This is the fourth year of “Repertory Revues,” and the 15th year since I started to watch older films over the month in an attempt to both broaden my cinematic horizons, as well as rewatching older favorites I wanted to write about, and it’s been increasingly difficult to keep up in the way I originally intended when I started in 2009. This year, I made a fairly big dent in the never-watched movies I’ve bought on physical media over the years. I continued to focus on genre movies before and after DragonCon, horror movies in October, and a new birth year film on my birthday. I finally got some reviews written I’ve put off for a while, and discovered some new favorites. Now, it is time to wrap up the year, and start a new one.
In 2023, I didn’t quite get to as many previous bookend filmmakers as I hoped, but I have a great one in store for 2024, and a great conclusion to 2023 in Agnès Varda’s “Jane B. for Agnes V.”. I hope you enjoy!
Viva La Resistance!
Brian Skutle
www.sonic-cinema.com
“Jane B. for Agnes V.” (1988)- A+
One of my favorite films from Orson Welles’s is his 1974 movie, “F for Fake.” In that film, he pulls back the illusion of realism in cinema to make something personal about the hustle, and a hoax, which is basically a fundamental truth in cinema- filmmakers are always hustling for finances (something Welles knew all too well, at the time), all in the service of pulling off a hoax against the audience. Agnès Varda’s “Jane B. for Agnes V.” is similar in that it puts the director onscreen as a way of telling a story about filmmaking, this time focusing on the life of an actor. The actor in this film is Varda’s longtime friend, Jane Birkin. For a year, as Birkin turns 40, Varda’s camera watches as Jane reveals herself through scenes, monologues and probing discussions with the director. Here, Varda is revealing the insecurity behind the performer, and the truth behind the lie that is a screen performance.
I find myself endlessly fascinated by movies that don’t just portray the filmmaking process, which can be fun and insightful, but ones that make choices that allow us in on the secret that we are watching artifice. The beginnings of “Hour of the Wolf” and “Mirror” do this, as does choices Bergman made in “Persona.” While yes, we do not need a reminder that what we are watching is a fiction put on film, the audacity of a filmmaker making deliberate choices to let us in on that as we watch a movie is exciting. A bit pretentious? Perhaps, but it also speaks to the confidence these filmmakers have in their process. Varda is doing something similar, but rather than subverting the artifice of a narrative fiction, she is pulling the curtain back on documentaries, showing that while the person in front of the camera is an authentic individual, documenting truth is as much a work of narrative trickery as anything in “Vagabond” or “Cleo from 5 to 7.”
From the very beginning, we are transfixed by Birkin onscreen. We hear her talk about insecurities of being on camera, with Varda noting that she doesn’t really look directly at the camera. We see Varda’s camera, and sometimes the director itself, in the frame, whether it’s in the reflection of a mirror or window, or deliberately. We see her and Varda play a Laurel and Hardy scene together; we hear Birkin tell a story of an innocent encounter with a 14-year-old boy in a hotel; we see moments of a staged picnic Varda between Birkin and Jean-Pierre Léaud, as well as scenes recreating works of art. One of the best moments in the film is when Birkin is singing a song, and discussing Marilyn Monroe; the way Varda shoots it is incredible sweet and sensual, but not exploitative; she couldn’t be exploitative if she wanted to be. All through the film, however, is a narrative of a woman looking at her life, reflecting on her work, and realizing what she wants to be moving forward. The even year birthdays- especially the ones ending in zero- have a way of doing that to you. Varda captures that beautifully in a film that is filled with artifice, but gets to a truth in a way only film is capable of achieving.
Previous “Repertory Revue” Films
“Vagabond” (1985)
“Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia” (1974)
“School Daze” (1988)
“Space is the Place” (1974)
“Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles” (1975)
“Never Fear” (1950)
“Field of Dreams” (1989)
“In the Line of Fire” (1993)
“Silent Running” (1972)
“The Spanish Prisoner” (1997)
“A Woman Under the Influence” (1974)
“Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1989)
“Deathtrap” (1982)
“Out of Sight” (1998)
”Black Sunday” (1977)
“The Man from Earth” (2007)
“Castle in the Sky” (1986)
“After Dark, My Sweet” (1990)
“The Blob” (1958)
”Happy Death Day” (2017)
“The River’s Edge” (1957)
“Le Cercle Rouge” (1970)
“Protocols of Zion” (2005)
“Jane B. for Agnes V.” (1988)
See Brian’s list of 2009 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2010 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2011 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2012 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2013 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2014 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2015 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2016 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2017 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2018 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2019 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2020 “Repertory Revues” here.
See Brian’s list of 2021 “Repertory Revues” here.
See Brian’s list of 2022 “Repertory Revues” here.
