also considered by many people as the final summary of the director's creative career. Fortunately, with the popularity of portable digital cameras in the new century, she began another spring of her creative career after her heart. Nearly 20 years have passed, and Valda's film list has added another column, even a "title": artist Visuale-of course, it's time to supplement and revise the old version and launch a new version. Valda certainly has this idea, but in the past year or two, whenever the author meets her to ask about the follow-up situation, she hears a hesitant answer, "I don't know, a book is too energy-consuming, I don't know if I have the strength to do it"; "Maybe it's better in the form of a movie?" ..... So when I saw a new movie, I couldn't help feeling heavy. With (maybe) the "last movie" or the new book plan, I will never see the sun again.

This "film" completed the function of supplementing books to some extent, covering the later period of Valda's creative career. Its sudden appearance is quite unexpected-it seems that I have never heard of Valda making a new film before; In fact, there are very few scenes specially filmed for this film, most of which are taken from master classes, lectures and dialogues directed by directors from all over the world in recent years, with past film clips and related tidbits. Frankly speaking, it looks like listening to a celebrity speech. You have to listen to it once or again. On the one hand, it will really inspire people. On the other hand, it's the same every time. However, not every movie fan is lucky enough to have listened to Valda's master class once and felt her lightness and cuteness. Perhaps this documentary for Arte can take her voice and spirit further and inspire more future directors. Directors who are over 90 years old use their best talent of "patchwork"/"collage" to integrate these fragments into a film (and there is no lack of internal structure balance), but it is still inappropriate to judge this from the perspective of film, and the author's intention is not here. If talking about it is talking about Valda, then we might as well parody this fragmentary spirit to talk about Valda's two or three things.

The French cover of Varda par Agnès.

No matter what theme can be "alchemy", the alchemy she really has is just a little poem that fills every corner of the film. It is a simple, natural, true and intuitive poem, without affectation. When we face the sky and the ocean with Valda's films, all metaphors and images seem so clumsy and hypocritical. This kind of poetry has also become the secret of her editing. The cohesion and transition between different paragraphs and poems is the adhesive that constitutes this splicing, that is, CIN é Criterion in Valda's mouth.

Valda is obsessed with recording. She admits that she "likes making documentaries", recording people and events, and recording events and nature. But this kind of record is not the kind of long-distance adventure exploration, nor is it the pursuit of the truth of an event. "They (the theme of the documentary) should not be too far away, just beside me." This love for documentaries has also caused the biggest difference between her and the early directors of the French "new wave" (the "new wave" here is narrow, because it is broadly equivalent to the French new wave of the new film movement and has little historical significance). Indeed, the French new wave is like a snowball, rolling bigger and bigger. In the end, she was trapped in it and even became the "mother of the new wave". There are also Reynet and chris marker in similar situations, but Valda is closer to the latter two in terms of creative spirit and real life, and the Gauche River they represent is not "new". The reason is that in France in the 1950s, there were only two official ways to become a director: either going to film school or climbing up the established unbreakable hierarchy step by step with the help of the crew; Or start making documentaries and gradually turn to feature films. With truffaut (Fran? A new wave represented by Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, etc. It is precisely the old way of "sticking to the rules": out of some rebellious attitude, they are opposed to climbing such a film rating system and are not close to the left-leaning people. At the same time, they are not interested in documentaries because of their taste preferences. Valda naturally accepted the title of director of New Wave, but whenever this label connection is too mechanical and frequent, she will clarify a little and keep her distance. Therefore, Valda will not take the initiative to mention many things about the new wave in this film or in the memories of various occasions. This is just an example. La Pointe Court (1955) is usually regarded as the beginning of a "new wave", but according to Valda's own words in the film, the film "came out of nowhere". What she didn't say was that when the film was shown in andre bazan, it was severely criticized.

Agnes stills on Valda Street.

Another surprising discovery of Agnes on Valda is that death not only often appears in this film (such as the farewell of the opening subtitles), but also is one of the themes in Valda's works: the protagonist who is troubled by cancer (death) in Clé o de 5 7, 1962 and Happiness. Widowed 1965), the nameless despairing person in Sans Toit Niloi (1985), and a series of movies about her late husband jacques demy ... Valda was terrified when he was 80 years old, so he made a movie Plague. Up to now, 90 years have passed, but I don't care at all. Even if I feel uncomfortable all over, I can sit by the sea and calm down. "The sea breeze comes with sand, so it disappears in obscurity, ending this dialogue (movie)." At agnes Beach, she once said, "As long as I live, I will remember"; Just after watching Agnes on Valda, I silently said, "Valda will be remembered anyway."